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By connecting the action builder to external systems, such as Gmail, admins can integrate Zendesk with external systems in automated workflows, improving collaboration and maintaining a seamless experience across multiple platforms.
Note: The steps associated with external systems in action flows are referred to collectively as external actions.
This article contains the following topics:
  • Connecting Gmail to action builder
  • Using Gmail actions in action flows
  • Recipe: Sending emails to your Inside Sales team when a Zendesk ticket is identified as a lead

Connecting Gmail to action builder

Before you can include external actions in your action flows, you must connect the action builder to the external system.

When connecting to external systems for use in action flows, the following best practices are recommended:
  • All external actions performed by an action flow are attributed to the user who connected the external system. Therefore, it's a best practice to use a dedicated service account rather than personal credentials when connecting to each external system.
  • All integrations request access to necessary scopes. However, it's important that you review and validate the scopes before authorizing the connection to the external system.
  • When managing credentials for API key-based tools, such as OpenAI, it's best to store keys in a secure vault or credential manager.
To connect action builder to Gmail
  1. In Admin Center, click Apps and integrations in the sidebar, then select Actions > Action flows.
  2. Create or edit an action flow.
  3. Open the step sidebar.
  4. Under External actions, click Gmail.
  5. Click Connect.
  6. Follow Gmail's prompts to authenticate and complete the connection.

    You'll log into a Google Workspace or Gmail account, and admin approval might be required in managed environments.

    The following scope is required for the account you authenticate with: https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.send.

    Note: All external actions performed by an action flow are attributed to the user who connected the external system. Therefore, it is a best practice to use a dedicated service account rather than personal credentials when connecting to each external system.

After you've connected to the system, you'll see an indicator that it's connected and details about the instance you're connected to, as well as the actions available for Gmail.

Using Gmail actions in action flows

Gmail action steps can be used to send new emails.

The following Gmail actions are available:
  • Sending emails in Gmail

Sending emails in Gmail

Use the Send email action to send a new email.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

  Variables
Inputs Required: Recipient's email, Subject, Body

Optional: BCC emails, CC emails
Output threadID, ID, labelIds

Recipe: Sending emails to your Inside Sales team when a Zendesk ticket is identified as a lead

The following example action flow uses ticket tags added by agents to automatically send notification emails to the Inside Sales team when a ticket is identified as a lead.

Such an action flow would consist of the following steps:
  1. Add an action flow trigger with the following details:
    1. Click Add trigger.
    2. In the step sidebar, under Zendesk, click Tickets.
    3. Click Lifecycle and select Ticket is tagged.
    4. Click Add condition.
    5. Under Variable, click Ticket tags changed and select Tags (added).
    6. Set the Operator to Contains at least 1 of.
    7. Under Value, enter sales_lead.
  2. Add a step to look up ticket details:
    1. In the action builder, beneath the action flow trigger, click the Add step icon ().
    2. In the step sidebar, under Zendesk actions, click Look up ticket.
    3. Under Ticket ID, click into the field and then click Select a variable instead.
    4. Within the variable menu, select Ticket is tagged as the step that outputs the variable you want to use, and then select Ticket ID.
  3. Add a step to look up user details about the ticket requester:
    1. In the action builder, click the Add step icon ().
    2. In the step sidebar, under Zendesk actions, click Look up user.
    3. Under User ID type, select Zendesk user ID.
    4. For User ID, click Add variable.
    5. Within the variable menu, select Look up ticket as the step that outputs the variable you want to use, and then select Requester ID.
  4. Add a step to lookup details about the ticket requester's organization:
    1. In the action builder, click the Add step icon ().
    2. In the step sidebar, under Zendesk actions, click Look up organization.
    3. Under Organization ID type, select Zendesk organization ID.
    4. For Organization ID, click Add variable.
    5. Within the variable menu, select Look up user as the step that outputs the variable you want to use, and then select Organization ID.
  5. Add a step that sends an email based on the information you collected for the ticket, user, and organization:
    1. In the action builder, click the Add step icon ().
    2. In the step sidebar, under External actions, click Gmail and then select Send email.
    3. Under Recipient's email, enter the Inside sales team distribution list. For example, sales@yourcompany.com.
    4. Under Subject, enter Ticket Ticket ID Identified as Lead, where Ticket ID is a variable.

      Click Add variable, select Look up ticket, and select Ticket ID, to insert the Ticket ID variable into the subject.

    5. Under Body, enter the message you want to send to the Inside sales team for new prospects. Include relevant ticket and user information as variables from the Look up ticket and Look up user steps, respectively, to streamline their ability to follow up. In the following example, all variables are italicized:
      Hi Sales Team,

Ticket Ticket ID has been identified as a lead. Can you please follow up with User Name as soon as possible?

User contact information:
- Email: User Email
- Phone: User Phone
- Locale and timezone: User Locale - User IANA timezone
- Notes: User Notes

Here's more context on the ticket:
- Ticket subject: Ticket Subject
- Ticket description: Ticket Description
- Last ticket update: Ticket's Latest agent update
  6. Click Save.
  7. Click Test to test the action flow.
  8. Click the options menu () and select Activate to begin sending emails to the sales team when Zendesk tickets are identified as sales leads.
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