Each action consists of an API call which you can configure behind the scenes. Fin will automatically choose when to use it and deliver a personalized answer to the customer.

You can connect any system which has an API; that might be your unique internal backend tool you have built for your business, or a third party app you're using like Shopify, Salesforce, Stripe, Jira, and more.

To set up a custom action for Fin, navigate to Settings > Integrations > Actions and click New custom action.

First, provide a short name to describe what this action does such as “Get unpaid account balance”. Next, provide a detailed description explaining when Fin should use this action.

You can customize who this action is available for by clicking Add audience rule. This way, you can set up an action to be used when, for example, a logged in user with a verified email asks about their account balance.

If you want to test the action before enabling it for customers, use the audience rules to enable the action just for you or your teammates initially.

You can then enable Messenger Identity verification to secure your action to prevent accidental execution or unauthorized access to data. If you select multiple options, they will be executed in the order shown in the list.

Click Next when done which will bring you to the API connection section.

If you want, you can specify if Fin should collect any data before using this action. This can be helpful in cases where you need to make sure data exists before the action is run. For example, you might want to ask the customer for their account number if this is not stored on their user profile in Intercom.

To collect data inputs, click on + Add data input and pick the format of the data that should be collected (text, number, decimal number, or true/false) and give it a name and description so Fin knows how to collect it.

Next, you must specify the HTTPS URL of your API along with the type of request to be made (GET, POST).

You may want to use attributes available within your workspace, such as a customer’s user ID or email, to perform a lookup.

You also need to make sure to specify the correct authentication token and to specify correct headers (for example: Accept: application/json or Content-Type: application/json).

Once done, click on Next to proceed to the next step where you can test your action.

You’ll need to test this action to make sure it’s fetching the right data from the API you’re connecting to. You can test your action using two methods:

If everything is looking good, click on Next step to test your response.

When creating custom actions for Fin, there is no need to map response data to Intercom attributes or objects. Instead, Fin directly interprets the JSON response and can then use it to resolve questions. The response is generated based on the ‘Test response’ section. Each line item corresponds to a data point in the JSON response.

By default, Fin can access the full response data to generate replies. Select Restricted data access if you wish to limit the data Fin can read. Check the data fields you want to give Fin access to.

You can also edit the individual data items by clicking on the edit icon to give your response data a customer facing name as well as specify any transformations to the data.

For example, if the API response returns a balance of 0, instead of Fin stating the unpaid balance is 0, it can reply stating that there is currently no unpaid balance remaining.

Then click Set live and that’s it, Fin’s ready to use your custom action. 🎉

Click Next step to preview your live actions, and use the Messenger preview on the right.

The 'Preview Answer' feature is not available unless either 'Live response' or an 'Example response' has been generated in the Test response section.

Once enabled, the preview will have access to:

We recommend using audience rules to roll out actions in phases to your customer base. This enables you to validate the performance of the action and make tweaks/changes where necessary.

If you are experiencing issues where your action isn't triggering for a user, make sure that you have removed any audience rules specific to your company that you may have added in the testing phase

For troubleshooting purposes, all response data generated by custom actions triggered by Fin is recorded for up to 7 days. You can access these logs under the Action > Logs tab.

You can view response data based on what kind of data Fin has access to.