This is a guide for anyone who has explored what Intercom can do and is ready to start testing and playing around with the Intercom product.
The first thing that you need to know is that the Messenger must be installed in order for anyone to see your Intercom content. In other words, installing the Messenger IS installing Intercom. Whether you're the person installing the Messenger, or you need to meet with your developer, we recommend creating a plan for testing out Intercom internally before rolling it out to prospects and customers. This article will guide you through that process.
How to test internally before going live
Option 1: Install Intercom on a staging environment (as opposed to in production)
This option is great for Intercom customers who want to keep the Messenger completely off their production site while testing or require a thorough QA (Quality Assurance) process before setting Intercom live in production.
This option would require you (or your developer) to install the Messenger twice - once in staging and then again later on in production when we're ready to go live. If you have limited developer resources, the option below might be a better fit.
You can use this option even if you already have Intercom live in production, as you can install Intercom on multiple domains.
Option 2: Install Intercom in production, but only for a test segment (i.e. fellow teammates/internal users).
If you go with this option, you'll want to configure the Messenger Launcher to only show for people who match certain data. Two examples include:
Logged-in users with your company email address
Visitors/leads/users on a specific test page
Let's take a look at each 👇
Logged-in users with your company email address
To make the Messenger visible for fellow teammates/internal users, you can use the audience rule "email address contains @companydomain.com". Just keep in mind you'll need to have the messenger installed for logged-in users and have user data passing through.
Even with the Messenger Launcher hidden, proactive support messages can still be sent to customers who match the message audience rules. This means if you're testing proactive support messages, you'll want to use audience rules that target your test segment (see image below).
If you're lacking developer resources, you can turn on your Help Center website, and the Messenger will automatically be installed on a default domain, perfect for getting familiar with the customer experience of the Messenger.
Visitors/leads/users on a specific test page
If you go with the latter approach of testing in production for a specific test page, many Intercom customers will target the page url with a fragment identifier, such as "#intercom-testing". This way your teammates know which URL to visit for testing, but your end users will never stumble across it.
When to use the [TEST] workspace
We do have a test workspace functionality. We recommend using the test workspace to practice sending data into Intercom. This way, you can easily delete your test workspace to clear out any unwanted data and keep your production workspace data hygienic.
There's not a way to push/migrate your messages or workflows from the test workspace to your production workspace. For this reason, we recommend using your production workspace to create any workflows.
How to roll-out Intercom to prospects and customers
Once testing & QA is complete, we recommend rolling-out Intercom to a small segment first, as opposed to setting it live across your entire product to all customers all at once. This gives a bit of confidence that your team has the capacity to handle the volume generated through Intercom. Here are some example user groups to consider:
Set Intercom live...
By page
For example, launch Intercom for logged-in users on a specific product page that you know won't overwhelm your support team. To set this up, configure the Messenger to only show on that specific page by leveraging the "Current page URL" filter:
By segment
For example, you can set Intercom live to VIP customers or all freemium customers. To set this up, create a segment under the "Contacts" section, and then configure the Messenger to only show for that segment.
By channel
For example, if your team has a support email address, you can turn on email forwarding first before setting the Messenger live. This is a great way to get your agents familiar with the Intercom Help Desk with less pressure before starting to reply to chats. Check out this article to learn more about email forwarding.
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