# How to Automate Urgent Client Support in Your Agency > You can automate urgent client support with three automations. The first turns a client's emergency form into a task, alerts your team in Slack and emails the client to confirm. The second tells the team and the client when the task is completed. The third lets your team request an update with a button. It sits alongside your normal client communication, as a fast route for emergencies. Source: https://fluxomate.com/blog/automate-customer-support-in-your-agency.html Published by Fluxomate (https://fluxomate.com/), 2024-06-30. Section: Automation templates. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ph8SiDS5xE ## Key takeaways - Use this as an addition for emergencies, such as an ad account going down, not as your only support channel. - Automation one: a form response creates a task, posts to Slack with a link to the task, and emails the client. - Automation two: moving a task to completed fires a webhook, which messages the team and the client. - Automation three: a record button in your task tool triggers a webhook so your team can request an update. - Most task tools have their own workflows that can send a webhook to Make.com, so this works beyond one platform. - Better still: link tasks to a client or project, and message clients in Slack rather than by email. ## When does automated support make sense for an agency? A support form with tickets suits ecommerce, software companies and communities. For an agency, it is not a replacement for regular check ins and ongoing communication. Treat it as a side channel for emergencies, for example an ad account going down or ads suddenly stopping. In those moments, a client waiting many hours for a reply tends to get angry. An automated system gives an immediate response, calms nerves and gets the work started. The three automations below handle that. ## What tools do you need? You need four things, and most can be swapped for your own. - **An automation tool.** Make.com and Zapier are the two main no code options. They do much the same job. Zapier is more beginner friendly but costs more, and Make.com is harder at first but more affordable. Try both on free trials. Everything in the video was built on a free Make.com account. - **A communication tool.** Slack for the team and email for the client in this demo. If you already use Slack with clients, use it for both, so there is one clear path of communication. - **A task management tool.** We used Noloco, but the approach applies to most tools, such as Notion, ClickUp or Airtable. - **A form tool.** Any form tool with an API works. We used Google Forms, with fields for name, email, what they need support with and an urgency rating from 1 to 5. ## Automation one: how do you turn a form into a task? This automation runs whenever the client submits the emergency form. 1. Create a Make.com scenario with a Google Forms watch responses trigger. Paste in the form ID from its address and set a limit of no more than five responses at a time, so an error or loop does not use up your operations. 2. Set the schedule. Make.com checks for new responses at a set interval rather than instantly. For emergencies, use between 15 minutes and an hour. Each check uses an operation, so lower intervals use more. 3. Add a module to create a record in your task tool. Map the name, a due date, the support request as the description, the urgency rating, the client's name and email, a status of backlog and a task type of other. For a due date six hours ahead, use a date function that adds six hours to the current time. 4. Add a Slack create message module. Use the blocks field and copy a layout from Slack's Block Kit Builder, with a line of text such as new task coming in plus the customer name and email, and a button. Point the button at the task's address, using the record ID from the previous step so it opens the task just created. 5. Add a Gmail send email module to the client's email address, confirming you are working on their request. You could add form details or an AI generated first response. ## Automation two: how do you notify people when the task is done? Most task tools have built in workflows, and many can send a webhook. We set a workflow in the task tool that triggers when a task record's status field is updated, with a filter so it only continues for the completed status. Its action is a webhook call to a custom webhook in a new Make.com scenario. 1. Create a Make.com scenario with a custom webhook trigger and paste its address into the task tool's webhook action. 2. Test it by moving a task to completed and checking the data arrives in Make.com. 3. Add a Slack create message module to tell the team the task is complete. 4. Add a text parser module with a pattern match to extract the client's email address from the task notes. Ask ChatGPT for the regular expression pattern rather than writing it yourself. 5. Add a Gmail send email module to the extracted address telling the client the task has been completed. ## Automation three: how do you request an update with a button? This bonus automation shows how a task tool can trigger Make.com from a button. In our task tool we added a record button called request update, set it to one click, and set its action to run an on demand workflow. That workflow triggers on an action button press and sends a webhook. In Make.com, create a third scenario with its own custom webhook and paste the address into the workflow. Pressing the button now sends the task data to Make.com. From there you can message the team and email the client to say the work is in progress and needs a little longer. The simplest way to build that is to duplicate the second scenario and change the copy. ## How can you improve this system? - **Link tasks to a client or project.** This lets you pull client details and send messages to the client's own Slack channel. A spreadsheet with one column for client email and another for Slack channel ID can do the matching. - **Connect it to a client portal.** Clients can then see progress for themselves. - **Send regular updates.** For longer tasks, use more update automations so clients know what is happening. - **Consider a chatbot instead of a form.** A support assistant in a Slack channel could give advice from your SOPs first, and create a task for your team if it cannot solve the problem. ## Questions people ask ### Should an agency replace its normal support with a ticket form? No. A form suits ecommerce, software companies and communities. For agencies it works better as an addition to regular check ins, for emergencies where the client needs a quick response. ### Which task management tools does this work with? Most of them. The approach relies on the tool being able to trigger a webhook from a workflow or automation, and that is common. We built it in Noloco, and it applies to tools such as Notion, ClickUp or Airtable. ### Why does Make.com check for form responses on a schedule? Make.com's Google Forms trigger checks at a set interval instead of reacting instantly like Zapier. For emergencies, set it between 15 minutes and an hour. Shorter intervals use more of your operations. ### How do I get the client's email from the task notes? Use Make.com's text parser with a pattern match module. Ask ChatGPT for the regular expression that extracts an email address, paste it as the pattern, and map the task notes as the text. Tools used: Make.com, Google Forms, Slack, Gmail, Noloco, Block Kit Builder, ChatGPT Free templates for this guide: https://fluxomate.com/resources.html?r=automate-customer-support-in-your-agency