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Help Scout integration

Send AI chatbot hand-offs to your Help Scout mailbox

Your intoCHAT agent answers visitors on your website. When someone needs a person, the hand-off opens an email conversation in the Help Scout mailbox you choose, with an AI summary and the chat, so your team replies from Help Scout like any other email.

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What the Help Scout integration does

Help Scout is built around shared mailboxes, and this integration treats it that way. When your agent hands a conversation off by email, intoCHAT opens a new email conversation in one Help Scout mailbox. The visitor is the customer and the content is their first message, so the conversation looks like an email they sent you. Your team picks it up, replies, assigns and closes it in Help Scout, with the workflows and saved replies they already use there. The conversation tells your team what happened before the hand-off: the agent's summary of the request, three to five AI-written bullet points, the page the chat started on, the visitor's country, the last 30 messages and a link back to the conversation in intoCHAT. Help Scout's auto-reply isn't sent, so the visitor doesn't get an automatic email with all of this. The hand-off email to your team still goes out as before; the Help Scout conversation is added on top. What it doesn't do: the connection only writes. There is no two-way sync, so replies, notes and status changes in Help Scout don't come back to intoCHAT. And unlike Zendesk and Freshdesk, past Help Scout conversations can't be imported as knowledge for the agent.

Connect Help Scout in five steps

  1. Turn on hand-off by email

    Open your agent, go to the Setup tab, switch on Offer hand-off by email under Hand-off to your team, and save. Help Scout conversations are opened only for hand-offs by email.

  2. Create an app in Help Scout

    In Help Scout, click your avatar, open Your Profile, My Apps and click Create My App. Name it intoCHAT. Help Scout asks for a redirection URL, which intoCHAT doesn't use: enter your website's address.

  3. Connect it in intoCHAT

    In the Helpdesk tickets card on the Setup tab, choose Help Scout, paste the App ID and App Secret and click Test and connect. intoCHAT gets an access token and reads your mailboxes; an app that can't see any mailbox is refused.

  4. Choose the mailbox

    If your account has more than one mailbox, the card asks which one new conversations go to. Choose it and click Test and connect again. To change it later, click Replace credentials and pick another.

  5. Add fields, then test

    Optionally fill the mailbox's custom fields and tags under Ticket fields. Then ask the agent for a person in the Playground and give an email address: a real conversation, marked [Test], appears in the mailbox a few seconds later.

What a Help Scout conversation from intoCHAT contains

Subject: [Acme Assistant] Chat hand-off: Since I changed my account email I can't log in, and the reset link never arriv…

A visitor asked for a person in the chat with Acme Assistant. Reply to them by email: lukas@example.com

What they need
The visitor can't sign in since changing the email address on their account and needs access restored.

Summary
- Can't sign in after changing the account's email address
- The password reset link doesn't arrive; the AI can't change account details
- Contact email given: lukas@example.com

Visitor
Email: lukas@example.com
Page: https://www.example.com/login
Country: United Kingdom

Conversation (last 4 messages)
Visitor: Since I changed my account email I can't log in, and the reset link never arrives. Can someone help?
AI: I can't change account details myself, but I can pass this conversation to our support team by email. Which address should they reply to?
Visitor: lukas@example.com
AI: Thank you. I've passed the conversation to the team, and they'll reply to lukas@example.com.

In intoCHAT
https://www.intochat.ai/chatbots/…/edit?tab=activity&conversation=…

An example, shown as plain text; Help Scout receives it as formatted HTML. The headings and the AI summary are always in English; the subject and the conversation are in the visitor's words. The conversation is tagged intochat, and your ticket fields are added on top.

What happens in Help Scout

  • An email conversation in your mailbox

    Each hand-off opens an active email conversation in the mailbox you chose, with the visitor's hand-off address as the customer and their name when your lead form or identity verification provides it.

  • No auto-reply to the visitor

    The conversation is created without Help Scout's auto-reply, so the visitor isn't emailed the summary. They hear from you when your team replies, by email, from Help Scout.

  • Custom fields and tags

    Fill the mailbox's custom fields and add tags on every new conversation. Values can be fixed or use variables such as {{visitor.email}}, {{conversation.page}} or a contact attribute like {{contact.plan}}.

  • Context before the first reply

    Three to five AI-written bullet points in English sum up what the visitor wants and what the agent already answered, above the last 30 messages. If the summary isn't ready in time, the conversation goes in without it.

  • Short-lived tokens

    intoCHAT exchanges your app's ID and secret for a short-lived access token each time it opens a conversation. The secret is stored encrypted and never shown again; the card shows its last four characters.

  • Linked both ways

    The intoCHAT transcript shows Ticket # with a link that opens the conversation in Help Scout, and the Help Scout conversation links back. The handoff.requested webhook carries the number and link too.

  • Also in intoCHAT's Inbox

    Every hand-off also lands in intoCHAT's Inbox as open, on every plan. Teams that work in Help Scout can mark it solved in the Inbox, or ignore the Inbox and reply only from Help Scout.

  • Only owners and admins connect

    Connecting and disconnecting Help Scout is for the account owner and admins, because it hands over credentials. Editors can switch conversations on and off and change the ticket fields.

Limits to know before you connect

  • No two-way sync: replies, notes and status changes in Help Scout don't come back to intoCHAT.
  • Past Help Scout conversations can't be imported as knowledge. Ticket import works with Zendesk and Freshdesk only.
  • Conversations are opened for hand-offs by email only. A chat your team takes over in intoCHAT's live chat doesn't open one.
  • One Help Scout conversation per intoCHAT conversation, in one mailbox per agent. Moving to another mailbox removes the ticket fields, because custom fields belong to a mailbox.
  • One helpdesk per agent. To send some agents' hand-offs elsewhere, connect a different helpdesk on those agents.
  • If Help Scout doesn't answer within 10 seconds or is limiting requests, that conversation isn't created and isn't retried. The hand-off email still goes out.
  • Up to 25 ticket fields per agent, each value up to 500 characters, and up to 10 tags. Multi-select fields aren't offered.

Frequently asked questions

Does intoCHAT replace Help Scout?

No. intoCHAT is the AI agent that answers visitors on your website from your own content. Help Scout stays your shared mailbox for what needs a person. With the integration, those hand-offs arrive in Help Scout as email conversations, so your team doesn't have to watch another tool.

What do I need in Help Scout to connect it?

An app you create under Your Profile, My Apps, which gives you an App ID and an App Secret. The redirection URL Help Scout asks for isn't used, so your website's address is fine. The app acts as the user who created it, so create it as someone who can see the mailbox the conversations should go to.

Which mailbox do the conversations go to?

The one you pick in the card. With a single mailbox, intoCHAT uses it automatically; with several, the card asks after the first Test and connect. To switch, click Replace credentials and choose another mailbox. This removes your ticket fields, because Help Scout's custom fields belong to one mailbox.

Which intoCHAT plan includes the Help Scout integration?

Opening Help Scout conversations for hand-offs is included on every plan, Free too, as are hand-off by email and the Inbox. Learning from past tickets, which starts at Starter, works with Zendesk and Freshdesk only, not with Help Scout.

Does the visitor get an email when the conversation opens?

Not from Help Scout: intoCHAT creates the conversation without the auto-reply. In the chat, the agent has already told the visitor that the team has their message and will reply by email. The next email they receive is your team's reply from Help Scout.

Do Help Scout replies show up in the chat?

No. There is no two-way sync. Your reply goes to the visitor by email from Help Scout, and notes or status changes stay there. In intoCHAT, the transcript shows Ticket # with a link that opens the Help Scout conversation, so you can always jump from one to the other.

Can the agent learn from our Help Scout conversations?

Not directly: ticket import is available for Zendesk and Freshdesk only, and with Help Scout connected the Knowledge tab says so. You can still train the agent on your help articles if they are on a public website, such as your help center, by adding the address on the Knowledge tab like any other site, or add the answers your team gives most as Q&A pairs.

Can intoCHAT answer the emails in my Help Scout mailbox?

No. intoCHAT doesn't read or answer conversations in Help Scout; it only opens new ones for hand-offs. If you want an AI agent to answer email, intoCHAT's email agent, from the Starter plan, gives the agent its own address that customers write to or that you forward a support address to. It works separately from the Help Scout connection.

What data does intoCHAT send to Help Scout?

For each hand-off: the transcript, the AI summary, the visitor's email address and name when known, the page and the country, plus whatever your ticket fields add, such as contact attributes. intoCHAT reads nothing back except your mailboxes and the mailbox's list of fields when you edit ticket fields. Name Help Scout in your privacy policy if it isn't there already.

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