Organize Conversations with Teams and Topics
As your customer conversations grow, keeping your Inbox organized becomes increasingly important. In Saysimple, you can organize conversations using Teams and Topics, making it easier to route messages to the right people and keep related conversations together.
For example, you can create teams for Finance, Sales, or Support, so each team can focus on the conversations that are relevant to them.
In this article, you'll learn how to use Teams and Topics to organize and manage customer conversations in your Saysimple Inbox.
Teams
Teams allow you to group users based on their role, department, location, or workflow.
For example, you could create teams for:
Sales
Customer Support
Finance
Marketing
Different offices or locations
A team-based structure helps your organization distribute conversations efficiently and gives users a clearer overview of the conversations they need to handle.
Before you start
Teams must first be created by an administrator in Settings.
Once the teams have been created and users have been added, you can assign conversations to either an entire team or an individual user.
Assign a conversation to a Team
When you want to assign a conversation, you can choose between assigning it to a specific user or to an entire team.
For example, let's say you want the Saysimple Haarlem team to handle a customer conversation.
Open the conversation you want to assign.
Select the Saysimple Haarlem team.
The conversation is now assigned to the team.
The conversation remains available for a member of that team to take ownership.
When a team member clicks "Assign to me", the conversation is assigned to that user within the team.
Once a team member takes ownership, the conversation will appear in Assigned and in that user's My inbox.
What happens when a conversation is assigned to a team?
Assigning a conversation to a team makes it available to the members of that team.
This is particularly useful when you don't know which specific team member should handle the conversation yet. The team can see the conversation and decide who should take ownership.
For example:
Customer → Support team → Team member
This workflow ensures that conversations reach the right department before being assigned to an individual.
Assigned
The Assigned folder provides an overview of conversations that have already been assigned to a user or team.
When a conversation is assigned to a team, such as Saysimple Haarlem, it can be managed by members of that team.
Once a team member assigns the conversation to themselves, it becomes part of their personal workload and appears in My inbox.
Assigned is therefore useful for getting an overview of conversations that are already being handled by your teams and users.
Why use Teams?
Using Teams can help your organization:
Route conversations to the right department.
Distribute customer inquiries between team members.
Give users visibility into relevant conversations.
Create clearer ownership of customer conversations.
Organize workflows by department, location, or responsibility.
For larger teams, this can make the Inbox easier to manage and reduce the risk of conversations being overlooked.
Topics
In addition to Teams, you can organize conversations using Topics.
A Topic describes what a conversation is about. This allows you to categorize conversations based on their subject or reason for contact.
For example, you could create Topics such as:
Black Friday promotion
Demo request
Technical support
Billing question
Product information
Topics make it easier to categorize conversations and identify trends in the types of questions customers are asking.
Before you start
Topics must first be created by an administrator in Settings.
Once your Topics have been configured, you can assign them to conversations directly from the Inbox.
Assign a Topic to a conversation
To assign a Topic:
Open the conversation.
Click the Topic icon at the top of the conversation.
Select the Topic that best describes the conversation.
The Topic is now associated with the conversation.
You can use this process to consistently categorize customer conversations according to their subject.
Find conversations by Topic
Once Topics are assigned, you can use them to organize and identify related conversations.
The Topics section groups conversations according to their assigned Topic, making it easier to find conversations about a particular subject.
For example, if you want to review all conversations related to a promotion, you can look for the relevant Topic and see the conversations that have been categorized under it.
This can be particularly useful for teams that receive a high volume of customer inquiries and need a structured way to categorize them.
Teams vs. Topics
Although both features help you organize your Inbox, they serve different purposes:
Feature | Purpose | Example |
|---|---|---|
Teams | Organize conversations by the people or department responsible for handling them. | Sales, Support, Finance |
Topics | Organize conversations by what they are about. | Demo request, Black Friday promotion, Support question |
A conversation can therefore be assigned to a Team and categorized with a Topic at the same time.
For example:
Team: Support
Topic: Technical support
This gives your team both the context of who should handle the conversation and what the conversation is about.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are Teams in Saysimple?
Teams allow you to group users who share a department, responsibility, location, or workflow. Conversations can then be assigned to an entire team or to a specific team member.
Who can create Teams?
Teams must be created by an administrator from Settings.
Can I assign a conversation to an entire team?
Yes. When assigning a conversation, you can select an entire team instead of a specific user.
What happens after I assign a conversation to a team?
The conversation becomes available to members of that team. A team member can then click "Assign to me" to take ownership of the conversation.
Where does a team conversation appear after I assign it to myself?
Once you assign the conversation to yourself, it appears in Assigned and in your My inbox.
What is the Assigned folder used for?
Assigned shows conversations that have already been assigned to a user or team. It provides an overview of conversations that already have an owner.
What are Topics in Saysimple?
Topics are categories that describe what a customer conversation is about. They can be used to organize conversations by subject, request type, or reason for contact.
Who can create Topics?
Topics must be created by an administrator from Settings before they can be assigned to conversations.
How do I assign a Topic to a conversation?
Open the conversation, click the Topic icon at the top, and select the Topic that best describes the conversation.
Can a conversation have both a Team and a Topic?
Yes. Teams and Topics serve different purposes and can be used together. A Team identifies who should handle the conversation, while a Topic identifies what the conversation is about.
What is the difference between a Team and a Topic?
A Team organizes conversations according to who is responsible for handling them, such as Sales or Support. A Topic organizes conversations according to their subject, such as a demo request or technical support question.
Best Practices for Organizing Your Inbox
For an efficient customer service workflow, consider using Teams and Topics together.
Use Teams to define ownership.
Create teams based on departments, locations, or responsibilities so conversations reach the right group.
Use Topics to define context.
Create Topics that reflect the most common reasons customers contact your business.
Keep your structure simple.
Only create Teams and Topics that are genuinely useful to your workflow. A clear structure makes it easier for users to find and manage conversations.
Combine Teams and Topics.
Using both gives your team a clearer picture of each conversation: who should handle it and what the customer needs.
With a well-organized structure, Saysimple helps your team route conversations efficiently, improve collaboration, and maintain better visibility across the customer service workflow.