Send Smith.ai Chat Callback Requests to Slack

Your chatbot can now send callback requests to your team’s Slack channel. This feature currently works with Live Chat and Chatbot plans.

Note: This feature allows people interacting with chat on your website to request a call, and your team will get a Slack notification to call them back. If you want Smith.ai Receptionists to call back instead, set up our Chat to Call feature.

Here’s how to get set up:

Set up Slack email app

  1. If you're not the Slack team admin, send this page to them. You need to have administrative privileges to proceed.
  2. Create a channel in your Slack team where you want to receive your callback requests. Add anyone you want to receive these requests (sales, support, etc.).
  3. Sign into Slack in your browser and go to your "apps" page. The url will look like this: https://yourslackteamname.slack.com/apps/manage
  4. Search for "email" and enable it.
    The Email integration is only available to Slack workspaces on paid plans.
    You'll see a screen like this:
  1. Click "Add Configuration"
  2. Select your new Smith.ai callback requests channel from the dropdown (select) menu and choose "Add Email Integration"
  3. The resulting page gives you an email address. They will mail this to your site admin as well, but copy it down too! We'll need this email address later on.
  4. Fill out and confirm all the details on this page. You can add an icon for Smith.ai. Here's ours if you'd like to use it: Smith.ai Avatar
  5. When you are done your settings should look something like this:
  1. Email something to that new address to test it. Usually it takes about a minute for the email to show up in your new Slack channel.

Email our support team to enable Slack callback requests

  1. Email chat@smith.ai with the subject line “Please enable Slack Callback Request Notifications”
    1. If you have a live-staffed chat account, send us the email address you set up in the previous step and let us know when you want to prompt callbacks. For example, we can ask your web visitors to choose "sales" or "support," and then send a call request in Slack when people are looking for sales.
    2. If you have an AI-Chatbot only plan, follow the next steps for setting up your own playbook with call requests.
  2. We will get back to you within a day or two to let you know the feature has been enabled.
Add a callback request to your playbook

Note: This feature needs to be enabled before you can do this. See previous step.

First decide when your playbook should offer a callback to your web visitors. Here are a couple of options:

  • Offer a call at the end of the playbook, so you can gather some information about your lead first. 
  • Filter your web visitors based on “support” and “sales” needs, and then offer a callback just to sales.
  • Qualify new leads, and offer a callback to those who qualify as a good prospect for your business.
  1. Sign into your chat account and navigate to Playbooks
  1. Add a step in your playbook that captures the web visitor’s phone number and then lets them know you’ll call them back. For example, after your visitor chooses to be contacted by phone, you can set up the next step to look like this:

Note: make sure you connect your phone number to the right intake field.

  1. Click Save
  2. Make a note of which play and step you want your Slack request to go out after. In this example, it’s Play B, Step 2:
  1. On the left side of your screen, click “Playbook Settings”
  2. Scroll down to playbook rules and click “Add a Rule”
  3. Name your new rule something clear like “Slack Callback Request” and then choose “Specific Play or Step Completed” under “WHEN”
  4. Choose the step you made note of previously. In this example, Play B, Step 2:
  5. Under “Do” choose “Post Call Request to a Slack Channel”
  6. Enter the email address you got from Slack above (from the email app) and click Save
  7. When the playbook rule saves successfully, it will look like this in your Playbook Settings:
  8. Test your callback request! Follow the playbook path on your website that takes you to this callback request and make sure you get a notification in the Slack channel you wanted. The notification should look like this:

Don't forget to train your sales team on how to follow up on these requests. Give them access to your account so they are able to see the chat history when they click the link.

Questions? Contact us!

If you're already a Smith.ai client and need help, please email us at support@smith.ai or call us at (650) 727-6484 for assistance.

If you're not yet a Smith.ai client, please schedule a free consultation to get started with our live chat or email us at sales@smith.ai. We'll help you select the best plan to match your business’s growth goals and budget.

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