Use this article to set up conversation ratings (Customer Satisfaction or CSAT), configure when and how surveys are sent, control whether teammates see scores in the conversation stream, use a custom app instead of the default CSAT survey when closing conversations, and understand how ratings are calculated and reported. Workspace admin access is required to configure these settings.
This can be enabled using:
Simple automations (see below)
Turning on conversation ratings in Simple automations allows you to turn ratings on/off for all conversations.
If you wish to have more customization over when and who receives a conversation rating when the conversation is closed or have follow up actions based on the rating the customer provides, check out how to achieve this with Workflows here.
You can view a report of your conversation ratings to monitor your support team’s performance, as well. This helps managers spot and reward star performers and identify opportunities to improve the quality of support their team provides.
How to enable conversation ratings
To enable conversation ratings:
Go to Users or Leads, under Fin AI Agent > Simple automations. A simple automation is a built-in, one-click trigger — like asking for a conversation rating — that doesn't require building a custom Workflow. It offers less customization than a Workflow, but is faster to turn on.
Under the section "Ask for conversation rating (CSAT)", turn the automation on.
The Simple automations page shows the 'Ask for conversation rating (CSAT)' toggle under both the For User and For Lead sections.
Then, under the section "Ask for conversation rating (CSAT)", turn the automation on.
The setting takes effect immediately. The first rating request will be sent the next time a qualifying conversation is closed (see criteria below).
The 'Ask for conversation rating (CSAT)' section shows the main on/off toggle, along with additional options for outbound conversations and time limits.
Disable conversation ratings on outbound conversations
You may not want to request ratings on conversations started directly from your inbox, as these can often be related to existing conversations or involving third parties.
The 'Sending for direct outbound conversations' toggle appears below the main CSAT toggle.
Enable conversations ratings on conversations started from Workflows
Conversation ratings can still be sent after a teammate closes a conversation for conversations that were started by a Workflow.
You can enable this by switching the toggle to "Sending rating requests for outbound conversations started via the API or Workflows".
The 'Sending rating requests for outbound conversations started via the API or Workflows' toggle appears in the same section.
Teammates must still participate in a conversation for it to be eligible to receive a rating.
Prevent customers from rating after a given period of time
You can prevent your customers from giving a conversation rating once a number of hours you configure has passed since the conversation closed.
Once you enable "Prevent customers from rating after a given period of time", you can specify a number of hours up until a customer can provide their conversation rating.
A number field appears below the toggle where you enter the maximum number of hours a customer has to submit their rating.
This setting acts as a fallback if you haven't configured it through Workflows.
Prevent customers from changing their rating after a period of time
Once you enable "Prevent customers from changing their rating after a given period of time", you can specify a number of hours up until a customer can change their conversation rating.
A number field appears below the toggle where you enter the maximum number of hours a customer has to change their rating.
Note:
Preventing customers from changing their rating will not prevent them from giving an initial rating unless the "Prevent customers from rating after a given period of time" setting is toggled "On" as well.
If a user closes the Messenger and re-opens the conversation later, they will not be able to change the rating once the time period has passed. If a user rates the conversation but leaves it open and comes back after the time period has passed, it appears they can still change the rating, but the change will not be recorded.
This setting acts as a fallback if you haven't configured it through Workflows.
How conversation rating (CSAT) surveys are sent
When a teammate closes a conversation with a customer, the simple automation is signaled to send a conversation rating. The automation sends conversation ratings for both in-app messages and emails. The rating is applied to the teammate who last sent a message or email in the conversation.
In the Messenger, the rating appears as a row of five emoji reactions below the closed conversation message.
In email, the rating is presented as five emoji options that the customer can click to submit their response. Below each emoji, a clickable text label (Terrible, Bad, OK, Great, Amazing) also appears. Clicking a label records the same rating as the emoji above it. These labels appear in the conversation's language and let customers rate their conversation even if their email client blocks images. If images load normally, the only visible change is a small grey label under each emoji.
When customers click on a reaction, they’ll be requested to give additional feedback.
Note: Customers can't change their rating after they've left one with a comment. However, this doesn't prevent other CSATs from being sent in the conversation.
How to add Messenger apps to closed conversations
A teammate can send a Messenger application to close out their conversations and send a CSAT survey, instead of the standard Intercom Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) app.
You can enable this by:
Navigating to the Fin AI Agent > Simple automations > For User / For Lead.
Turning on the Ask for conversation rating automation.
Selecting Add an app.
Choosing an app from the list of installed apps or exploring the Intercom App store to install and add a new app.
Once selected, the chosen app replaces the Intercom CSAT app for all qualifying closed conversations going forward.
This feature only works with Messenger apps. It is not available for Inbox apps.
If a custom/third-party CSAT app is inserted only it will appear when a conversation is closed - the Intercom CSAT app will not appear.
When do simple automations send conversation ratings?
A simple automation only sends conversation ratings at the right time. A rating appears when a conversation matches the following criteria:
The conversation was replied to by a teammate OR a teammate starts a direct outbound conversation OR the conversation was started from a Workflow where a teammate also participated.
The conversation is over 250 characters (including spaces, and replies from your teammate and customer). This helps ensure ratings don’t send for short conversations with a simply yes/no answer.
The conversation is closed within a week of the last reply. If you or the customer hasn’t replied to the conversation in seven days, we won’t send a conversation rating, to prevent them from appearing on old conversations.
It's not a group conversation. A simple automation will not send a rating request when more than one user/lead are included in the conversation.
Note: A common cause of this is a support email address being added as a conversation participant. Intercom treats any conversation with more than one user or lead as a group conversation, which disqualifies it from receiving a CSAT survey. If your support email is being added as a participant automatically, add it to Settings > Channels > Email > Ignored Addresses so Intercom recognises it as an internal address and excludes it from the participant count.
Provided other criteria is met, a CSAT request will be sent any time it is included in a workflow. However, Teammates will still only be able to receive one rating per conversation. If multiple requests are sent for the same teammate in a conversation, these will all appear but are effectively a single request/rating. They will all update together if a rating is received.
When do Workflows send conversation ratings?
It's not a group conversation. Your workflow will not send a rating request when more than one user/lead are included in the conversation.
Conversation must have at least one message from a valid agent. This means that the conversation must have at least one message sent by the Workflow, Fin or a teammate.
If teammate created an outbound conversation either manually or via the workflow but never sent anything after that initial part, we would not send CSAT in this case.
If a conversation is sent via a Workflow and the customer does not reply, Intercom still sends the CSAT survey.
There's also a timing nuance to be aware of when closing and reopening conversations:
Note: CSAT send window. When a conversation is closed, there is a short delay (approximately 10 seconds) before the CSAT survey is dispatched. If the conversation leaves the closed state during this window — for example, because a reply comes in or the conversation is reopened — the scheduled CSAT delivery is permanently cancelled for that closure event. It will not be retriggered the next time the conversation is closed. To ensure CSAT surveys are sent, avoid workflows or automations that reopen conversations immediately after closure.
How do I control whether teammates can see CSAT scores?
By default, teammates can see a customer's CSAT rating in the conversation stream after a rating has been submitted. Workspace admins can hide these scores from teammates. When enabled, the CSAT rating widget is removed immediately from all conversation streams across the workspace.
Note: Hiding CSAT scores from teammates only affects what's visible in the conversation stream. CSAT data collection, reporting, exports, and API access are unaffected.
How to hide CSAT scores from teammates
Only workspace admins can change this setting.
The CSAT score visibility setting lives in Settings > General:
The CSAT report shows each teammate's score alongside the number of ratings received and a breakdown of positive, neutral, and negative responses.
See how your team performs with customer satisfaction
To see how people feel at the end of their conversations with your team, just create a Surveyed CSAT report and take a look at your Teammate CSAT score.
Note: You can also see the conversation ratings each of your teammates received over a specific time period.
The Negative remarks view lists all conversations that received a negative rating, along with any comments the customer left.
What are some best practices for conversation ratings?
Turn your dissatisfied customers into happy ones
Conversation ratings help you better understand your customer’s experience, and provide you with the information you need to make your customers happy.
For example, you can follow up with customers who left a negative conversation rating and help turn their experience around. Just drill into "Negative remarks" to see comments left by your customers. From here, you can follow up with people and resolve their issue.
How do I set happiness targets for my team?
You should set happiness targets for your team, so you ensure the majority of your customers are happy with their experience. For example, hearts and smileys can be counted as positive. Anything else can be counted as negative.
Your achievements appear in the right sidebar in your inbox, showing positive ratings and customer comments your team has received.
Rewarding your team for exceeding these targets will motivate them to deliver a more personal experience.
See happy CSAT comments in one place
Have you ever wondered what your happy customers are saying about you? Simply use ⌘ / Ctrl K from the Help Desk and search for "Your achievements".
If you're not ready for a CSAT survey to be triggered — which happens automatically when a conversation is closed — you can snooze the conversation instead. The survey will be sent when the conversation is eventually closed.
You'll see your achievements appear in the right sidebar in your Inbox. 👇
You can see what your customers love about your support. This should provide your team with extra motivation to delight every customer.
Send conversation ratings when you’re ready
If you’re not ready to close a conversation and trigger the conversation rating message, you can snooze the conversation while you’re waiting to resolve the customer’s issue.
Get better conversation ratings
If you’re waiting for a customer to reply, it’s best to snooze the conversation. Then, when the conversation re-opens you’ll be reminded to follow up. Your customer will appreciate the extra effort you’ve put in to ensure they get the help they need.
How is CSAT measured?
When a conversation is closed, a survey is sent to the end user with 5 options.
Positive ratings: 😀 and 🤩
Neutral ratings: 😐 and 🙁
Negative ratings: 😠
To calculate an individual or a team's CSAT score, we divide the number of positive responses by the number of responses overall.
(😀 + 🤩 conversations) / (all conversations with any rating)
For example, if a teammate has received ten ratings as follows:
Emoji | Count | Category |
🤩 | 2 | Positive |
😀 | 2 | Positive |
😐 | 2 | Neutral |
🙁 | 2 | Neutral |
😠 | 2 | Negative |
The teammate's score will be 40% = 4 positive ratings out of 10 total ratings.
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