If you’re juggling conversations in Intercom and managing deals in Salesforce, you know the pain of jumping between tabs—or worse, copy-pasting data by hand. This guide is for anyone who wants to make these two tools play nice, so your CRM workflows are less of a mess and more of a well-oiled machine. Whether you’re in support, sales, or ops, you’ll find out what’s actually possible, where the headaches are, and how to keep things simple.
Why Bother Integrating Intercom and Salesforce?
Let’s be honest: CRMs are only as good as the data in them. If your sales or support team uses Intercom to chat with customers but Salesforce is where deals and contacts live, there’s a good chance info is falling through the cracks. Integrating them means:
- Sales can see support convos without bugging support.
- Support knows if someone’s a high-value customer before replying.
- You don’t have to re-enter the same info twice.
But fair warning: It’s not magic. The integration does a lot, but it can’t read minds, and there’s setup involved. Let’s get into what you need to do.
Step 1: Check What You Actually Need
Before you touch any settings, get clear on what you’re trying to solve. Some teams need a deep, two-way sync; others just want to see Intercom chats in Salesforce. Common use cases:
- Push Intercom conversations into Salesforce as Cases or Activities
- See Salesforce data inside Intercom inbox
- Automatically create Leads or Contacts in Salesforce from Intercom chats
Ask your teams what they actually need, not what sounds cool. Don’t let “possible” become “required.” You’ll save yourself a lot of pain.
Step 2: Review Access and Permissions
You’ll need:
- Intercom admin access (not just a regular teammate)
- Salesforce admin access (and API access enabled)
- Permission to install packages in both systems
If you don’t have these, now’s the time to buy your admin a coffee.
Step 3: Install the Intercom Salesforce App
Intercom has a native Salesforce app. It’s the simplest way—don’t overcomplicate it with middleware unless you have to.
Here’s how:
- In Intercom:
- Go to your Intercom workspace.
- Navigate to the App Store and search for “Salesforce.”
- Click “Install.”
- Authorize Salesforce:
- You’ll be prompted to log in to Salesforce and allow access.
- Make sure you’re connecting to the right Salesforce environment (production, not a sandbox—unless you’re testing).
- Follow the prompts:
- Intercom walks you through connecting the two accounts.
Pro tip: If your Salesforce org uses custom domains, SSO, or has weird security settings, you might hit roadblocks. It’s not you—it’s Salesforce.
Step 4: Set Up Data Mapping
This is where most teams get tripped up. The integration can sync users, leads, contacts, and accounts, but you have to tell it which fields go where.
Do this carefully:
- Map basic fields first (Name, Email, Company).
- Don’t try to map every custom field on day one. You’ll go down a rabbit hole.
- Decide what’s the “source of truth” for each field. For example, if email updates in Intercom, should it overwrite Salesforce, or vice versa?
- Watch out for field type mismatches (e.g., a picklist in Salesforce vs. free text in Intercom).
What works:
Mapping standard fields is usually smooth. What doesn’t: syncing complex custom objects or one-off fields—expect to troubleshoot.
Step 5: Configure Sync Settings
You get a few choices:
- One-way sync: Intercom → Salesforce, or Salesforce → Intercom
- Two-way sync: Data updates in both places (riskier)
My honest take:
Start with one-way sync from Intercom to Salesforce. Two-way sync sounds great but can quickly turn into a spaghetti mess if you’re not careful. Only turn on two-way if you really need it and have tested every scenario.
Pro tip:
Set up notifications or logs for sync errors. Otherwise, you’ll have silent failures and wonder why data is missing.
Step 6: Decide How to Log Intercom Conversations
The integration can push Intercom conversations into Salesforce as:
- Tasks
- Activities
- Cases (if you use Salesforce Service Cloud)
What to consider:
- If you have a support team using Cases, log convos as Cases.
- For sales teams, Activities or Tasks are less cluttered.
- Too much logging = noise. Don’t sync every “thanks!” message.
Filter wisely:
Set up rules so only substantial conversations (like support requests or sales inquiries) get logged. Otherwise, your CRM will be unreadable.
Step 7: Test with Real Data
Don’t trust the demo data—run a few real conversations through the pipeline.
- Create a test user in Intercom. Start a chat.
- Make sure the right data appears in Salesforce.
- Edit info in both tools. Does it update as expected?
- Check for duplicates, missing fields, and sync time.
Things to ignore:
Don’t sweat if avatars or secondary info don’t sync perfectly. Focus on the fields your teams actually use.
Step 8: Train Your Team (Briefly)
You don’t need an all-hands meeting. Just show your team:
- Where to find Intercom chat history in Salesforce
- How to spot synced data vs. manually entered data
- Who to contact if something breaks
And let them know: the integration isn’t perfect, but it beats copy-pasting.
Step 9: Monitor and Adjust
Set a reminder to check the integration after a week or two:
- Is data syncing reliably?
- Are there any mismatches or weird duplicates?
- Is anyone complaining, or has the noise gone up?
Tweak the mapping, filters, or sync frequency as needed. Don’t “set and forget”—things will drift.
What Works, What Doesn’t, and What to Ignore
What works:
- Standard field sync (name, email, company)
- Logging conversations as Cases or Activities
- Seeing Salesforce data in Intercom inbox
What doesn’t:
- Complex custom objects (unless you build it yourself)
- Real-time sync (there’s often a delay)
- Magic AI “insights”—just ignore the hype and focus on the basics
What to ignore:
- Overly ambitious automation. Start small.
- Syncing every field “just because.” Less is more.
- Third-party middleware, unless the native app truly can’t do what you need.
Keep It Simple and Iterate
You don’t need a perfect integration on day one. Get the basics working, see how your team uses it, and improve from there. If you hit a wall, ask yourself if you’re trying to automate something that should just be handled by a person. Integrations should help your team, not become another full-time job.
Keep it simple, stay skeptical of buzzwords, and only build what actually makes your work easier. Good luck.