Here’s our quick guide to setting up and getting the most out of Intercom in 2025. We invited an Intercom expert to contribute some thoughts from the trenches, too.
The Intercom messenger
When you first dive into Intercom, you’ll want to start with the basics of setting up your account. I always tell new users to think of Intercom as their digital front desk – it’s where all your customer conversations will live. Begin by installing the messenger on your website or app. You can customise how it looks to match your brand’s style. Take some time to play with the colours and messaging – it makes a difference in how welcoming your space feels to customers.
The Intercom inbox
The heart of Intercom is the inbox. This is where you’ll spend most of your time, managing conversations with your customers. Think of it as your command center. You can organize conversations however makes sense for your team – maybe by urgency, by department, or by customer type. I’ve found that taking a few minutes to set up some basic routing rules saves hours down the line. You can tell Intercom to automatically assign certain types of messages to specific team members, so everyone knows exactly what they should be working on.
Marketing and messaging automation
Let’s talk about marketing and messaging automation. This is where Intercom really shines. You can reach out to your customers at just the right moment with targeted messages. Maybe someone’s been looking at your pricing page for five minutes – that might be a good time to offer help. Or perhaps they haven’t logged in for a week – you could send a friendly reminder about a feature they haven’t tried yet. The key is to make these messages feel natural and helpful, not pushy or automated.
Custom bots, Resolution bots and Fin AI
Custom bots are game-changers for handling common questions. Custom bots, Resolution bots and Fin (which uses a 3rd party LLM) are ideal for a business that is drowning in basic support questions. But here’s the thing about bots – they need to know when to step aside and let a human take over. Make sure you set up clear paths for escalation.
Iain had this to add:
“Bots” have had quite a few incarnations in Intercom, and it’s quite confusing at times to explain the differences between a Custom Bot, Resolution Bot (as was) and Fin. You should think of Custom bots as a “pick your path” with users selecting answers to automated questions. This is great to triage and route to FAQs quickly. Resolution bots used to simply be autoresponders based on types of query, now they are integrated into Fin. Fin is a wrappered LLM (commonly referred to AI) which ingests the information you feed it, and gives very humanistic narrative responses. This is great for nuance and specific responses that can be required.
Single customer view
The real power of Intercom comes from understanding your customers. You can track all sorts of useful information – how often they use your product, what features they love, where they get stuck. Use this data to create segments of similar users. This helps you send more relevant messages and provide better support. For example, you might want to treat your power users differently from newcomers, or give extra attention to customers who might be at risk of leaving.
Automate marketing, operations and customer support
Automation is your friend, but it needs a human touch. You can set up rules to handle routine tasks automatically. Maybe you want to tag conversations about billing issues, or automatically follow up with customers who haven’t responded in a while. The trick is to make these automated actions feel natural. If executed well, customers should they were talking to a real person until they were told otherwise.
Reporting and measurement
When it comes to measuring success, keep an eye on the metrics that matter to your business. How quickly does your team respond to messages? How satisfied are your customers after conversations? Are your automated messages actually helping people find answers? Don’t just collect numbers – use them to make things better. If you notice that certain types of questions keep coming up, maybe it’s time to update your help center or create a new bot flow.
Triage, teams and roles
Setting up teams in Intercom requires some thought about how your company works. You might want separate teams for sales, support, and success, each with their own workflows and goals. Make sure everyone knows their role and has the right access to do their job effectively. Cross-team collaboration is easier when everyone can see the full context of customer conversations.
Scaling Intercom
As you grow, you’ll need to think about scaling your Intercom setup. Start automating more processes, but do it gradually. Test new automations with small groups before rolling them out widely. Keep refining your bot responses based on what works and what doesn’t. And always have a plan for handling spikes in conversation volume. Don’t forget also, that as your users in your workspace grow, so too might your billing overages!
Iain, our Intercom Consultant:
The best Intercom workspaces are constantly changing and evolving. What was cutting edge last year in Intercom rarely stays that way a year later, and they have a vested interest in rolling out new features constantly. Some of these are paid add ons, but often these are extensions to default functionality that you are already paying for. It’s a good idea to keep abreast of new product announcements and test them for suitability when they are made live.
Security and Privacy
Security and privacy matter more than ever. Make sure you understand how to protect customer data in Intercom. Set up the right access levels for team members, and regularly review who has access to what. Keep an eye on your data retention policies and make sure you’re complying with relevant regulations.