Answer your customers from the Slack you already have open
Every new conversation lands in Slack, and anything you type back there reaches the customer. Your team keeps working in one place.
This is for teams who live in Slack all day and would rather not watch a second inbox. It suits small teams especially, where one shared channel is enough to see who is asking for help.
Step by step
Activate the Slack app
Go to Settings > Apps and activate Slack. This adds the Slack section to your settings.
Synchronise with a public channel
Open Settings > Slack and click Synchronize now, then follow the steps. Pick a public channel - the general channel is a good option. Syncing fails on private channels, so do not choose one.
Join a customer's channel
When a new user sends their first message, a message with their details and a join button is posted to the main channel. Only the account used for syncing joins the user's channel automatically. Everyone else joins by clicking the button.
Send departments to their own channels
Under Department linking, link department IDs to channel IDs. Department IDs come from Settings > Miscellaneous, and the Get channel IDs button gives you the channel IDs. The first message then goes to the channel linked to the conversation's department.
Choose which customer details you see
User fields controls what appears in the main-channel message. By default you get email, browser, browser_language and location.
Settings reference
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Synchronize now | Starts the Slack connection and asks you to choose the public channel your team will watch. |
| Department linking | Links department IDs to channel IDs, so each department's conversations are announced in its own channel. |
| Get channel IDs | Lists the channel IDs you need when filling in department linking. |
| Agent linking | Narrows who is notified: with a department, only that department's agents; with a single assigned agent, only that agent. |
| User fields | Chooses which customer details appear in the main-channel message, from slugs such as browser, browser_language, location, email, user_type, token, creation_time, country_code, current_url, os, city, address, postal_code, phone, birthdate, company, timezone, website, plus any custom slugs of yours. |
Good to know
Private channels will not sync
The channel you sync with has to be public. If syncing fails, this is the first thing to check.
The full conversation is in the user's own channel
The main channel gets an announcement with the customer's details and a join button. Everything the customer says lives in their dedicated channel.
Nothing appears while the chatbot is coping
With the chatbot on, nothing goes to Slack for as long as the bot knows the answer. Once human takeover happens, all messages come through.
Your customer is still notified
Push notifications still reach users when agents reply from Slack, so replying there is no different for the customer.
Archive, do not delete
Archiving a conversation archives its Slack channel, and you can do this with the /archive command from Slack. Deleting or leaving channels is not supported.
A channel you cannot see
If a user's channel is missing from your sidebar, join it from Directories > Channels in Slack.
Common questions
Can I use a private channel for this?
Why do only some of my team see a customer's channel?
Nothing is reaching Slack. What is wrong?
Can I stop every channel pinging the whole team?
Does this work with my email and messaging channels?
How do I close a conversation from Slack?
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