Actions
Slack alerts
Have your agent post an alert into a Slack channel when a conversation needs a person, with who the customer is and a link back to the chat.
The Slack action lets your agent post an alert into one of your team's Slack channels when a conversation needs a person. Something like "this customer is asking for a refund, here's what I already tried" lands where your team already works, so nobody has to be watching the OrbitBase inbox for a handoff to be noticed.
Every alert includes the customer's name, their company, which channel they wrote from, and a link straight back to the conversation. OrbitBase adds these automatically, so the team always gets them.
Slack appears in OrbitBase twice, doing two different jobs. This page covers Slack alerts: your agent posts to your team. Slack as a channel is where customers direct-message your OrbitBase bot and the agent answers them. They use the same Slack app but are separate connections: connecting one doesn't connect the other, and disconnecting one leaves the other working.
Before you start
- You need to be a workspace owner or admin.
- Slack alerts count toward your plan's action limit. See Plans and limits.
Set up Slack alerts
Connect Slack
Go to Settings → Integrations. Under Tools, click Connect on the Slack card and approve access in the Slack window that opens. See Integrations.
Add a Slack action
Go to Actions and click Add action. Choose Slack and click Continue.
Name it and write the instructions
Give the action a Name and adjust the starter Instructions to describe when your agent should alert the team. By default it alerts when a customer is blocked, upset, asking for something the agent can't do, or explicitly wants a person.
Choose a channel
Under Channel, pick a Slack channel from the list.
If you choose a private channel, invite the OrbitBase bot to it in Slack first, or the alert won't send.
Send a test alert
Click Send a test alert and check the channel to make sure it arrived.
Choose what happens next
Under When it's done, choose whether your agent keeps chatting, closes the conversation, or hands it to your team's queue after posting the alert.
Create the action
Click Create action. Your agent can use it straight away.
What the alert contains
- What the customer needs — written by your agent: what they asked for and what it has already tried.
- Urgency — your agent marks an alert as urgent only when someone is blocked, angry or at risk of leaving.
- Customer details — name, company and the channel they wrote from, added by OrbitBase.
- A link to the conversation — opens the chat in OrbitBase so a teammate can take over.
- Any extra details — if you add Details to collect, the agent asks for them first and they're included in the alert.
Your agent posts once per issue. If it has already alerted the team about the same message, it won't post again.
Slack alerts and Escalate to Human
A Slack alert tells your team; it doesn't, on its own, stop your agent from replying. If you want the conversation to go to your team's queue as well, set When it's done to Hand to the team, or let your agent use Escalate to Human alongside it.
Testing in the Playground posts real alerts to your Slack channel. Warn your team before you test, or use a test channel.
Troubleshooting
The channel I want isn't listed
The list shows up to the first 1,000 channels. If yours isn't there, check it exists in Slack, then reload the page.
Alerts aren't arriving
Check that the channel isn't archived, and that the OrbitBase bot has been invited if it's private. If Slack can't take the alert, your agent is told to let the customer know the request will be passed on another way, and to escalate the conversation to your team instead. After three failures in a row, the action's card shows Failing.
I disconnected Slack
Every Slack action stops working straight away and your agent tells customers it couldn't notify the team. Your actions are kept, so reconnecting Slack in Settings → Integrations brings them back.