How do you handle employee requests without a service desk?
An employee messages the IT Help bot and fills out a short form: what’s broken, how urgent it is, plus a screenshot. The request lands as a card in the IT Requests chat with a number and Claim and Resolved buttons. An engineer claims it with one click and sorts out the details in the thread. Once it’s closed, the bot lets the employee know in a direct message. Walk through the request yourself below.
Bot
/start
Hi! 👋 If something isn't working, click the button and fill out a short form. Your request goes straight to the engineers.
Megan messages the IT Help bot. Click "New request," check the form and submit it.
Why handle IT requests in your team chat
Requests sent to the admin’s direct messages get lost, the second engineer never sees the ones sent by email, and people skip a separate service desk altogether: it’s easier to post “it’s not working” in the general chat.
- One entry point for every request. The bot’s form asks for what matters right away: what’s broken, how urgent it is, plus a screenshot. Engineers don’t have to follow up with questions, and employees don’t have to learn yet another tool. They’re already in Pachca.
- You can see who’s on it. A Claim button and a name under the card. Two engineers never fix the same thing, and the manager doesn’t have to go around asking “who’s handling Megan’s VPN?”
- Engineers stay focused. Requests live in one chat, not in ten direct messages and an inbox. Follow-up questions go in the thread, so the chat stays a list of cards, not a wall of messages.
- Nothing gets lost. The number, priority, screenshot and conversation all live in one thread. A month later, a quick search shows what was already done with that laptop.
- Managers see the big picture. Open the chat and you can see how many requests are in progress, which ones are urgent and who’s on them. No reports or status meetings needed.
- Grows with you. Today it’s a form and two buttons. Tomorrow n8n creates a Jira ticket and pings the team about requests nobody has claimed, and an AI agent answers common questions like “how do I connect to the printer” in the thread.
How to set it up
30 minutes in Pachca plus a handler: n8n with no code, or a couple of hours of a developer's time. You'll need administrator rights in Pachca.
In Pachca
- 1
Create an IT Requests chat and an on-call tag
+ next to search Chat. Add your engineers. Then go to Members table view the tag icon: create an "IT" tag and add it to the chat. An @IT mention in an urgent request reaches everyone on shift, even if they've muted the chat. - 2
Create the IT Help bot
Automations Integrations Webhook +. Make it a bot for multiple chats and turn on the Public toggle, so employees can find the bot in search and message it directly. Copy the token from the API tab: your handler will need it. - 3
Add the bot to the chat
Chat settings Add members the Integrations tab IT Help. Only an administrator or the chat's creator can do this. - 4
Turn on the outgoing webhook
Bot settings the Outgoing webhook tab. Paste your handler's address from option B or C below into the Webhook URL field, then select the New messages event with the /start command and Button clicks. Send the bot /start: it should reply with a New request button.
Request handler
The employee's form and the buttons under each card come from a handler that receives the bot's events. Pick one of three options, depending on your setup.
- A
No handler yet: requests posted to the chat from a template
Pin a template in the IT Requests chat: what's broken, how urgent it is, a screenshot. Employees post there themselves, the engineer reacts with 👀 when they take a request and ✅ when it's resolved, and asks questions in the thread. You don't get the form and buttons from the demo, but setup takes five minutes, and the bot from step 2 can wait for option B or C. - B
No code with n8n
Grab the ready-made time-off bot workflow. It already has /start, a button, a form, a card in the chat and a reply to the employee. Swap the form fields for "What's broken," "Urgency" and "Screenshot," the buttons for Claim and Resolved, and set the IT Requests chat ID in the send node. Paste the Production URL of the Webhook node into step 4. You can self-host n8n or use the cloud version. The Pachca node is covered in the n8n guide. - C
Your own code, or you already have a service desk
Give this skill to Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor. It covers the bot setup, the form, a card with Claim and Resolved buttons, handling clicks, a direct message to the employee, a bridge to Jira Service Management or your own service desk, and where to host the handler.
In your team
- 5
Agree on an on-call rule
Whoever's on request duty clicks Claim within the first 15 minutes of the workday and takes urgent requests first. They ask the employee questions in the card's thread with an @mention. Pachca has cross-chat threads, so you can loop in someone who isn't in the chat. Whoever claimed the request clicks Resolved, and the bot messages the employee on its own.
Pachca doesn't have SLA timers or request reports: the status and history live in the card and its thread. Reminders about requests nobody has claimed, a weekly summary or a Jira ticket can be built in n8n or with your own code from option C. We explain how forms, bot buttons and outgoing webhooks work in the Help Center.
Troubleshooting
- The bot doesn't reply to /start: New messages isn't selected in the outgoing webhook, or the handler is off. n8n needs the Production URL, not the Test URL.
- The button doesn't open the form, or Claim doesn't work: Button clicks isn't selected in the outgoing webhook.
- The request doesn't show up in the chat: the bot isn't in IT Requests, or the handler has another chat's ID.