LoginSign Up
← Back to all sparks
H

Help Scout

COMMS
Velocity7.5

Help Scout keeps adding channels — now a portal customers sign into

shared-inboxcustomer-portalsmsslasscheduling
◆Current state
Two customer-facing surfaces landed in a week: two-way SMS through a customer's own Twilio number, and a Customer Portal where a company's contacts sign in to see support history raised across their organization. Underneath, the SLA system built out in May and June now drives workflows, views, and reporting. Per-inbox office hours, away auto-reassignment, and availability status on web and mobile fill in the operational layer.
◆Where it's heading
The product is widening from an agent-side inbox into the places customers actually wait — SMS, WhatsApp, and now a signed-in portal with company-level visibility. Portal access sitting on Plus and Pro puts the newest surfaces on the paid tiers rather than across the board.
◆Prediction
Expect the portal to pick up what adjacent surfaces already have — SLA status, more self-serve actions — and the channel list to keep widening rather than any one channel getting deeper.

◆Recent moves

  1. 20h ago

    Customer Portal gives a company's contacts one view of its tickets

    ⚡ SPARK

    The first surface Help Scout hands to customers themselves, extending the account-context work of Company Profile from the agent side to the customer side. It also makes company-level visibility a paid-tier line.

    View source ↗
  2. 7d ago

    Two-way SMS in the shared inbox via your own Twilio number

    ⚡ SPARK

    SMS joins email, chat, and social in the same inbox, on a number the customer brings rather than one Help Scout brokers. It is the second channel added in this stretch, after WhatsApp went native in February.

    View source ↗
  3. 21d ago

    Each inbox can follow its own office-hours schedule

    Office hours move from one company-wide schedule to a schedule per inbox, so teams in different time zones report accurately and send the right out-of-office replies.

    View source ↗
  4. 1mo ago

    Conversations auto-reassign when a teammate is away

    Conversations assigned to an away teammate become unassigned after a configurable threshold when a customer replies or a workflow fires. Operational plumbing that keeps SLA timers honest.

    View source ↗
  5. 1mo ago

    Set availability status from web and mobile

    Active, Away, and custom statuses can be set from web and mobile and stay in sync, giving assignment decisions better context. It pairs directly with the away-reassignment work.

    View source ↗
  6. 1mo ago

    Workflows can trigger on SLA assignment and breach

    Workflows can now trigger on SLA assignment, approaching breach, or a missed target, turning SLAs from a reporting artifact into something that drives action before escalation.

    View source ↗