Set up automation Basics when your users and leads start a conversation with you in the Messenger. These automations can be turned on or off.
For users
Go to 
AI & Automation > Basics and select For users at the top of the page.
When users send their first message
When a user starts a conversation in the Messenger you can choose to leave a 2 minute delay before triggering the following task bots during office hours.
Get context about issues upfront
Here you can build a form with specific data you’d like to collect from users when they start a conversation.
For example, you can get context about the urgency of a customer’s request by creating a conversation data attribute for ‘Urgency’.
Then, you can triage and resolve urgent requests faster by adding a rule to tag these conversations as ‘Urgent’.
If a user sends messages instead of filling out the form, or if they don’t complete the form within 3 minutes, this task bot will be skipped.
Share your typical reply time
Set customer expectations about your team’s availability by sharing your typical reply time. This can be configured in Messenger Settings.
When a conversation with a user is closed
You can decide to ask for feedback on how the conversation went.
Ask for conversation rating
The following settings can be toggled on/off for conversation ratings:
Sending for direct outbound conversations.
Not sending rating requests for outbound conversations started via the API or Workflows.
Prevent customers from rating after a given period of time.
Prevent customers from changing their rating after a given period of time.
You can also choose whether to use the Intercom CSAT app to collect feedback, or use your own app you’ve installed on your workspace.
For leads
Go to AI & Automation > Basics and select For leads at the top of the page.
When leads open the Messenger
You can require an email for new conversations so you can always get back to your website visitors:
Only outside of office hours, or
Always
When leads send their first message
When a lead starts a conversation in the Messenger you can choose to leave a 2 minute delay before triggering the following task bots during office hours.
Share your typical reply time
Set customer expectations about your team’s availability by sharing your typical reply time. This can be configured in Messenger Settings.
Route existing customer to support
You can route leads to the right people by asking if they are an existing customer. Decide what you want to do when they choose ‘Yes, I'm a customer’:
Assign the conversation to a team or teammate, or
Close the conversation and offer at least one alternative channel for them to contact you on.
Ask for contact details
If we don’t already have their contact details, Operator will suggest that customers leave their email address or their phone number to get notified whenever you reply. You can decide to ask for email only or email or mobile number.
Alternatively, you can require an email at the beginning of the conversation, or you can ask for an email in Qualify leads in the next step 👇
Qualify leads
Choose to qualify leads by asking for more information. This can be done via:
Simple qualification - every lead is asked for the same details.
Advanced qualification - categorize leads (up to 3 categories) and ask each category for different details.
Select qualification data
Leads will be qualified using the information you select here. For example, you might like to collect:
Name
Email
Company industry
Company size
Add follow up rules
After you've collected qualification data, you can now take follow up actions with leads who match certain rules. Click + Add rule to set up if data is x then take y action.
For example:
If - A lead says their Company industry is ‘e-commerce’,
Then - Assign to your sales rep to follow up.
If adding multiple data qualifications and actions to the same rule, you can also decide whether the lead needs to:
Match all - All data must be matched for the action(s) to be taken, or
Match any - Any of the data can be matched for the action(s) to be taken.
When adding multiple different rules, the order of your rules is important because only the first rule a lead matches will be applied. See example below 👇
If a lead says their company industry is ‘e-commerce’ and their company size is '150', then they have matched both rules, but only the first rule will be applied (actions from the second rule won't be taken).
Suggest help articles
With this automation turned on, articles will be sent from your Intercom Help Center when they can help answer the customer’s question (only if there is a relevant article).
The conversation will be automatically closed if the customer confirms they found their answer in the article.
Articles will only be sent when language detected is English.
When a conversation with a lead is closed
Ask for conversation rating
The following settings can be toggled on/off for conversation ratings:
Sending for direct outbound conversations.
Not sending rating requests for outbound conversations started via the API or Workflows.
Prevent customers from rating after a given period of time.
Prevent customers from changing their rating after a given period of time.
You can also choose whether to use the Intercom CSAT app to collect feedback, or use your own app you’ve installed on your workspace.
If you want more flexibility, upgrade to Workflows to customize automations with bots, triggers, conditions, and rules that create amazing customer and teammate experiences — all in one place.
FAQs
When does a bot ask visitors for their details?
Where possible, the Qualify leads bot will give you the chance to respond in real-time to your lead's message before it asks for their contact details. Here’s how it works:
When you’re unlikely to reply fast, the bot will ask for your lead's contact details right away.
But if your automatic response time is less than 10 minutes or you’ve selected ‘Typically replies in a few minutes’ as your reply time, the bot will give you the chance to respond first. If you haven’t replied to your lead after 2 minutes, the bot will ask for their details.
This works with all Mobile SDKs that support Custom Bots (5.3.0 and newer), however an improved experience is available on SDK versions > 7.1.0. When a customer downgrades to a plan without the upfront collection bot, it’ll be paused.
How do leads get notified of a reply by SMS?
When leads opt to get notified by SMS and leave their phone number, the bot will send them an SMS notifying them of your reply.
As soon as they tap on the link they’ll be brought to the mobile web Messenger to read your message there.
Additional details on SMS:
A bot waits 3 minutes before sending the SMS (this is how long we wait before sending an email too). If the lead has already seen the reply in the Messenger, then we don't send the SMS. This prevents unnecessary notifications when the user is having a real-time conversation.
Leads can’t reply directly to the SMS. They’ll need to read and reply to your message from the Messenger instead.
Once a lead adds their phone number, the bot will notify them of all of your conversation replies by SMS. If they want to opt-out, you can delete their phone number in the user profile in your Contacts.
If a lead writes in from any of these countries: Australia, Canada, Germany, France, UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Sweden, or the US, we send the SMS from a local number. Otherwise we default to sending it from a US number.
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