The Slack for Zendesk Support is a Built by Zendesk integration that allows you to interact with Zendesk Support tickets in your Slack channels. It is available on the Support Team, Professional, and Enterprise plans.
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 assgned 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.
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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, and can begin the configuration process.
Configuring and editing 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 are listed.
- 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.
FAQ
This section covers the following questions about using and troubleshooting the Slack for Zendesk Support integration.
Installation questions
I've installed the Zendesk app in my Slack account and I don't see the Zendesk actions?
The app needs to be invited to a channel to work. You can invite the Zendesk app to a channel by clicking on the settings cog inside the Slack channel and selecting "Add apps".
Is Enterprise Grid supported?
It is not supported in the current version. If the integration is installed on Enterprise Grid, the Zendesk app will work only one workspace.
Configuring the integration
Can I connect multiple Zendesk accounts to a Slack workspace?
The current version allows connecting a single Zendesk subdomain to a workspace. We are planning to support multiple Zendesk subdomains in the future.
Can the ticket notification information be customized?
Notification information is not customizable.
Can the integration be used in a shared channel in Slack?
Unfortunately our integration isn't supported in shared channels due to the integration method used (workspace tokens). We're in the process of moving to another method which will be released later in 2020.
129 Comments
Thanks for sharing, Jaimie!
I am experiencing the same issue as Mitch. I have sent in a support request.
Is there an issue with posting Updates to a private channel?
Hey Dave,
I couldn't track any known issues down on my end. Are you still having trouble posting updates to a Private channel? If so, I'm happy to create a ticket on your behalf so we can dig into this further.
Let me know!
I am not receiving updates in a private channel. The app posts to the channel saying it is set up, but no notifications are ever received.
Hey Avi,
I'm going to create a ticket on your behalf so our team can troubleshoot this issue with you.
You'll receive an email shortly stating your ticket has been created.
Cheers!
Hi,
I want changes to ALL tickets to be sent to our slack channel.
I have set up notifications to include all, and the slack channel says: "X has set up Zendesk ticket notifications with status: ticket created, new, open, pending, on-hold, solved and in group: All, to be delivered to the channel."
However, sometimes some messages sent by our customers do not come through to slack. What can I do to ensure that all messages come through to slack?
Thanks.
Hi Henry,
You should be able to see changes to all tickets sent through as notifications to Slack. If you select "All" under the status and groups (as it looks like you've set), you should receive all notifications.
Are the tickets coming through other channels? Could they be in another state like "closed"?
Thanks,
David
Hi David,
Thanks for getting back to me.
1. What do you mean by "Are the tickets coming through other channels?" We have only 1 slack channel ("#support"), which we would like to use as a place where all zendesk notifications forward to that channel.
2. I don't recall the state of the ticket in every instance, but there were definitely times where I submitted a ticket as "solved", and then receive a response shortly after only in zendesk, and not in slack. (And it has never come through since.)
3. How do I include "closed" tickets, as you suggested?
4. Also, I notice that if I try to change the conditions/triggers in Zendesk "Slack ticket trigger", I am prompted with:
"Trigger could not be updated:
Is that expected behaviour?
Let me know if you need more information.
Hi Henry,
1. Thanks for confirming. If it's only 1 channel then they should be coming through.
2. All the available options for ticket notifications should be selected, but it sounds like you've done this.
3. Closed tickets should be an option from the status drop-down list.
4. You can't modify the trigger, this is expected behaviour.
If you've followed all the steps and there's still an issue with the integration, please feel free to raise a ticket with our Support team and we'll investigate the problem further.
Thanks,
David
Hi David,
Where do I raise a ticket with the support team?
Thanks!
Henry
Hi Henry,
I've just raised one on your behalf from your post. You should hear back from our Advocacy team shortly.
Thanks David
I have a scenario I'm not sure is entirely possible with the standard install. For example, when we escalate a ticket to our engineering team we want to create a Slack Room with a specific naming convention - ticket number and company name (e.g. 1234_Acme). This way we can manually add the Engineering resources to the Slack Channel to collaborate with customer support. As soon as the escalation is closed, we can archive the Slack Channel.
Needed Technical Integration:
Is this possible with a stock app install? I don't see that it is, but are the configurations such that we could configure it to do these things without a custom development?
Hi D Hill,
Side-Conversations via Slack would be perfect for your use case.
Here's an article on the feature, how it works and how you can get it set up.
Thanks,
David
David,
I looked as side-conversations, but it requires you to preselect the channels on slack you wish to share. In my post I was asking if the slack integrations had any customizable configuration to send to a slack channel that shared a prefix containing the ticket number.
I'm looking for a way to have the ticket <-> channel connection made automatically. For example, when ticket #2145 is escalated, it automatically looks for slack channel #2145 (or vice versa) and adds the conversations to the internal notes of the corresponding ticket. I'd like to automate that, if possible. So, understanding that need, is the Slack integration configurable to do that? I don't see that it is, but I wasn't sure about custom webhooks and if they can accomplish what I'm asking.
Thanks,
Dan
After looking at what it would take to build something like this, I would settle for a simpler option. What I could work with is something like this...
If I have a ticket I want to "tag" as an escalation, I go to slack and create a channel that I can invite specific user to participate.
In the ticket view, after having created the slack channel and appropriate tags, I'd like to import the entire conversation from slack into the ticket before archiving the channel.
Also, during the escalation, I would like to post a comment in the internal notes with the links to the thread.
I've been playing around with this in the sandbox, but I cannot get triggers to post anything to slack. When I test the triggers, the test jSON will show up, but after saving the trigger and using it, I can see that it's been triggered, but nothing shows up in slack.
I'm hoping someone has done something similar. Side Conversations might be helpful here, but I need to load the entire slack conversation into the internal notes and not lose information from archived channels. We're willing to do some of this manually, but there has to be some automation with Triggers to make it worthwhile.
Any ideas? Thanks!
Hi Dan,
It still sounds like Side Conversations could still be used for your use case. Once you've given the Zendesk app permission to be in all your public channels, you'll be able to start a Side Conversation from Zendesk and any conversation via the Side Conversation thread in Slack will automatically be saved into the ticket.
You are able to do a 30 day trial for the Collaboration add-on if you reach out to your Sales or Success partner. I'd recommend trying out the feature and seeing if it fulfils your use case.
With regards to the triggers, unfortunately the trigger we use in the integration can't be modified as it's a hard requirement for the integration.
Thanks,
David
These channels will be temporary because of the nature of the tickets. Threads are more difficult to work with and there's not a lot of API documentation on threads in Slack.
I've been able to create new threads from tickets in Zendesk by piecing some things together. I set up an app in Slack with the necessary API tokens/permissions, then created an HTTP Target in Zendesk with an API call to fire when a custom form field was saved to the ticket. Everything works as intended, but the custom form field won't capture. The {{ticket.id}} captures just fine, but the {{ticket.custom_field_360035325113}} doesn't. The other app that I use can capture that field just fine. Here's the HTTP Target with the slack API call:
Is there a way to show if it was a internal or public update? Currently they come across the app the same. Otherwise everything else works great for us.
Currently it shows:
An open ticket has been updated by <agent>
Could it be
An open ticket has been updated by <agent> with a public comment
An open ticket has been updated by <agent> with a internal comment
Hey Patrick,
I double checked and there's no way to determine when the comment is public or private with the current integration. I'll be sure to pass this feedback along to the appropriate team so they'e aware.
Thanks for taking the time to share this with us!
Is the notification information customizable yet?
Super frustrating to see requests going back *years* to include Organization in the message written to Slack channels, and to see that it *still* hasn't been added!
Hello Yuri and Team Zendesk!
The slack integration has some PII and Confidentiality risk for HR / Legal departments. Based on testing in my HR's Zendesk & Slack instances, when an End-User creates a ticket in a slack channel the ticket announcement is not visible to the user only.
I have been unable to find a method to affect if the ticket announcement's visibility. Is there a method to force ticket announcements to be Visible to User only for the caster of the ticket? If there is no method, please consider this a critical need for your customers that have PII related concerns.
-Dave
Hi Nathan - unfortunately the notification message isn't customizable at the moment but we are hoping to bring this feature towards the end of 2020.
Hi Kolbe - really sorry about the frustration this causes. We're planning to improve the notifications that are sent from Zendesk to Slack towards the end of 2020.
Hi Dave - unfortunately this isn't a feature of the current integration. I've noted down your feedback for this feature and will update you if we play this in the future.
Thanks,
David
Missing pictures in the article :-)
I'm trying to configure the notification as I want to remove the latest comment. With it in it gives us a huge notification like this:
Which we don't want.
Within the trigger it's saying I can't remove this with the below error:
So, is there a way to configure the notification to show what I want it to show without this section? Or is it a limitation in the app which means I have to display the last comment?
Update - tried to create my own trigger. Doesn't work at all now.
Ideally don't want the last comment as it makes the notifications huge - and it's supposed to just be a notification not a whole ticket..
It looks like from the comments there's no way to customise so +1 - seems like basic functionality.
Is there a workaround here?
Chris Taylor I had to just give up completely on the awful Slack integration they ship and make my own. It was pretty easy to create an API token on the Slack side and create a trigger on the Zendesk side to fire a bunch of JSON off to the Slack API. I found it much easier to just build my own than to bash my head against the included integration 🙁
Thanks Kolbe I figured that would be the case, as I want to get it to DM the agents as well. Thanks again!
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