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Help Scout

The Help Scout integration allows you to create custom conversation forms on your website that are pushed to your Help Scout account as conversations.

Installation

The Help Scout plugin is installed in the same way as installing the WS Form PRO plugin.

Once installed you will need to activate the license for the plugin. When you purchase the Help Scout plugin, you will be given a license key. If you have lost your license key(s), click here.

To activate your license key:

  1. Click WS Form in the WordPress administration menu.
  2. Click Settings.
  3. Click the Help Scout tab at the top of the page.
  4. Enter your license key.
  5. Click the Activate button.

If your license key fails to activate, please ensure you are using the correct license key and not your WS Form PRO license key.

Connecting to Help Scout

In order to use the integration, you need to connect it to Help Scout. Connecting is easy!

  1. Click WS Form in the WordPress administration menu.
  2. Click Settings.
  3. Click the Help Scout tab at the top of the page.
  4. Click Connect and follow the onscreen prompts

If you do not have a Help Scout account, you can create a new account here.

Creating a Form for Help Scout

Automatically

The Help Scout integration comes with form templates that you can use to create a conversation form in a single click. A template is available for each of your Help Scout mailboxes.

  1. Click WS Form in the WordPress administration menu.
  2. Click Add New.
  3. Select the Help Scout tab at the top of the page.
  4. Click on the mailbox you want to create a conversation form for.
  5. Wait a few moments while the form is created.

That’s it! Your form will be created and is ready to add to your website. The template includes fields for first name, last name, email, phone, subject, and message, plus an opt-in checkbox. File upload fields can also be included and mapped as attachments.

Manually

It is also possible to use any form created in WS Form and add an action so that it creates a Help Scout conversation when a user submits their form.

To add a Help Scout action:

  1. When editing your form, click the Actions icon at the top of the page. The Actions sidebar will open on the right-hand side of the page.
  2. Click the Add  icon to add a new action.
  3. Select Add to Help Scout from the Action pulldown. A series of settings will appear.

As with all sidebars in WS Form, click to the Save button at the bottom to save your changes, or click Cancel to disregard your changes.

The Help Scout action settings are as follows:

When Should This Action Run?

You can choose to run the Help Scout action when the form is submitted.

Help Scout Mailbox

Select the Help Scout mailbox that new conversations should be created in. Field mapping options are loaded based on the mailbox you choose, including any custom fields configured for that mailbox.

Opt-In Field

Use this setting to select which of your fields to act as the opt-in field. We recommend adding a checkbox field with a single checkbox. It is always recommended that you have an unchecked, opt-in checkbox on your forms to ensure you comply with GDPR requirements.

If the selected opt-in field is not checked when the form is submitted, no data will be pushed to Help Scout.

Conversation Status

Choose the status assigned to the new conversation:

  • Active (default)
  • Pending
  • Closed

Conversation Type

Choose the type assigned to the new conversation:

  • Email (default)
  • Chat
  • Phone

If Existing Customer Found

Help Scout looks up customers by email address. A new conversation is always created. Use this setting to control what happens when a customer with the same email already exists:

  • Do nothing — Create the conversation without updating the existing customer profile.
  • Update (default) — Update the customer profile and any mapped Contact or Company properties.

Send Auto Reply

Enable this setting to send the mailbox auto reply when the conversation is created.

Assign To

Optionally assign the conversation to a Help Scout user. Leave this set to Mailbox default to use the mailbox assignment rules, or choose Unassigned to leave the conversation unassigned.

Field Mapping

Field mapping tells WS Form which of your form fields relate to the corresponding fields in Help Scout. For example you would want to map your Email field to the Contact: Email field in Help Scout.

Help Scout fields are grouped as follows:

  • Contact — Customer fields such as first name, last name, email, phone, job title, location, notes, organization, gender, age, website, and any custom contact properties from your Help Scout account.
  • Conversation — Conversation subject, message body, and any custom fields configured on the selected mailbox.
  • Company — Organization fields such as name, website, description, location, note, domain, and phone, plus any custom company properties. Company updates only apply if the customer is linked to an organization in Help Scout.

The following fields are required for a conversation to be created:

  • Contact: Email
  • Conversation: Subject
  • Conversation: Message

If you map Contact: Full Name instead of separate first and last name fields, WS Form will split the name into first and last name automatically.

To map a field:

  1. Click the Add  icon at the bottom right of the field mapping section.
  2. In the left-hand column, select your form field.
  3. In the right-hand column, select the corresponding Help Scout field.
  4. Repeat this process for each field on your form.
  5. Click the Save button at the bottom of the sidebar to save your changes.

Custom Mapping

Custom mapping allows you to set a Help Scout field to any value you wish, including the use of WS Form variables. For example you might want to map a license key to a custom contact property or conversation field in Help Scout.

To add a custom mapping:

  1. Click the Add  icon at the bottom right of the custom mapping section.
  2. In the left-hand column, enter a value or a WS Form variable.
  3. In the right-hand column, select the corresponding Help Scout field.
  4. Repeat this process for each custom mapping.
  5. Click the Save button at the bottom of the sidebar to save your changes.

Tag Mapping

Tag mapping tells WS Form which of your form fields relate to the tags in Help Scout. The selected values from those fields are added as tags on the conversation.

To map a field:

  1. Click the Add  icon at the bottom right of the tag mapping section.
  2. Select your form field.
  3. Repeat this process for each field on your form.
  4. Click the Save button at the bottom of the sidebar to save your changes.

Tag mapped fields need to be a choice field, such as Select, Checkbox, or Radio fields.

Tags

Use this setting to add one or more static tags to the conversation. WS Form variables can be used in each tag value.

To add a tag:

  1. Click the Add  icon at the bottom right of the tags section.
  2. Enter the tag value or a WS Form variable.
  3. Repeat this process for each tag you want to add.
  4. Click the Save button at the bottom of the sidebar to save your changes.

Internal Note

Optionally add an internal note as a second thread on the conversation. Internal notes are only visible to your Help Scout team. WS Form variables can be used in this setting.

Attachments

You can also attach files and signatures to Help Scout conversations. To do this you just need to add at least one file upload or signature field to your form.

To map your file upload field to Help Scout:

  1. Click the Add  icon at the bottom right of the attachments section.
  2. Select your file upload field.
  3. Repeat this process for each field on your form.
  4. Click the Save button at the bottom of the sidebar to save your changes.

Variables

The Help Scout integration introduces additional variables that you can use in actions such as messages and emails.