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Help Scout Zapier integrationAutomate Help Scout with Zapier.

The Help Scout Zapier integration gives you 4 triggers, 5 actions and 7 searches. Three of the triggers are instant. Here is what each operation does, what it costs in tasks, and the one action that emails a customer for real.

See the 16 operations

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Overview

What the Help Scout Zapier integration does for you

The Help Scout Zapier integration connects your help desk to your other tools without code. Zapier hears about new conversations, assignments and tag changes the moment they happen, checks for new customers on a timer, and can write conversations, replies, notes and customer records back into Help Scout.

Context waiting for the agent. Conversation Created or Conversation Assigned starts the Zap, and Add Note drops internal context into the thread before anyone replies.

Support signals that reach the right team. Tags Updated fires the moment a conversation is tagged, so a bug tag or a refund tag can alert product or finance right away.

Customer records that stay complete. New Customer, Create Customer and Update Customer Properties keep people in Help Scout in step with your CRM or your billing tool, so agents never answer a customer blind.

What Zapier does not do here: no action closes, moves or deletes a conversation, and nothing already in your mailboxes is picked up when a Zap goes live. One trigger out of four, New Customer, is polled, so it waits for the interval of your plan while the other three fire at once. If you are still choosing a platform, the Make vs Zapier comparison is the next read.

Vocabulary

Zapier words, in one minute

Seven words carry this whole page. Here they are once, without jargon.

Zap
The automation you build in Zapier: one trigger, then one or more actions that run each time that trigger event happens.
Trigger
The Help Scout event that starts the Zap, like a new conversation or a tag change. Once the Zap is on, Zapier waits for it.
Action
What the Zap does after it starts: it writes or sends something for you, here a note, a reply or a customer record.
Task
Zapier's billing unit: one action completed successfully. Your plan counts tasks, not Zaps and not trigger checks.
Instant or polling
Instant: the app tells Zapier right away. Polling: Zapier asks for new items on a timer. Help Scout has 3 instant triggers, 1 polled.
Filter
A step that lets the Zap go on only when the incoming item meets your condition, and quietly stops it otherwise.
Search step
A step that looks up something already in Help Scout, such as a customer by email, so the next steps can use what it found.
Cost

What a Help Scout Zap really costs

You pay for what the Zap does, never for what it listens to.

  • Free plan100 tasks a month, unlimited Zaps
  • Steps on the free plan2: one trigger, one action
  • Instant triggers3 of 4, no interval on any plan
  • Help ScoutNot a premium app

The trigger never costs a task, and the checks Zapier runs for New Customer cost nothing either. Each action that succeeds is billed on its own: a Zap that adds a note and then sends a reply uses two tasks per conversation. A failed action is not counted. The free plan gives you 100 tasks a month and Zaps of two steps only, so a filter or a search makes it a multi-step Zap, which needs a paid plan. Help Scout is not a premium app, so it works from the free plan.

Connect

Connect your Help Scout account to Zapier

  1. 01

    Open Apps and add a connection

    In your Zapier account, open the Apps page and click + Add connection. A dialog opens: type Help Scout in the search box and pick it from the list of results.

  2. 02

    Sign in to Help Scout

    Click Add connection. A new tab opens on Help Scout: sign in with the account whose mailboxes and customers the Zap should see. You need an existing Help Scout account for this.

  3. 03

    Grant access, once

    Grant Zapier access to that account. Every Help Scout step in every Zap then reuses this connection. If the Zap must touch mailboxes you do not own, the account needs read or write access to them first.

First Zap

Your first Zap: a note when a conversation gets a tag

GoalWhen a conversation receives the tag you watch, an internal note with the right procedure appears in it before an agent replies.

  1. 01

    Build the trigger

    Create a Zap, pick Help Scout as the app that starts it and Tags Updated as the event. Choose your connection, then the Mailbox to watch, which is required.

  2. 02

    Test on a real conversation

    Run the trigger test. Zapier brings back the three most recent items of the account, so you map fields on a real conversation instead of a guess.

  3. 03

    Add the filter

    Add a Filter step from the plus icon and fill field, rule and value. Use a text rule on the tags, or the filter never passes.

  4. 04

    Add the note

    Add Add Note. Map the Conversation ID from the trigger step, write the Text of the procedure, then test the action and check the note in Help Scout.

  5. 05

    Publish

    Click Publish. The Zap reacts to tag changes from now on, straight away since the trigger is instant. With its filter it has three steps, so it needs a paid plan.

Triggers

The 4 Help Scout triggers

4 events start a Zap when something happens in Help Scout, and 3 of them are instant: the app calls Zapier straight away, whatever your plan.

1

Conversation Assigned

Instant trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a conversation is assigned to an agent.”

Fires when a conversation lands on an agent, which is the moment ownership of a customer question becomes clear.

How it fires
the app tells Zapier the moment it happens, so the Zap starts right away, whatever your plan.
When to use it
ping the agent in your team chat with the customer's plan and history, so they open the thread already briefed.
Watch out
you must pick a Mailbox, and the Zap only hears about assignments in that one.
2

Conversation Created

Instant trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a new conversation is created.”

Starts the Zap for every new conversation in a mailbox, which makes it the first moment a request exists in Help Scout.

How it fires
the app tells Zapier the moment it happens, so the Zap starts right away, whatever your plan.
When to use it
log each incoming request in your reporting sheet, or add a note with account details before the first reply.
Watch out
a Zap that ends with Create Conversation in the same mailbox starts itself again.
3

New Customer

Polling trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a new customer is added.”

Picks up each customer added to Help Scout, the only Help Scout trigger that works on a timer rather than on a signal.

How it fires
Zapier goes and looks at regular intervals, and how often depends on your plan: every 15 minutes on the free one.
When to use it
copy every new support contact into your CRM, so sales sees who has been talking to support.
Watch out
unlike the other three triggers, it lags by the interval of your plan.
4

Tags Updated

Instant trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when conversation tags are updated.”

Reacts when the tags on a conversation change, which turns tagging into a switch your team already knows how to flip.

How it fires
the app tells Zapier the moment it happens, so the Zap starts right away, whatever your plan.
When to use it
an agent tags a thread as a bug, and the product team gets a ticket in its own tool within moments.
Watch out
it needs a Mailbox, and any tag change counts, so add a filter for the tag you care about.
Actions

The 5 Help Scout actions

Help Scout gives you 5 actions. For each one: what it does for you, when to reach for it, and what to watch out for.

1

Add Note

Action

In Zapier“Adds a note to existing conversation.”

Writes a note into a conversation that already exists, with a Text you can format in HTML.

When to use it
paste the customer's plan or last order into the thread so the agent does not have to look it up.
Watch out
it needs the Conversation ID, from the trigger or from Find Conversation.
2

Create Conversation

Action

In Zapier“Creates conversation including tags and custom fields (only with Help Scout's Plus plan). Select mailbox to see custom fields.”

Opens a conversation in a mailbox, with a subject, a text, a status and a thread type that decides who it appears to come from.

When to use it
turn a form submission into a ticket, with Import Only on so the customer gets no email.
Watch out
a reply thread emails the customer, and custom fields only show on Help Scout's Plus plan.
3

Create Customer

Action

In Zapier“Creates a customer, optionally with all available customer entries (emails, phones, chat handles, social profiles and address).”

Adds a person to Help Scout with a first and a last name, plus emails, phones, chat handles, social profiles or an address if you have them.

When to use it
a new account in your app gets its customer profile before the first question arrives.
Watch out
both name fields are required, even when you only know an email.
4

Send Reply

Action

In Zapier“Replies to a conversation. Please note that this will send actual email to the customer unless draft flag is used.”

Answers an existing conversation, and by default the customer receives a real email.

When to use it
prepare a standard answer as a draft that an agent checks and sends.
Watch out
Conversation, Customer, Text and Create as Draft are all required; leave the draft switch off during a test and a real customer gets your test.
5

Update Customer Properties

Action

In Zapier“Updates a customer's properties.”

Changes the properties of an existing customer, identified by their Customer ID.

When to use it
when billing marks an account as upgraded, the customer's profile in Help Scout shows it to every agent.
Watch out
without the Customer ID, run Find Customer first to get it.
Searches

The 7 Help Scout searches

7 search steps look for data that already exists in Help Scout, so a later step can use it.

A search step finds something that already exists in Help Scout and hands it to the next steps. In the editor, searches sit at the bottom of the Action event list, under SEARCH. Three settings decide what happens when the result is not what you expected.

1

Find Conversation

SearchFind or create

In Zapier“Find existing conversation using the supplied values. In case there are more conversations matching the criteria, the most recently updated one is selected.”

Looks up a conversation from the values you supply, with a Status always required, and keeps the most recently updated one when several match.

When to use it
get the Conversation ID that Add Note or Send Reply needs. Ticked, it becomes Find or Create Conversation, not a separate operation.
2

Find Customer

SearchFind or create

In Zapier“Finds customer by email.”

Finds a customer from their email address and returns the record.

When to use it
fetch the Customer ID for Send Reply or Update Customer Properties. With the create box ticked, it shows up as Find or Create Customer, the same search.
Watch out
email is the only way in.
3

Find Mailbox

Search

In Zapier“Find mailbox by name.”

Locates a mailbox by its name, for Zaps that pick the mailbox on the fly.

When to use it
route requests from different regions to the mailbox whose name matches the region.
Watch out
the name you pass has to match the mailbox name in Help Scout.
4

Find User

Search

In Zapier“Finds user by email.”

Retrieves a Help Scout user, one of your agents, from their email address.

When to use it
match the person on call in your scheduling tool with their Help Scout account.
Watch out
it searches your team, not your customers; for those, use Find Customer.
5

Get Custom Report

Search

In Zapier“Get a user's support metrics over a given time range.”

Pulls one user's support metrics between a start date and an end date you choose.

When to use it
feed a monthly review sheet with each agent's figures for the period.
Watch out
User's Email and both dates are required.
6

Get Day Report

Search

In Zapier“Get a user's support metrics for the current day.”

Returns a user's support metrics for the current day, from their email alone.

When to use it
post an end-of-shift summary for one agent in the team channel.
Watch out
it covers today only, so the time at which the Zap runs shapes the numbers.
7

Get Week Report

Search

In Zapier“Get a user's support metrics for the current week.”

Brings back a user's support metrics for the current week.

When to use it
send a team lead each agent's weekly figures without opening the reports screen.
Watch out
the week in progress is what you get, not the previous one.

The three settings every search exposes

  1. Successful if no search results are found?
    Left as it is, a search that finds nothing stops the Zap and skips what depended on it. Switched on, the Zap carries on with empty values.
  2. Create X if it doesn't exist yet?
    Offered on Find Conversation and Find Customer: ticking it turns the search into a find-or-create and asks for the fields needed to create the item.
  3. If multiple search results are found?
    Keep the first match (the default), stop the Zap, or pass every match on at once.
When it breaks

When a Help Scout Zap breaks

Four cases, three of them general to Zapier, one that comes from Help Scout's own reply action.

Zapier lists no error specific to Help Scout, so most trouble comes from how Zaps work in general. Read these before you publish, and keep the Zapier troubleshooting guide nearby when a run looks wrong.

  • A test that emails a real customer

    Send Reply and a reply-type Create Conversation send an actual email. Test with Create as Draft or Import Only switched on, then switch it back.

  • A conversation Zap that feeds itself

    A Zap on Conversation Created that ends with Create Conversation in the same mailbox sets itself off again, and every round eats tasks.

  • The backlog stays where it is

    A Zap only reacts to what happens after you publish it. Conversations and customers already in Help Scout are never picked up; moving them is a separate job.

  • A bulk import held back

    Importing many customers at once can make New Customer return a huge batch, and Zapier's flood protection can hold that batch back.
Need help

Need help automating Help Scout with Zapier?

A person reads every message.

FAQ

Help Scout and Zapier: frequent questions

01Is the Help Scout Zapier integration free?
Yes, on the Zapier side you can start without paying. Help Scout is not a premium app, so it works on Zapier's free plan, which gives you 100 tasks a month and unlimited Zaps. The limit is the size of each Zap: on the free plan it has two steps, one trigger and one action. Add a filter, a search or a second action and it becomes a multi-step Zap that needs a paid plan. Custom fields in Create Conversation also depend on Help Scout's own Plus plan.
02How many tasks does a Help Scout Zap use?
One task per action that succeeds, each time the Zap runs. The trigger is free, and so are the checks Zapier makes for New Customer. A Zap that adds a note to every new conversation uses one task per conversation; one that also sends a draft reply uses two. A failed action is not counted. Busy mailboxes are where costs climb: Conversation Created and Tags Updated can fire many times a day on an active help desk, and each run multiplies the actions inside it.
03Is Help Scout on Zapier real time?
Mostly, yes. Three of the four triggers are instant: Conversation Assigned, Conversation Created and Tags Updated. Help Scout tells Zapier the moment the event happens, so the Zap starts right away on any plan, free included. The exception is New Customer, a polling trigger: Zapier checks for new customers every 15 minutes on the free plan, every 2 minutes on Professional and every minute on Team and Enterprise. If speed on new customers matters, that difference is worth planning around.
04What does it take to connect Help Scout to Zapier?
An existing Help Scout account and a Zapier account. In Zapier, open Apps, click + Add connection, search for Help Scout, click Add connection, sign in to Help Scout in the tab that opens and grant access. The connection is then reused by every Help Scout step. One condition often trips people up: three triggers and Create Conversation require a Mailbox, and the connected account needs access to that mailbox first.
05Will a Help Scout Zap email customers by accident?
It can. Send Reply sends a real email to the customer unless Create as Draft is switched on, and Create Conversation with a reply thread type also emails the customer unless the Import Only option is set. That matters most during tests: a test run of the action is a real action. Switch on the draft or import option while you build, check the result in Help Scout, and only then decide whether the published Zap should send for real.
06What if the Help Scout operation you need is not listed?
Then the Zapier app cannot do it directly. The visible operations cover creating conversations, replies, notes and customers, updating customer properties, and seven searches; nothing closes, moves or deletes a conversation. Check first whether a search plus an existing action gets you there, for example Find Conversation followed by Add Note. If not, compare what other platforms offer for Help Scout before forcing a workaround, or ask a team that builds Zaps to scope it.
07Zapier, Make or n8n for Help Scout?
It depends on the criterion that matters most to you. Zapier is quick to start: no code, a free plan, and three instant triggers that react at once on any plan. Its limits here are the task count on busy mailboxes and the absence of actions that close or move conversations. Compare the Help Scout operations each one exposes and how each counts usage before deciding, on criteria rather than on a name.
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