Tatomo

Appearance

Gmail Support Workflow (Labels, Snooze, SLAs, and “Done”) ​

Most Gmail “shared inbox” setups fail because the team never agrees on one workflow.

Here’s a practical system you can implement in an afternoon.

The principle ​

Your inbox should represent work that needs action.

Everything else should be:

  • labeled
  • snoozed (if waiting)
  • archived (when done)

Step 1: Create two label groups ​

Ownership labels ​

  • owner/alex
  • owner/petra
  • owner/oncall

Status labels ​

  • status/new
  • status/waiting
  • status/done

Rule: every active thread gets one owner and one status.

Step 2: Define what each status means ​

status/new ​

  • needs triage or first response

status/waiting ​

  • waiting on customer / engineering / payment / legal
  • must be snoozed to a follow-up date

status/done ​

  • resolved, closed, or no further action needed
  • archive it

Step 3: Use Snooze as your SLA engine ​

Snooze threads in status/waiting to enforce follow-ups.

Suggested defaults:

  • Waiting on customer: snooze 2 business days
  • Waiting on engineering: snooze to next check-in
  • Billing/legal: snooze 5–7 days

Step 4: Add internal notes for context ​

Without notes, handoffs become “please read the whole thread.”

Use a consistent note format:

  • Summary
  • Last update
  • Next step + due date

Templates: Internal Notes in Gmail

Step 5: Add ticket IDs for durable references ​

Ticket IDs make it easy to reference threads across time and people.

Guide: Ticket IDs in Gmail

Step 6: Weekly hygiene ​

Once a week:

  • review status/waiting threads
  • verify every active thread has an owner
  • close or escalate anything stuck

When you need more than Gmail ​

If your org cares about keeping support data inside Google Workspace, be careful when adding tools.

Use this checklist: Shared Inbox Software That Keeps Data in Google Workspace