Actions
Intercom
Let your agent hand a conversation to your team by filing an Intercom ticket that sets out what the customer needs.
The Intercom action lets your agent hand a conversation to your team by filing a ticket in Intercom. When a customer wants something the agent can't do itself, such as a refund, an account change or a bug fix, the agent writes up what they asked for and what it already checked, and a teammate picks it up in the Intercom inbox you already use.
Each Intercom action files one ticket type. In Intercom the ticket type decides which queue a ticket lands in, so choosing it is a routing decision you make once, not something your agent guesses. If you use several ticket types, add one Intercom action for each and say in the instructions when to use which.
Every time this action runs, it creates a real ticket in Intercom under the customer's name. That's why it carries a Creates records badge.
Before you start
- You need to be a workspace owner or admin.
- You need at least one ticket type set up in Intercom.
- Each Intercom action counts toward your plan's action limit. See Plans and limits.
Set up an Intercom action
Connect Intercom
Go to Settings → Integrations. Under Tools, click Connect on the Intercom card and approve access in the window that opens. See Integrations.
Add an Intercom action
Go to Actions and click Add action. Choose Intercom and click Continue.
Name it and write the instructions
Give the action a Name, such as "Refund request ticket". The starter Instructions tell your agent to file a ticket when a request needs your team and can't be resolved in the chat, after making sure it understands what the customer needs. Adjust them to suit.
Choose the ticket type
Under Ticket, your connected Intercom workspace is shown. Pick the Ticket type this action files.
Choose an assignee (optional)
Under Assign to, pick a teammate, or choose Leave unassigned to let your Intercom routing rules decide.
Add details to collect (optional)
In Details to collect, add anything your team needs on the ticket, such as an order number. The agent asks for these before it files.
Create the action
Click Create action.
What goes on the ticket
- Title and description — written by your agent: what the customer needs and what it has already tried.
- Customer details — the customer's name, email and company, and the channel they wrote from, added by OrbitBase.
- A link back to the conversation — so a teammate can read the full chat in OrbitBase.
- Any extra details you configured.
The agent fills in the ticket's title and description only. Any custom ticket attributes you've set up in Intercom are left for your team to complete.
Intercom needs an email address to file a ticket for someone. If the customer's contact doesn't have one yet, the agent asks for it first.
Customer-facing ticket types
Some Intercom ticket types are visible to the customer: they can see the ticket and its title in the Intercom Messenger. When you pick one of these, the form marks it Customer-facing, and your agent writes the title and description knowing the customer will read them.
What happens to the conversation
Filing a ticket also hands the conversation to your team in OrbitBase. Automatic replies stop and the conversation moves into the inbox queue, just as with Escalate to Human. The agent tells the customer their request has been logged, and won't keep answering after promising them a person.
The agent files one ticket per problem. If it has already filed a ticket for the same message, it won't file another.
Testing in the Playground files real tickets in Intercom. Close any test tickets afterwards.
Troubleshooting
My ticket type isn't in the list
Create the ticket type in Intercom, then reload the page.
I disconnected Intercom
Every Intercom action stops working straight away, and your agent is told to escalate the conversation so the request isn't lost. Your actions are kept, so reconnecting in Settings → Integrations brings them back.