Articles on: Getting Started

Getting started with the Essentials plan

Learn how to roll out the Essentials plan in a structured way and unlock the main value of Crisp without getting lost in every option at once.


Essentials is where Crisp becomes a full-featured support platform. It adds 10 seats, more included Hugo credits, customer data management, omnichannel Inbox channels, workflow automation, the AI chatbot builder, knowledge base, analytics, and routing rules. If Mini helps you professionalize support, Essentials is where you start designing a real operating model around it.


This guide helps you prioritize the Essentials setup:



Essentials plan features


The Essentials plan includes everything from the Free and Mini plans, plus the core tools needed for a complete customer support operation.


Essentials includes $25 of Hugo credits, which Crisp estimates at around 450 automated conversations per month.


Main features unlocked:

  • 10 seats included → scale your team without changing plan immediately
  • Customer data management → centralize and use customer information in Crisp
  • Omnichannel Inbox → connect channels like WhatsApp Business, Instagram DM, SMS, Line, Viber, and more
  • Workflow automation builder → build no-code workflows and automation paths
  • Omnichannel AI chatbot → create AI-powered automated flows and structured handoffs
  • Knowledge base → publish self-service help content for customers and agents
  • Analytics → track activity, customer satisfaction, automation impact, and team performance
  • Routing rules and assignment → automatically assign or route conversations
  • Sub-inboxes → organize conversations by team, brand, priority, language, or workflow
  • More Hugo credits → move from experimentation to a more operational AI setup



Admin setup


As an admin, focus on the foundations that make the plan useful for the whole team: people, channels, knowledge, data, routing, and automation. Most configuration starts from Crisp.


Invite operators and clarify workspace structure


Essentials includes 10 seats, so this is usually the right time to onboard your whole support team and clarify who owns what.


Open Settings → Workspace Settings → Operators and Teams to invite operators. Then decide how your team will split channel ownership, shifts, escalation rules, and sub-inboxes.


Helpful resources:


Connect omnichannel support channels


Essentials is where omnichannel support becomes a major part of the setup. Connect the channels your customers already use, then keep routing simple enough for the team to understand.


Common channels to connect:

  • Email → receive and reply to support emails directly from the Inbox
  • WhatsApp Business Platform → handle WhatsApp conversations with Crisp tools
  • Instagram DM and Messenger → centralize social messaging conversations
  • SMS, Line, and Viber → support customers on regional or mobile-first channels
  • Phone integrations → connect Aircall or Ringover when calls are part of your support process


Helpful channel guides:


Create the knowledge base your team will reuse


The knowledge base is one of the most important Essentials features because it supports customers, operators, and Hugo at the same time. Customers can self-serve, operators can share articles from the Inbox, and Hugo can use well-written content to answer more reliably.


Start with the questions that create the most repetitive support load, then expand gradually.


Good first knowledge base topics include:

  • Getting started → onboarding, setup, installation, and first steps
  • Billing and account questions → invoices, payments, plans, refunds, cancellation, and limits
  • Troubleshooting → known issues, common errors, and diagnostic steps
  • Policies → delivery, returns, privacy, support coverage, SLA, or escalation expectations
  • Product areas → feature explanations your team repeatedly sends manually


Helpful resources:


Synchronize customer data


Customer data helps agents answer faster and makes routing, filters, analytics, workflows, and AI more useful. Essentials is a good moment to decide which fields matter to your support process.


Useful customer data often includes:

  • Plan, subscription, or order status
  • Customer type, lifecycle stage, or account tier
  • Language, region, or preferred channel
  • Product area, workspace ID, or integration status
  • VIP, trial, churn-risk, or enterprise indicators


You can synchronize data using integrations, CSV imports, the Web SDK, the REST API, or tools such as Segment, Zapier, Make, or n8n.


Helpful guides:


Configure routing and sub-inboxes


Routing and sub-inboxes prevent conversations from piling up in one generic queue. They are especially useful once channels, teams, or customer segments multiply.


Open Settings → Message Settings → Sub-inboxes to create sub-inboxes, and use routing rules or workflows to send conversations to the right place.


Common Essentials structures include:

  • Team-based → support, sales, success, billing, partnerships
  • Channel-based → email, WhatsApp, Instagram, chat, phone
  • Priority-based → VIP, urgent, escalations, incidents
  • Language or region-based → helpful for distributed teams
  • Topic-based → billing, technical, delivery, demo, onboarding


Helpful guides:


Deploy workflows and Hugo


Essentials gives you enough room to start designing real automation. Use workflows when you need a structured path, and Hugo when the user needs a natural-language answer, routing decision, or AI-assisted resolution.


Open AI Agent → Automate → Workflow builder for workflows. Open AI Agent → Agent and AI Agent → Train for Hugo setup and training.


Good first automations include:

  • Department routing → ask what the user needs and send them to the right team
  • Out-of-office support → collect messages and answer simple documented questions when the team is away
  • Lead qualification → gather company size, use case, and contact details before handoff
  • Support triage → collect issue type, account context, and priority before assigning
  • Hugo answer flow → let Hugo answer repeated questions and escalate when needed


Helpful resources:


Review analytics early


Analytics becomes more useful when you review it before the team is overwhelmed. Use it to understand conversation volume, response time, ratings, channels, automation impact, and recurring topics.


Start by checking default reports, then build custom dashboards when your team knows which KPIs matter most.


Read Getting started with the Crisp Analytics for the full overview.



Operator setup


Operators get the most value from Essentials when they learn the daily tools that keep answers fast and consistent.


Profile, notifications, and availability


Each operator should review their profile, availability, and notifications before handling conversations. This avoids missed alerts and makes the chat experience more personal for customers.


Helpful guides:


Shortcuts, articles, and private notes


Operators should learn how to use shortcuts with !, share knowledge base articles with ?, and collaborate through private notes and mentions. These tools make support faster without removing human judgment.


Helpful guides:


Escalation and ownership


Make sure operators know when to assign a conversation, when to move it to a sub-inbox, when to mention a teammate, and when to resolve it. Good escalation notes should summarize the customer's goal, what was already tried, and what the next teammate should do.


This is especially important in Essentials because several channels, teams, and automation paths may now meet inside the same Inbox.



Next steps


Once the Essentials foundation is live, keep improving one layer at a time. A clean support setup usually grows better from channels, knowledge, routing, and data before moving into heavier automation.


Helpful resources to continue:


Updated on: 04/05/2026

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