The Outlook integration allows Outlook users with or without a Zendesk account to copy email contents to a new ticket in Zendesk without leaving the Outlook application.
In this article, we discuss:
- Requirements for setting up the integration
- Installing and configuring the integration
- Deleting the integration
- Frequently asked questions
Requirements for setting up the integration
The integration setup should be done in the Exchange Center admin by the administrator of your Microsoft organization, to ensure that any tickets created are sent to the correct Zendesk subdomain for your organization. Additionally, to set up the integration, you must:
- Have an Office 365
- Have permissions to install Outlook add-ins.
- Be a Zendesk administrator.
- *If you are using an on-premise exchange server, please consult with Microsoft support to configure the server to ensure that the add-in will work
Installing and configuring the integration
Before you can use the Outlook integration, you must perform the following tasks:
- Install the Zendesk add-in to Outlook.
- Configure the Zendesk add-in.
- Set up the integration.
To install the Zendesk add-in
- Open Office 365, and click on the Admin panel.
- In the left sidebar menu, select Admin and click Exchange.
- In the Organization section, click on add-ins.
- Click on the plus symbol and select Add from the Office Store.
- Click on Zendesk to select the add-in, then click Add.
- Return to the add-in list and double-click Zendesk Add-in.
This installs the Zendesk add-in from the Microsoft Store.
To configure the Zendesk add-in
- Open Outlook and select an email.
- Click the Zendesk add-in.
- Make sure the following options are selected:
- Make this add-in available to users in your organization
- Mandatory, always enabled. Users can't disable this add-in
- Go to your Outlook desktop application and click the Zendesk button on the upper-right part of the screen.
- Click Create Ticket.
You should see and error message with a link to set up the integration
To set up the integration
- In the error message described above, click the Set Up Now link. You will be redirected to the integration setup page.
- Enter your subdomain, then click Authorize.
- Complete the setup and return to Outlook
- Close the add-in and reopen it again
- Click the Create Ticket Button. You should see that a ticket is successfully created in Zendesk
Deleting the integration
Go to https://outlook.zendesk-integrations.com/account, enter your Zendesk subdomain and click delete.
Frequently Asked Questions
I successfully completed the integration setup but it still shows setup now in the add-in window?
Close the add-in window by clicking on the add-in and reopen it by clicking it again. This will refresh the add-in and will enable you to create a ticket successfully.
The add-in is integrated with the wrong Zendesk subdomain. How can I change it?
Go to https://outlook.zendesk-integrations.com/account, enter your Zendesk subdomain and click delete. Once deleted, you can setup the integration again with the new subdomain
When I click "View in Zendesk" I’m asked to log in but I don’t have credentials. How can I view the ticket in Zendesk?
Only employees in your organization with a Zendesk account can view tickets inside Zendesk. Request a Zendesk account from your organization’s Zendesk admin to view the ticket inside Zendesk.
How many Zendesk accounts can be connected to Outlook?
There is a 1:1 limitation for this integration.
65 Comments
Great little plugin, is the a road map for it at all?
I would love to see the ability of adding an email to an existing ticket. Quite often customers will email me directly instead of our support email address and it would be great to be able to just add those emails to an existing ticket...
Dean
This plugin is nice as is but it honestly doesn't get much use in our organization.
What would be really useful would be the ability to link a new email to an _existing_ ticket. Are there plans to add that functionality?
We find that on occasion customers do not receive messages from our Zendesk implementation due to corporate spam filters. We are often able to email them directly and the messages go through without an issue. In those instances we now have to copy and past he content of the email into the ticket; it would be much nicer if there was a way to link the message directly.
--Devin
Hi @Dean and @FinagraphSupport, we had the same need - to forward an email in to an existing ticket... This was the best workaround we could find. Works for us!
Thanks as always for sharing your insights, Heather!
I've been using this add-in for ages but sadly it crashes Outlook on my Mac after installing Microsoft updates for Office.
Anyone else having this issue?
Is it possible to get the source code for this so that we can make changes of our own? We would like to implement this exact feature, but as a private instead of public comment.
Thanks in advance.
Can you add a feature which allows us to attach an email message to an existing ticket as an 'internal note'?
It would be very useful to be able to add ticket related communications with 3rd parties (none of them the requester) to an existing ticket.
Also it allows to keep a good/full record of the communication about the ticket besides the communication with the requester.
Hey Curtis! I'm so sorry for the delayed response! I'm looking into this for you.
Hello Curtis,
There is no public facing repository where this data stored. I'm going to create a ticket for you though to see if our product team would be willing to provide you with the source code. You should expect an email from me soon!
We are having a problem using this add-on. It worked for ages and now crashes Outlook on both a Mac and Windows PC.
Can anyone help?
Hi, this plugin or the "groups" version all for O365 sounds good, but too save myself some time : this is what I do, will it help me?
We 2 guys supporting multiple companies (70-90) all small business. We want a helpdesk integrated with O365 to manage our calls as we are dropping too many due to forgetfulness and writing notes on napkins etc. will we be able to transfer and add note to calls between ourselves? Will we be able to have support email where people send their request to and that get put in as a call? which version of the plugin would I install? Groups or outlook integration? any further help will be appreciated.
Thx
Dan.
Forgot to add, can we update the calls on a IOS or Android device?
Dan
Hey John!
Can you give me some more detail on what's going wrong with the plugin? What are you doing when it crashes? Is it completely non-functional or are you able to use it sometimes? The more info you can give me, the better!
Hey Daniel! I'm working on finding someone to answer these questions for you. Stand by!
We are in 30 day trial mode and we have an on-premise Exchange 2013 environment,. When I add the extension into ECP and then restart our Outlook - I get the add-in. When I try and create a ticket - I get the following error -
Hi Joe!
I see this is your first post, welcome to The Community! I'm going to open up a ticket for you so we can get some additional information on this issue and hopefully get this resolved for you!
I have followed the instructions on this integration and I get " Add-in Error" Sorry, we can't load the add-in. Please make sure you have a network connection and/or Internet connectivity. Click "Retry" once you're back online" I am online, I have had others try this as well and it gives the same error. We all are running outlook 2016, also errors out in the web client as well. Any Ideas?
Hey, Chris!
I am going to be sending you an email ticket to go over this issue with you. Please, keep an eye out, and we'll look into this!
In regards to Lalitha Viswanathan's comment, as well as Ian Christopher B. de Jesus' comment, when will we be able to add more than the three default fields for this add-in? The add-in has been in production for more than two years with no further development - adding more fields, or having the capability to expand on this plugin is essential.
You can find their comments earlier in this thread here:
https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/213691807/comments/115001354108
https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/213691807/comments/115001356808
Hi,
Which version of Outlook desktop application is required for this setup?
Thanks.
Hey Zach,
I will address your concerns in a ticket with us. Please look out for an email from myself. Our development team has looked into this and cannot provide any timeline as far as implementation currently.
Is there any way to set up the integration at the mailbox/user level instead of at the organization?
Within our company, we have at least six independent Zendesk accounts. When I tried to use this add-in, it automatically connected to the account belonging to our IT team. Then, I had to jump through a few hoops to get that test ticket deleted by the other team (since I was not the requester and had zero visibility). I could go in and delete their integration, but obviously that's a poor choice. Each team needs this functionality.
If we can't set the correct Zendesk account individually, could we set multiple accounts and choose within the add-in? Are there any plans for this in the future?
Hi Jo!
A point of clarification - are these all separate Zendesk instances, or are they brands in one Zendesk instance?
@Jessie - Separate instances.
Hey Jo!
The only thing I can think, based on how installation of this integration works, is that you were logged into the IT Zendesk when did the installation. Make sure you're logged in to the instance you want to install in first and try again. I bet that'll do it!
Thanks for the suggestion, Jessie. Unfortunately, I can't be logged in to IT any more than I'm logged in to Zendesk Support (both end-user with a Google log-on).
Just to be sure, I uninstalled & reinstalled while logged in to my team's Zen. Still no prompt to set up the integration. Instead, it automatically created the ticket for IT (same as the first time I tried).
I'll look into this from the Microsoft/Outlook side.
---
PS: I still think it should be updated to display the name of the Zendesk account it's going to - and allow to choose from multiple accounts in the future.
Hi Jo!
I can't say why this is happening. If you're not able to get it figured out on the Outlook side of things, submit a ticket to our Support Team so we can take a closer look at your set up to see if we can figure out what's going on!
Zendsek team, it's been about 2 years since users have been requesting additional fields especially a group/assignee option. Can this please be added?
Hi,
Is there a way to attach an email to an existing ticket? Am I missing something...?
Just for clarification, we will be migrating our current on-prem Exchange server to O365 Business Essentials and will then use our existing perpetual instances of Office 2016 Professional Plus. All of my users will have an O365 profile, but Outlook 2016 itself will be from the existing instances of the desktop program, is that going to work or do we need to move over to O365 E3 instead so the desktop app will be O365's desktop instance?
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