Put a Simplesat survey in the emails a Help Scout workflow sends, or have Simplesat email it when a conversation closes. The workflow route works without connecting Help Scout.
Connect Help Scout to add each rating to its conversation and bring the conversation and its agent into Simplesat.
What the Help Scout integrations do
The Help Scout page lists its integrations under Survey integrations and Ticket integrations. You switch each one on separately with Activate integration.
Integration | Listed under | What it does | Where it shows |
Update customer properties with rating and sentiment | Survey integrations | Saves the customer's latest rating and sentiment to two Help Scout customer properties. Currently, it saves them empty. | The customer in Help Scout |
Send a survey on conversation closure | Survey integrations | Emails the survey to the customer when a Help Scout conversation is closed | The customer's inbox |
Pull conversation details | Ticket integrations | Adds the conversation, customer and assigned agent to the response | The response, in Simplesat |
Add feedback to conversation as a note | Ticket integrations | Adds the response to the conversation as a note | The conversation |
Update conversation tags with rating and sentiment | Ticket integrations | Tags the conversation with the rating and sentiment | The conversation |
Sync feedback to conversation custom fields | Ticket integrations | Writes the rating, sentiment and comment to conversation custom fields | The conversation |
The ticket integrations run only on surveys connected to Help Scout, for responses that came in with the conversation number. A survey is connected when:
its delivery method is External email embed with the Help Scout option, or
it's an Event-based or Web-embed survey with Connected service set to Help Scout.
Under When should this integration run?, you can have any integration except Send a survey on conversation closure run on every response, or only on the surveys you pick with Let me choose.
Before you start
The Help Scout integrations are available on every Simplesat plan.
To connect Help Scout and switch integrations on in Simplesat, you need the Manage integrations permission. Owner and Admin have it by default.
You'll sign in to Help Scout and authorize Simplesat. The integrations then act as that Help Scout user, so connect as someone who will keep their Help Scout access.
If your security team asks what Simplesat can read and write in a connected tool, send them Integration security, permissions and data flow.
Connect Help Scout
On the Integrations page, open Help Scout.
Click Authenticate.
Sign in to Help Scout and click Authorize.
When the page shows Authenticated with Help Scout, click Activate integration on each integration you want, then fill in its settings.
Tip: Before you rely on an integration, try it on a real conversation by following Testing an integration end to end.
Send surveys from Help Scout
Help Scout workflows
To add a survey to an email a Help Scout workflow sends:
Create or open the survey and choose External email embed.
Under Choose where to add your survey, choose Help Scout.
On Publish, click Generate embed code.
Choose Visual and click Copy survey.
In Help Scout, create or open a workflow, for example one with the condition Status Is equal to Closed.
Add the Reply to the Customer action and paste the survey into its email.
Save and activate the workflow.
Heads up: If the inbox also sends Help Scout's own satisfaction ratings, turn them off so customers don't get two surveys.
When Help Scout sends the email, it fills in the variables in the survey links, so each response comes in with its conversation, customer and agent:
What the link carries | Help Scout variable |
Ticket ID (the conversation number) |
|
Ticket subject |
|
Customer email |
|
Customer first name |
|
Customer last name |
|
Team member email |
|
Team member first name |
|
Team member last name |
|
The ticket integrations use the ticket ID to find the conversation, so leave {%conversation.number%} in place. For how placeholders work in every tool, read Placeholders and merge fields.
Simplesat email when a Help Scout conversation closes
To have Simplesat email the survey when a conversation is closed:
Create the survey with Direct email delivery → Event-based.
On its Delivery subtab, set Connected service to Help Scout.
On the Help Scout page, click Activate integration on Send a survey on conversation closure.
In Survey, choose the survey and click Save.
Switching it on adds a Simplesat webhook to your Help Scout account. From then on, when a conversation is closed, Simplesat emails the survey to its customer, with the survey's own Delay (in hours) and Suppression (in days per customer) applied. Only the survey's Delay holds the email back. Each conversation gets it once, so one that's reopened and closed again isn't surveyed twice. Responses come in with the customer's email and the conversation's subject.
Currently, the ticket integrations don't work on responses to this email, so these responses get no note, tags, custom fields or agent. To get those on closed conversations, send the survey from a Help Scout workflow instead.
Heads up: If a Help Scout workflow also emails the survey when conversations close, customers get it twice.
These emails show on the survey's Email activity. If one doesn't arrive, start with When a survey does not send.
If neither route suits your team, compare them with Simplesat's other delivery methods in Choosing a survey delivery method.
Feedback in Help Scout
Simplesat writes to Help Scout no sooner than five minutes after a response arrives, and again when the response changes. Writing feedback back, and mapping the fields goes into timing and settings for every tool.
Add feedback to conversation as a note
Adds each response to its conversation as a note from the Help Scout user who authorized Simplesat. Customers can't see it. The note says who left what feedback on which survey, with links into Simplesat, then lists every question and answer. The rating shows with its emoji and label, and follow-up answers sit under their question.
If the response changes later, for example when the customer answers another question, a second note is added.
Update conversation tags with rating and sentiment
Adds two tags to the conversation: the rating, such as 9, and the sentiment, which is positive, neutral or negative. The conversation's other tags stay. When a rating changes, the new tags are added and the old ones stay too.
Sync feedback to conversation custom fields
Writes the rating, the sentiment and the follow-up answer to three custom fields on the conversation. Custom fields are available on Help Scout's Plus and Pro plans, and creating them takes an Administrator or Account Owner.
First, create the three fields in Help Scout, in the inbox whose conversations you survey. Go to Settings → Inboxes → the inbox → Custom Fields → New Custom Field. The integration finds the fields by name, so use exactly these names:
Field | Type |
Simplesat rating | Number |
Simplesat sentiment | Single Line |
Simplesat comment | Multi Line |
Then, on the Help Scout page in Simplesat, click Activate integration on Sync feedback to conversation custom fields.
To finish, send a test response on a Help Scout conversation whose three Simplesat fields are still empty. After about five minutes, check that the fields have filled in. If they're still empty, work through My Help Scout custom fields stay empty below.
Update customer properties with rating and sentiment
Writes to two properties, simplesat-rating and simplesat-sentiment, on the Help Scout customer whose email matches the response.
Heads up: Currently, the values it saves are empty, so these properties never show a rating or sentiment. To see ratings in Help Scout, use the note, tags or custom fields integrations.
Conversation, customer and agent details in Simplesat
As soon as a response arrives, Pull conversation details looks up its conversation in Help Scout and adds:
the conversation's number, subject, type (such as email or chat) and a link to it, as ticket fields
the Help Scout customer whose email is on the response, with their name, email, Help Scout ID and company, plus their gender, job title, location and a link to their Help Scout profile as customer attributes
the conversation's assignee as the team member, with their name, email, Help Scout ID and the role Assignee
A conversation with no assignee gives no team member. If no Help Scout customer has the response's email, it adds nothing. Simplesat uses these details to connect each response to its ticket, customer and agent, as Attribution: linking feedback to tickets, customers and agents explains.
Change the Help Scout account
To connect a different Help Scout account, or to connect as a different Help Scout user:
Note which integrations are on.
Click Revoke access.
Click Authenticate and authorize as the user you want.
Click Activate integration on each integration you noted.
Their settings carry over. Between Revoke access and activating again, though, nothing is written to Help Scout, and Simplesat doesn't email surveys for conversations that close. Surveys in your Help Scout workflows keep going out as usual.
If the user who authorized Simplesat loses their Help Scout access, the integrations stop, even though the page still shows Authenticated with Help Scout. Reconnect the same way, as a user who has access.
Troubleshooting
Feedback doesn't show up on my Help Scout conversations
Check that:
The survey is connected to Help Scout, and the response's ticket ID is the conversation number. The link carries the number when Help Scout fills in
{%conversation.number%}.The integration shows as active. If it uses Let me choose, the survey is switched on.
At least five minutes have passed since the response. Simplesat doesn't write any sooner.
If you've used Revoke access and Authenticate, you clicked Activate integration again.
Currently, responses to the Simplesat email from Send a survey on conversation closure don't reach the conversation. If none of this explains it, send us the response's link.
My Help Scout custom fields stay empty
Check that:
The three fields exist in the conversation's inbox, named Simplesat rating, Simplesat sentiment and Simplesat comment.
The survey is connected to Help Scout, and the response's ticket ID is the conversation number.
The integration shows as active, and at least five minutes have passed since the response.
If none of this explains it, send us the response's link.
The Simplesat properties on my Help Scout customers stay empty
Currently, Update customer properties with rating and sentiment saves empty values to simplesat-rating and simplesat-sentiment. To see ratings in Help Scout, use Add feedback to conversation as a note, Update conversation tags with rating and sentiment or Sync feedback to conversation custom fields.
My customers don't get the survey email when a conversation closes
Check that:
Send a survey on conversation closure shows as active, with an Event-based survey chosen in Survey.
The conversation's customer has an email address.
The conversation hasn't already been surveyed. Each conversation gets the survey once.
The survey's Delay isn't still holding the email, and its Suppression isn't skipping this customer.
If you've used Revoke access and Authenticate, you clicked Activate integration again.
Then look for the email on the survey's Email activity, and work through When a survey does not send.
My responses aren't credited to the agent on the conversation
Pull conversation details credits the conversation's assignee, with the role Assignee. A response gets no team member from it when:
the integration isn't active, or the survey isn't connected to Help Scout
the conversation is unassigned
no Help Scout customer has the response's email
the response came from the Simplesat email, which currently doesn't reach the conversation
I see two notes for one response
Add feedback to conversation as a note runs when a response arrives and again when it changes, for example when the customer answers another question or changes their rating. Each run adds a note.
My conversation has more than one rating tag
When a rating changes, Update conversation tags with rating and sentiment adds the new rating and sentiment tags and leaves the old ones on the conversation. Remove the old ones in Help Scout.
My Help Scout integrations stopped working, but the page still says Authenticated with Help Scout
Simplesat doesn't check the connection again after you connect. The integrations fail if the Help Scout user who authorized Simplesat loses access, or if the authorization is removed in Help Scout. The page still reads Authenticated with Help Scout either way. Click Revoke access, then Authenticate, then Activate integration on each integration you use.
FAQ
Do I need to connect Help Scout to send surveys?
No. A survey in a Help Scout workflow email works on its own. Connect Help Scout when you want the closure email, notes, tags and custom fields on conversations, or conversation details in Simplesat.
Can Simplesat send the survey automatically when a conversation is closed?
Yes. Create an Event-based survey, set its Connected service to Help Scout, and choose it in Send a survey on conversation closure. Currently, the ticket integrations don't work on responses to that email. To get notes, tags and custom fields on closed conversations, send the survey from a Help Scout workflow instead.
Will a customer get another survey if their conversation is reopened and closed again?
No. Send a survey on conversation closure emails each conversation once, and an automatic Help Scout workflow runs only once per conversation, even if the conversation matches its conditions again later.
Which Help Scout user do the notes come from?
The Help Scout user who authorized Simplesat when you connected Help Scout. To change it, click Revoke access, then Authenticate as the other user, then Activate integration on each integration you use.