Why HelpScout only? When does Intercom land?

We do one CRM well rather than five poorly. Intercom, Zendesk, and Front are on the waitlist; order depends on demand.

What defines 'VIP' — can I customize it?

Starter: anyone marked Enterprise in your CRM. Pro: custom tier names + LTV floor (e.g., 'Enterprise OR LTV > $50k'). Team: per-cohort routing to different channels.

What's the actual latency?

Sub-10 seconds end-to-end, measured webhook-received to message-posted. The outcome contract's SLA is PT10S, surfaced in the agent-commerce manifest.

What data do you store?

We store the alert sent (ticket id, subject, customer email, timestamp, channel posted). We do NOT store ticket body, customer chat history, or CRM fields beyond what's in the alert.

What happens if Slack is down?

We retry for 90 seconds then queue with 5-minute backoff. If Slack stays down past the queue, the alert drops — a 20-minute-old VIP alert is worse than no alert.

VIPFlag

Start the alerts

Real-time VIP alerts for HelpScout

Catch the VIP. Send the first reply.

Tier, LTV, and account owner posted to #vip-alerts in under ten seconds.

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Before the alert

Three ways the VIP gets buried.

Round-robin assignment

Built into HelpScout

Assigns by load, not by stakes.

The queue treats Enterprise and Starter the same. Your largest customer's ticket lands with whoever's next, not whoever should own it.

Tag-based filters

Free

Catches what got tagged.

Tags require someone to apply them — usually the same person who could've responded. By the time the tag is set, the first-response window is gone.

HelpScout's native Slack pings

Bundled

All-tickets noise drowns the signal.

Every conversation pings the same channel. After the third hour, nobody reads them. The VIP ticket is the 47th notification of the day.

What lands in #vip-alerts

One message per VIP. With the context to triage at a glance.

01
Tier + LTV at the top
ENTERPRISE / $480k or PRO / $80k. The two numbers that change whether you respond first or wait.
02
Customer name + company
From the HelpScout customer record. The handle to greet them by, before you click into the ticket.
03
Subject line, verbatim
Outage, billing, expansion, churn risk — the conversation subject tells you what kind of reply this needs.
04
Account owner mention
The owner of the account gets @-mentioned. They claim, or anyone else picks up if they're heads-down.
05
Claim button
One click to claim. Whoever clicks first owns the response. Audit log shows who claimed when on the Team tier.
06
Direct ticket link
Straight to the HelpScout conversation. One click from Slack to typing the reply.

How it runs

Connect. The webhook does the rest.

Integrations · 2 of 2
HelpScout✓ ready
Slack✓ ready
01
Connect HelpScout and Slack
OAuth both. Pick the alert channel. Two minutes.
Matching rule · Pro tier
if tier is "Enterprise"
or ltv > 50000
then post-to-alerts
Override per workspace · 3 cohorts on Team tier
02
Set the VIP criteria
Tier name from your CRM. Optional LTV floor. Defaults to Enterprise.
Last alert · 8.2s end-to-end
0.0sTicket arrives at HelpScout
7.6sCascade runs · 2 steps
8.2sSlack alert posted
03
Alert lands. First reply happens.
Sub-10-second SLA. First to claim owns the reply.

Pricing

One signal. One channel. Monthly.

Starter

$29/mo

Up to 100 VIP alerts/mo, one Slack channel, default Enterprise matching.

Sub-10s alert SLA, HelpScout to Slack
Tier + LTV + account owner attached
Default matching: anyone marked Enterprise
One Slack channel per workspace

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Pro

$79/mo

Unlimited alerts, multiple channels, custom matching rules.

Everything in Starter
Unlimited alerts per month
Multiple Slack channels per workspace
Custom matching: tier names, LTV floor, account-owner overrides
Webhook + Zapier export of every alert

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Team

$199/mo

Pro + SSO, audit log, role-based routing.

Everything in Pro
SSO via SAML / Google Workspace / Microsoft Entra
Audit log: who claimed which alert, when
Role-based routing: different VIP cohorts → different channels
Priority Slack support

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Billed monthly. Cancel any time.

What it is. What it isn't.

A signal, not a router.

Right tool when

Your CX team uses HelpScout.
Slack is where ops and support live.
Tier and LTV are concepts your CRM tracks.
Response time on Enterprise is a board metric.

Wrong tool when

You use Intercom, Zendesk, Front, or Gmail.
Support team doesn't use Slack for triage.
Every customer is treated identically (no tier system).
You need automated assignment, not signal.

VIPFlag posts the alert. It doesn't decide who responds, route around vacation calendars, or escalate on missed SLA. The first human to claim owns the next step — that's the design, not a missing feature.

The five questions every CX leader asks

Answers worth having before the integration goes live.

Why HelpScout only? When does Intercom land?: We do one CRM well rather than five poorly. Intercom, Zendesk, and Front are on the waitlist; order depends on demand.
What defines 'VIP' — can I customize it?: Starter: anyone marked Enterprise in your CRM. Pro: custom tier names + LTV floor (e.g., 'Enterprise OR LTV > $50k'). Team: per-cohort routing to different channels.
What's the actual latency?: Sub-10 seconds end-to-end, measured webhook-received to message-posted. The outcome contract's SLA is PT10S, surfaced in the agent-commerce manifest.
What data do you store?: We store the alert sent (ticket id, subject, customer email, timestamp, channel posted). We do NOT store ticket body, customer chat history, or CRM fields beyond what's in the alert.
What happens if Slack is down?: We retry for 90 seconds then queue with 5-minute backoff. If Slack stays down past the queue, the alert drops — a 20-minute-old VIP alert is worse than no alert.

First alert in production today

First VIP alert lands within the hour.

Start the alerts