Triage Channels

Work from Slack to solve customer requests

ClearFeed’s triage channels help support teams manage requests—whether from customers or employees—directly within Slack. They serve as a central hub to view, respond to, and act on inbound requests without switching tools.

This guide outlines how triage channels work across different Product Editions:

• External Helpdesk

• Internal Helpdesk

• Integrations

Request Propagation and Visibility

• All public responses to the request thread from Responders in the Triage channel are propagated to the same thread in the Request channel.

• Messages posted by Non-responders in the Triage channel are not synced back to the Request channel.

• Emoji reactions from the Request channel are synced to the Triage channel.

• Emoji reactions in the Triage channel are synced back to the Request channel only if added by Responders.

• All requests from request channels in a Collection will be propagated to their corresponding Triage.

• If you are working predominantly from triage channels, we suggest you mute all request channels (and preferably leave those channels)

Key Capabilities of Triage Channels

Triage channels offer the following core features across editions:

• Respond from Slack: Replies from triage threads sync to the original Slack thread and/or external ticket (if integrated).

• Edit properties: Modify status, priority, assignee, tags, and more within Slack.

• Internal collaboration: Prefix replies with 🔒 to add private comments. These are hidden from requestors and may sync as private/internal notes in connected systems.

• Advanced actions:

  • Escalate to tools like Jira, GitHub, Asana, etc.

  • Mark as Solved or Closed

• View ticket details: All fields filled in via Create or Edit forms are shown in the triage channel block.

• Team-level privacy: Multiple teams can use separate triage channels based on Collections.

External Helpdesk

Used to manage customer conversations via Slack Connect channels.

Key Features:

• Requests created from customer channels are routed to a triage channel.

• Responders can reply in the triage thread—responses sync to the original thread.

• Use the Edit button to update fields like Assignee, Status, Priority, or custom fields.

• Click view in #channel to jump to the original customer conversation.

• Use Not a Request to exclude irrelevant threads from reports and SLAs. This can be done for Open/Pending requests with a dedicated button or via "More Actions" for In-progress/On-hold ones.

  • Remove: Deletes the conversation entirely.

  • Archive: Hides the conversation but reopens on further messages.

• Mark as Solved allows you to resolve the request.

• Mark as Closed allows you to permanently close the request.

• Add 🔒 private comments to coordinate internally. Messages (and any attachments) starting with the 🔒 stay hidden from the customer.

• Use More Actions to:

  • File a ticket in Zendesk, Freshdesk, Intercom, etc. (with two-way sync)

    • If you use Freshdesk, Salesforce, Zendesk, Hubspot, or JSM for ticketing, convert Slack requests to tickets with the "File a ticket" option in "More Actions."

    • All responses and attachments flow smoothly between Slack and your ticketing system.

    • Agent responses from the triage channel are visible in both the request channel and the external ticketing system.

    • Your team can continue working on requests in the triage channel even after converting them to tickets.

  • File tasks or link existing tasks from engineering integrations

    • Comments from the triage channel thread are synced into the linked task for better visibility.

    • ClearFeed can automatically update the triage channel thread when the linked tasks are completed in the engineering system.

Internal Helpdesk

Used for internal support teams (IT, HR, etc.) managing employee requests via Slack.

Key Features:

• Requests submitted via Slack forms or ClearFeed bots are routed to the triage channel.

• Replies in triage sync with the ticket thread, visible to the requester.

• Use Edit Ticket to update fields defined in the form's Edit section. Read more about managing the edit ticket form here.

• Add 🔒 private comments for internal collaboration.

• Automatically update Slack threads when linked tasks are resolved.

• Use Mark as Solved or Mark as Closed as appropriate.

• Use More Actions to:

  • File tasks or link existing tasks from engineering integrations

    • Comments from the triage channel thread are synced into the linked task for better visibility.

    • ClearFeed can automatically update the triage channel thread when the linked tasks are completed in the engineering system.

Integrations

Used when ClearFeed is being used to manage tickets created in external systems like Zendesk and Freshdesk

Note: Currently, Ticketing is only for Zendesk, Intercom, and Freshdesk integrations. If you require support for other integrations, contact us via Slack or at [email protected].

Key Behaviors:

• Tickets created in these tools are routed to the triage channel of the corresponding Collection.

• Triage replies sync to the external system, and vice versa.

• Triage blocks include the external ticket ID and link for easy access.

• Use Edit Ticket to modify external ticket fields (based on your form config). Read more about managing the edit ticket form: for Zendesk ticketing, for Freshdesk ticketing.

• Add 🔒 private comments and optionally sync these to:

  • Zendesk (as internal notes)

  • Intercom (as internal notes)

  • Freshdesk (as private notes)

  Learn how to enable private comment sync here.

• Mark ticket as Solved button allows users to resolve the external ticket.

• View Form button lets responders view the form filled out by requestors when creating a ticket.

FAQs

1. What happens if I reply directly in the customer/request channel instead of the triage? Answer: Replies from request channels are still captured, but working from the triage channel is recommended to ensure proper internal collaboration, syncing, and action handling.

2. Can I set up multiple triage channels for the same Collection? Answer: No. Each Collection can be associated with only one triage channel. To separate concerns across teams, use multiple Collections instead.

3. Can I customize the fields shown in the triage message block? Answer: Yes. Fields shown are based on the "Create" and "Edit" ticket form configuration. Only filled-out or updated fields will be displayed.

4. Can I prevent all messages from the Request Channel from appearing in the Triage Channel? Answer: Yes. ClearFeed offers an account-level setting that limits message mirroring—only the first message from each request will appear in the triage channel, rather than the full conversation. To enable this for your account, please contact us via Slack or email [email protected].