Support use case: Send WhatsApp notifications to a Slack channel

With ActiveCampaign’s WhatsApp feature, you can use Zapier to send support notifications directly to a Slack channel. This can help you streamline your support process by ensuring that customer queries are promptly addressed. 

This article shows you how to create a basic flow that sends a customer’s question, their name, and their phone number to Zapier, and then uses Zapier to send this information to a Slack channel of your choice.

Take note

• This setup is for advanced users. You need to be comfortable with code. Our Customer Experience team cannot help you implement or troubleshoot code, nor can they help you troubleshoot any issues with Zapier
• You need a Zapier account to complete the steps below

Send WhatsApp notifications to a Slack channel

Step 1: Create a Zap in Zapier

1. Log in to your Zapier account.
2. Create a new Zap.
3. Select “Webhooks” for the trigger. 
4. Click the “Trigger event” dropdown, then select “Catch Hook.”
5. Click the “Continue” button, then click “Continue” again to go to the “Test” tab.
6. Zapier will provide you with a unique webhook URL. Copy this URL, as you will need it in the following steps.

Step 2: Configure a WhatsApp flow to send data to Zapier

1. Open a new tab or window in your browser, then log in to your ActiveCampaign account. 
2. Click WhatsApp > Messaging Flows.
3. Select the flow you wish to integrate with Zapier, then click “Update draft.”
4. Click the “Steps” tab to navigate to the flow canvas.
5. Hover your mouse over where you want to add a step to send data to Zapier. Then click the node (+).
6. Select the “Connect APIs” option from the list of steps, then click “Add.”
7. Configure the “Connect APIs” step:
   • Give the step a short but descriptive name
   • Select “POST” for method type
   • Paste the webhook URL you copied from Zapier into the URL field
   • Set the “Body” field to JSON

Add an object with the properties you wish to send to Zapier. For the first time, hard-code the values and test whether you receive the data correctly in Zapier. Later, you can go ahead and replace it with the variables you'd like to use.

{
  "question": "{{step.ask_a_question}}",
  "customer_name": "{{contact.first_name}}",
  "phone": "{{contact.phone}}"
}

Step 3: Set up the action in Zapier

1. Navigate back to your Zapier account.
2. Click the “Action” item for your Zap.
3. Select the “Slack” option.
4. Configure the “Slack” action:
   • Click the “Action event” dropdown, then select “Send Channel Message”
   • In the “Account” field, select the Slack account you want to use, then click “Continue”
   • Select the channel you want to send notifications to
   • Enter the message text into the field provided
   • Complete the remaining required fields by mapping them to the data received from the webhook. Use the data received in the webhook to populate the message fields in Slack. For example:
     
     New support request received:
     - Question: {{question}}
     - Customer Name: {{customer_name}}
     - Phone: {{phone}}

Step 4: Final steps

1. You can test the integration by sending a test message or triggering the event to make sure the data is received correctly in Zapier, and the support notification is sent to Slack.
2. Monitor and optimize the performance of your integration and make adjustments as needed to ensure a smooth support process.