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

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Summary: ◀▼

You can connect action flows to Mailchimp to automate managing contacts and tags. Use actions to create, update, look up, search, and delete contacts, as well as add, remove, or create tags. Connecting with a dedicated service account is recommended for security. These integrations help streamline audience management and improve collaboration across platforms through automated workflows.

By connecting the action builder to external systems, such as Mailchimp, 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 Mailchimp to action builder
  • Using Mailchimp actions in action flows

Connecting Mailchimp 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 Mailchimp
  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 Mailchimp.
  5. Click Connect.
  6. Follow Mailchimp's prompts to authenticate and complete the connection.

    The Mailchimp connection uses OAuth 2.0 with the authorization code grant type. When you authorize the connection, you'll be redirected to Mailchimp to grant permissions to your Zendesk account.

    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 Mailchimp.

Using Mailchimp actions in action flows

Mailchimp action steps can be used to manage contacts and tags.

The following Mailchimp actions are available:
  • Create contact
  • Update contact
  • Lookup contact
  • Search contacts
  • Add tag
  • Remove tag
  • Create tag
  • Delete contact

Creating contacts

Use the Create contact action to add a new contact to an audience.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

  Variables
Inputs Required: Audience, Email address, Status

Status options include Subscribed, Pending, or Transactional.

Optional: First name, Last name, Tag, Contact language, Is VIP?
Output Contact details, including ID, email address, unique email ID, contact ID, full name, status, email type, VIP status, language, member rating, last changed timestamp, opt-in timestamp, signup timestamp, list ID, merge fields, stats, tags, and tags count.

Updating contacts

Use the Update contact action to update an existing contact's information.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

  Variables
Inputs Required: Audience, Email address

Optional: Status, First name, Last name, Tag, Contact language, Is VIP?

Status options include Subscribed, Unsubscribed, Pending, Cleaned, or Transactional.
Output Updated contact details, including ID, email address, unique email ID, contact ID, full name, status, email type, VIP status, language, member rating, last changed timestamp, opt-in timestamp, signup timestamp, list ID, merge fields, stats, tags, and tags count.

Looking up contacts

Use the Lookup contact action to retrieve information about a contact using their email address.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

  Variables
Inputs Required: Audience, Email address
Output Contact details, including ID, email address, status, unique email ID, contact ID, full name, email type, VIP status, language, member rating, last changed timestamp, opt-in timestamp, signup timestamp, list ID, merge fields, stats, tags, and tags count.

Searching for contacts

Use the Search contacts action to find contacts in an audience based on various criteria.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

  Variables
Inputs Required: Audience

Optional: Status, Count, Offset, Since last changed

Count specifies the number of records to return (default: 25, max: 1000). Offset is for pagination (default: 0). Since last changed should be in YYYY-MM-DD format.
Output An array of contacts with ID, email address, unique email ID, contact ID, full name, status, email type, VIP status, language, member rating, last changed timestamp, opt-in timestamp, signup timestamp, merge fields, stats, tags, tags count, and list ID. Also includes total items count.

Adding a tag to a contact

Use the Add tag action to add a tag to an existing contact.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

  Variables
Inputs Required: Audience, Email address, Tag
Output Success status

Removing a tag from a contact

Use the Remove tag action to remove a tag from an existing contact.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

  Variables
Inputs Required: Audience, Email address, Tag
Output Success status

Creating a tag

Use the Create tag action to create a new tag in an audience.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

  Variables
Inputs Required: Audience, Tag
Output Tag details, including ID, name, member count, type, creation timestamp, update timestamp, and list ID.

Deleting a contact

Use the Delete contact action to permanently delete a contact from an audience.

Important: This action permanently deletes the contact and cannot be undone.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

  Variables
Inputs Required: Audience, Email address
Output Success status
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