Macros and Tags
Easy Guide
Let's go!
Introduction
Welcome to our Intercom training course focused on Tags and Macros! In this course, you'll learn how to leverage these powerful tools to streamline your workflow, enhance customer satisfaction, and improve your team's efficiency. Tags and macros are essential for organizing and automating customer interactions, allowing you to focus on solving problems and delivering exceptional service. By the end of this training, you'll be equipped with the knowledge and skills to create, manage, and apply tags and macros effectively
Start course
Objectives
- Understand Tags and Macros: Learn what tags and macros are and their importance in customer support.
- Applying Tags Efficiently: Understand best practices for using tags to categorize and prioritize customer interactions.
- Creating and Using Macros: Learn how to create and apply macros to streamline responses and actions.
- Enhancing Customer Satisfaction: Understand how tags and macros contribute to higher CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) scores.
- Improving Resolution Time: Learn how to use tags and macros to close conversations faster and more effectively.
- Increasing Team Productivity: Explore how tags and macros help free up your team to focus on complex problem-solving.
Presentation Navigation Guide
Full Screen Mode
Clickable Buttons
Navigation
Info
Click the images and screenshots for an immersive experience.
Look for buttons that link to additional content or different sections.
Click the arrow buttons to advance the next slide or return to the previous one.
What is a Macro?
A macro is a prepared response or action that can be used to respond to support requests. These are predefined answers or messages for the FAQ’s from customers.
Macros help reduce the time your team spends on repetitive tasks, allowing them to focus on what they do best: solving problems for your customers.
Why are macros important?
Increased Engagement
Improved Resolution Time
Higher CSAT
Happy customers turn out to be loyal. This increases retention rate.
It helps to close the conversation faster and more effectively.
Quick responses lead to quick solutions, which make customers happy.
Importance of providing a personalized customer service
86% Of the customers are willing to pay more for a better customer experience.
- Customers are more likely to leave a good review about the service provided.
- Helps you retain loyal customers and gain new ones.
- Enhance the retention of customers
Structure of a macro
- Greeting
- Thank the customer for their message, and if necessary, apologize to them.
- Acknowledge the issue(s) the customer is experiencing.
- Provide the customer with a solution.
- Make an offer if necessary.
- Mention your availability, and sign off.
Example
Hi Jonathan,
Thank you for reaching out, I'll be more than happy to help you with this. To add your workout to your workout calendar please follow the steps below:
- From your homescreen click on PLANS on the bottom toolbar
- Browse the different workout Plans.
- Click on the Plan you are wanting to add to your calendar- on the next screen make any edits needed and then click to START plan.
I'm here if you have any other questions or need further assistance. Enjoy your workouts! Best,
Applying macros to a conversation
While accessing the Help Desk, click the macros icon in the reply composer, use a backslash \ or type a hashtag # and any word from the name of the macro.
Use macros in notes
Macros can also be applied to internal notes, and work the same as when you use them in a reply.
Apply multiple macros
When dealing with a more specific situation, you can apply a combination of macros. For example: You need to pass a conversation to your sales team, but they’re off for the weekend. You could use one macro for the assignment message, and one to set expectations and snooze the conversation until Monday. If there are any conflicting actions like assignments to different teams, the most recently added action (shown in red) won’t occur. To manually choose an action, just remove any conflicts.
Info
Apply a macro to multiple conversations
To perform the same actions, or send the same response to multiple conversations at once, just select the conversations in the your inbox list, and click the edit icon.
Here, you can choose from existing macros, or craft your response and actions manually. Then ⌘/Ctrl Enter to Send. Any reply content will be sent, and actions applied to all selected conversations.
Mix & Match Macros
It may happen that a customer may inquire on different issues or topics in a ticket, and that is OK. Don’t be afraid to provide the customer with information you know they might need because is not on the initial macro you used.
Explore the different macros to find the perfect answer for the customer’s inquiry and take sections of different macros to answer a customer request/question.
Adapt to the Channel
Different channels (chat, email etc…) carry different tones, so we never want to just copy/paste a response without thinking if it makes sense or not for that channel.
For example, we never want to "sign-off" on social media channels like we would in an email. It is very important that you make sure that you are responding to the customer's questions.
Sending macros to social media users
If you use our Facebook, WhatsApp, or Instagram apps, you can send macros in conversations started from social media, with a few limitations:
- Images will be removed.
- Links will be presented in parentheses.
- Bullet points will turn into dashes or numbers.
- Styling such as headers, bold or italics will be removed.
Example macros and best practices
This example is for your support team, when they reach a point in the conversation where sales should take over.
It informs the customer, tags the conversation, marks it as a priority and assigns to the sales team.
Escalate with a note
Possible variations:
If you have different versions of your product, you could have a template for each, with more specific information included, or even a checklist to follow. This is particularly helpful for Macros used as internal templates, as you can include guidance for your team on the content to add, or steps to follow before passing.
When escalating a conversation to another team, it’s a good idea to include a summary of the conversation so far, which steps have been taken, and some possible next moves. This simple template helps your team be consistent with the information they include for the next teammate involved.
How to create a macro
Macros can be created and managed in two places:
From the Help Desk
Worspace Settings
Pro Tip
How to create a macro from the help desk
Search Manage macros here for a shortcut to the macros Settings page. First, give your macro a title. This is the number one way your team will search for, share and use macros, so make it something clear and concise.
Then enter the content to include when you use this macro. This could be used when replying to a customer, or included in an internal note for a teammate.
Content can include articles, emoji, GIFs, images, or attachments
Use ⌘/Ctrl K or the action icon in the composer and search for Create new macro.
Creating a macro - Actions
Including content is entirely optional. Macros can apply actions without a reply or note.
So, if you want the macro to apply an action follow these steps: Click + Add actions to begin:
Info
Tip: This step is also optional, macros can just be content.
Creating a macro
Finally, choose if the macro should be available for everyone in your workspace, or for certain teams, or only for yourself.
Now select how this macro can be used for starting conversations, replying, or just adding notes.
Keep your macro private
You can create macros for your own personal use. These won’t be visible to anyone else in your workspace Settings or the Help Desk.
How to create a macro from settings
Creating a macro from the settings page follows the same steps as above, but here you can also search, filter and edit your existing macros.
How to create a macro from settings
Or, to edit an existing macro, just select it from the list on the left, and you can start editing directly.
Search and filter your macros
By default you’ll see all your workspace’s macros in the list on the left. This can be filtered by the different teams that have access like this:
Search and filter your macros
Or, you can search macros based on their title.
See how often a macro is used
From the macro settings page, you can see how many times a macro has been used in the last 30 days
When NOT to use macros
- If you are unclear of what the customer is asking
- When the customer is angry
- If there isn’t a relevant canned response
Personalize your macros!
Think of it in terms of building a house; canned responses are your foundation and framework. Personalization is your functional furniture and special details that make a house really feel like a home. Start personalizing the moment you greet the customer because that’s just a customer service best practice. If the customer thinks it’s an automatic reply, then it’s not working. Consider a canned response that says, “I’d be happy to help you today.” How much better does it sound if you personalize it? “I’d be happy to help you with your reporting questions today, [Michael].”
Personalize your macros
Customers expect companies to understand their unique tastes and preferences and engage them as individuals rather than customer types or segments.
A personalized customer experience makes this possible by delivering tailored messaging, offers, and products to each person.
Personalize your macros
If you want your response to seem personal, like you are addressing that individual directly, then you need to use the personal data at your disposal. Use their name to create a connection and build rapport. It also makes the rest of email less formal.
Try this out to personalize your responses
A personalized greeting to the customer including their name.
A restatement and acknowledgment of the issue or issue(s) presented by the customer.
A declaration of willingness to help and ownership of the customer’s situation.
A statement of empathy or excitement depending on the mood and tone of the customer.
Keep this in mind
Ensure that all information is still correct and accurate. Trim them down so they communicate the message as clearly and concisely as possible.
Check for proper grammar, spelling and consistent formatting.
Check to make sure any links still work and look for opportunities to add helpful knowledge base articles so customers know how to self-solve their issues in the future.
05:00
Practice time
You have 5 minutes to type a personalized response for this customer, using the appropriate macro. Once you have your response, share it in the chat box with the team!
Upset customer wanting to cancel a subscription. Here is their email: Hi, I've been trying to cancel my subscription for days and I can't figure out how to do it. This is really frustrating! Can someone please help me with this? Thanks, Andreina
05:00
Practice time
You have 5 minutes to type a personalized response for this customer, using the appropriate macro. Once you have your response, share it in the chat box with the team!
Upset customer with issues with the app. Here is their email: Hi, I'm having issues with demo videos because they are not playing, please help! Thanks, Andreina
05:00
Practice time
You have 5 minutes to type a personalized response for this customer, using the appropriate macro. Once you have your response, share it in the chat box with the team!
General question. Here is their email: Hi, If I cancel do I still get to access the workouts? Thanks, Andreina
Tags
Tags
Tags are labels we add to our interactions with customers to describe the content. They help categorize and organize our communications, making it easier to track specific issues, topics, or customer needs. This ensures we can efficiently manage and retrieve information for future reference or analysis.
What is the structure of a tag?
The structure/formula of a tag will depend on the client you’ll work with since each client might have a different way to categorize them.
For example: When related to the cancelation of an order, for a particular client, a good way would be “Cancel Order”, for another one could be “Order Cancelation Request”, but there will be another one who would prefer “Order/Cancel”.
How to tag a conversation
A quick action menu should appear, and from there click Tag message.
To tag a conversation, simply go to the message you want to tag in a conversation and use the T shortcut or click on the ellipsis icon (...)
Here you can search for tags you have already created or you can add a new one. 🚀
Create a new tag
To create a new tag, go to Settings > data > Tags and click + New tag. Then, give your tag a name, and click the tick icon ✔️ to save it:
Your tagging needs will change over time. Manage tags effectively by updating or removing tags you no longer need.
How to edit a tag
To update a tag, go to Settings > data > Tags and select the pencil icon next to the tag.
Type the new name for your tag, and click the tick icon ✔️
When a tag is updated, it will be updated on all items with the tag added.
How to archive a tag
Archiving a tag removes it from your list of tags, so it can no longer be added to new content. You’ll retain all the data and reporting on previously tagged content, and can still use the tag to filter your messages, conversations and users where it has already been applied.
To archive a tag, go to Settings > data > Tags and click Archive to the right of the tag:
How to archive a tag
If the tag is currently used in people segments, or filters for a message audience you’ll see a warning like this. To remove the tag from your segments or filters, just follow the link in the warning:
Restoring an archived tag
To unarchive a tag, go to the Archived tab in your tag settings, and click Restore next to the tag:
Is there a tag limit?
Technically, your workspace could have thousands of tags, but as with any other type of data, the tradeoff could be slower app loading time. Using only as many tags as you need, and archiving/deleting unused tags is always a good practice.
Quiz time
Welcome to the quiz on Tags and Macros in Intercom! This short quiz is designed to reinforce your understanding of the key concepts we've covered. Good luck!
Congratulations!
You have completed the course!
Look for buttons that link to additional content or different sections.
Note:
If you have a Close or Snooze action, these buttons will be removed from the composer, and handled by the macro.
All macro actions will be recorded as parts in the conversation.
Make necessary changes obvious: If you have other areas in your macro content that should be updated manually at the time it’s used, highlight them clearly like this: [FEATURE NAME]
This ensures the message is never sent with the placeholders. 😉
Help Desk
Use ⌘/Ctrl K or the action icon in the composer and search for Create new macro.
Search Manage macros here for a shortcut to the macros Settings page.
First, give your macro a title. This is the number one way your team will search for, share and use macros, so make it something clear and concise. Then enter the content to include when you use this macro. This could be used when replying to a customer, or included in an internal note for a teammate.
- Content can include articles, emoji, GIFs, images, or attachments
Pro tip
Pro tip: We recommend limiting the number of macros available for each team in your workspace so it’s easier to find and use them.
Important: Even if limited to specific teams, anyone with permission to edit macros will still be able to see and edit this in the settings.
Actions that can be added to a Macro are:
- Assign conversation to team
- Assign conversation to teammate
- Add tag to conversation — Apply one or more tags to the first conversation part.
- Snooze conversation — After performing any other actions (can’t be used with the close action).
- Close conversation — After performing any other actions (can’t be used with the snooze action).
- Change conversation priority
- Custom Action — using API to fetch data or perform actions in external systems via API
From Settings
Creating a macro from the settings page follows the same steps as above, but here you can also search, filter and edit your existing macros.
Go to Settings > Workspace data > Macros, and click + New macro. Or, to edit an existing macro, just select it from the list on the left, and you can start editing directly.
Tags and Macro - Intercom
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Transcript
Macros and Tags
Easy Guide
Let's go!
Introduction
Welcome to our Intercom training course focused on Tags and Macros! In this course, you'll learn how to leverage these powerful tools to streamline your workflow, enhance customer satisfaction, and improve your team's efficiency. Tags and macros are essential for organizing and automating customer interactions, allowing you to focus on solving problems and delivering exceptional service. By the end of this training, you'll be equipped with the knowledge and skills to create, manage, and apply tags and macros effectively
Start course
Objectives
Presentation Navigation Guide
Full Screen Mode
Clickable Buttons
Navigation
Info
Click the images and screenshots for an immersive experience.
Look for buttons that link to additional content or different sections.
Click the arrow buttons to advance the next slide or return to the previous one.
What is a Macro?
A macro is a prepared response or action that can be used to respond to support requests. These are predefined answers or messages for the FAQ’s from customers.
Macros help reduce the time your team spends on repetitive tasks, allowing them to focus on what they do best: solving problems for your customers.
Why are macros important?
Increased Engagement
Improved Resolution Time
Higher CSAT
Happy customers turn out to be loyal. This increases retention rate.
It helps to close the conversation faster and more effectively.
Quick responses lead to quick solutions, which make customers happy.
Importance of providing a personalized customer service
86% Of the customers are willing to pay more for a better customer experience.
Structure of a macro
Example
Hi Jonathan, Thank you for reaching out, I'll be more than happy to help you with this. To add your workout to your workout calendar please follow the steps below:
- From your homescreen click on PLANS on the bottom toolbar
- Browse the different workout Plans.
- Click on the Plan you are wanting to add to your calendar- on the next screen make any edits needed and then click to START plan.
I'm here if you have any other questions or need further assistance. Enjoy your workouts! Best,Applying macros to a conversation
While accessing the Help Desk, click the macros icon in the reply composer, use a backslash \ or type a hashtag # and any word from the name of the macro.
Use macros in notes
Macros can also be applied to internal notes, and work the same as when you use them in a reply.
Apply multiple macros
When dealing with a more specific situation, you can apply a combination of macros. For example: You need to pass a conversation to your sales team, but they’re off for the weekend. You could use one macro for the assignment message, and one to set expectations and snooze the conversation until Monday. If there are any conflicting actions like assignments to different teams, the most recently added action (shown in red) won’t occur. To manually choose an action, just remove any conflicts.
Info
Apply a macro to multiple conversations
To perform the same actions, or send the same response to multiple conversations at once, just select the conversations in the your inbox list, and click the edit icon.
Here, you can choose from existing macros, or craft your response and actions manually. Then ⌘/Ctrl Enter to Send. Any reply content will be sent, and actions applied to all selected conversations.
Mix & Match Macros
It may happen that a customer may inquire on different issues or topics in a ticket, and that is OK. Don’t be afraid to provide the customer with information you know they might need because is not on the initial macro you used. Explore the different macros to find the perfect answer for the customer’s inquiry and take sections of different macros to answer a customer request/question.
Adapt to the Channel
Different channels (chat, email etc…) carry different tones, so we never want to just copy/paste a response without thinking if it makes sense or not for that channel. For example, we never want to "sign-off" on social media channels like we would in an email. It is very important that you make sure that you are responding to the customer's questions.
Sending macros to social media users
If you use our Facebook, WhatsApp, or Instagram apps, you can send macros in conversations started from social media, with a few limitations:
Example macros and best practices
This example is for your support team, when they reach a point in the conversation where sales should take over. It informs the customer, tags the conversation, marks it as a priority and assigns to the sales team.
Escalate with a note
Possible variations: If you have different versions of your product, you could have a template for each, with more specific information included, or even a checklist to follow. This is particularly helpful for Macros used as internal templates, as you can include guidance for your team on the content to add, or steps to follow before passing.
When escalating a conversation to another team, it’s a good idea to include a summary of the conversation so far, which steps have been taken, and some possible next moves. This simple template helps your team be consistent with the information they include for the next teammate involved.
How to create a macro
Macros can be created and managed in two places:
From the Help Desk
Worspace Settings
Pro Tip
How to create a macro from the help desk
Search Manage macros here for a shortcut to the macros Settings page. First, give your macro a title. This is the number one way your team will search for, share and use macros, so make it something clear and concise.
Then enter the content to include when you use this macro. This could be used when replying to a customer, or included in an internal note for a teammate. Content can include articles, emoji, GIFs, images, or attachments
Use ⌘/Ctrl K or the action icon in the composer and search for Create new macro.
Creating a macro - Actions
Including content is entirely optional. Macros can apply actions without a reply or note. So, if you want the macro to apply an action follow these steps: Click + Add actions to begin:
Info
Tip: This step is also optional, macros can just be content.
Creating a macro
Finally, choose if the macro should be available for everyone in your workspace, or for certain teams, or only for yourself.
Now select how this macro can be used for starting conversations, replying, or just adding notes.
Keep your macro private
You can create macros for your own personal use. These won’t be visible to anyone else in your workspace Settings or the Help Desk.
How to create a macro from settings
Creating a macro from the settings page follows the same steps as above, but here you can also search, filter and edit your existing macros.
How to create a macro from settings
Or, to edit an existing macro, just select it from the list on the left, and you can start editing directly.
Search and filter your macros
By default you’ll see all your workspace’s macros in the list on the left. This can be filtered by the different teams that have access like this:
Search and filter your macros
Or, you can search macros based on their title.
See how often a macro is used
From the macro settings page, you can see how many times a macro has been used in the last 30 days
When NOT to use macros
Personalize your macros!
Think of it in terms of building a house; canned responses are your foundation and framework. Personalization is your functional furniture and special details that make a house really feel like a home. Start personalizing the moment you greet the customer because that’s just a customer service best practice. If the customer thinks it’s an automatic reply, then it’s not working. Consider a canned response that says, “I’d be happy to help you today.” How much better does it sound if you personalize it? “I’d be happy to help you with your reporting questions today, [Michael].”
Personalize your macros
Customers expect companies to understand their unique tastes and preferences and engage them as individuals rather than customer types or segments. A personalized customer experience makes this possible by delivering tailored messaging, offers, and products to each person.
Personalize your macros
If you want your response to seem personal, like you are addressing that individual directly, then you need to use the personal data at your disposal. Use their name to create a connection and build rapport. It also makes the rest of email less formal.
Try this out to personalize your responses
A personalized greeting to the customer including their name.
A restatement and acknowledgment of the issue or issue(s) presented by the customer.
A declaration of willingness to help and ownership of the customer’s situation.
A statement of empathy or excitement depending on the mood and tone of the customer.
Keep this in mind
Ensure that all information is still correct and accurate. Trim them down so they communicate the message as clearly and concisely as possible.
Check for proper grammar, spelling and consistent formatting.
Check to make sure any links still work and look for opportunities to add helpful knowledge base articles so customers know how to self-solve their issues in the future.
05:00
Practice time
You have 5 minutes to type a personalized response for this customer, using the appropriate macro. Once you have your response, share it in the chat box with the team!
Upset customer wanting to cancel a subscription. Here is their email: Hi, I've been trying to cancel my subscription for days and I can't figure out how to do it. This is really frustrating! Can someone please help me with this? Thanks, Andreina
05:00
Practice time
You have 5 minutes to type a personalized response for this customer, using the appropriate macro. Once you have your response, share it in the chat box with the team!
Upset customer with issues with the app. Here is their email: Hi, I'm having issues with demo videos because they are not playing, please help! Thanks, Andreina
05:00
Practice time
You have 5 minutes to type a personalized response for this customer, using the appropriate macro. Once you have your response, share it in the chat box with the team!
General question. Here is their email: Hi, If I cancel do I still get to access the workouts? Thanks, Andreina
Tags
Tags
Tags are labels we add to our interactions with customers to describe the content. They help categorize and organize our communications, making it easier to track specific issues, topics, or customer needs. This ensures we can efficiently manage and retrieve information for future reference or analysis.
What is the structure of a tag?
The structure/formula of a tag will depend on the client you’ll work with since each client might have a different way to categorize them.
For example: When related to the cancelation of an order, for a particular client, a good way would be “Cancel Order”, for another one could be “Order Cancelation Request”, but there will be another one who would prefer “Order/Cancel”.
How to tag a conversation
A quick action menu should appear, and from there click Tag message.
To tag a conversation, simply go to the message you want to tag in a conversation and use the T shortcut or click on the ellipsis icon (...)
Here you can search for tags you have already created or you can add a new one. 🚀
Create a new tag
To create a new tag, go to Settings > data > Tags and click + New tag. Then, give your tag a name, and click the tick icon ✔️ to save it:
Your tagging needs will change over time. Manage tags effectively by updating or removing tags you no longer need.
How to edit a tag
To update a tag, go to Settings > data > Tags and select the pencil icon next to the tag.
Type the new name for your tag, and click the tick icon ✔️ When a tag is updated, it will be updated on all items with the tag added.
How to archive a tag
Archiving a tag removes it from your list of tags, so it can no longer be added to new content. You’ll retain all the data and reporting on previously tagged content, and can still use the tag to filter your messages, conversations and users where it has already been applied. To archive a tag, go to Settings > data > Tags and click Archive to the right of the tag:
How to archive a tag
If the tag is currently used in people segments, or filters for a message audience you’ll see a warning like this. To remove the tag from your segments or filters, just follow the link in the warning:
Restoring an archived tag
To unarchive a tag, go to the Archived tab in your tag settings, and click Restore next to the tag:
Is there a tag limit?
Technically, your workspace could have thousands of tags, but as with any other type of data, the tradeoff could be slower app loading time. Using only as many tags as you need, and archiving/deleting unused tags is always a good practice.
Quiz time
Welcome to the quiz on Tags and Macros in Intercom! This short quiz is designed to reinforce your understanding of the key concepts we've covered. Good luck!
Congratulations!
You have completed the course!
Look for buttons that link to additional content or different sections.
Note:
If you have a Close or Snooze action, these buttons will be removed from the composer, and handled by the macro. All macro actions will be recorded as parts in the conversation.
Make necessary changes obvious: If you have other areas in your macro content that should be updated manually at the time it’s used, highlight them clearly like this: [FEATURE NAME] This ensures the message is never sent with the placeholders. 😉
Help Desk
Use ⌘/Ctrl K or the action icon in the composer and search for Create new macro.
Search Manage macros here for a shortcut to the macros Settings page. First, give your macro a title. This is the number one way your team will search for, share and use macros, so make it something clear and concise. Then enter the content to include when you use this macro. This could be used when replying to a customer, or included in an internal note for a teammate.
Pro tip
Pro tip: We recommend limiting the number of macros available for each team in your workspace so it’s easier to find and use them. Important: Even if limited to specific teams, anyone with permission to edit macros will still be able to see and edit this in the settings.
Actions that can be added to a Macro are:
From Settings
Creating a macro from the settings page follows the same steps as above, but here you can also search, filter and edit your existing macros.
Go to Settings > Workspace data > Macros, and click + New macro. Or, to edit an existing macro, just select it from the list on the left, and you can start editing directly.