Channels are the ways that you engage with your customers (how they create support requests and how you communicate with them). You choose and configure the channels you want to support. Regardless of the channel by which new support requests are submitted, all requests become tickets that agents manage in Zendesk Support.
To set up channels, select Settings > Channels.
For help using Zendesk Explore to report on ticket channels, see Understanding ticket channels in Explore.
The Zendesk Support email channel enables customers to send email directly to your support email address (for example, support@yoursubdomain.zendesk.com). Email you receive for Zendesk Support becomes tickets. Your Zendesk Support account allows for an unlimited number of email addresses within your Zendesk domain. In other words, you can use as many email address variations as you need.
Accepting support requests via external email addresses is also supported. If you already have, or want to support, external email addresses, you can forward email received at those addresses to equivalent addresses in your Zendesk domain.
In addition to receiving support requests at your external email addresses and then forwarding that email to your Zendesk account, you can also configure your email channel to process all outgoing email as if it were coming from your own email domain, rather than your Zendesk account domain. Using your own domain requires a little more set up on your part, and much of it is done outside of Zendesk, maybe requiring help from your domain administrator.
All of your email communication is sent using a template that you can customize. The template is in both HTML and plain text. You can customize the template to match your branding. You can also make some minor modifications to the wording.
You can also set up Zendesk Support business rules to generate automatic email replies at each stage in the workflow, such as updating the ticket, solving the ticket, and so on.
For more information about configuring your email channel, see Getting started with email in Zendesk Support.
Help Center
- Branded customer-facing support site
- Knowledge base, for publishing self-service content
- Community, available on Gather Professional, for customer collaboration
- Requests portal, where customers submit tickets and, on Guide Professional, also manage their tickets
For information about enabling Guide and setting up your Help Center, see Getting started with Guide.
Social messaging
When you add a social messaging channel to Zendesk, messages sent to your company’s social messaging channels (such as WhatsApp, LINE, and WeChat, Facebook Messenger, and Twitter DM) become tickets in Zendesk. You can send and receive social messages as part of the main ticket conversation flow.
The following social messaging channels are available in Zendesk:
- WhatsApp: A popular chat and voice messaging app with more than 1.5 billion users in over 180 countries. See Adding WhatsApp channels to the Zendesk Agent Workspace.
- WeChat: A popular, China-based mobile text and voice messaging communication service. See Adding WeChat channels to the Zendesk Agent Workspace.
- LINE: An all-in-one communications app for text, voice, and video calls, moments, photo sharing, and games. See Adding LINE channels to the Zendesk Agent Workspace.
- Facebook Messenger: A popular American messaging app that enables you to send private messages through Facebook. See Adding Facebook Messenger channels to the Zendesk Agent Workspace.
- Twitter Direct Message (DM): A popular American messing app that enables you to send private messages through Twitter. See Adding Twitter DM channels to the Zendesk Agent Workspace.
You can also add Sunshine Conversations channels to Zendesk (see Adding Sunshine Conversations channels).
Chat
Zendesk Chat enables customers to initiate live chat with an agent. Chat sessions become tickets that agents can update after the chat session. You can add Zendesk Chat to any website or Help Center.
In addition to responding to end-user chats, you can review a real-time list of visitors, what page they're on, how they got to your website, and other details. Using this information, agents can provide proactive support by reaching out to targeted visitors, like ones with items in their shopping cart but are taking too long to complete their purchase.
Agents can also chat with other agents, either one-on-one or by pulling them into a conversation with a visitor.
For information about setting up Zendesk Chat, see Setting Up Zendesk Chat. For information about using chat, see Using Zendesk Chat.
Talk
The Zendesk Talk channel integrates live telephone support into your Zendesk account. You select a telephone number for incoming calls and set the call queuing options and recorded greetings. You can also customize call greetings.
Agents make themselves available to receive calls and their conversations with customers are recorded and added to tickets. When agents are unavailable, customers leave voicemail messages that automatically become tickets containing the voicemail recording and a transcription. Agents can answer calls through the web browser or they can forward calls to another number.
For information about setting up your Talk channel, see Enabling the Talk channel and configuring general settings. For information about using Talk, see Using Zendesk Talk.
Text
The Zendesk Text channel is included with Talk Team, Professional and Enterprise. Text enables you to respond to inbound text messages, automate alerts, or send proactive texts to your customers.
Whenever you receive a text, it automatically creates a ticket in Support meaning that you can apply all of the advantages of automated workflows, reporting and history to your text support.
For information about setting up Text, see Getting started with Text.
Web Widget
The Web Widget enables you to embed Zendesk Support options in your website or Help Center so your customers can get help without leaving your website or Help Center. Your customers can get quick access to:
- Search for knowledge base articles
- Live chat with an agent
- Contact form to submit a ticket
The widget appears in the bottom-right corner of your website or Help Center, and your customers click the widget to access support options.
You configure the components you want in the widget, then add the widget code to your website or Help Center. After you add the code, you manage changes from your Zendesk. You must be an administrator to set up and manage Web Widget.
API
If you're a developer, you can access Zendesk Support functionality through the Zendesk API. For example, you can create a new ticket using the API instead.
The Channel > API page in Zendesk Support lets you configure how API requests are authenticated as well as track API activity against your rate limit. For more information, see Using the API dashboard.
Mobile SDK
The Mobile SDK enables you to embed Zendesk support options in your native app so your customers can get help directly in your app. Your customers can get quick access to:
- Create tickets using a contact form in your app
- View and comment on existing tickets in-app, without switching to email
- Browse and search your Help Center knowledge base in-app, without being redirected to a browser
- Rate your app in the app store or send you direct feedback
After the SDK is integrated in your app, changes are managed from your Zendesk and automatically reflected in the SDK. Adding the SDK to your app is done outside of Zendesk by your developers using a code snippet generated in Zendesk.
Channel integrations
As well as the channels that are built into Zendesk products, you can also add apps that offer additional channels by connecting to many popular platforms on the web. These apps let your agents respond to messages, reviews and comments just like they do with any other ticket.
Remember, you can also use the Zendesk APIs and the Mobile SDK to create your own channels.
To browse the available channel integrations, see the Channels section in the Zendesk Marketplace.
30 Comments
HI Zendesk,
We've recently discovered that our 'Support' tab wasn't linked properly to our Knowledge Base. When looking at 'Tickets by Channel' it reports that about 40% of our traffic comes from 'Web Service'. Does the web service refer to this tab? Or from a different source?
Thanks!
Hi Geoff!
As you'll see in Emily's post above (which you may have missed), Web Service refers to tickets that are created via the API.
Are you using the old Feedback Tab, or the new Web Widget?
Hi Jessie,
We were using the Feedback tab, we've just disabled it and are looking into the Web Widget now.
Using some of the other articles on your knowledge base I was able to determine the volume that came in through the feedback tab and it wasn't as drastic as we suspected.
I am still curious what category both the feedback tab and the web widget would fall under.
Hey Geoff!
I'm still waiting to hear back on the Feedback tab; I haven't dealt with that one in a while so I don't remember whether it's considered Web Service, or Web Form. I'll let you know what I find out on that one.
The Web Widget, however, actually shows up as it's own channel in Insights, so there won't be any ambiguity there in terms of being able to tell where your tickets are coming from.
Fantastic! Thanks!
Hey Geoff!
I checked with some colleagues and the Feedback tab would show up in Insights as "Dropbox".
Let me know if you need anything else!
Have you released an update to treat the two web forms differently in the past year and a half? We are doing a campaign to move away from email and toward a standardize form (the ZD form) and want to know how successful we are. However, agents also create tickets for things through the agent interface....not part of the campaign.
Hey Nate,
We've made a number of different changes to the Help Center structure in the last year and a half, and some of those changes do include the ticket form. Sadly I'm not entirely sure which two different web forms you're referring to in your question though. Mind elaborating a bit more here, or submitting a ticket to us at support@zendesk.com with some additional details on what you're looking for?
Additionally, agents have not lost their ability to create tickets through the agent interface. So if that is part of your desired workflow, feel safe that it will not change any time soon.
Thanks!
Hey folks,
Is there a way to differentiate between different email address when making triggers?
I want to set up a new email channel and I want all of those emails to go to a specific agent.
Thanks,
Liam
Hey Liam!
You can use the Ticket: Received at condition in your triggers:
You just need to add the new email to your Support Addresses first, and then refresh your browser. Then the new email address will show up in the condition drop down list.
Oh great!
Thanks Jessie.
No problem!
Hi. Question regarding web widget. Does Zendesk have any solution for visual feedback directly on the webpage the customers use. (eg like DebugMe, BugHerd)?
We think it is a good solution for our clients to just draw or sketch directly on the webpage and then submit this as a ticket. Then you avoid alot of typing and explaining what's wrong. A picture tells more than a thousand words. Right:)
Br
Steffen Aadnevik
Hey Steffen -
This is not something that is currently offered. I did some research to see if there are any apps that do what you're asking, but it doesn't look like there are at this time.
I'd suggest that you head over to Product Feedback and submit your detailed use case, and then other users can add their vote for it as well if it's something they would find useful.
what is the difference between Web service and Web form?
Hi Carla!
Web service relates to tickets created by a third party service, such as an app. Web form is your contact form.
Hope this helps!
Hello,
what is the difference between web form and web widget?
Hi Fusion!
The web form channel is the Submit A Request form in your Help Center. It's also used for tickets that are created by Agents from the agent interface.
The web widget is a widget you can embed in a website. Support requests submitted through this widget show a channel of web widget.
Hi,
is it possible to manage more than 15 FB pages?
Thanks,
Diego.
Hi Diego!
15 FB pages is currently the maximum number you can manage from your Support instance.
Hi!
I couldn't find any information under this. What exactly falls under "other"?
Hi Ronald,
That's a dynamic thing that Zendesk will update to try to keep the info on that layout simple--- If you hover over the yellow, you should see a breakdown of some sort. Most of them will be very small percentages so Zendesk groups them together. This can change over time.
Hi there
We have one 3er party integration with our market place Mercado Libre
Also with Whatsapp
Off course Facebook, email and our site.
My question is,
Why is posible make différence beetwen channel option into rules automatization (into that is possible find Any channel option and channel options) and Any channel?
The thing is , the channel option make posible seletion of all ours integrations! but the Any Channel no.
So i wondering if is posible make disponible the option Channel into explore for example.
thanks a lots
BR
Hello Leonardo Elizeche,
To confirm, you're trying to determine if there's a way to add your 3rd party integrations as a separate channel so you can report on it through Explore. Currently, as the base program stands, there's no way to create a channel that would show this under this list.
What I would recommend is creating a trigger that adds a tag to any tickets created through this 3rd party app and then report on that tag. I've included below an article that goes into detail on how to report with tags.
Reporting with tags
Best regards.
Hello!
I am looking at the channels that our tickets come in through, and there are some coming through Web Form. We don't currently have any web forms connected to Zendesk, so I'm curious how these are being defined. I see that Jessie Schutz mentioned that "it's also used for tickets that are created by Agents from the agent interface." Should I assume that's what's happening here? When our Agents use the agent interface to send an email, those are being classified as Web Form and not Email?
Thanks!
Hi Duggan,
If you do not have any web forms connected to Zendesk, I would definitely assume that is what is happening there. If your agents reply through the interface, that is the channel that the ticket would show.
I hope that is helpful info!
Hi Ben Van Iten,
Do you know if there is a field for "inbound" and "outbound" associated with the channel? Specifically, how would we identify how many tickets are coming through a web form (i.e., inbound) vs from our agents sending a message through Zendesk (i.e., outbound)?
Thanks!
Hi Duggan,
There is not a field that does this by default. However you could have a trigger place a tag upon ticket creation based on the two scenarios.
For instance could have a trigger that has conditions that look like this:
Ticket is Created
Channel is Web
Current user is agent
Then for actions:
Add tag "agent_created_web".
You could repeat this process with a different tag for end user created tickets and use the tags in views, or reporting, or however you need to. You could use custom fields with this as well if it's easier for you to track it that way.
I hope this is helpful!
Is there a way to combine two tecket channels into one for reporting purposes in Explore? We have been trying to combine API and Web ticket Channels to one Internal ticket channel field. That way we can measure the amount of tickets that come through email (externally) from tickets that are created in the system through Web or API. Thanks.
Hi Jeffrey Soll,
You are able to do this by creating a "set" in Explore: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360022184334-Organizing-values-by-groups-and-sets
Basically, this allows you to group certain attribute values together. The instructions are in that article but please let us know if you have any further questions!
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