A Slack email integration that posts shared inbox alerts to your channels
Sektra's Slack integration posts what happens in your shared inbox to the Slack channels your team already watches. A new conversation, an assignment, a service level warning or an alert from a rule appears in the channel you map it to, with a button that opens the conversation in Sektra. It suits support and account teams that answer customers from a shared inbox and talk to each other in Slack. The mail itself stays in the inbox, where replies are written and each conversation has one owner.
What Sektra does with Slack
Which shared inbox events post to Slack
Sektra can post any of fourteen events to Slack, among them a new conversation, an assignment, an incoming message, a reply sent, and a conversation closed or reopened. Service level events are on the list, so a channel hears when a conversation is at risk of missing its target and again when it misses. Website chat adds two more, a visitor starting a chat and a chat waiting for a person.
How Slack channels are mapped to inboxes
Each mapping names a Slack channel, an inbox or every inbox, and the events to post there. A billing inbox can therefore send its new conversations to one channel while service level warnings from every inbox go to another. Public channels work as soon as Slack is connected, and a private channel needs the Sektra app invited to it first.
What a Slack alert contains
Each alert opens with one line that names the event and the subject and links to the conversation. Below it are a short excerpt, the inbox, the people on the thread, the status, and the owner when the conversation has one. An Open in Sektra button takes the reader to the conversation, where the reply is written.
Rule alerts in Slack
Rules, the automations that act on a conversation when it arrives or changes, can post to Slack as one of their actions. A rule that checks for a refund request, or for mail from a particular domain, can send its alert to the channel it names. The alert shows the rule's name, so the channel can tell which rule raised it.
How to connect Slack to Sektra
A teammate who can manage integrations opens Settings, then Integrations, and chooses Connect Slack. Slack asks them to approve Sektra for the workspace, after which they open Channels on the connection, add a mapping and send a test message. Sektra asks Slack for permission to post messages and to list channel names, and it has no access to the messages your team writes there.
Assign, close or snooze from the Slack message
Each notification now carries four buttons: Assign to me, Close, Snooze until tomorrow and Open in Sektra. A click acts as the Sektra user the Slack account is linked to, so the activity line, the rules, the mailbox sync and the live inbox all follow. The outcome is posted under the notification for the channel to see. Snooze until tomorrow picks 9:00 AM the next day in that person's own time zone, and a click by someone without access to the inbox is refused in a message only they can see.
A reply in the Slack thread becomes an internal note
Reply under a notification in Slack and the text is added to the conversation as an internal note headed From Slack, with links kept and mentions shown as plain names. The note is written as the teammate who replied, and they get a private confirmation in Slack. The Sektra app has to be a member of the channel for thread replies there to reach the conversation.
Each person connects their Slack account once
Buttons and thread replies act as a named teammate, so each person links their Slack identity under Settings, Integrations, on the Slack card, with Connect my Slack account. Where the Slack app is allowed to read addresses, a first click by someone whose Slack address matches exactly one teammate links the two on its own. Without a link, the person is asked to connect their account.
Common questions
Setup, permissions and what Sektra reads from Slack, with a contact link for anything not covered here.
Does Sektra integrate with Slack?
Yes. Sektra connects to a Slack workspace and posts shared inbox events to the channels you map, including new conversations, assignments, service level warnings and alerts from rules. Every alert links back to the conversation, and more than one workspace can be connected to one account.
Can we get shared inbox emails in a Slack channel?
Sektra posts a notice of each new email to the channel you choose, with the subject, a short excerpt and the people on the thread. The full message and its history stay in Sektra, one click away from the alert.
Can we reply to a customer email from Slack?
No. Slack receives alerts, and the Open in Sektra button on each one leads to the conversation, where the reply is written and sent from the shared address. Keeping replies in the inbox means every answer sits in the conversation's history.
What can we do from a Slack notification without opening Sektra?
Assign the conversation to yourself, close it, or snooze it until 9:00 AM tomorrow, with one button each, and add an internal note by replying in the Slack thread. Each action is recorded as the teammate whose Slack account is linked, and a reply to the customer is still written in Sektra.
What happens if a Slack alert cannot be delivered?
When Slack cannot be reached, Sektra retries the alert several times over the following hours. If Slack stops accepting Sektra's messages, the connection is marked as needing to be reconnected and the person who set it up is notified in Sektra. Alerts are posted again once someone reconnects it.
Connect Slack and see it work
Connect a mailbox first, then add Slack from Settings. Both steps take a few minutes, and the team can work from the inbox the same day.