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How do I create Help Scout metrics?

Updated

Visualize, discover, and act on your help desk data by creating Help Scout data feed metrics.

This article includes:

Connecting PowerMetrics to your Help Scout data

Your data is safe with us. The first time you connect your Help Scout data to PowerMetrics, you'll be prompted to enter your Help Scout login credentials and give permission to allow access to the data within your Help Scout account. We are serious about protecting your data privacy.

Managing your connections. By default, your connection name looks like this: yourname<date and time created>. You can rename connections from your list of connections (accessed by clicking the in the left navigation sidebar and selecting Connections) or within the application as you add metrics. Go here for more information on managing your account connections. You can use the same account connection every time you connect to Help Scout. If you have trouble accessing an existing connection, your OAuth token may have expired. If that happens to you, check out these troubleshooting tips.

Creating Help Scout data feed metrics

When you create Help Scout data feed metrics, you:

Connecting to your Help Scout account and adding a data feed

Every metric needs a data feed. As you create metrics, you’ll either create a new data feed or select one from your list of existing data feeds. Learn more about data feeds.

To create a new data feed for your metric:

  1. In the left navigation sidebar click the + button beside Metrics and select See all services.
  2. On the Where is your data? page, under Data Feed Services, select Help Scout.
  3. Click +New data feed > Select Help Scout data.
  4. Select a pre-built data source from the left section of the Choose a pre-built or custom connection page or click +Create a custom Help Scout data source.
  5. If this is your first time connecting to Help Scout:
    • Click Connect an account. Enter your Help Scout login credentials and click Next. If prompted, click Allow Access to enable PowerMetrics to securely access your Help Scout data. Click Continue.
  6. If you have connected to Help Scout before:
    • Select an existing connection (token) from the drop-down list and click Continue.
  7. If you chose a pre-built data source for your data feed:
    • On the Configure your data source page, if applicable, select a User from the drop-down list.
    • If you want to modify the pre-built data request, click Switch to Custom settings.
      Note: If you switch back to the Basic settings page after making changes in the Custom settings page, your changes will not be saved.
    • If you clicked Switch to Custom settings: Modify the Query URL to get the data you want. You can use the existing information in the Query URL text box as a base. It was auto-filled based on the pre-built data source you selected earlier. Refer to the Help Scout API documentation for more information.
  8. If you chose a custom-built data source for your data feed:
    • Edit the Query URL to return the data you need and replace any generic placeholder text with your own. Refer to the Help Scout API documentation for more information.
  9. Click Get data.
  10. Ensure this is the data you’re looking for. Then, click Continue. Next step - refine the data in the data feed editor.

To use an existing data feed for your metric:

  1. In the left navigation sidebar, click Data Feeds.
  2. In your list of Data Feeds, select the one you want to use for your metric.
  3. Click the Metrics tab in the right-side pane.
  4. Click +Add metric and proceed to Configuring your metric.

Refining data in the data feed editor

You’ve arrived in the data feed editor where you can choose to either accept the automatic settings or make changes.

If you’re happy with the automatic settings:

If you want to make changes:

  • Help Scout returns data in a JSON format. The method for refining and editing JSON source data is slightly different than when dealing with source data that’s already in a tabular format. Learn how to refine and edit JSON source data feeds.
  • Some common adjustments include changing the data format or names for columns, updating the data feed name, and combining columns using formulas - there are many customization options available.
  • If you want to adjust the original query, click the tile under Data service.
  • When you’re finished editing the data feed, click Save data feed and proceed to Configuring your metric.

Note: After you’re finished creating a metric with this data feed, you can return to it and use it to make more data feed metrics. In the left navigation sidebar, click Data Feeds. Select the desired data feed from the list and click +Add metric.

Configuring your metric

When you configure a data feed metric, you select the measure and dimensions from the data feed to include in the metric and choose settings that determine how the data will be visualized. Go here for detailed instructions on configuring your metric.

Next steps – Interacting with your data

Now that you're connected and have some metrics, it's time to start learning from your data and tracking your progress.

Here are a few suggestions for interacting with your data:

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