> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vortexiq.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Top Topics (Tags), Intercom > The most-applied conversation tags over 30 days — what your customers are actually contacting you about. How to read it, why it matters, and how to act on it. **Card class:** [Non-Hero](/nerve-centre/overview#card-classes-explained) • **Category:** [Conversation Intelligence](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type) > A ranked bar chart of your most-used conversation tags. The voice-of-customer summary your founder reads first. ## At a glance > **Top Topics (Tags)** is a Conversation Intelligence metric tracked from Intercom data. It ranks the conversation tags applied most often over the last 30 days, turning a month of free-form support into a short, ordered list of themes — `sizing`, `returns`, `shipping-delay`, `payment-failed`, and the like. For the founder at Blitz it is the fastest read on what is driving contacts; for the support lead it is where to point macros, help articles, and product fixes. A tag jumping 50% in a week is an early signal that something upstream broke. | | | | --------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **What it counts** | The number of conversations tagged with each tag in the trailing 30 days, ranked highest to lowest. Counts come from the Intercom `tags` model joined to conversations; a conversation with multiple tags contributes to each. | | **Sample type** | Backend API data from Intercom (`tags` endpoint joined to tagged conversations), refreshed on the standard data refresh. | | **Why it matters** | Tags are the only structured "why" Intercom carries for a conversation. Ranked over a month they show where demand concentrates, so you can fix the top driver instead of replying to it one ticket at a time. A spiking tag is a leading indicator of an incident — often visible here before volume or backlog moves materially. | | **Reading the value** | Read the ranking and the week-over-week deltas. A stable top five is your steady-state demand. The action signal is a tag rising fast: any tag up more than 50% week over week trips the alert and warrants investigation. A long tail of rarely used tags suggests inconsistent tagging discipline, which weakens every topic-based read. | | **Currency** | number | | **Time window** | `30D` | | **Alert trigger** | `any tag +50% WoW` | | **Sentiment key** | `null` | | **Roles** | owner, operations | ## Calculation Calculated automatically from your Intercom data. Vortex IQ reads your workspace tags from the `tags` endpoint and counts, for each tag, how many conversations carried it within the trailing 30 days. Because a conversation can hold several tags, it contributes one count to every tag applied to it — so the tag counts do not sum to the conversation total. Tags are ranked descending for the horizontal bar chart, and each tag's current 30-day count is compared to the prior week to drive the +50% week-over-week alert. See the worked example below for a typical reading. ## Worked example *A representative reading of **Top Topics (Tags)** for Blitz on Intercom.* The steady-state top five reads `sizing` (310), `returns` (190), `shipping` (150), `order-status` (120), `payment` (60) — typical for a sports-apparel retailer where fit questions dominate. One week the `payment` tag jumps from 60 to 140 (+133%), tripping the +50% alert. The support lead drills in and sees the tagged conversations cluster on a single card type. Cross-referencing the **Support Spike on Failed Payments** cross-channel card confirms an Adyen refusal pattern on that BIN range. The founder escalates to the payments provider; once resolved, the `payment` tag settles back to baseline the following week. Meanwhile the persistently high `sizing` tag prompts a separate, slower fix: a size-guide overlay on product pages to deflect the demand entirely. For deeper investigation, use Vortex Mind to trace a spiking tag to its upstream cause; for natural-language exploration, ask Ask Viq "which tags grew fastest this week?". ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together | Card | Why merchants reach for it | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [`ic_volume_trend`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/intercom/conversation-volume-trend) | Tells you whether a spiking tag also moved total volume or just shifted the mix. | | [`ic_volume_by_channel`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/intercom/volume-by-channel) | Pairs the "what" with the "where" — which channel carries each topic. | | [`ic_negative_ratings`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/intercom/negative-rated-conversations) | Surfaces which topics are also generating bad CSAT, so you fix the painful ones first. | | [`ic_xc_complaints_on_oos`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/intercom/complaints-on-out-of-stock-skus) | Joins stock/refund-tagged conversations to inventory — the cross-channel version of a stock topic. | | [`ic_xc_support_spike_failed_payments`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/intercom/support-spike-on-failed-payments) | Confirms whether a spiking payment tag traces to real Adyen refusals. | ## Reconciling against the vendor's own dashboard **Where to look in Intercom's own dashboard:** Open **Reports → Tags** (or the "Conversation topics" report) in Intercom and set a 30-day range. Intercom lists each tag with its conversation count; the ranking should match this card's bars. You can also filter the Inbox by a tag to inspect the underlying conversations, but the Inbox shows live state rather than the 30-day applied count. **Why the Vortex IQ value may legitimately differ:** | Reason | Direction | What to do | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------- | ----------------------------------------------------------- | | **Tag-applied timestamp vs conversation date.** Vortex IQ counts a tag if it was applied to a conversation created in the window; Intercom may count by when the tag itself was applied. A tag added late to an old conversation can fall in a different period. | Variable | Compare weekly totals where the boundary effect washes out. | | **Multi-tag conversations.** Both systems count a conversation under each of its tags, so tag counts exceed conversation counts. | Neutral | Do not expect tag counts to sum to total conversations. | | **Archived or renamed tags.** A renamed tag may appear as a new series; archived tags drop out. | Variable | Reconcile your tag taxonomy before comparing rankings. | **Cross-connector reconciliation:** when a payment- or stock-related tag spikes, validate it against the Adyen and commerce sibling cards rather than treating the tag as ground truth on its own. For divergence investigations, use Vortex Mind. ## Known limitations / merchant FAQs **Q: How often does Top Topics (Tags) update?** The card refreshes on the standard data refresh (typically every 30-60 minutes for live integrations). **Q: Why does my Intercom dashboard show a different number?** The most common causes are how the tag-applied timestamp is bucketed versus conversation creation date, multi-tag counting, and renamed or archived tags. Reconcile in Reports → Tags over a matching range. **Q: My ranking looks noisy — why?** Inconsistent tagging is the usual culprit. If agents do not tag every conversation, or use overlapping tags, the ranking under-represents real demand. Tighten your tagging conventions to make this card trustworthy. **Q: Can I customise the alert threshold?** Yes. The "+50% week over week on any tag" trigger is configurable per profile in the Sensitivity tab. Raise it if a few low-volume tags create noisy alerts, or lower it to catch emerging issues sooner. *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *Top Topics (Tags)* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across Intercom and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. [Start for free](https://app.vortexiq.ai/login) or [book a demo](https://www.vortexiq.ai/contact-us) to see this metric running on your own data.