The Slack for Zendesk integration includes the Answer Bot for Slack integration.
The integration implements Answer Bot in Slack so you can get help without waiting for someone to reply. It listens on selected Slack channels and resolves questions by providing article suggestions from your Guide knowledge base.
Answer Bot for Slack is a free feature which is available in the Slack for Zendesk integration if you are on the Professional plan.
This article includes the following topics:
For more information about Answer Bot and the Slack for Zendesk integration, see the following articles:
About the Answer Bot for Slack integration
This feature is built on top of the Slack for Zendesk integration. It is automatically available when you install the Slack for Zendesk integration. Your Slack administrator can see Answer Bot settings by entering the command /zendesk settings in the Zendesk app channel in Slack.
Enabling Answer Bot on a Slack channel
Answer Bot is configured to specific Slack channels in the Zendesk Apps channel. Only a Slack administrator can configure Answer Bot for Slack. This configuration applies for public and private channels.
Don't forget that you need to install the Slack for Zendesk integration for this feature to be available.
To enable Answer Bot on a specific channel
- In the Zendesk App channel, enter /zendesk settings to display the app settings.
- In Answer Bot, click Add channel.
Note: If your Slack workspace has a lot of channels, after clicking Add Channel, please wait up to 10 seconds for the channel dropdown to show.
- In Which channel(s) would you like me to listen to and suggest articles for?, select the channel from the dropdown list, and click Next.
- From the dropdown list, select the brand articles to recommend in the channel, and click Done.
Removing Answer Bot from a Slack channel
Answer Bot can be removed from a Slack channel by a Slack administrator.
To disable Answer Bot on a Slack channel
- In Zendesk App channel, enter “/zendesk settings” to display the app settings.
- Click Edit existing settings, and select the channel from the dropdown list.
- Click Remove Answer Bot.
Asking a question in Slack
Answer Bot listens on configured Slack channels and offers article suggestions when a question is posted.
To ask a question using Answer Bot in Slack
- Post a question in the Slack channel which contains at least five words ending with a question mark. Answer Bot responds to the question by starting a thread.
- Click Yes or No to indicate whether your question is answered.
- If more than one article is found, click More suggestions. Additional articles are listed.
- Click the article number button if it answers your question, or None of the above if a suitable answer is not provided.
Viewing feedback to a question
Your response to article suggestions is visible in the form of a green tick or red cross emoji reaction after the question. This is particularly useful in a busy Slack channel. This indicates to other members of the channel whether the question was successfully resolved or if it needs someone to respond.
If the suggestion doesn’t answer your question, you can create a ticket directly from Slack by clicking on Submit a Request. For more information on submitting tickets in Slack and viewing tickets created in Slack, see Using the Slack for Zendesk integration.
FAQs
Can I connect multiple Zendesk instances to my Slack workspace?
No. You can only connect one Zendesk instance to a Slack workspace.
Can Answer Bot respond in a direct message (DM)?
Answer Bot only listens on Slack channels and does not interact with a DM.
How do I create a view in Zendesk Support that shows only tickets created by the integration?
When you create a ticket via the integration, a tag is automatically added to your ticket: "created_from_slack". You can use this tag as a filter in your Views in Zendesk Support.
How can I find out how many questions are being deflected by Answer Bot?
This capability is not currently available, but will be available in Zendesk Explore in the future.
9 Comments
The channel dropdown is never appearing once I select "Add a channel" when attempting to configure Answer Bot.
Hello Hannah Ashford,
Welcome to the Community! Can you please confirm that you've followed and implanted the steps below when Enabling Answer Bot on a Slack channel.
Another variable that could be impacting this might be that your Slack workspace has a lot of channels. After clicking Add Channel I'd reccomend wait up to 10 seconds for the channel dropdown to show.
Let us know if these were the setup sets you implemented. If so and you are still experiencing issues, we'll be happy to troubleshoot this further.
Best regards.
Yes, I followed all of those steps until step 3. The dropdown never appeared (I waited much longer than 10 seconds).
Hey Hannah,
It looks like you never received a response on this post. Are you still experiencing issues with setting up this integration? Any chance you could provide a screenshot of what you see on your end?
Let me know!
Can you build this for Facebook Workplace! Great feature
Are we able to specify labels to limit the articles that answer bot queries?
Tagging on to Chad's question. Answer Bot is occasionally showing articles via Slack that are supposed to be restricted to Agents only. I use the tag "use_for_answer_bot" to restrict Answer Bot to only use those articles for requests via our help center or support email, so I would assume the Slack integration would do the same, but... unfortunately it's not. I just don't want an end user to inadvertently get proprietary info.
Big +1 to Nicole above.
My team would LOVE to integrate this into ZenDesk but with the base permissions set within Help Center not working in the Slack integration we are moving away from it as we'd have to completely migrate all internal documents out of our Help Center to avoid user visibility on things they shouldn't see.
Ha! Michael, I've literally been migrating all of our internal articles out of Zendesk this past week! It's a workaround but definitely not ideal b/c our agents would rather see all articles in the same place.
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