Hiver turns Gmail into a shared inbox and helpdesk. Get 3 months of it for free.
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Gmail can be a powerful business tool, especially when developers get their hands on it. I'm thinking of killer plug-ins like attachment-manager Dittach and desktop client Shift Advanced.
Now comes Hiver, which enables you to set up shared inboxes for teams. That means more than one user can leverage, say, sales@yourcompany.com or support@yourcompany.com. And speaking of support, one of Hiver's biggest perks is allowing companies to use Gmail as a helpdesk.
Normally the company provides a 14-day unlimited trial (meaning you can use all features of the highest-tier plan), but for a limited time, Business Bargain Hunter readers can get three full months of Hiver for free.
Let me clarify how that works. Using that link, you'll start with the 14-day free trial. When that's done, you'll have to supply a credit card to continue -- but you won't get billed for the first three months.
After that, you can continue with monthly billing or switch over to an annual plan, which affords cheaper rates.
The only real caveat here is that you're limited to five users during those free months.
Hiver offers a lot of genuinely useful features, including things like collision alerts so multiple users don't send duplicate or conflicting replies to the same email. You can set up auto-responders and canned email responses, schedule messages to send at a later time and assign emails to specific team members.
On the desktop, Hiver is compatible with only Chrome and Safari browsers. But there are mobile apps for Android and iOS, great if your workforce is primarily mobile anyway.
If you need shared inboxes and/or an effective helpdesk tool, here's your chance to get a very extended trial and see if Hiver will work for your org. Already tried it? Hit the comments and share your thoughts!