Use Slack and Microsoft Teams

Slack and Microsoft Teams work with ChaosDesk in two ways:

• as a channel for an internal helpdesk: an employee posts in an intake channel and gets a ticket;
• for side conversations: an agent asks another team for help in Slack or Teams without the customer seeing it.

Slack also has a Create ticket message shortcut and a trigger action that posts into a channel.

Both use the ChaosDesk app (Slack) or bot (Teams). The connect screens are being built. This article describes how it works today.

Connect your workspace

• Slack: an admin adds the ChaosDesk app to the Slack workspace with Add to Slack and approves the permissions.
• Microsoft Teams: a Microsoft 365 admin gives consent for the ChaosDesk bot in your organisation. ChaosDesk needs no passwords or secrets from you.

The connected workspace or organisation then shows up under Admin Center, Channels, Messaging.

Run an internal helpdesk

1. Pick the intake channels for the connected workspace, for example #it-help.
2. Invite the app (Slack) or add the bot (Teams) to those channels.

Then:

• a new message in an intake channel opens a ticket (in Teams, the post must mention the bot);
• replies in that message’s thread become comments on the ticket;
• agents’ public replies are posted back in the same thread.

Turn any Slack message into a ticket

Requires Starter or higher.

On any message in a channel the ChaosDesk app can see, open the message menu (More actions) and choose Create ticket. The message becomes a ticket with its author as the requester, and only you see the answer with the ticket number. Agents’ public replies go into the message’s thread, as with intake channels. Using the shortcut on the same message again does not create a second ticket.

Post to a Slack channel from a trigger

Requires Starter or higher.

1. Open Admin Center, Business rules, Triggers (or Automations) and add the action Notify Slack channel.
2. Enter the channel id (for example C0123ABCD, from the channel’s details in Slack) or #channel-name.
3. Write the message. Ticket placeholders such as {{ticket.id}}, {{ticket.subject}} and {{ticket.url}} are filled in.

For a private channel, invite the ChaosDesk app to it first. Each rule run posts once, even if delivery is retried.

Start a side conversation in Slack or Teams

Requires Pro or Enterprise.

1. In a ticket, open Side conversations and choose New.
2. Under Send by, pick Slack or Microsoft Teams.
3. Enter the Slack channel id or Teams channel id, a subject and the message.
4. Choose Send.

ChaosDesk posts a thread in that channel. Replies in the thread come back to the side conversation and never reach the customer.

Related

• Side conversations
• Channels