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Configure and run Intercom messenger chat surveys
Configure and run Intercom messenger chat surveys
Alex Bitca avatar
Written by Alex Bitca
Updated over a week ago

Watch a video tutorial on configuring the Intercom messenger surveys:

The Intercom survey campaign gives you the possibility to embed the NPS survey template in Intercom in-app messages, and collect feedback in Retently. 

In this tutorial, you will learn how to set up the campaign in Retently and embed the survey template in Intercom.

Install the Retently app in Intercom

For starters, you will need to install the Retently app in your Intercom workspace. Unlike other products in the Intercom’s marketplace, you will not be able to install the app outside of Retently.

NOTE: You can connect only one Intercom workspace per Retently account.

You will need to log in to your Retently account first. Our app will be automatically installed in your workspace once you connect the Intercom integration in your Retently account. To do so, on the Integrations page, find Intercom and click the Connect button.

You will be redirected to an Intercom page asking you to authorize Retently in one of your workspaces. 

Once you have given your consent, you will be sent back to your Retently account, on the Intercom integration settings page. If you're interested in learning more about what other features our Intercom integration provides, feel free to check our tutorial.

Otherwise, you're ready to create your first Intercom NPS campaign.

Set up the Intercom NPS campaign

On the Campaigns page, click the + Create new campaign button, and find the Intercom survey campaign. 

Hit Create to access the campaign’s editor. 

The campaign has the following sections:

  1. Template

  2. Audience

  3. Schedule

  4. Reminder

  5. Notifications

  6. Autoresponders

  7. Workflows

In the following chapters, we will discuss each of the sections.

Assigning a survey template

You can assign a different survey template for each of the campaigns created in Retently. This is a handy option if you want to survey your audience on a different product or send surveys in different languages, for instance. Later on, you will be able to filter your survey results for each campaign.

You will notice that you already have a default survey template created, that is not assigned to this campaign yet. 

If needed, feel free to create a new template, or you can simply edit the default one by clicking its name, or the edit button.

In the survey template’s edit mode, you will notice three sections:

  1. Rating question

  2. Open-ended question

  3. Thank you message

In the Rating section, you can fully edit the NPS question. Additionally, you can change the alignment of the text or apply the bold styling to the entire question, or to individual words.

Next, move to the Open-ended section. Here you can personalize the follow-up question based on the score the customer chose. Additionally, you can also edit the text in the Submit button.

Finally, go to the “Thank you” message section, and edit the message your customers will see after they click the Submit button. 

In each section you have three additional buttons:

  • Reset template - will revert all the changes that you made in your survey template and will replace them with the default texts;

  • Save and Assign to campaign - will save all the changes that you made in your survey template, in all sections;

  • Dismiss changes and return - will revert all the changes that you made in your survey template to the last save and will return you to the campaign menu.

When you save the template, you will be redirected back to the Template section of your campaign builder. Make sure your template is selected in the campaign by clicking on the Assign button. This will be the survey template that will be embedded in your Intercom messages.

Audience section

In other campaign types, in the Audience section you have to choose what customers will receive the survey. With Intercom surveys it’s a little different, because you will be embedding the survey template in an automated in-app message in Intercom, that already has a specific audience selected.

There is also no need to import your Intercom audience in Retently in order to survey them. Your customers will be added automatically to your account the moment they receive the survey. If the customer has already been added to Retently, then their data will be updated to match Intercom.

We will be talking about choosing your Intercom campaign audience a bit further in the article, in the “Surveying your Intercom audience” chapter.

Intercom survey schedule

The Intercom campaign doesn't have an actual schedule section. That's because you will have to decide what audience will receive the survey and when while configuring the in-app message in Intercom. 

Retently can't interfere with your Intercom automation settings, therefore we're not providing any recurring or transactional options in the campaign's schedule.

Basically, we're providing a survey widget, which you can embed in messages. The survey widget will collect the rating and feedback and store them in Retently, under your campaign. It is up to you to decide when the message containing the survey will be displayed to your customers in your web app. 

You can configure to send recurring surveys by creating a smart campaign in Intercom, and simply decide the dates your audience should receive the survey. Here's a tutorial on Intercom's smart campaigns: https://www.intercom.com/help/en/articles/1806-how-to-create-a-smart-campaign.

Or you can easily build a transactional survey by choosing for the survey template message to be displayed when the customer matches a specific intercom filter or segment.

You can learn more about automated messages in Intercom here: https://www.intercom.com/help/en/articles/325-how-user-auto-messages-work.

Still, we have kept a highly useful feature in the Schedule section: Reminders.

For instance, if a customer didn't respond to your Intercom survey in three days after they saw it, our system will send them a reminder email survey. This way, you will be reaching your customers over a second channel, where they are more likely to engage with your survey.

Keep in mind that Reminder surveys are sent only via email. The email survey template must have a logo uploaded, otherwise you will not be able to select it as your reminder template. You can review all your templates here: https://app.retently.com/settings/templates.

Notifications

In the Notifications section, you can create custom notifications and keep track of your NPS progress.

When creating a new notification you will be asked to choose one or more event types you want to be notified about, the notification’s frequency (immediately, daily or weekly digest), and  channel (email or Slack).

Don't forget to save your notifications and make sure they are enabled. Once you've done that, press the Next button.

Activating your campaign

The final step is to activate the Intercom campaign by switching the toggle button ON otherwise, you will not be able to use this campaign in your workspace.

Surveying your Intercom audience

Note: If you need to send recurring Intercom in-app surveys, please check this tutorial.

Once you have activated your campaign, access your Intercom account and make sure that you're in the same workspace that you have authorized Retently in, when connecting the integration.

IMPORTANT: You will be able to embed our survey only in in-app messages. Currently, our app doesn't support email conversations in Intercom.

There are two ways to embed the survey template:

  1. In chat conversations - while replying to a customer you can easily embed the survey in your message and send it to them. This is a great way to collect post-support interaction feedback. 

  2. In automated in-app messages - when customizing an automated in-app message, you can embed the survey template in the body of the message. The survey will be displayed to your customers based on the message’s audience rules.

NOTE: If you need to send recurring surveys in Intercom, click here for the tutorial.

To embed the survey template, you have to click on the Apps icon in your message editor. A list with your available apps will unfold - choose Retently. 

Next, you will see listed all your active Intercom campaigns in Retently. 

If you have multiple campaigns, choose the one that you need and the survey template assigned to this campaign will be embedded automatically in the in-app message.

Finally, save the message and, if it's an automated in-app message, don't forget to set it Live.

How will your customers engage with the survey

The customers that match your automated in-app message's audience, or the customers to whom you will send the in-app message manually, will eventually see the survey pop-up from their Intercom chat icon.

Initially, they will see the NPS rating question and the 0 to 10 scale. 

When clicking on a score, the survey will switch to the Open-ended question. In this screen, the customer will see the score they have initially selected and a text input area where they can provide an additional text comment to back up their score. 

When clicking the Submit button, the survey will display the Thank you message screen. Here, they will be able to see the score they have selected, the additional text feedback (if provided), and the thank you message included in your template. 

The Thank You message screen will stay visible at any time, giving your support team the possibility to check the survey response of a customer when interacting with them.

IMPORTANT: If you run out of survey credits, your Intercom campaign will be deactivated in Retently and you will not be able to embed the survey template in other Intercom messages. The surveys that you have already sent, but haven’t been answered yet will be unavailable to the respondent. Your users will be able to answer your surveys again once your subscription renews and you get more survey credits, or after you have upgraded your subscription.

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