Connect to IntercomStop managing refund approvals in Slack DMs.
Refund approvals shouldn't live in someone's DMs. They disappear, they're slow, and finance can't touch them.
You already know the problem — approvals are just DMs and it's chaos. Supportman gives refund requests a channel, a structure, and a record.
Free trial · Approvals in limited beta · See pricing
DMs feel fast until you need the record.
A DM approval works in the moment. It fails the moment someone asks what happened last month — or the agent has to ask again because the manager never saw it.
More on the cost in the hidden cost of the shoulder-tap
✕ Can't search
Finance asks who approved the refund. You scroll DMs from three managers across two months.
✕ No timestamp trail
When was it approved? The DM says "yeah go ahead" with no structured request time.
✕ Manager misses it
Buried in notifications while they are in a meeting. Agent waits, customer waits.
✕ No reason recorded
Approved — but why? One-time exception or policy change? Nobody wrote it down.
✕ Agent follows up twice
No queue, no status. Agent pings again because the DM got lost.
Same Slack. Not the same chaos.
Keep approvals in Slack — just not in DMs. A dedicated channel with a structured format means every request has context, every decision has a reason, and everything lives in one place.
Dedicated #intercom-approvals channel — not DMs
Every request with type, context, and customer situation
Every decision with a required comment
One searchable, exportable record
Request from inbox. Decide in channel. On record.
#intercom-approvals replaces the DM thread. Request from Intercom, decision back on the conversation, CSV export when finance needs the log.
Module:
Request type
Details
Approval request from Sara — Refund
⏳ Refund
Requested by:
Sara
Requested:
Today at 2:14 PM
Details:
$50. Item arrived with damaged packaging
Module:
Refund
✓ Approved · Today at 2:15 PM
$50. Item arrived with damaged packaging
Agent submits — no DM.
Request type, refund amount, context — from the Supportman panel in the conversation. No shoulder-tap, no hunting for who is online.
Channel post — not a DM.
Every manager sees the request. Approve or deny with a required comment. Searchable, timestamped, shared.
Decision on the conversation.
Agent unblocked. Finance can scroll the channel or export CSV — not reconstruct from DMs.
Questions about replacing DMs.
Why shouldn't you approve refunds in Slack DMs?
DMs are not easily searchable, not shared, and not structured. When finance asks who approved a credit, you cannot easily query a DM thread. Managers miss requests buried in notifications. Agents follow up twice because nothing tracks open vs decided.
What's a better alternative to DM approvals?
A dedicated approvals channel — not DMs, not #general. Every request posts with the same fields: who asked, what type, customer context. Every decision includes a required reason. The channel becomes a queryable record.
How does Supportman replace approval DMs?
Agents submit from the Supportman panel in Intercom. The request posts to #intercom-approvals — visible to every manager, not a private DM. Managers approve or deny with a comment. The outcome flows back to the conversation. Export to CSV when finance needs the log.
Why wouldn't I just make my own #approvals channel?
You can — and it is better than losing requests in DMs. The gap is structure. Ad-hoc channel messages vary in format, skip fields, and often have no link back to the Intercom conversation. Supportman posts every request in the same shape, ties it to the inbox thread, and keeps decisions exportable for reporting.
Refund approvals belong in a channel, not a DM.
Connect Intercom and Slack. Enable Approvals. Agents request from the inbox — managers decide in #intercom-approvals.
Supportman is an independent product — not made by or affiliated with Intercom or Slack.