Will this fire for every new Help Scout ticket or only new ones created after I activate the scenario?

Only new tickets created after activation. The webhook fires in real time when Help Scout creates a new conversation, so historical tickets won't trigger it. If you need to backfill alerts for existing open VIP tickets, you'd need to run a one-time manual export — but for ongoing alerting, activation day is your start point.

What happens if a ticket is tagged 'vip' after it's created, not at creation time?

This scenario won't catch it. The 'Watch Conversations' trigger only fires on conversation creation events. Tags added later don't re-trigger the webhook. To handle post-creation tagging, add a second scenario using Help Scout's 'Conversation Tags Changed' webhook event as the trigger.

Can I send alerts to multiple Slack channels — for example, one for enterprise and one for VIP?

Yes. Add more branches to the Router — one for 'enterprise' tag pointing to #enterprise-support, and one for 'vip' tag pointing to #vip-support. Each branch gets its own Slack module pointing to a different channel. Make handles this natively with no extra cost per branch.

How fast does the alert arrive in Slack after a VIP ticket is created?

Typically 3–8 seconds. Help Scout fires the webhook within 1–2 seconds of ticket creation, Make processes it in 1–3 seconds, and Slack delivers the message in under a second. The only delay is if Make's servers are under load, which is rare.

What if my VIP list changes frequently — do I have to rebuild the Router filter every time?

Not if you use tags consistently. You only need to update the filter if you change the tag name itself. Adding or removing individual customers from VIP status just means updating their tag in Help Scout — the Make scenario doesn't change. If you're filtering by email domain and add a new enterprise client on a different domain, you'll need to add an OR condition to the Router filter.

Beginner~12 min setupCommunication & SupportVerified April 2026

How to Send Help Scout VIP Alerts to Slack with Make

Fires a Slack message to your support channel within seconds whenever a high-priority or VIP customer opens a Help Scout ticket, using Make to filter by tag or company.

Steps and UI details are based on platform versions at time of writing — check each platform for the latest interface.

Make

Also on:Zapier N8n Power-automate Pipedream

Best for

Support teams that have 10–200 high-priority accounts and need immediate visibility when those customers open tickets, without manually monitoring Help Scout all day.

Not ideal for

Teams where every ticket is high-priority — at that scale, all-ticket alerts become noise and you need triage logic, not a simple filter.

Sync type

real-time

Use case type

notification

Real-World Example

💡

A 12-person SaaS company uses this to alert #vip-support in Slack the moment any of their 40 enterprise accounts opens a Help Scout conversation. Before this automation, the support lead checked Help Scout every 30–45 minutes and enterprise tickets sat unacknowledged for up to an hour. Now the median first-response time on enterprise tickets is under 8 minutes.

What Will This Cost?

Drag the slider to your expected monthly volume.

Monthly workflow runs

/mo

505005K50K

Each platform counts differently — Zapier: 1 task per trigger. Make: 1 operation per module per record. n8n: 1 execution per run.

$30/mo if billed monthly

Pipedream

$29/mo

Basic plan

Prices shown for annual billing. Based on published pricing as of April 2026.

Estimated ROI

1000

min saved/mo

$583

labor value/mo

Free

no platform cost

Based on ~2 min manual effort per operation at $35/hr fully loaded labor cost.

Implementation

Skip the setup

Import this workflow directly into Make

Copy the pre-built Make blueprint and paste it straight into Make. All modules, filters, and field mappings are already configured — you just need to connect your accounts.

Before You Start

Make sure you have everything ready.

Help Scout account with Admin access — needed to create webhooks under Manage > Company > Webhooks

Help Scout API key — generate one under Your Profile > Authentication > API Keys

Slack workspace where you have permission to add apps and post to the target channel

Make account (free tier works for testing; Core plan at $9/month needed for production volume above 1,000 ops/month)

A consistent tagging system in Help Scout — VIP tickets must be tagged reliably (e.g., 'vip', 'enterprise') or filtered by email domain for the router condition to work

Field Mapping

Map these fields between your apps.

Field	API Name	Description
Required
Conversation ID	`id`	Unique identifier for the Help Scout ticket. Used to construct the direct URL to the conversation in the Slack alert so agents can click straight into it.
Conversation Subject	`subject`	The subject line of the ticket. This is the first thing your team sees in Slack — make it prominent in the message template.
Customer Email	`customer.email`	The email address of the customer who opened the ticket. Used both for identification and as a fallback filter if you're matching VIP status by email domain rather than tag.
Tags	`tags`	Array of tags applied to the conversation. This is the primary field used in the Router filter to identify VIP tickets. Must contain your designated VIP tag (e.g., 'vip', 'enterprise').
Conversation URL		Direct link to the conversation in Help Scout. Constructed using the conversation ID: https://secure.helpscout.net/conversation/{id}. This is the most clicked element in the Slack alert.

5 optional fields▸ show

Customer First Name	`customer.firstName`	The customer's first name from their Help Scout profile. Adds a personal touch to the Slack alert and helps agents immediately know who they're dealing with.
Customer Last Name	`customer.lastName`	The customer's last name. Combine with first name in the Slack message for a full display name.
Mailbox Name	`mailbox.name`	The name of the Help Scout mailbox the ticket landed in. Useful in the Slack message if you have multiple mailboxes (e.g., Support vs. Billing) so agents know where to respond.
Created At	`createdAt`	Timestamp of when the conversation was created. Include in the Slack alert so agents know how old the ticket is at the time they see the notification.
Status	`status`	Current status of the conversation (active, pending, closed). Should always be 'active' for new tickets, but including it confirms the ticket is open and unassigned.

Step-by-Step Setup

make.com > Scenarios > Create a new scenario

Create a new Make scenario

Log into Make at make.com and click 'Create a new scenario' in the top right of your dashboard. You'll land on the visual canvas with a single empty circle in the center — that's your trigger slot. Click the large '+' inside that circle to open the app search panel on the right side of the screen. This is where you'll connect Help Scout as your trigger app.

1Log into make.com
2Click 'Create a new scenario' in the top-right corner
3Click the large '+' circle in the center of the canvas
4Type 'Help Scout' in the app search box

✓ What you should see: You should see Help Scout appear in the search results with its teal logo. Clicking it opens a list of available triggers.

⚠

Common mistake — Make has two Help Scout apps listed — 'Help Scout' and 'Help Scout (Legacy)'. Pick the standard 'Help Scout' app. The legacy version doesn't support webhook-based triggers.

Trigger module > Help Scout > Watch Conversations

Set the Help Scout trigger to Watch Conversations

From the Help Scout trigger list, select 'Watch Conversations'. This trigger uses a webhook — Make will give you a URL to paste into Help Scout, so the event fires instantly when a new conversation is created. You'll see a dropdown asking which mailbox to watch. If you want to monitor all mailboxes, leave it set to 'All Mailboxes'. If VIP tickets land in a specific mailbox, select that one now.

1Click 'Watch Conversations' from the trigger list
2Click 'Add' to create a new Help Scout connection
3Enter your Help Scout API key when prompted
4Select the target mailbox or leave as 'All Mailboxes'
5Click 'Save'

✓ What you should see: Make generates a webhook URL shown in the module panel. You'll also see a 'Waiting for data' status — this is normal until you configure Help Scout to send events.

⚠

Common mistake — The API key in Help Scout is per-user, not per-account. Use a dedicated service account or a shared admin account so the connection doesn't break when someone leaves the team.

Make

click +

search apps

Slack

Set the Help Scout trigger t…

Slack

module added

Help Scout > Manage > Company > Webhooks > Add Webhook

Register the webhook in Help Scout

Copy the webhook URL Make just generated. In a new browser tab, go to Help Scout and navigate to Your Profile > Authentication > API Keys — but for webhooks, you actually need to go to Manage > Company > Webhooks. Click 'Add Webhook', paste the Make URL into the Payload URL field, and set the secret key to anything you'll remember (you won't need it in Make unless you add signature verification later). Check the 'Conversation Created' event checkbox — that's the only one you need for new ticket alerts.

1Open Help Scout in a new tab
2Go to Manage > Company > Webhooks
3Click 'Add Webhook'
4Paste the Make webhook URL into 'Payload URL'
5Check 'Conversation Created' under event types
6Click 'Save Webhook'

✓ What you should see: Help Scout shows the webhook in your list with a green active indicator. Make's canvas will show 'Successfully determined' once the first test event arrives.

⚠

Common mistake — Copy the webhook URL carefully — it expires if you regenerate it, and any scenarios using the old URL will silently stop working.

Make canvas > Run once > Help Scout > Create test conversation

Send a test ticket to capture data structure

Go back to Make and click 'Run once' at the bottom of the canvas — this puts Make in listening mode for one incoming event. Switch back to Help Scout and create a real test conversation in your mailbox (use a VIP customer's email or a test account tagged as VIP). Within a few seconds, Make will capture the webhook payload and show the data structure in the trigger module. Click the trigger bubble on the canvas to inspect what fields came through.

1Click 'Run once' at the bottom of the Make canvas
2Switch to Help Scout and create a new test conversation
3Return to Make and wait for the green data bubble to appear on the trigger module
4Click the trigger bubble to inspect the captured payload

✓ What you should see: You'll see nested data including conversation ID, subject, customer name, customer email, tags array, mailbox name, and status. All of these are now available to map in downstream modules.

⚠

Common mistake — If the bubble doesn't appear after 30 seconds, check that Help Scout's webhook saved successfully and that 'Conversation Created' is checked. Help Scout only fires on new conversations, not conversation replies.

Make

▶ Run once

executed

✓

Slack

✓

Help Scout

🔔 notification

received

Make canvas > + > Flow Control > Router

Add a Router to filter VIP tickets

Click the '+' after your trigger module and add a 'Router' (found under Flow Control, not under any specific app). The Router creates two or more branches — one for VIP tickets that should trigger an alert, and one for everything else. You'll set conditions on the VIP branch so only matching tickets continue down that path. This is the core filter that prevents your Slack channel from getting flooded with every ticket.

1Click the '+' icon to the right of the trigger module
2Click 'Flow Control' in the app list
3Select 'Router'
4You'll see two branches appear — a dotted line (default) and an empty branch

✓ What you should see: The canvas shows the trigger connected to a Router diamond with two outgoing paths. Neither path has conditions yet — you'll set those next.

⚠

Common mistake — Filters are the most common place setups break. Double-check the field name and value exactly match what your app sends — a single capital letter difference will block everything.

Slack

trigger

filter

Condition

matches criteria?

yes — passes through

no — skipped

Help Scout

notified

Router > Branch 1 > Wrench icon > Filter editor

Configure the VIP filter condition

Click the wrench icon on the top branch of the Router to open the filter editor. You'll set conditions to match VIP or high-priority tickets. The most reliable approach is filtering by Help Scout tag — for example, if your team tags enterprise accounts with 'vip' or 'enterprise', filter where the tags array contains that value. Use the condition: 'Tags' > 'Contains' > 'vip'. If you use customer email domain instead, set condition: 'Customer Email' > 'Contains' > '@enterprise-domain.com'. You can add multiple OR conditions for multiple VIP signals.

1Click the wrench icon on the first Router branch
2Set Label to 'VIP Ticket'
3Click 'Add condition'
4Set Field to '1. Tags[]' from the trigger data
5Set operator to 'Contains'
6Set value to 'vip' (or whatever tag your team uses)
7Click 'OK'

✓ What you should see: The branch label updates to 'VIP Ticket' and the filter condition appears below the branch line on the canvas. Only conversations tagged 'vip' will proceed down this path.

⚠

Common mistake — Help Scout tags are case-sensitive in Make's filter. If your team tags tickets 'VIP' with capital letters, type 'VIP' in the filter value — 'vip' won't match.

VIP branch > + > Slack > Create a Message

Add the Slack module to the VIP branch

Click the '+' at the end of the VIP branch and search for 'Slack'. Select the 'Create a Message' action. Connect your Slack workspace by clicking 'Add' next to the connection field — this opens an OAuth window. Authorize Make to post to your workspace. Once connected, choose your alert channel from the Channel dropdown (e.g., #vip-support or #support-alerts). You'll build the message text in the next step.

1Click '+' at the end of the VIP branch
2Search for 'Slack' and select it
3Choose 'Create a Message'
4Click 'Add' to connect your Slack workspace via OAuth
5Authorize Make in the Slack OAuth window
6Select your alert channel from the Channel dropdown

✓ What you should see: The Slack module appears on the canvas connected to the VIP branch. You'll see fields for Channel, Text, and optional formatting — all empty until you map them.

⚠

Common mistake — Make's Slack connection requires the bot to be invited to the channel before it appears in the Channel dropdown. Run /invite @Make in your Slack channel first if it doesn't show up.

Slack module > Text field > Variable picker

Build the Slack alert message

Click into the Text field of the Slack module and use Make's variable picker to insert data from the Help Scout trigger. Build a message that gives your team everything they need without opening Help Scout: the customer's name, their email, the ticket subject, a direct link to the conversation, and the VIP tag. Click the variable icon (the small jigsaw piece) next to the text field to browse available fields from your trigger data. Use Slack's mrkdwn formatting to make the alert scannable at a glance.

1Click inside the 'Text' field in the Slack module
2Type your message template, inserting variables using the variable picker
3Click the jigsaw icon to browse Help Scout trigger fields
4Map customer name, email, subject, and conversation URL
5Set 'Parse Mode' to 'Markdown' to enable bold and links

✓ What you should see: The Text field shows a mix of static text and orange variable tokens. A preview of the message won't appear until you run the scenario, but the token names confirm which fields are mapped.

⚠

Common mistake — Map fields using the variable picker — don't type field names manually. Hand-typed variable names often have invisible spacing errors that produce blank output.

Message template

📬 New entry: {{1.name}}
Email: {{1.email}}
Details: {{1.description}}

Slack module > Bot Name, Icon Emoji, Parse Mode

Map the Slack message fields

Beyond the main text body, fill in the Bot Name field (e.g., 'Help Scout Alerts') and optionally set an emoji icon using the Icon Emoji field (e.g., ':rotating_light:'). These appear in Slack to make the alert visually distinct from human messages. If your workspace uses Slack blocks for richer formatting, enable 'Use Blocks' and build a Section block — but the plain text approach works fine and is faster to set up. Leave 'Thread Timestamp' empty unless you want all VIP alerts threaded under a single parent message.

1Enter a Bot Name like 'VIP Support Alert'
2Set Icon Emoji to ':rotating_light:' or ':bell:'
3Confirm Parse Mode is set to 'Markdown'
4Leave Thread Timestamp blank

✓ What you should see: The Slack module configuration panel shows the channel, a populated text field with variable tokens, a bot name, and an emoji. The module is ready to test.

⚠

Common mistake — Map fields using the variable picker — don't type field names manually. Hand-typed variable names often have invisible spacing errors that produce blank output.

Message template

📬 New entry: {{1.name}}
Email: {{1.email}}
Details: {{1.description}}

Slack fields

text

user

channel

thread_ts

available as variables:

1.props.text

1.props.user

1.props.channel

1.props.ts

1.props.thread_ts

Make canvas > Run once > Check module bubbles > Slack channel

Run a live end-to-end test

Click 'Run once' in Make, then create a new Help Scout conversation using an email address or tag that matches your VIP filter. Watch the Make canvas — each module should show a green checkmark and a count bubble (e.g., '1') indicating it processed data. Click the Slack module bubble to confirm the output shows your formatted message. Then check your Slack channel — the alert should appear within 5–10 seconds of creating the Help Scout ticket.

1Click 'Run once' at the bottom of the canvas
2Create a test VIP conversation in Help Scout
3Watch for green checkmarks on each module
4Click each module bubble to inspect inputs and outputs
5Confirm the message appears in your Slack channel

✓ What you should see: All three modules (trigger, router, Slack) show green checkmarks with '1' bubble. The Slack channel shows a formatted message with the customer name, subject, and a clickable link to the Help Scout conversation.

⚠

Common mistake — If the Router shows '1' but Slack shows '0', your filter condition didn't match. Check the tag spelling and case against the actual tag value captured in Step 4.

Make canvas > Scenario name > Toggle switch (bottom left)

Activate the scenario

Once the test passes, click the toggle switch at the bottom left of the Make canvas — it flips from gray (Off) to blue (On). Make will now run this scenario automatically every time Help Scout sends a new conversation webhook. You don't need to keep Make open. The scenario runs in Make's cloud. Set your scenario name by clicking the default name at the top (usually 'My Scenario') and renaming it to something descriptive like 'Help Scout VIP → Slack Alert'.

1Click the scenario name at the top and rename it
2Click 'Save' (disk icon) to save your scenario
3Click the toggle switch at the bottom left to activate
4Confirm the toggle turns blue and shows 'Active'

✓ What you should see: The canvas header shows your scenario name. The bottom toggle is blue and labeled 'Active'. The scenario history tab will start logging runs as new Help Scout tickets arrive.

⚠

Common mistake — Make's free plan runs scenarios but caps you at 1,000 operations/month. If you have high ticket volume, this scenario uses 2 operations per VIP ticket (trigger + Slack message). At 500 VIP tickets/month, you'll need the Core plan at $9/month.

Going live

Production Checklist

Before you turn this on for real, confirm each item.

Verify the Help Scout webhook is active in Manage > Company > Webhooks before going live — Help Scout won't surface errors if the webhook is disabled

Applies when: webhook

Confirm the Slack bot has been invited to the target channel with /invite @Make, otherwise message delivery fails silently

Test the Router filter with at least 3 ticket types: a VIP ticket (should alert), a non-VIP ticket (should not alert), and a VIP ticket with different tag casing (validates case sensitivity)

Set up Make's scenario error notification under Scenario Settings > Notifications so you get an email if the scenario breaks — webhook failures are silent without this

Applies when: webhook

Use a shared Help Scout admin account for the API key connection, not a personal account — scenarios break when individuals leave the team

Log the first 2 weeks of scenario run history in Make to confirm false-positive rate — if non-VIP tickets are slipping through, tighten the Router filter conditions

If your Make plan is free (1,000 ops/month), calculate your expected VIP ticket volume: each alert uses 2 operations. More than 500 VIP tickets/month requires the Core plan at $9/month

Troubleshooting

Common errors and how to fix them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about this workflow.

Analysis

VerdictWhy Make for this workflow

Use Make for this if your team needs conditional logic without writing code, wants sub-10-second alert delivery, and has more than one VIP signal to filter on. The Router module handles multi-branch logic visually — enterprise tickets to one channel, standard VIP to another, everything else ignored — without needing a separate filter app. Make also stores your execution history so you can audit which tickets triggered alerts and which didn't. The one scenario where you'd skip Make: if your entire team already lives in Zapier and nobody wants to learn a second platform. For a simple single-filter alert with no branching, Zapier's setup is marginally faster.

Cost

Real cost math: this scenario uses 2 Make operations per VIP alert (1 for the Help Scout trigger, 1 for the Slack message). On Make's free plan (1,000 ops/month), you can handle up to 500 VIP tickets per month at zero cost. At 501+ VIP tickets/month, you move to the Core plan at $9/month for 10,000 operations — that covers up to 5,000 VIP tickets monthly. Zapier's equivalent would cost $19.99/month on the Starter plan for the same volume, since Zapier counts each Zap run as one task regardless of step count. Make is $10.99/month cheaper at that volume.

Tradeoffs

Zapier gets one thing right that Make doesn't: its Help Scout integration is more mature, with a dropdown-based trigger that doesn't require manual webhook registration. You pick 'New Conversation' from a list and Zapier handles the webhook setup invisibly — saves about 10 minutes. n8n gives you more power in the filter logic since you can write JavaScript directly against the payload, which is useful if your VIP logic involves complex rules like 'enterprise AND MRR > $5,000'. Power Automate has a Help Scout connector but it's a third-party premium connector requiring an additional license — not worth it for this use case. Pipedream can handle this in ~20 lines of Node.js and is free for low volume, but there's no visual canvas, which matters for teams where non-developers maintain the scenario. Make is still the right pick here because the visual Router is genuinely useful for multi-tier VIP logic and the total setup time is under 30 minutes.

Three things you'll hit in production: First, Help Scout's tags are case-sensitive and teams are inconsistent — you'll discover some agents tag 'VIP', others tag 'vip', and Make's filter only matches one. Audit your tags before setting the filter. Second, Help Scout disables webhooks silently after repeated delivery failures. If Make's scenario breaks for any reason (connection expired, operation limit hit), Help Scout stops sending events and you won't know until someone notices missing alerts. Check Make's execution history weekly during the first month. Third, the conversation URL format (https://secure.helpscout.net/conversation/{id}) is constructed manually since Help Scout's webhook doesn't include a pre-built URL field. If Help Scout ever changes their URL structure, your links break. Test the link format against a real conversation ID before going live.

Ideas for what to build next

→
Add a Help Scout tag when a Slack agent claims the ticket — Extend this workflow to close the loop: when an agent reacts with a specific emoji (e.g., :white_check_mark:) on the Slack alert, trigger a second Make scenario that adds an 'in-progress' tag to the Help Scout conversation. This prevents two agents from working the same VIP ticket simultaneously.
→
Escalate to a Slack direct message if the ticket sits unresponded for 30 minutes — Add a second Make scenario that checks VIP conversations every 15 minutes and sends a direct Slack message to the support lead if any VIP ticket still shows no reply after 30 minutes. Pair it with Help Scout's 'Conversation Replied' webhook to auto-cancel the escalation once someone responds.
→
Pull customer MRR from your CRM and include it in the alert — Add a middle module between the Help Scout trigger and Slack — use Make to query HubSpot or Salesforce for the customer's MRR or account tier using their email address. Include that dollar figure in the Slack alert so agents immediately know the revenue impact of the ticket.