The Aptly Inbox is where your team reads and answers messages from prospects, residents, owners, and vendors, all in one place. Teammates with access to a shared inbox can work from the same conversations and see who is handling each one.
The one rule that matters most
Every message needs an owner.
That's it. That's the whole system. If a message doesn't have someone assigned to it, it's easy for it to sit unanswered until a resident calls back annoyed. So the moment you touch a message, either reply to it or assign it to yourself (or to the right teammate).
Your daily routine
Here's a simple way to work through your inbox each day:
1. Start with Unassigned. This is your "nobody's claimed this yet" pile. You can get there two ways: click the Unassigned folder under the inbox in your left sidebar (it sits right under Archived), or click Assignee at the top of any inbox view and select Unassigned from the list to filter down to it. Either way, look through it first thing and grab anything that's yours to handle.
2. Assign it. Even if you're about to answer it yourself, assign the message to yourself. If it belongs to someone else on your team, assign it to them instead. If you need to leave them a note (what the resident asked, what you already tried), leave an internal comment. Use internal comments to give teammates context without replying to the customer.
3. Reply. Answer the message right from the inbox. Keep it friendly and to the point. If there's a template that fits, use it instead of typing from scratch.
4. Follow up if needed. If the message needs more than a reply (a maintenance visit, a lease change), create a task or link it to the right board so it doesn't get forgotten.
5. Close it out. Once you're done, close the conversation. Closed means "handled, nothing left to do." It also keeps your Open inbox from getting cluttered with things that are actually finished.
Should I assign it or close it?
Assign it if:
- Someone still needs to do something (you, a teammate, or a follow-up)
- The conversation is still going
Close it if:
- The question's been answered
- The issue is fixed
- There's genuinely nothing left to do
A few things to watch for
- Don't leave messages sitting unassigned. Someone will always assume someone else has it.
- Don't forget to close conversations once they're done. It keeps everyone's view clean.
- If you can't finish something today, don't just leave it quiet. Assign it and leave a quick comment so the next person knows where things stand.