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Private requests

Updated 3 min read

This page helps you take questions that a customer would rather not ask in front of everyone in the shared channel.

With private requests on, a customer sends Thorpe a direct message in Slack. Thorpe opens a private request, and your team answers it from a card in a private triage channel. The customer sees only the answers, in their DM with Thorpe.

Turn on private requests

When your workspace has private requests, an admin turns them on:

  1. Go to Settings > Private requests. You need to be a Thorpe admin.
  2. Check the banner at the top. If it says Thorpe needs one more Slack permission to receive private messages, choose Update Slack permissions and approve it in Slack.
  3. Turn on Enable private requests.
  4. Under Private triage channel, pick a private internal channel. If you pick a public one, Thorpe warns you that everyone in it will see private requests.
SettingDefault
Enable private requestsOff
Private triage channelWorkspace triage channel
Greeting DM to new external membersOff

Tell customers about it

  • Ask privately: pick a customer channel and choose Post. Thorpe posts a message with an Ask privately button there. A customer who clicks it gets a DM from Thorpe. You can remove the message later with Remove.
  • Greeting DM to new external members: when it is on, people from the customer's workspace who join a customer channel get a short DM explaining they can ask privately.
  • Send to existing members: sends the same greeting to people already in your customer channels, after you confirm. Each person is greeted once.

What the customer sees

  1. The customer sends Thorpe a direct message.
  2. Thorpe reacts with 馃憖 and replies that your team will answer in that thread.
  3. If they are in customer channels for more than one account, Thorpe may first ask "Which team is this about?", with a button for each channel.
  4. Your team's replies arrive in that thread, with the teammate's name in bold.
  5. When you close the request, Thorpe tells them it is resolved, and that they can reply in the thread if they need anything else.

Only members of your shared customer channels can open private requests. Anyone else gets a reply asking them to post in their shared channel.

Answer a private request

  1. A card marked 馃敀 Private request appears in the private triage channel, with the customer's name, their company and their message.
  2. Reply in the card's thread to answer. Thorpe sends your reply to the customer.
  3. Start a line with note: or 馃摑 to keep it internal. Notes never reach the customer.
  4. The customer's follow-ups appear in the same card thread.
  5. Use Assign to me, Snooze and Close on the card as usual.

Private requests follow the same SLA policies as other requests, and their SLA alerts go to the private triage channel. In the web app, the Private filter shows only private requests.

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