Intercom Slack Integration with Thena: Everything You Need to Know

What Is Intercom-Slack Integration?

The Intercom app integration with Slack enables you to connect both applications and synchronize conversations between apps so that neither customer support agents nor customers are required to move platforms to interact.

This bi-directional integration allows companies to manage customers on Slack Connect while their support teams remain on Intercom without needing to switch contexts.

Why Should You Integrate Intercom with Slack?

Integrating Slack with Intercom comes with a bunch of benefits for your team and customers. Let’s unpack them one by one.

1. Elimination of Context Switching

Context switching can kill your team’s performance and result in inefficient workflows. According to one study, 43% of knowledge workers report that switching between different online tools and applications negatively affects their productivity and ability to concentrate.

Slack-Intercom integration allows you to overcome the need to hop between applications, making it easier to address customer queries seamlessly and efficiently.

2. A Way to Long-Term Scalability

How can you scale your customer service over time? Not by ordering your support agents to join customer Slack channels. It is actually a risky choice on multiple fronts. 

Firstly, you’ll set them up for failure, as requests will get dropped. Secondly, your support agents will be unhappy and lost; worse, the process won’t scale as your business expands.‍

3. Let Customers Stay on Slack

As we’ve previously discussed, your customers want Slack because they’re already on the platform. In other words, they’re familiar with the platform and the functionalities it offers, so asking them to leave Slack for another tool (in this instance, Intercom) would only create friction and frustration.

4. Increased Visibility

Managing customer service on Slack when your support agents are on Intercom often means reduced visibility into tickets. This lack of visibility impacts not only the customers but also the support agents, as they are unable to track the status of tickets efficiently.

Furthermore, without bi-directional communication between Intercom and Slack, teams may find themselves investing significant time and effort into manually tracking and responding to customer queries. This manual process increases the likelihood of overlooking customer messages and restricts leadership's ability to gain a comprehensive insight into the overall customer experience.

5. Faster Response Times

Finally, integrating Slack with Intercom enables faster response times in customer service through real-time notifications, streamlined collaboration, and seamless context switching. With instant notifications in Slack, support agents can promptly address customer messages and tickets. The collaborative features of Slack facilitate efficient teamwork and quicker problem-solving.

Available Intercom-Slack Integration Options

You can integrate Slack with Intercom in several ways. However, the most popular options are as follows:

Intercom Native Integration

Intercom offers native integration with Slack, allowing you to connect the two platforms seamlessly. This integration enables you to receive real-time notifications in Slack when new conversations, leads, or events occur in Intercom. It also allows you to reply to Intercom conversations directly from Slack, improving response times and collaboration.

That said, Intercom’s native integration has limited customization options and a lack of advanced features or workflow automation capabilities.

Custom Integration via APIs

For businesses with specific requirements or advanced technical capabilities, building a custom integration using Intercom and Slack APIs is another option. This approach allows you to create a tailored integration that aligns precisely with your workflow and data synchronization needs. It requires development resources or working with a developer to build and maintain the integration.

However, because of the complex nature of such integration, companies might need extensive investment and technical expertise. Furthermore, the initial development and setup costs for a custom integration may be higher compared to other integration methods.

Third-Party Integration Tools

There are several third-party tools (Thena, for example) available that provide enhanced features and customization options for integrating Intercom and Slack. These tools often offer additional functionalities, such as customizing notifications, creating advanced workflows, or syncing specific data between the two platforms.

Third-party integrations have numerous advantages, such as extensive customization options, enhanced functionality, and integration with other apps. 

Let’s now take a look at how Thena can help you make the most out of your Intercom-Slack integration.

Thena’s Solution to Intercom-Slack Integration

One of the problems with native Intercom integration (a go-to option for most organizations) is that it only functions under certain conditions. More precisely, the Intercom app for Slack can’t handle business logic, meaning:

• The customers must always come through the Intercom (web app/website). The app doesn’t cater to customers that interact with you on Slack.
  
  
• The support agent can reply from Slack to the customer (via Intercom). But every new request kicks off its own channel. As your organization grows, this will become unsustainable.

Therefore, if your clients are already using Slack and you have more than 30 Slack Connect channels, your support team on Intercom needs a solution. And that’s where Thena comes into play.

8 Benefits of Thena’s Intercom-Slack Integration

1. Easier Conversations

First and foremost, we have conversations. When a customer asks a question, an Intercom conversation is created within Slack at the click of a button. If you forget to create a ticket, the Smart Inbox Features ensure the message is highlighted as a suggested request.

2. Agents Have More Control Over the Entire Ticket Lifecycle

With Thena, your support agents have much more control over the entire conversation within Intercom. They can manage ticket lifecycle (Open > In Progress > Close), escalate, and share rich text, attachments, gifs, and hyperlinks without needing to worry about the communication flow between Slack and Intercom app.

3. Kanban Board to Visualize Conversations

The Kanban board feature ensures that you can see all Intercom conversations either at a customer level or at your organizational level—all within Slack.

4. CSAT Feature

Furthermore, Thena has a CSAT feature, which means that whenever you meet your customers on the platform of their choice (Slack, for example), they’re more likely to give you feedback. This, ultimately, makes it easier for you to track customer service metrics.

5. Effortless Escalation and Customer Request Tracking

As a customer-facing representative, you can stay in Slack and track the progress of customer requests, including past interactions. Thena also facilitates the internal escalation process if you feel the need to do so.

6. Onboarding New Clients and Adding Employees Made Easy

Have you just landed a new client, and it’s time to create a Slack Connect channel with them? On the first interaction for support, Thena will check if the Intercom Organization has been set up. If not—no problem. Thena will create it for you.

Likewise, when your customer has a new employee who gets added to the Slack Channel with you, and when the hiree asks a question, Thena automatically creates a new Intercom user for that organization.

7. Colleague Tagging, Escalation, and Requests

Not all customer support requests can be handled smoothly. Sometimes you need to tap into the expertise of your colleagues, whether by tagging them or escalating support requests further.

Thena allows you to effortlessly tag a colleague to a Slack conversation thread while also adding that user to the Intercom chat.

Furthermore, the Thena escalation feature enables a customer or your own team member to escalate a request in Slack. Additionally, any suggested request can be sent to Intercom in one click (Thena will highlight the action and, with one click, send it to Intercom).

As an added benefit, Thena tags the CSM in Slack if the ticket is created by someone else, ensuring that CSM is always in the loop.

8. The Power of Configuration

Thanks to Thena, you get to configure how your Intercom-Slack integration works. From white labeling and responding as the support agent to configuring whether you want to inform the user that a support agent will attend to them shortly, Thena does it all.

How to Set Up Intercom-Slack Integration with Thena

When it comes to setting up the integration, Thena makes the entire process easy. In fact, you can complete the whole setup in less than 10 minutes.

Here are the straightforward setup instructions for you to follow:

1. First, you need to install Thena and add it to your Slack workspace.
2. Open the Integrations section in your Thena Web App.
3. Add Intercom as an integration.
4. Connect with Intercom using O-Auth.
5. Grant Thena access to your Intercom instance.
6. Return to the Thena integrations page and click on View Integration to complete the setup.
7. Click "Save" to finalize the process.

Check out our Knowledge Base to learn the specifics of Thena’s Intercom-Slack integration.

Best Practices for Intercom-Slack Integration

For the integration to function correctly, following the best practices is always wise.

• Customized Notifications. Configure notifications strategically to avoid information overload. Customize notification settings with Thena to ensure that only essential alerts are sent to relevant channels or individuals. Strike a balance between timely updates and preventing notification fatigue.
  
  
• Seamless Ticket Handoffs. Implement clear guidelines and processes for ticket handoffs between Intercom and Slack. Define roles, responsibilities, and communication protocols to ensure a smooth transition when transferring customer conversations or support cases between team members.
  

Team Training and Collaboration. Provide comprehensive training on Intercom and Slack integration to all team members involved in customer support. Foster a collaborative environment where agents can share knowledge, ask questions, and leverage each other's expertise to provide timely and accurate responses to customer inquiries.

Conclusion

Here you have it—a complete guide on the best way to integrate Intercom with Slack. 

With many integration options on the market, we understand that choosing the right one for your business can be tricky. However, third-party integration tools like Thena are the most versatile and least capital-intensive solutions you can immediately get started with.

At Thena, we believe in seamless communication. Therefore, our powerful Slack-Intercom integration is the solution you’ve long sought.

FAQs About Intercom-Slack Integration

Can you integrate Intercom with Slack?

Yes, Intercom can be integrated with Slack. The integration lets you receive Intercom notifications, conversations, and customer updates directly in your Slack channels, making it easier to collaborate and respond to customer inquiries in real time. By connecting the two platforms, you can streamline communication and enhance customer support within your team.

What are the disadvantages of the native Intercom app for Slack?

The native Intercom app for Slack has a few disadvantages. Firstly, it lacks some advanced features and customization options available in the standalone Intercom platform. Secondly, it may lead to message overload and clutter within Slack channels, especially for teams with high message volumes. Lastly, integrating Intercom with Slack requires additional setup and configuration, which can be time-consuming and may require technical expertise.

Is Thena’s integration with Intercom safe?

Intercom has approved the Thena integration, acknowledging its significant value and potential. This endorsement from Intercom underscores the credibility and dependability of Thena, reinforcing its status as a leading solution. Our team is also actively pursuing Thena’s listing on the Intercom’s app store.