For a three-person support team, create a shared address and give each person access through their own mailbox. Decide who reads requests, who sends replies, and who covers absences before inviting everyone. In TrekMail these are membership permissions. A shared inbox keeps the team's conversation together, but it doesn't by itself assign a customer request to a particular colleague.
Create the team address and personal mailboxes
A shared mailbox has its own incoming messages. You can create one as Shared in Mailboxes or convert an existing ordinary mailbox. Before converting, check which apps and devices still use the old login details.
Every member needs a personal mailbox in the same TrekMail account. Their addresses may use different domains within that account. They sign in with their own addresses.
The shared mailbox guide covers creation, conversion, and adding members. Shared mailboxes are available on Starter, Pro, and Agency. They count towards mailbox limits and use storage, so include them in the department's capacity planning.
Write down three roles before the first request arrives
Give the people in your example simple responsibilities. The first responder checks new inquiries in the morning. The second can answer customers and cover the first person's absence. The third reviews correspondence and passes it to a responder, so Read access is enough for that role. These are your team's choices, not job titles that TrekMail assigns automatically.
Put those responsibilities next to the permission settings. “Handles support” is too vague when it could mean reading, replying, or deciding who follows up. A short record might say that two people have Read and Send as, while the reviewer has Read only. If the reviewer later needs to answer customers, change the permission deliberately rather than asking them to use somebody else's login.
Also name the owner of the shared address. That person should know who can change membership and who checks that access still matches the work. Ownership does not mean they must answer every message. It means there is somebody to ask when a member leaves, a new colleague joins, or a customer says nobody replied.
For a handover, agree on the information a colleague actually needs: the customer or order, what has already been promised, the next action, and when it is due. Store that information through your team's chosen working method. Access to the same email history helps the next person read the conversation, but it does not tell them which promise is still waiting for action.
Match permissions to the work
Read and Send as are separate shared mailbox permissions. Read allows someone to read shared messages. Send as allows them to send from the shared address. A person who answers customers from the shared mailbox needs both.
For this three-person team, the two colleagues who answer customers need Read and Send as. The third can have Read if their job is to review correspondence and pass work to the responders. If a separate role only needs to send without reading, use send-only access.
Check both settings carefully when adding a member. New members receive reading and sending permissions, so change them immediately when needed. At least one person should retain Read access to handle customer replies.
Agree on how messages will be handled
A member with Read access opens the shared mailbox through the Shared mailboxes switcher after signing in to their own email. Before replying, check which mailbox is open and which address is selected in From.
For the customer, the conversation stays with support@example.com even when a different employee replies today. A signature can identify the person handling the order, while the shared address keeps the familiar contact point.
Working agreements matter as much as settings. Decide who checks new messages in the morning, who covers absences, and where colleagues say they have taken responsibility for an order. Giving several people access does not automatically assign inquiries to them.
For a complicated issue, agree on a short internal handover containing the order number, the problem, and the next step. This reduces the chance of two people sending different answers at the same time.
Rehearse one request and one absence
Send a harmless inquiry to the team address from a mailbox you control. Have the first responder open it through their own sign-in and tell the others they are handling it. Before sending the reply, check the shared From address and how the writer identifies themselves. The recipient should be able to recognize the team contact and understand who is helping them.
Ask the second responder to find the same conversation and explain what they would do if the first person were away tomorrow. They should be able to use the history, but the working agreement should tell them whether a reply is still needed. If both people start answering at once, settle that communication problem before opening the address to more requests.
Have the reviewer check their own role too. Reading a request and passing it to a responder is different from replying as the team. Verify the intended rights with their personal login rather than relying on the administrator's settings screen alone. Keep the reviewer's role clear in the handover so colleagues do not expect an answer they are not authorized to send.
Finally, try a change of membership with a test participant. Removing that participant should end their shared access while the remaining readers can still handle the inquiry. This exercise checks the method you will use when the team changes. It does not erase copies somebody already downloaded or replace the wider process for a departing employee. The aim is a shared contact address with individual access and a working arrangement that three people can actually follow.
Review access when the team changes
When an employee stops working with the department address, remove them from the shared mailbox's members. Other people won't need a new shared password because they were not using one.
Protect members' personal accounts with separate passwords and two-factor verification for webmail sign-in. Anyone who signs in to an employee's personal webmail also receives that employee's assigned shared mailbox permissions.
Make a small handover sheet with the team address, its owner, the readers, the people allowed to reply and the absence cover. Use a test request to agree who takes responsibility and how colleagues avoid answering twice. That working agreement is separate from mailbox permissions. When somebody leaves the team, remove their membership and check the remaining readers rather than changing a password that everybody used.
