Slack has become a central hub for team communication and collaboration, containing a wealth of information from daily interactions, technical troubleshooting, and solutions to common customer issues. However, retrieving and using this information when needed can be challenging, especially in workspaces with numerous Slack channels. 

To help customer-facing teams manage and leverage this valuable information efficiently, we are excited to introduce ClearFeed's newest Knowledge Source - Slack. Now, ClearFeed users can integrate Slack channels (public or private) and use the existing knowledge from Slack to answer new questions and deflect repetitive queries.

Previously, we integrated public and private documents including PDF, Confluence, Notion, Zendesk, and Freshdesk to help teams deflect common queries using ClearFeed’s GPT-powered Virtual Agent. With the addition of Slack Channels, ClearFeed extends its capabilities, ensuring all your valuable knowledge sources are seamlessly integrated into one powerful system for efficient Slack-based support. 

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Key Capabilities

This new capability allows ClearFeed users to:

• Define a new Slack Knowledge Source (KS) with one or more Slack channels - including Triage Channels.
• Use the KS in Virtual Agent mode to automatically answer questions raised by customers or employees on Slack.
• Or use the KS in Agent Assist mode to help agents on Triage channels in private with helpful answers to queries.
• Combine Slack KS with other types (like Confluence, Documentation etc.) in either mode to use all knowledge inside the company.
• Review performance of the Answers to find questions that need additional documentation.
• ClearFeed users have full control on which knowledge sources are used and visible in different contexts.

ClearFeed loads a configurable window of messages and replies from Slack into a Search Index - and uses the latest GPT models from OpenAI to generate responses where possible. It also automatically keeps the index updated as new messages and replies are posted in the configured channels. For existing ClearFeed users using Triage Channels - using the Triage channels as a Slack Knowledge Source makes all prior customer conversations available to the Agent Assistant in answering new queries.

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How Companies are using Slack Knowledge Source

Over the last few months - we have been worked with early users to roll out the Slack KS. Here are some sample use cases:

• Customer Service: ClearFeed provides support to customers and onboarding to prospects, primarily via Slack. We have 200+ channels. Previously we used our Agent Assistant to answer questions from public documentation and website. Now we have defined Slack KS with Triage channels that contain all customer conversations and the Agent Assistant is also able to provide answers from there. Slack has many private
• Internal Support: A large European design firm has numerous channels on which employees raise questions. To leverage prior knowledge buried in these Slack channels - the team defined a Slack KS with all these channels. Employees can get answers to their questions, using prior knowledge buried in Slack, by applying a Slack Emoji on their question..

Broadly, teams like ITSM, Customer Support & Engineering are rolling out Slack KS for different use cases within the company.

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How it Works

ClearFeed allows you to build a constantly evolving knowledge base from your team's Slack conversations. Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Integrate Slack with ClearFeed

First, add the ClearFeed App to your Slack workspace and ensure it is added to the channels you want to index and use for answering questions. You can include both public and private channels. 

Step 2: Add Slack Channels to a Knowledge Source

Once the Slack integration is done, users can define a Knowledge Source in ClearFeed and add some or all of these Slack Channels to it. ClearFeed captures and indexes messages and replies posted in these Slack channels. 

• Users have the flexibility to set the duration of Slack data to be indexed (minimum: 1 month, maximum: 1 year).
• Users can divide channels into different Knowledge Sources, if required, and use them for different use cases. 

Once successfully set up, ClearFeed automatically indexes updated threads from Slack channels into the knowledge source with new information as they come up. This eliminates the need to manually update information while keeping the Slack knowledge source relevant and up-to-date.

Check out the step-by-step guide on configuring Slack channels as a knowledge source with ClearFeed here. 

Step 3: Configure Collections & Virtual Agents

The next step is to use these Knowledge Sources to answer questions in different Slack channels. To do so:

• Users create a Collection of channels where automated answers are required.
• Turn Virtual Agent ON for this Collection with the Knowledge Source(s) defined above attached to it.

Note: During this step, the user can attach different Knowledge Sources to the Virtual Agent and can use Documentation and other Knowledge Bases (like Zendesk) for answering questions in Slack.

Step 4: GPT-Powered Instant Responses to Questions Posted on Slack

Once the above configuration steps are complete - upon receiving a query in any of the Slack Channels in the Collection - Clearfeed’s Virtual Agent attempts to provide a GPT-generated response, aiming for resolution without agent intervention. In case the Virtual Agent can provide an answer - it will include references to the Slack threads used to construct the answer as shown below:

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More details on setup and capabilities can be found in the GPT-Powered Answers section in ClearFeed documentation.

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Wrapping Up 

ClearFeed's Slack Knowledge Source feature allows teams to use the knowledge already present in Slack to address support queries efficiently, enhancing efficiency and driving customer and employee satisfaction.

Leveraging cutting-edge databases and advanced AI models like GPT-4, ClearFeed is setting the stage for a new era in support, delivering quick, personalized support tailored to each individual's needs. 

If you’d like to learn more about how ClearFeed's Slack Knowledge Source can benefit your organization, contact us at support@clearfeed.ai or book a free demo with a support specialist here.