The Zendesk for Salesforce integration provides a seamless connection between your Salesforce organization and your Zendesk instance, allowing your sales and support teams to access tickets and customer data within their respective applications.
The integration provides a comprehensive view of customer accounts, eliminating the need to switch systems or reconcile data. For example, sales representatives can access real-time support tickets in Salesforce, enhancing their outreach strategies. Similarly, support agents can view essential customer data from Salesforce while managing tickets in Zendesk, ensuring a thorough understanding of customer needs.
To use the integration, first connect your Salesforce organization to Zendesk, as described in this article. Then, configure the integration based on how you want to use it.
Related topics:
Understanding the different ways to use the integration
After you’ve connected your Salesforce organization to Zendesk, the integration will require additional configuration, depending on how you plan to use it.
Share Zendesk data with sales teams in Salesforce
Providing sales representatives with access to Zendesk data can significantly enhance customer interactions. Consider setting up the following features:
- Create a ticket view in Salesforce to give sales representatives real-time ticket access from Salesforce account, contact, and lead pages. See Setting up ticket view in Salesforce.
- Sync Zendesk ticket data to Salesforce case fields, allowing for comprehensive reporting and custom workflows within Salesforce. See Setting up ticket sync from Zendesk to Salesforce.
Equip support teams with CRM data
Enable customer service agents to access essential CRM data while handling tickets in Zendesk. Consider setting up the following features:
- Sync Salesforce data to Zendesk Support. Automatically update Zendesk users and organizations with relevant Salesforce data, allowing for triggers and actions based on this data. See Configuring data sync from Salesforce to Zendesk.
- Turn on and configure the Salesforce app for Zendesk Support. The app allows agents to see customer information from Salesforce directly in the sidebar of an existing Zendesk Support ticket.
Considerations
- To set up your integration, you must be a Zendesk Support administrator and Salesforce administrator. You can't use an API-only Salesforce user to connect the integration.
- The Zendesk for Salesforce integration is available if you use any of these Salesforce editions: Performance, Unlimited, Enterprise, or Developer Edition (or other editions with Salesforce API rights, such as Professional with the API add-on).
- The integration will work in both Salesforce Lightning and Classic. However, this article only provides instructions for Lightning, the newer interface that Salesforce recommends.
- If the Zendesk admin who connected the integration has their role downgraded, the integration will cease to function. It will require the integration to be disconnected, then reconnected in Admin Center by another Zendesk admin.
Connecting your Salesforce organization
Connecting a Salesforce organization to Zendesk is a two-step process:
Checking your Salesforce session settings
The integration requires your Salesforce session settings not to be locked to an IP address. If your session settings remain locked, your integration will be disconnected once a session expires.
To unlock Salesforce sessions from an IP address
- Log in to your Salesforce organization.
- Click the cog icon (
) in the upper right pane, then click
Setup. - In the left navigation pane under SETTINGS > Security, select Session Settings.
- Deselect the Lock sessions to the IP address from which they
originated checkbox.
Connecting Salesforce to Zendesk
Set up and configure your integration in Admin Center. You should test the integration with your Zendesk and Salesforce sandbox environments first.
If you plan to use the Salesforce app for Zendesk Support, connecting multiple Salesforce organizations to a Zendesk instance allows agents to see Salesforce data for all your organizations in the sidebar of a ticket. In this case, repeat these steps for each organization you’d like to connect to Zendesk. Multiple connections are only supported for the sidebar app and not for other integration use cases.
To connect Salesforce to Zendesk
- In Admin Center, click
Apps and integrations in the sidebar, then select Integrations >
Integrations. - On the Integrations page, click Salesforce.
- If you already have connections set up, they display in the connections list. To add another connection, click Add connection.
- Select the Salesforce instance to set up the integration:
Production or Sandbox.
- Select the checkbox to agree to the Built by Zendesk Terms of
Use, then click Connect Salesforce.
You are directed to a Salesforce sign-in page.
- Sign in to Salesforce using admin credentials.
You are directed back to Admin Center. The new connection displays in the Salesforce connections list, but all features will remain inactive.
Salesforce and Zendesk are now connected. Next, click the options menu icon
(
) next to the salesforce organization and click
Configure to configure the integration, depending on how you plan to
use it. See Understanding the
different ways to use the integration.
Viewing and editing your connections
Use the Integrations page in Admin Center to view and edit your Salesforce connections with Zendesk. You can also rename your connections to help identify them.
To view or edit your Salesforce connections
- In Admin Center, click
Apps and integrations in the sidebar, then select Integrations >
Integrations.
- On the Integrations page, click Salesforce.
The connections appear in a list. Each connection displays which features are active: Ticket view in Salesforce, Data sync, or the Support app in Zendesk.
- To edit the connection name or view details, click the options menu icon () for that connection, then click Edit.
- View the connection details, or type a new name for the connection in the
Organization name field.
- Click Save.
Disconnecting your Salesforce organization
Your Salesforce organization can be disconnected in Admin Center. Once disconnected, your configuration settings are still retained if you decide to connect to the same organization.
- In Admin Center, click
Apps and integrations in the sidebar, then select Integrations >
Integrations.
- On the Integrations page, click Salesforce.
- Click the options menu icon () next to the Salesforce organization you want
to disconnect, then click Disconnect.
84 comments
Dwight Bussman
In order to continue troubleshooting this, I have some questions that are likely better to handle in a ticket. We can circle back here if there's something of relevance to a wider audience.
0
GiveDirectly
Hello! Is it possible to have one instance of Zendesk be integrated with 2 different CRMs e.g. Salesforce and another (TBD)? I ask because our Zendesk is currently integrated with Salesforce, but we are considering working with an external partner on a new project, and they would be the ones storing customer info in their CRM, so we wanted to see if we could set our Zendesk instance up to also integrate with their platform.
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Fellipe M.
It should be possible to integrate 2 different CRMs with Zendesk. However, you need to be aware that depending on how this is set, it can cause some conflicts. For example, it can happen that both CRMs try to update a ticket field with different information. As long as you are aware of situations similar to this and integrate in a way to avoid it from happening, there should have no issue in integrating Salesforce and another CRM.
If you have any further questions on this, I recommend you create a new ticket with us with more details about your integrations so we can assist you further.
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Rachel Murray
Hi, We currently have two ZenDesk accounts. In an ideal world, we would like each of those ZenDesks accounts to connect to the same SF instance. So each ZenDesk instance would be connected to a single Saleforce instance but it would be the same SF instance for both ZenDesk instances.
It is unclear to me from the documentation and the note below whether or not this is possible. Can you please advise?
Many thanks,
Rachel
ˇYou can only connect one Salesforce account to one Zendesk account. So if you test the integration on a sandbox account, you need to disconnect the integration and reconnect to your production account.
1
Dwight Bussman
HeyO Rachel Murray
Currently our integration only supports a one-to-one relationship on both sides. I'll reach out to our documentation team to see that this is better clarified in the article above.
0
Honey Faye
Hi - On the AppExchange Marketplace, I'm not finding the Salesforce Integration for Zendesk V2 app. Link, please?
0
Alex
The Salesforce integration is available on our Marketplace on this link: Salesforce
0
Bill
Does the integration with Salesforce support multiple Zendesk instances to integrate with a Single Salesforce instance?
0
Dwight Bussman
HeyO Bill
The integration only supports a one-to-one connection at this time.
0
Dan R.
I have the Version 4 of the integration and it seems the `Profiles` section in step 6 is missing entirely. Is that expected or is something amiss on my end?
I'm an admin in our SF, but I get permissions errors when loading the ticket view.
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Dwight Bussman
heyO Dan R.
The most common reason that "Profiles" section would fail to appear is that the "Permitted Users" section hasn't yet been toggled to "Admin approved users are pre-authorized". Once that's set & saved, the Profiles option should appear. If that's configured correctly and you're still not seeing it, I recommend reaching out to support so we can take a closer look.
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Dan R.
Dwight Bussman Thank you! I somehow missed that setting in the 15 times I reviewed everything before posting. Seems like we're all good now!
0
Dwight Bussman
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Janet Holyoak
Is it possible to bring custom objects from Salesforce into Zendesk? We have a related object to the Account object that we would like to list records of in Zendesk.
0
Dwight Bussman
HeyO Janet Holyoak - if you're using the Salesforce sidebar app it should be possible to display such objects (either directly, or if they are directly related to the Account object)
0
Max
Hey there, we're trying to import salesforce 'person accounts' in zendesk. However, we want them to be imported as users, not as organizations. Is there a way to achieve this ? Thank you for your help
0
Dwight Bussman
Max - Our integration treats Person Accounts the same as other Accounts which means they would be synced into Organizations. If you'd like to bring them over as users, I recommend looking into our Bulk User Import feature, or consider using our REST API endpoints with some custom SFDC logic.
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Max
Thank you Dwight, we would need the data to be updated, so a bulk import wouldn't match our needs. We're gonna look into the other solution for the moment.
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Cortney Dampier
Hi there,
Is there a way to create a Ticket in Zendesk from Salesforce? The use case is Sales Reps wanting to submit customer service tickets. I swore we set up a bi-directional sync previously but now that I'm reading through here that doesn't seem possible?
0
Dwight Bussman
Our integration allows for creation of tickets through the Ticket View feature.
Here are some docs on how to set up the ticket view: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408834115738
and here's the documentation specifically about how to add agent credentials for creating tickets within that view: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408828317082-Using-Ticket-View-in-Salesforce#topic_nd4_c1r_pjb
1
Cortney Dampier
Dwight Bussman thank you so much for the speedy response here, it's greatly appreciated! Thanks -- it's been a while so I wasn't sure if I was just misremembering :)
0
Dwight Bussman
Cortney Dampier - happy to help :)
Also, if you're lookin' for a speedy response you can contact support via the widget within your Zendesk instance. The bot can serve up some of these things, but you can also talk to agents within a few minutes (they're usually quicker than these article comment threads as there are more folks watching that channel)
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Khrystyna Yizhak
Hi! Is this possible? ->> We are using current integration and Zendesc tickets shows on the Account records. Can we add those tickets to the related records(custom object) also?
0
Dwight Bussman
Khrystyna Yizhak - It sounds like you're describing the Ticket View feature of this integration. If so, that is available on the following 4 objects:
And also within the Cases created by Ticket Sync (if enabled).
The Ticket View is not available on custom objects within SFDC.
1
Yoram
Hi,
I encountered a strange behavior with the Salesforce integration.
It looks like a bug, however, if there is a logic to it, I will be glad to hear..
I have two accounts in Salesforce
Company A & Company A (Child)
Company A is the parent account and Company A (child) is the son
Both share the same domain
I have the account sync on, so basically the integration of Salesforce creates the organizations in Zendesk.
I guess that as both accounts share the same domain, the integration is not behaving as I expected it. Here is what I see:
This is not good as it syncs we are planning to syn information to other systems that have the parent son relationship and there will be a mixup in the information between the organizations
How can this be resolved and still keep the domain names?
and maybe another question... when is Zendesk going to support parent-son relationships between organizations?
Thanks
Yoram
0
Dwight Bussman
heyO Yoram - I recommend contacting our support team to look into the fact that only one organization was created.
Without the ability to dig into logs/specific examples, my guess is that it has to do either with the matching criteria or with a sync-relationship having been formed by a previous sync. Either of these could mean that both the parent and child accounts are syncing into the same organization within Zendesk. You can read a bit more about those sync-relationships within https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4935435219098-Salesforce-data-sync-error-Name-or-Email-has-already-been-taken - although you're not seeing an error like the one from that article, the behavior you describe suggests a similar root-cause.
As for the "when is Zendesk going to support parent/child relationships between organizations" - I recommend posting that feature-request to our Product Feedback forum for Support.
0
Yoram
Hi Dwight,
Thanks, I will contact support.
As for the Parent Son support, there are some requests already posted
Thanks
Y
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Dan R.
Zendesk requires Unique Org names. Do both companies in your Salesforce have the same name and the relationship is denoted by metadata? If they're the same, you'll only get one created.
You can also check the integration logs in the Admin centre for information on what's happening on the the sync, it might provide some clues as to why it's failing.
0
Yoram
Thanks, Dan,
Yes, actually, the integration works on one unique matching criteria which in my case is the account name matched to the organization name.
I have checked and both have a unique name.
It looks like the integration is not doing an exact match and does a "Like" match.
I have opened a ticket with Zendesk support and I am communicating with them as the first response did not lead to a solution
Thanks
Yoram
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Dan R.
Thanks Yoram for the update. Would love to know what they find, I suspect if the integration is doing LIKE matching that a lot of users (myself included!) would have issues without knowing.
I would love for us to be able to use External ID as a first matching criteria (since we can write it during sync) and use name just for fallback.
I'd also love to have the integration support the new Custom Objects as well as Lookup relations, but no such luck yet!
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