The Slack for Zendesk Support is a Built by Zendesk integration that connects a single Zendesk subdomain to a Slack workspace. It allows you to interact with Zendesk Support tickets in your Slack channels.
The integration includes the following features:
- Ticket event notifications in Slack: Slack users can see information about Zendesk Support ticket events in specified Slack channels. High-level ticket information is displayed (subject, description, priority, assignee, and creation time). Ticket notifications can be filtered based on event type; and based on groups Support groups. See Viewing ticket notifications in Slack for more information.
- Channel configuration: Slack admins can map Zendesk Support groups to Slack channels. This allows tickets to be routed to the right channel. Additionally, it is possible to choose the specific ticket event types to appear in Slack, reducing noise and letting admins prevent sensitive data from being posted in Slack. See Configuring and editing the integration, below, for more information.
- Creating new tickets directly from Slack: This feature is designed to cater to an internal use case where Slack users want to raise a new Support ticket directly from Slack, which they can do using a slash command. See Creating new Support tickets for more information.
- Creating and assigning a requester: When an unrecognized user creates a Zendesk Support ticket in Slack, a new Zendesk Support end-user is created and assigned to them. Similarly, when an agent creates a ticket on behalf of someone else, they can select a requester from a list of existing users, or choose to create a new end-user for them.
- Side conversations: With the Slack for Zendesk Support integration and the Collaboration add-on, agents can use side conversations in a ticket to initiate and participate in Slack threads. See Using Slack in side conversations for more information.
- Answer Bot for Slack: This integration is included in the Slack for Zendesk Support integration, and utilises Answer Bot to listen on selected Slack channels. It resolves questions by providing article suggestions from your Guide knowledge base.
This article covers the following topics:
Related articles:
Installing the integration
To install the Slack for Zendesk integration
- Log in to your company Slack workspace.
- Go to the Slack Zendesk integrations page: http://slack.zendesk-integrations.com/slack/install.
- Click Continue.
- Enter your Zendesk subdomain, accept the terms and conditions, and click Next.
- On the Install page, select the channel rules you want to apply.
Note: We recommend you select All Public Channels, which simplifies the post-installation configuration process. You can configure specific public and private channels later.
- Click Install.
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Once the installation is complete, you'll be redirected to Slack where you can configure the integration
Configuring the integration
Channel notifications are configured from Slack via direct conversation with the Zendesk app. Only Slack admins can configure channel notifications.
To configure the Slack for Zendesk Support integration
- In your Slack account, view the direct message from the integration, and click Get started.
- Using the drop-down menu, select a channel to configure. If you're configuring the integration from within a channel, that channel is selected by default, and you can scroll through the Channels list, or type a channel name to filter your options.
- Click Next.
Only channels that the Zendesk app has been invited to appears in the drop-down options. To add additional channels, see To add the app to a private channel and To add the app to another public channel.
- Using the Please choose a type drop-down menu, select the types of notifications you want to receive in this channel. You can select multiple notifications. When you’ve selected your notifications, click Done.
- Using the next Choose an option drop-down menu, select the support group(s) that have permission to post notifications in the channel. Support groups are used to categorize tickets, and restrict agent access based on group membership. By mapping groups to channels, administrators can ensure only relevant ticket events are posted to channels, and can exclude groups that have tickets with sensitive data.
By default, no groups are selected. You must select at least one group so they can post to the channel and for updates to be posted in the channel.
- Click Done.
From the Zendesk app’s direct message stream, you can add the app to another channel, edit existing settings, change the subdomain associated with the app, and provide feedback to Zendesk about the app.
To add the app to another public channel
- In Slack, click Zendesk in the Apps section and send a message to start a direct message with the app.
- Click Add channel.
- Follow steps 2-6 in To configure the Slack for Zendesk Support integration.
To add the app to a private channel
- In Slack, select your workspace drop-down menu and click Administration > Manage apps. The Apps page opens in a web browser.
- In the Apps page, click on the Zendesk app icon.
- Click Settings.
- In the Channel access page, under Which channels can Zendesk access? > Zendesk was individually added to, click Add App to Channel. A drop-down list of private channels is shown.
Note: Due to recent changes to the Slack platform, you cannot add the app to newly created private channels or channels converted from a public channel to a private channel.
- Select the private channel, and click Allow on the permissions pop-up page.
- In Slack, click Zendesk in the Apps section, and enter /zendesk settings.
- Click Add channel.
- Follow steps 2-6 in To configure the Slack for Zendesk Support integration.
To edit a channel’s app settings
- In Slack, click Zendesk in the Apps section to start a direct message with the app.
- Click Edit existing settings.
- Follow steps 2-6 in To configure the Slack for Zendesk Support integration, above.
You may need to change the subdomain associated with the integration, if, for instance, you are renaming your Zendesk Support subdomain, or moving the integration from a sandbox to a production instance.
To change your subdomain
- In Slack, click Zendesk in the Apps section to start a direct message with the app.
- Click Change subdomain.
- Enter the new subdomain, read and confirm the Zendesk terms and conditions, then click Next.
Zendesk is collecting feedback about the integration. Your comments and suggestions are welcome.
To provide feedback on the integration
- In Slack, click Zendesk in the Apps section to start a direct message with the app.
- Click Provide feedback.
- Use the feedback form to enter your comments, and answer any or all of the integration-related questions.
- Click Submit.
162 Comments
Hey Conor!
My apologies, in my testing the Slack integration only allows for plain text when creating or updating tickets at this time so it will not be possible to include images.
Nice one James, thanks for Testing!
Is it possible to send only a certain priority level ticket to the slack channel selected? We'd like to only alert the team for High priority tickets that come in, and only on creation. I created a duplicate trigger for this and used the same json but add my conditions. It doesn't appear to be working. And now I'm not able to activate the original trigger automatically created when you install.
@Schuyler - we have it set that only High and Urgent tickets kick over to Slack. Here are the filters we have set:
Hope this helps!
Hi Schuyler, You could add conditions in the trigger that reaches the slack target. A few helpful conditions which could assist you here are:
Ticket // Is // Created
&
Priority // Greater than // Normal (which would fire on tickets in a high or urgent priority)
Hi Jamie, Thanks for including those conditions! So, you've got priority all set. You may just want to bump the Ticket // Is // Created up to the ALL conditions and remove the Ticket // Is // Updated condition, if you do only want the trigger to fire for newly created tickets.
Hi Ben!
I have it for updated as well for tickets created by an Agent and marked as Urgent/High after it is created. It drives awareness of high/urgent tickets to the entire Support team.
Works for us, but can definitely see how others may only want it for created. Just builds a buffer for tickets that weren't originally created as High/Urgent.
Hope this makes sense!
Thanks,
Jamie
I have these conditions below in a trigger I create that cloned the trigger that gets automatically created (I wasn't able to edit that one). I don't see any notifications in Slack though. We set this up about an hour ago. Is there a delay maybe?
Hi Schuyler,
What does your Action statement look like? Here's what we have:
Thanks for sharing those additional points, Jamie!
@Jamie, I have the same as you have it. I didn't make any adjustments there
Schuyler, can you post a screenshot of your JSON? Maybe there's a misplaced character or something.
@Jessie,
Hey Schuyler,
When you paste that JSON into this validator and press the validate button, does it pass?
https://jsonlint.com
Wow, thanks everyone for the help on this. I truly appreciate the collaboration.
@Dan, it says it's valid on that site
Can you pop into Settings->API->Target Failures the next time the integration fails and check into if you see a matching failure for your Slack endpoint there? If so, there should be an error message which might help.
Hi! I'm getting the following message when trying to add internal note to a ticket:
"Failed to add internal note, please try again."
Hey Sergii,
Are you attempting to add this internal comment directly within the agent interface? Are you able to replicate this error in a Chrome Incognito Window? Additionally, does this occur with all tickets you attempt to update with an internal note or just a select few? If you have another agent available it may be worth having them try adding an internal note to see if this error comes up again. It may also be worth temporarily disabling any Zendesk apps you may have installed from your account to see if any of those could be interfering with your ticket functions. More on managing apps in our Managing your installed apps article.
Let me know :)
I thought it was obvious since I left the comment under this particular article but I was talking about Slack integration. After attempting to add a new internal note I get this message:
I've tried to find some clue in Settings/API/Target failures but there are no records coming from the Slack app.
Hi I am having some trouble with the Slack / Zendesk integration as well. I can create a new ticket from slack but I am not receiving notifications in slack when a new zendesk ticket is created outside of slack (e.g. emailing our support)
@Sergii this doesn't look expected so I'm going to create a ticket on your behalf and send this over to Support for further assistance. Most likely we will need to grab a couple of ticket examples and follow up with you in this ticket. You should receive an email shortly after the ticket has been created.
@Jlarin can you confirm your Slack trigger is active in your account under Admin>Business Rules>Triggers. This trigger should have automatically been created after setting up the Slack integration. You'll also want to make sure you've followed the instructions listed under Configuring the initial installation as you'll need to make sure you've configured your Slack channels appropriately.
Hope this helps!
Thanks for the quick reply. I am not seeing anything recent in Admin>Business Rules>Triggers (I do see ones from last year for Notify requester of received request). In the Slack channel I am trying to configure the button seems unresponsive when I click Edit Existing settings / Add channel in slack
Hey Jlarin,
Any chance you could try uninstalling and re-installing the integration? You'll want to install the app located in our App Marketplace which I've attached for you.
Let me know if you continue to experience issues as we may need to get a ticket created on your behalf to investigate further.
Hi Brett,
When I try reinstalling the intergration I am receiving an error that says "The resource doesn't exist". Any ideas?
Hey Jlarin,
This error typically pops up if you're on the starter or essential plan with Support. To have access to public apps within our Marketplace you would at least need to be on the team plan. More information on available features on your current plan can be found on our Plan Comparison page which I've attached.
If you're above the Starter/Essential plans let us know.
Cheers!
Hi,
I have one problem with Slack integration. Currently it posts all the messages including Auto Reply message of Facebook Page and Translate.com integration. So they are quite annoyed. Is there any way to get rid of them?
Hi Anh,
When installing the integration there should be a Slack trigger that's automatically created which will pass information over to your Slack channel. If you edit that trigger you should be able to include certain conditions that prevent this trigger from firing on those tickets. If your Facebook tickets are being tag as well as tickets from translate.com you can edit the trigger to exclude any tickets that contain that tag. Otherwise you can add the Channel > is not > Facebook Message/Post/Web Service (API) conditions to your Slack trigger as well.
Hope this helps!
I don't think you can edit Slack trigger (I told this 2 times to Zendesk Community Managers):
Trigger could not be updated:
Btw, why I have to login to this Zendesk Support every time I open it? It's too time consuming and annoying.
Hi Anh,
I just tested this on my and replicated this error. It looks like if you want to customize what information gets sent over to Slack you'd need to create your own HTTP target to accomplish this.
I was able to track down the following article that should help with setting this target up: Example: Integrating the HTTP Target with Slack
I encountered the same bug:
I don't think you can edit Slack trigger (I told this 2 times to Zendesk Community Managers):
Trigger could not be updated:
Btw, why I have to login to this Zendesk Support every time I open it? It's too time consuming and annoying.
I also used the same workaround, and it works fine. I deactivated the slack trigger.
I just tested this on my and replicated this error. It looks like if you want to customize what information gets sent over to Slack you'd need to create your own HTTP target to accomplish this.
I was able to track down the following article that should help with setting this target up: Example: Integrating the HTTP Target with Slack
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