After you've installed the Zendesk for Salesforce app you can choose the functionality you'd like to set up. The integration is designed so that you can choose the features you need and skip the ones you don't.
This article describes the common use cases for the functionality you can use when you integrate with Salesforce. After you get a better understanding of the features, you can configure the ones that make sense for you.
This article covers the following topics:
For links to all of our Salesforce documentation, see Salesforce integration resources.
View Salesforce data in Zendesk
A lot of Zendesk customers want to expose additional information about their users in a Zendesk ticket. This enables agents to see user information at a glance in the apps panel of a Zendesk ticket. User information might include subscription level, whether a particular account has an open opportunity, or additional customer notes. You can configure the Salesforce information that is exposed in Zendesk.
To configure Salesforce data in Zendesk, see Installing and configuring the app in Zendesk.
View Zendesk tickets in Salesforce
Let's face it—your Sales reps live in Salesforce, but they want to know whether their Accounts have open tickets in Zendesk. These days the line between sales and support is very thin. The integration provides a couple of different options for exposing Zendesk data in Salesforce depending on your needs.
You only need to configure one of these two options. Read through the advantages and disadvantages of each before you decide.
Option 1: Send Zendesk tickets into Salesforce
This is the most powerful of the two options for viewing Zendesk data in Salesforce.
This option uses the Zendesk Ticket custom object in Salesforce and creates new records that match tickets in your Zendesk. The ticket requester is automatically matched to a Contact, and the ticket’s organization is automatically matched to an Account. This enables you to easily see tickets from the Contact and Account pages.
This also enables you to use Salesforce reports to report on Zendesk data and to report across Zendesk and Salesforce data. This is especially powerful if you are on the Enterprise edition of Salesforce. You can also create custom workflows based on this data.
If you are concerned about running up against storage limits in Salesforce, however, this might not be the best option for you. This option also shows only new tickets going forward; there is no way to import closed tickets.
To send Zendesk tickets into Salesforce, see Setting up sending Zendesk tickets into Salesforce.
Option 2: View Zendesk tickets using Account, Contact, and Lead Visualforce Pages
This option queries Zendesk in real time from the Account, Contact, Lead, and Opportunity pages, and does not store any Zendesk data into Salesforce. Instead of automatically matching Contacts with requesters and Accounts with organizations, this option enables you to choose the matching scheme with which to find and display tickets.
This might be a better option for Zendesk customers whose Accounts do not exactly match Zendesk organizations, or customers who do not use organizations at all in Zendesk.
You cannot create custom workflows or reports based on Zendesk data with this option.
To configure Zendesk ticket information in Visualforce pages, see Adding ticket view to your Account, Contact, Lead, and Opportunity layouts.
Create and edit Zendesk tickets in Salesforce
If you configured viewing Zendesk tickets in Salesforce (either option 1 or 2 above), your Sales reps also have the ability to create and edit Zendesk tickets from Salesforce.
This means Sales reps can actively engage in tickets with their customers (or create a ticket on behalf of a customer) without ever leaving Salesforce.
To configure the ability to create and edit Zendesk tickets in Salesforce, see the section "Creating and updating tickets in Salesforce" in Adding ticket view to your Account, Contact, Lead, and Opportunity layouts.
Send Zendesk tickets into Salesforce
This option uses the Zendesk Ticket custom object in Salesforce and creates new records that match tickets in your Zendesk. The ticket requester is automatically matched to a Contact, and the ticket’s organization is automatically matched to an Account. This enables you to easily see tickets from the Contact and Account pages.
This also enables you to use Salesforce reports to report on Zendesk data and to report across Zendesk and Salesforce data. This is especially powerful if you are on the Enterprise edition of Salesforce. You can also create custom workflows based on this data.
If you are concerned about running up against storage limits in Salesforce, however, this might not be the best option for you. This option also shows only new tickets going forward; there is no way to import closed tickets.
To send Zendesk tickets into Salesforce, see Setting up sending Zendesk tickets into Salesforce.
Salesforce Account to Zendesk organization ongoing sync
This is a one-way sync from Salesforce to Zendesk that keeps organizations in sync with your Accounts.
Many customers store valuable information about the companies they do business with in Salesforce, such as subscriptions, support level entitlements, or even locations. By enabling this sync, you can add this information into your Zendesk organizations to help drive workflows. For example, if you want a trigger to automatically reassign tickets from companies with “Gold” service entitlement to a different group, you might want to enable this sync.
There are some limitations to the sync. The integration matches Accounts to organizations one-for-one, based on name, and expects all Accounts to have a unique name. However, not all Salesforce implementations adhere to those rules. So if you have Accounts with duplicate names, this might not be the right feature for you. Also, the integration does not support Parent Accounts, so all Accounts will be treated as organizations in Zendesk.
You can filter the Accounts that are synced into Zendesk based on record type or an Account drop-down of your choosing.
To configure Account to organization syncing, see Configuring user and organization syncing in Salesforce.
Salesforce Contact/Lead to Zendesk user sync
This is a one-way sync from Salesforce to Zendesk that keeps users in sync with your Contacts and Leads.
Many customers store valuable information about the people they do business with in Salesforce, such as VIP flags. By enabling this sync, you can add this information into your Zendesk users to help drive workflow. For example, if you want a trigger to automatically increase the priority of tickets from users marked as VIP, you might want to enable this sync.
There are some limitations to the sync. The integration matches Contacts/Leads to users one-for-one based on email address, and expects all Contacts/Leads to have a unique email address. However, not all Salesforce implementations adhere to those rules. So if you have multiple Contacts that share the same email address (for example, info@salesforce.com), this might not be the right feature for you. Also, the integration does not support Person Accounts; these are treated as organizations in Zendesk rather than users.
You can filter the Contacts and Leads that are synced into Zendesk based on record type or an Contact/Lead drop-down of your choosing.
To configure Contact/Lead to user syncing, see Configuring user and organization syncing in Salesforce.
14 Comments
For some reason on our instance of Salesforce the ticket mapping fields are not being saved.
For example: I want to find Account tickets by Zendesk tag and map this to Account ID. I save the mapping config and receive a message saying:
Success:
Filtering & Sorting settings saved successfully
When I navigate away from the settings page, the mapping config changes back to default. Is this a bug with the app?
Hi Ruwan,
What you're describing is a known issue. I've created a ticket on your behalf (you should receive an email shortly) and linked it to our internal problem ticket for it. As we update the problem ticket you'll be notified automatically.
Hi,
I am using Zendesk Sandbox with Salesforce Sandbox. Facing error while trying to create or edit a ticket from salesforce Account/ Contact detail page. I have implemented option 2 to view zendesk tickets. I can see the tickets from Zendesk on Account and Contact detail page, but
i) Could not create a new ticket from salesforce using "New Ticket" button. I am shown error.
ii) When I try to open ticket on click of Subject of ticket, I am shown error.
Hi Prathibha,
To better troubleshoot this error, I will want to pull this into a ticket and work with you directly. However, to start, the first thing I would check it that you are using the most recent version of the Zendesk for Salesforce integration.- Zendesk for Salesforce Updates
I will create Support ticket on your behalf and follow up soon!
I am thinking of re-enabling this integration, but am very hesitant to do so as the API calls to Salesforce were much higher than we anticipated. And caused other issues for us.
Is there any documentation/reference material anywhere as to what results in an API call, and how to limit it? I'd like to try and ensure that the calls are under control this go-around, so that we don't encounter the same issues that resulted in us disabling the integration.
Unfortunately upping our APIs in Salesforce is not a solution.
Hey Krista!
From a high level, our integration currently interacts with the Salesforce API in two different ways.
Outside of this, all calls being made should be interacting with the Zendesk API and not count against your limits in Salesforce.
I'll follow up with you on this in a support ticket as well.
I am finding I am having quite a few tickets not deleting in SF when they are Deleted in Zendesk. Is there something I need to setup?
@Ben Speich, I've created a support ticket for you. Please check your email for notification :)
Hi Ruwan,Pratibha,Krista & Ben,
We support seamless out of the box integration between Salesforce and Zendesk. We are also listed on the Zendesk Marketplace. Some of the key features that can help resolve your problems:
- Simple mapping and integration configuration which can be edited.
- Sync of data from source to target and vice versa(Bidirectional).
- Enable/Disable integration at your flexibility.
- History Supported.
- Sync of comments, attachments and links.
- No additional API configurations.
You can reach out to us for your custom demo here: http://www.opshub.com/demo-request/
Thanks,
OpsHub
When first setting up the Zendesk - Salesforce integration and doing the initial synchronization of data... I understand the process to have all Salesforce-Accounts go into Zendesk-Organizations. Does this ring true the other way? Do all Zendesk-Organizations get synchronized back to Salesforce-Accounts? Can we either limit this to be a "one-way street" Salesforce to Zendesk or limit which organizations in Zendesk get pushed to Salesforce?
Hi Andy! The Salesforce Account to Zendesk organization sync is only one-way (Salesforce to Zendesk). We do, however, have a new Bulk Sync feature in beta, that allows you to choose whether to update from Zendesk to Salesforce or not. While this is currently in beta, you can learn more about this feature here:
Salesforce: Using the updated Zendesk Support Bulk Sync feature beta
The Bulk Sync beta that Laura mentions is now our standard Bulk Sync!
Here's an article on how to use it:
Using the Zendesk Support Bulk Sync Feature
I am finding I am having quite a few tickets not deleting in SF when they are Deleted in Zendesk. I also noticed that tickets merged into other tickets in Zendesk still appear as stand alone tickets in SF. Is there something I need to setup?
Thanks
HeyO Kristine,
I fear we may not have explained things sufficiently herein, but our Salesforce integration will not delete tickets in SFDC when they are deleted in Zendesk. The reason for this is that no triggers/automations can act on tickets as they are deleted, so the integration has no way to notify SFDC of the change.
In terms of merged tickets, the ticket which has been merged within ZD should show up as Closed within Salesforce (assuming your triggers/automations are configured to send in that case). Please let me know if you'd like to continue this conversation within a ticket for privacy and I'll be happy to create one.
Hope this helps!
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