Slack notifications

The Deskwoot app for Slack posts notifications into the Slack channels you pick, so your team sees new support activity where it already talks. Each channel gets only the events you choose, and every message has an Open in Deskwoot button. Replies still happen in Deskwoot. Every plan includes it, the free Hacker plan too.

Connect Slack

1. In Deskwoot, go to Settings > Integrations and click Connect on the Slack card.
2. Click Add to Slack. Slack shows its permission screen for your Slack workspace.
3. Click Allow. You come back to the Slack page in Deskwoot, which now names the Slack workspace it is connected to.

You need the permission to manage integrations; administrators have it. Finish the steps in the same browser you started them in. The link from Slack expires after 15 minutes, so if Deskwoot says it expired, click Add to Slack again.

Pick channels and events

1. Click Add channel and choose a channel from the list.
2. Tick the events this channel should get.
3. Click Save, then Send test message to check that it arrives.

You can add up to 20 channels, each with its own events. For example, #support gets new conversations and assignments, #quality gets CSAT ratings and #escalations gets SLA breaches.

Public channels are listed right away. A private channel shows up after you invite the app to it in Slack: open the channel, type /invite @Deskwoot, then reload the Slack page in Deskwoot.

What each event means

• New conversation: a customer starts a conversation on any channel. Conversations your team starts are not posted.
• Assigned: a teammate, the API or an automation rule assigns a conversation to a person or a team. Round robin handing out a new conversation as it arrives is not posted, because New conversation already covers it.
• Mention: a teammate is mentioned with @ in a private note. Slack gets who mentioned whom, never the note itself.
• Resolved: a conversation is marked resolved.
• CSAT rating: a customer rates a conversation. The message shows the rating and the customer's comment. CSAT surveys come with the Business and Enterprise plans.
• SLA breach: a conversation misses its first response, next response or resolution target. SLA policies come with the Enterprise plan. The same breach of a conversation is posted at most once an hour.

What a message contains

The customer's name, the channel and inbox, the subject (for email) or the first 200 characters the customer wrote, and the Open in Deskwoot button. Mentions and resolves also say who did it. Deskwoot never puts email addresses, phone numbers, custom attributes or order data into Slack. One thing to know: on SMS, and on WhatsApp when the customer has no profile name, a new contact's name is their phone number until someone changes it, and Slack shows the name as Deskwoot has it.

Messages are written in your workspace's language, which you set under Settings > Account Settings > Site Language.

Disconnect or reconnect

On the Slack page, Disconnect stops all posting and deletes your channel choices. Deskwoot also removes its app from your Slack workspace, unless another Deskwoot workspace still uses the same Slack workspace.

If someone removes the app in Slack or revokes its access, Deskwoot stops posting and the Slack page says so. Click Add to Slack again: for the same Slack workspace, your channels come back as they were.

Troubleshooting

• Slack refuses the test message and asks you to invite the app. The app is not in that private channel. Type /invite @Deskwoot in it.
• A channel says Slack cannot find it anymore. It was deleted, or the app was removed from it. Remove the channel from the list or pick another one.
• Nothing arrives. Check that the Slack page still says it is connected, and that the channel has the event ticked and saved.

Frequently asked questions

Can my team reply to customers from Slack?

No. Slack gets the alert, and the reply happens in Deskwoot, where the whole conversation and the customer's history are. The button under each message opens the conversation.

Which plan do I need?

Every plan includes the Slack app, the free Hacker plan too. Two events depend on features of higher plans: CSAT ratings need CSAT surveys (Business and Enterprise), and SLA breaches need SLA policies (Enterprise).

What does Deskwoot see in my Slack workspace?

Only the names of your channels, so you can pick one. The app posts messages and reads no messages, files or members. It asks Slack for four permissions: chat:write, chat:write.public, channels:read and groups:read.

Can I connect more than one Slack workspace?

One Slack workspace per Deskwoot workspace, with up to 20 channels in it.

I had a Slack webhook URL under Settings > Webhooks. Does it still work?

No. Slack cannot read the event format Deskwoot webhooks send, so those webhooks were turned off when the Slack app arrived, and Settings > Webhooks no longer takes a Slack URL. Connect the Slack app instead.