The moment it happens

Get told when a customer replies

You hear about customer replies straight away, with a link back to the conversation.

Runs: The moment it happens
Apps: Intercom
AI: Not needed
Access: read conversations

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: when a customer replies in Intercom, send me the reply and a link to the conversation in Slack.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

Add to ChatGPT Add to Claude

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

A customer replies to a support conversation at 4:45 on a Friday afternoon with the one detail an agent was waiting for, such as an order number or a screenshot. The conversation is assigned to an agent who left at 4:30, and nothing marks that a reply has arrived. The customer expects an answer, but their message sits unread until Monday, which turns a simple fix into a three-day wait and a poor rating.

Whenever a customer replies in an Intercom conversation, ClickRuntime receives the event immediately and posts a notification so the team sees that the customer has responded. Whoever is working can pick it up, even if the conversation's original agent is away.

It is a good fit for small support teams that share a queue and cannot keep the Intercom inbox open at all times.

What you get out of it

Answers are not stuck behind an absent agent
When the assignee is off shift, the reply would normally wait for them. A shared alert lets whoever is on duty respond, so the customer does not pay for someone else's day off.
Waiting time shrinks for customers
The time between a customer reply and your answer is the delay they feel. Cutting it from hours to minutes makes a support experience feel responsive, even when the problem itself takes time to solve.
Snoozed conversations come back to life
Agents snooze conversations while they wait on the customer. A notification when the customer returns means the thread can be picked up immediately instead of waiting for the snooze timer.
Fewer repeat nudges from customers
Customers who do not hear back send a second message asking if anyone is there. A prompt response to the first reply prevents those follow-ups and the extra workload they create.
Weekend and holiday coverage is simpler
Small teams rotate who watches the queue on days off. An alert that shows up in a shared channel lets the person on call see replies without logging into Intercom to check.

How it works

What happens, step by step

When a customer replies in an Intercom conversation, ClickRuntime picks it up straight away.
It notes who replied, their company and what they wrote.
A message goes to your #support Slack channel with the reply quoted, so the right person can answer quickly.

Before it runs live

Connect Intercom
Paste your automation's link into the other app's webhook settings

What you get

RunsThe moment it happens

Get told when a customer repliesjust nowSucceeded

Slack · #supportSam from Acme replied: > That fixed it, thanks! One more question about seats.

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.

Your own rules
Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.
Any number of apps
One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.
AI where it helps
Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.
On a schedule or on each event
Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

Act only on the items that match your own rules, and skip the rest
Add an AI step, for example to summarize, sort or draft a reply
Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
Combine it with other Intercom steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.

customer_reply_alert.pyexample

import re
from clickruntime import on_event, notify

INBOX = "https://app.intercom.com/a/inbox/_/inbox/conversation/"

@on_event
def handle(event):
    body = event.json or {}
    if body.get("topic") != "conversation.user.replied":
        return {"sent": False}
    convo = body["data"]["item"]
    part = convo["conversation_parts"]["conversation_parts"][-1]
    reply = re.sub(r"<[^>]+>", "", part.get("body") or "")[:500]
    notify.slack(f"{part['author'].get('name', 'Customer')} replied:\n> {reply}\n{INBOX}{convo['id']}", channel="#support")
    return {"sent": True}

FAQ

Common questions

Does it alert on every reply, or only the first?

It posts for each reply a customer sends in a conversation, so a running exchange produces a message each time. If that is too noisy, ask for it to alert only when the customer replies after a period of silence, such as a day.

Will it include the content of the reply?

The notification can include the customer's message text along with the conversation link, so you can judge urgency at a glance. If you prefer only a link, to keep message content out of Slack, you can ask for that instead.

Does it also trigger for replies sent by teammates?

No. It reacts to replies from the customer. Messages written by your team members, and internal notes, do not produce an alert, so the channel reflects only what customers are saying and needs a response.

What permissions does it need?

read conversations. Nothing else in your accounts is used.

Does it need AI?

No. It runs without AI, so it doesn't use your plan's AI allowance.

How many runs does it use?

One run for each event the app sends.

Can I change how it works?

Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

The moment it happens