Smart links let you quickly access other applications or web pages from your Zendesk Sell account. If you have systems that use a unique URL ID, you can use smart links to dynamically link to them from your leads, contacts, and deals in Sell.
Configuring smart links
You must configure smart links before you can use them, and you'll also need to create a custom field to hold the unique identifier (see Creating and managing custom fields).
You need admin rights to configure smart links.
To configure smart links
- Click the Settings icon (
), then select Customize > Leads for leads, Customize > Contacts for contacts, or Customize > Deals for deals.
- If you haven't done so already, on the Fields tab, create a custom field to hold your unique identifier. For example, we've used a custom field called YouTube video.
Note: The custom field used for storing a unique identifier must be a "Single Line Text" field type (see Creating and managing custom fields).
Each YouTube video has a unique identifier at the end of its URL, for example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ. This would be the unique identifier that you enter into the custom field on your contact card. - Select the Smart links tab.
- Click Add Smart Link to start setting up your new link.
-
Give your smart link an App name and URL.
For example, if you were setting up a smart link for YouTube, the App name might be YouTube and the URL would be:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= - Click Insert merge tag to add the custom field that you've used to store the unique identifier.
- Choose where the application should open. Click either the Open in new window or Open inside Sell.
- Click Save to save the new smart link.
- On a contacts page, add a value to the new custom field, for example, dQw4w9WgXcQ.
You'll see a new Smart Links button appear on the right side of your lead, contact, or deal page and you'll see the new smart link as a clickable link. Click the link to take you directly to your application or web page.
Examples of using smart links
You can see one example of using smart links to link to a video site like YouTube in Configuring smart links.
Tracking ID example
A common example for using smart links is to track shipments. For example, you could set up a custom field called Tracking ID on each deal. The field would be updated with the tracking ID when a shipment is made. A URL link including this ID would take you to the tracking details page provided by the courier. You could then create a smart link so that you can click the tracking ID and view the shipment progress for that deal.
Reporting and billing system example
Some customers use smart links to connect to reporting systems or ERP billing systems. For example, you could set up a custom field called Reporting system. The field would contain an external ID, for example, 123990092. A URL link including this ID would take you to the reporting details page for that contact. You could then create a smart link so that you could click your company's equivalent of:
https://abcinc.tableau.com/views/customer/123990092/dashboard
to view the reporting details.
Using smart links from a mobile device
You can access smart links from your Sell mobile app (iOS or Android) to quickly jump to other apps or web pages on your mobile device.
Click Smart links from the app, and you'll see the list of smart links you have configured. Click to access the application or web page.
15 comments
Malay Sah
Hi Sophie,
Can we use Smart Link to configure SSO(single sign on) for external sites.
Cheers.
0
Austine Hipol
Hi Malay, Smart Link is just a simple URL link with a possible variable value taken out of a Custom Field in Sell. This link is just opened externally and that's it. We don't believe this even matters as logging in (whether through SSO or in any different method) is controlled by the external app, so Smart Links can't work with SSO.
Let me know if you have other questions.
Austine Hipol
Customer Advocate | Zendesk Sell
Zendesk Sell CRM
Visit our Support Center
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0
Vasco Duke
Hi Sophie,
I followed the article and created successful smart links from my data. It works great from the website but doesn't work from the mobile app. When generating the URL from the mobile app it seems to be adding some additional "%2525" to replace some characters in there. Has anyone run into this problem before?
Thank you, Vasco.
0
Kaja
Hi Vasco, thanks for the post. This is something we need to troubleshoot via a ticket as we need some information regarding your account. I have reached out to you already.
Warm Regards
Kaja Błachowicz | Zendesk Sell | Technical Support Engineer Visit our Support Center
0
Admin
Can we create a smart link to place an order on shopify?
0
Dane
If the order page has a unique URL ID you can use it as a smart link in Sell.
0
Marc Diepeveen
Hi!
Is it possible to use IF THEN ELSE formatting for Smartlinks?
Meaning that if the custom field is not filled, it will still go to the general website instead of graying it out?
0
Dane
IF THEN ELSE or similar function is not yet supported in smart links.
Would you mind posting your use case to our Feedback on Sell topic? We have a template you can copy and use in your post. This is to help get more visibility and votes on the idea. Then, others can share their use cases to further drive demand for that feature. Thanks!
0
Mario Speck
Hi,
@Zendesk Engineering. I understand, that this are "just" links. But to use them, for example, to linkt into a companies backend for ERP or reporting (like in your examples) you really need the ability to "secure" the links. A minimum security could be provided, if one could add custom headers in the definition of the link. With this in place we could add a "token" into the headers and check for the token in the ERP/reporting or other backend system. Without this, I would expose my ERP/Reporting to the world.
Maybe you treat this as a feature request.
0
Tim
I want to link to a Sharepoint folder, using the company name as part of the link. Unfortunately the spaces in the data are not converted to %20 etc so it doesn't create a valid URL.
0
David
Hi Tim,
That link should look like this - https://yourcompany.sharepoint.com/sites/your-site-name/Shared%20Documents/your-folder-name/
Replace
yourcompany.sharepoint.com
with your company’s SharePoint URL,your-site-name
with the name of the SharePoint site, andyour-folder-name
with the name of the folder you want to link to.0
Tim
Yes it should. Unfortunately when Zendesk puts the “Company Name” field in it doesn’t do that, so it creates an invalid link.
The only solution seems to be to stop selling to companies with more than one word in their name!
0
David
Try using a + instead.
https://example.com/Sharepoint+Folder/Company+Name
0
Tim
I cannot do that.
The Smart Link uses the company name field from the Zendesk record. All I can do is choose the field in the Smart link definition - I have no control over what Zendesk puts in there when it dynamically builds the URL.
If the company for the Deal is called “Google” it works fine as there is no space. If the company is “Tim Hortons” it fails as it does not properly escape the field content,
0
Raghu Reddy
Can I move the smart link around? For example place it under the information of my leads/deals?
Alternately, can I create a "smart" URL that uses information from another zendesk record?
0