How to send Slack Automations from Contact updates

Keep your team in the loop about Contact updates by setting up Slack Automations. As new Contacts are created, properties are updated, or Contacts added/removed from lists, you can trigger personalized Automations that send real-time Slack notifications to keep your team instantly informed. Whether it’s posting updates to specific channels or sending direct messages to key team members, these Automations ensure everyone has the information they need, right when they need it, without manual follow-up.

With sending Slack messages through Automations, you can create many different workflows. For example, you can send a Slack message to your team when a Contact is added to a Contact list, then two days later send an email to the Contact and then one day later send another Slack message to your team to follow up with the Contact.

What you’ll need:

A Typeform account on the Plus, Business, Growth Pro, Talent, Growth Custom, or Enterprise plan
The Contacts and automations add-on
A Slack account

Create Contacts and map form responses to contact properties

Set up your Contacts database with Contact properties to store and organize information about your Contacts. Standard Contact properties consist of: email, name, subscription status, job title, company name, and more. Additionally, you can create custom properties to store the information you need from your Contacts.

Then add Contacts to your Contacts database to create Contact profiles. You can add Contacts in several ways:

From form responses
Importing them from a CSV
Creating them individually

Learn how to create and manage your Contacts here.

When you add Contacts to your Contacts database through form responses, you can map form responses to your Contact properties. This means that when someone answers your form, their answers will update the relevant Contact properties in their Contact profile.

Create a Slack Automation from a Contact update

After mapping form responses to Contact properties, you can set up a Slack Automation to trigger from a Contact update such as Contact is created, Contact property is updated, or Contact is added/removed from a list.

1. From your Workspace, click Automations.

2. Click + Create automation.

3. Select Contact activity or updates.

4. Give your Automation a name by clicking the default name in the top left corner.

5. Select what will trigger this Automation from the dropdown list. We’ll select Contact is created.

6. Optionally, add a contact list and contact property filter if you want to filter this Automation for a specific group of Contacts.

7. Click the + icon in the middle to add an action.

Then select Send to integration.

8. If you haven’t already connected your Slack account, click the Slack icon to connect it.

9. Click Authenticate.

10. A pop up will appear asking if you want to allow Typeform access to Slack. Click Allow.

11. Select where you want to share the contact update.

Click the dropdown menu to browse your Slack channels. Or type @ to search for users to send a direct message. Click the + sign to send responses to additional channels or direct messages.

Note! Private channel and direct messages won’t appear in the dropdown menu until you add the Typeform App to the channel’s settings. Add the Typeform App by clicking the private channel’s name at the top of the screen, then select the Integrations tab and click Add an App

If you’re sending direct messages to individual users, those messages will be sent to the Typeform App’s Slack channel instead of the user’s personal channel. This limitation is due to the way Slack handles app permission rules.

If you don’t see a contact in the dropdown list, it’s because you can only send direct messages to users who have installed the Typeform App in their Slack workspace. Instructions on how to add an App to a Slack workspace can be found here.

12. Next, choose which Contact properties you’d like to send to Slack from the list. You can select specific properties or click the Select all checkbox. Click Save when you’re done.

After you click Save, a notification will be sent to the channel or Typeform App. This notification informs users that any updates to a Contact will appear here.

13. You’ll be taken back to your Automation set up.

You can click the + icon to add another action (send an email, send a webhook, send another Slack message or add a time delay for another action). Click Activate when you’re done with setting up your Automation.

Now when the trigger you’ve set up is met, a Slack message will be sent with the Contact properties you’ve selected.

Add a time delay or another action

With Automations, you can add a time delay to actions and add additional actions. For example, when a Contact is created, you can send a Slack message to your team and in 2 days send an email to the Contact.

To add a time delay, click the + button and select Time delay.

In the right side menu, select the time delay for when you want the Automation to continue. In the dropdown you can select to delay by Minutes, Hours, or Days.