HelpScout Integration
Capture feedback from HelpScout conversations
Overview
The IdeaLift HelpScout integration captures feature requests and product feedback from your support conversations. IdeaLift uses AI to analyze HelpScout conversations and automatically extract actionable ideas, so your support team can focus on helping customers while product insights are captured in the background.
AI Disclaimer: IdeaLift uses AI to identify and extract feature requests from conversations. AI-generated content may occasionally be inaccurate or incomplete. We recommend reviewing extracted ideas before acting on them.
Requirements
- •IdeaLift Scale plan or higher
- •HelpScout account with API access
- •Administrator or Owner role in HelpScout to authorize the OAuth app
Connecting HelpScout
1Open Integrations
Go to Dashboard → Integrations and find the HelpScout card.
2Authorize OAuth
Click Connect and sign in to HelpScout. Grant IdeaLift permission to read conversations, customers, and mailboxes.
3Select Mailboxes
Choose which HelpScout mailboxes IdeaLift should monitor for feedback. You can select all mailboxes or only specific ones (e.g., "Product Feedback" or "Feature Requests").
4Initial Import
Optionally import existing conversations from a date range. IdeaLift will analyze them for feature requests and create ideas in your inbox for review.
How Ideas Are Captured
IdeaLift uses multiple methods to capture ideas from HelpScout:
Automatic AI Extraction
IdeaLift monitors selected mailboxes and uses AI to identify conversations that contain feature requests, improvement suggestions, or product feedback. Extracted ideas appear in your inbox for review.
Tag-Based Capture
Tag a HelpScout conversation with "feature-request" or "product-feedback" and IdeaLift will automatically capture it as an idea. You can configure custom tag triggers in settings.
Manual Capture
Paste a HelpScout conversation URL into IdeaLift to manually capture a specific conversation as an idea. This is useful for one-off captures that the AI may have missed.
Customer Attribution
Every idea captured from HelpScout is automatically linked to the customer who submitted it. IdeaLift matches HelpScout customer profiles to IdeaLift customer records by email address.
Tip: If you also use Salesforce or HubSpot, customer attribution combines support data with CRM data for a complete picture.
Viewing Source Conversations
Every idea captured from HelpScout includes a link back to the original conversation. This gives your product team full context without needing HelpScout access.
- • Click View Source on any idea to open the HelpScout conversation
- • The idea detail panel shows a summary of the conversation thread
- • If multiple conversations mention the same request, they are grouped together
- • Source conversations are shown in the idea's activity timeline
Troubleshooting
OAuth connection fails
Ensure you are signing in with a HelpScout account that has Owner or Administrator permissions. Standard agents cannot authorize third-party OAuth apps.
Ideas not being extracted
Check that the correct mailboxes are selected in your integration settings. Also verify that conversations contain feature requests or feedback—general support questions (password resets, billing inquiries) are intentionally filtered out.
Customer not matched
IdeaLift matches customers by email address. If the HelpScout customer email does not match an existing IdeaLift customer, a new customer record is created. You can merge duplicate customers in Dashboard → Customers.
Tag-based capture not triggering
Verify your custom tag triggers in Dashboard → Integrations → HelpScout → Settings. Tags are case-insensitive but must match exactly (no partial matches).
Related Documentation
- Intercom Integration — Capture feedback from Intercom
- Zendesk Integration — Capture feedback from Zendesk tickets
- Freshdesk Integration — Capture feedback from Freshdesk tickets
Need Help?
Having trouble with the HelpScout integration?