Legacy Salesforce: Setting up sending Zendesk tickets into Salesforce

Important: On 30 January, 2020 the legacy Salesforce Integration (managed package) will be deprecated and replaced by a new Salesforce Integration - built on Zendesk. Read the announcement about the removal of the legacy Salesforce Integration and timelines here.

The legacy Salesforce Integration is no longer available to install. If you need to upgrade the legacy integration to version 5.9, please contact Zendesk Support.

We are excited to be offering a new Salesforce Integration - built on Zendesk which is now generally available. You need to have a Salesforce Edition with API rights to use this. Get started with setting up the new integration here.

If you do not have a Salesforce Edition with API rights, you can:
Try the Workato Salesforce to Support Integration
Try Zendesk Sell with its native integration to Zendesk Support

You can enable Zendesk to send all ticket information (for tickets with the status New, Open, On-Hold, or Solved) to Salesforce using a target. This is useful for including Zendesk tickets in support analytics generated through the Salesforce reporting module.

Note: You must have installed the Zendesk for Salesforce app from the Salesforce AppExchange before you configure user and organization syncing.

If you want to see Zendesk ticket information without sending the ticket information into Salesforce, you can add a Visualforce page with a list of tickets. For information, see Adding ticket view to your Salesforce Account, Contact, Lead, and Opportunity layouts.

The following video explains how to view and send Zendesk Support tickets to Salesforce.

Viewing and sending Zendesk Support tickets to Salesforce

To read about other Zendesk for Salesforce features, see Choosing Zendesk for Salesforce features.

For links to all of our Salesforce documentation, see Salesforce integration resources.

Setting the matching criteria for ticket requester and ticket organization

When Zendesk sends ticket information to Salesforce, the app attempts to match the ticket’s requester and ticket organization with existing Salesforce records (Organization → Account, User → Contact/Lead). You may want to use the auto-matching criteria set for bulk and ongoing sync.

Note: The Organization field in Salesforce will not inherit the Account of the Contact present in the Requester field. This Organization field will only populate based on the Organization information present on the ticket within Zendesk.

To enable auto-matching for ticket sending

1. In the section Ticket association to Salesforce records, click to select Use auto-matching criteria for searching Salesforce records.

   

   This ensures that both Lead and Contact records in Salesforce will be searched for a matching requester in Zendesk. Users can set up to three criteria for searching (OR logical condition will be used when more than one criteria is set). If you do not check this option, the default criteria will be used:

   • Organization Name (in Zendesk) will match with Account Name (in Salesforce)

   • Requester Email (in Zendesk) will match with Contact/Lead Email (in Salesforce)

2. If no existing record is found for the match, you may opt to create new records for the ticket’s requester and organization. To do this, click to select Create Contacts or Leads and Accounts.

   

3. Next, use the Create requester as drop-down to choose whether to create the Requester as Contact or Lead:
4. Created Contact records can be associated to a default Account by setting the Default Account setting:

   

   All changes are automatically saved.

Editing your target and trigger in Zendesk

When you installed the Salesforce app in Zendesk, Zendesk automatically created a Salesforce target that you will use to send information to Salesforce.

Zendesk also automatically created a trigger named Create a record in Salesforce when ticket is solved in your Zendesk. As the name implies, this trigger creates a new Salesforce Zendesk ticket whenever a ticket is solved.

To modify your Salesforce target

1. In Zendesk, click the Admin icon () in the sidebar, then select Settings > Extensions.
2. Under the Targets tab, locate the Salesforce target extension, and click Edit.
3. Use the drop-down menu to select Send full ticket details as a custom object.
4. Click Submit.

To modify your Salesforce trigger

1. In Zendesk, click the Admin icon () in the sidebar, then select Business Rules > Triggers.
2. Find the new trigger, Create a record in Salesforce when ticket is solved, and click the trigger name to edit it.
3. Modify the conditions of this trigger as needed, then click Save.

Now when you solve a ticket, a Salesforce Zendesk ticket is created in your Salesforce organization.

Customizing the Zendesk ticket in Salesforce

By default, Zendesk maps the following system fields to the Zendesk Ticket object automatically:

• Zendesk Ticket ID
• Status
• Subject
• Priority
• Requester
• Organization name
• Group
• Assignee
• Tags
• Description
• Comments
• Date/Time created
• Date/Time update
• Date/Time solved
• Date/Time initially assigned
• Resolution time (calendar & business)
• Requester wait time (calendar & business)
• Agent wait time (calendar & business)
• Hold time (calendar & business)
• Reply time (calendar & business)
• Form id
• Brand

The Salesforce target also sends all data from custom fields into Salesforce. To take advantage of this feature, you need to expose custom data on the Zendesk Ticket option by completing some steps for each custom field.

To expose custom data on the Zendesk Ticket

1. In Salesforce, go to the Administration Setup page.

   

2. In the left panel, under Build, select Create > Objects.
3. Click the Zendesk Ticket object (not Edit).

   

4. In the Custom Fields & Relationships section, click New.
5. Select a Data Type for your new field, then click Next.

   In most cases, Text, Text Area, or Number is appropriate. For Zendesk drop-down fields, a Text field is sufficient. Only the selected value will be synced, not all the options in the list.

6. Enter a Field Label.

   Matching the Field Label to the Zendesk Custom Field Name is preferred, but not required.

7. Complete the other mandatory fields, then click Next.
8. Click Next again, then click Save.
9. Click the Zendesk tab in the Zendesk for Salesforce app.
10. In the Ticket Sending to Salesforce section, click Get Custom Ticket Fields.

    

    A list of custom fields from your Zendesk account appears. Note: You must have already created custom fields in Zendesk.

11. Deselect the Create Contacts and Accounts in Salesforce checkbox if you do not want to create a new Contact or Account in Salesforce when no match is found for the ticket's requester or organization.

    By default, when Zendesk sends ticket information to Salesforce, if an exact email match is not found between the ticket requester and a Contact (not a lead) a new Contact is created in Salesforce. Likewise, if an exact email match is not found between the organization and an Account, a new Account is created in Salesforce.

12. If you opt to create new Contacts for unmatched ticket requesters, you can enter an existing Account as the Default Account for new Contacts if no organization is present in Zendesk. You can also click the Account lookup icon to set the default Account.

    Setting a default Account will prevent orphaned Accounts from being created.

13. Map your custom Zendesk field to the new field you created on the Salesforce Zendesk Ticket object.

    

14. Click Save.

When a ticket is sent into Salesforce via the target in Zendesk, your custom field data will automatically populate according to these mappings.

Note: For advanced users: If you want to create custom links to other Salesforce objects, check out Custom links in Salesforce Zendesk ticket.

Editing from the Zendesk Ticket object

While tickets are synced in either direction between Zendesk and Salesforce, the Zendesk Ticket objects are only synced one-way: from Zendesk to Salesforce. Making changes directly to the Zendesk Ticket object will not update information in Zendesk.

You can, however, access and edit the ticket from Salesforce by clicking "edit ticket details."  Your changes will be saved directly in Zendesk.

You must be an Agent or a Light Agent in Zendesk to edit tickets. Light Agents are limited to adding private comments in tickets.

Note: To create tickets within SFDC, the user creating ticket objects must have access to edit the fields within the Zendesk Support Ticket and Zendesk Support Ticket Comment objects.

To edit a ticket and save changes directly to Zendesk

1. In Salesforce, open a Zendesk Ticket record, then click Personal Settings.

   

2. In the Authentication section, enter your Zendesk login and password, then click Save.
   Note: You must be an Agent or a Light Agent in Zendesk to edit tickets. Light Agents are limited to adding private comments in tickets.
3. In the Zendesk Ticket record, click Edit Ticket Details.
4. Click Edit.
   Alternatively, click New if you want to create a new ticket in Zendesk.

   Note: You cannot edit Closed tickets.
5. Make any changes you'd like, then click Save.

   You are redirected to the Zendesk Ticket.

Any ychanges appears directly in Zendesk on your ticket. Depending on how you have configured your Salesforce trigger, you may not see the update reflected in the Salesforce Zendesk Ticket object.