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 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 Slack users, or choose to create a new end-user for them.
- Side conversations: With the Slack for Zendesk Support integration 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 Allow.
- Enter your Zendesk subdomain, accept the terms and conditions, and click Next.
-
Once the installation is complete, click Open Slack and you'll be redirected to Slack where you can configure the integration.
Configuring the integration
Once the integration is installed tickets can be created from any Slack channel, but the app needs to be invited to each channel that requires notifications and Answer Bot.
From the Zendesk app’s direct message stream, you can add the app to channels, edit existing settings, change the subdomain associated with the app, and provide feedback to Zendesk about the app. Only Slack admins can configure channel notifications.
To add the app to a Slack channel
- In Slack, browse to a channel to which you want to invite the Zendesk integration to.
- In the message bar, enter
/invite @Zendesk
, and then press return.You can now configure notifications and Answer Bot settings for the channel.
Notifications can be configured to display messages in a Slack channel when a change is made in Zendesk matching configured criteria.
To add notifications to a Slack channel
- In the channel's message bar, enter
/zendesk settings
, and then press return. - In Ticket notifications, click Add channel.
- Using the drop-down list, select a channel you want notifications posted in.
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. 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 Slack channel
- Click Next.
- Using the Please choose a type list 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 Next.
- Using the next Choose an option list 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.
Note: 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. You can select All to give all groups permission to post.
- Click Done.
To edit a Slack channel’s app settings
- In Slack, click the channel name in the sidebar.
- In the message bar, enter
/zendesk settings
, and then press return.You can edit notifications and Answer Bot settings for the channel.
To remove the app from a Slack channel
- In Slack, browse to a channel from which you want to remove the Zendesk integration.
- In the message bar, enter
/remove @Zendesk
, and then press return. - On the confirmation window, click Remove.
Once removed, Zendesk will no longer be able to post notifications, provide side conversations or support Answer Bot in that channel.
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 Zendesk 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.
94 Comments
Decided to give this a spin, disabling our custom Slack webhook triggers. If there is no identified method, please consider this a feature request:
Configuration of triggers to post to specific channels based on conditions.
Example:
Currently all added channels get blapped.
Once the integration has been installed and configured, does the Zendesk admin who installed it need to remain an agent in order for the integration to continue to function?
Hi @...,
Yes, the account that set up the integration needs to remain an admin or the integration will break.
Thanks,
David
@... Thank you!
Hi David,
Any update on support for shared Slack workspaces / Slack Connect?
Thanks,
Mike
Hi @...,
Unfortunately our current integration doesn't work in shared Workspaces or via Slack Connect.
We're currently investigating a new Slack integration that will work in both along with a number of other features. We will be able to communicate a date when this new integration will be available in a couple of months.
Thanks,
David
OK thanks @... will keep an eye out.
Mike
Got an error message in Slack saying "The configuration for this integration is incomplete. Please contact your admin to resolve the issue."
I managed to solve the issue by going through the installation once again. I suggest you add a section on how to solve issues with the integration as searching for this error message gave no hits.
I saw a comment from @... that the ability to customize the notifications being sent to Slack was coming potentially at the end of 2020. Any update on that? We've recently hooked our two platforms together and when a long thread is sent to Zendesk to open a ticket the entire body of the ticket gets posted in Slack taking up the entire screen. Ideally we just want the Subject to come through.
Hi @...,
Thanks for reaching out & following up.
We're still finalising the roadmap for the new Slack integration which will be released later in 2021. We're planning to include updates to notifications, making it easier to configure notifications and potentially customise the content of the notification. We're still doing technical discovery on this and unfortunately can't give a definite confirmation of if and when this would be released.
Thanks,
David
Hi there
I installed Slack into Zendesk and Zendesk client into Slack. It looks like this integration works, but unfortunately, we can receive notifications about Zendesk tickets only in Slack public channels. Is it possible to receive them in private channels? I added our private channel into the Zendesk client settings, but no notification so far.
Could you please tell me what I did wrong?
Hi @...,
Are you able to confirm you've give the Zendesk app permission to be in the required private channels?
There's some instructions above under "To add the app to a private channel" which outline the steps to add the app to a private channel.
Thanks,
David
Hello @David Gillespie
Yes, I can confirm that we added a private channel into our Zendesk settings following the instruction "To add the app to a private channel".
We managed to receive notifications for our public channel we added previously, but the same steps do not work for a private one.
By the way, if you try to add another channel (private) into our Zendesk app, it just does not allow you to do it (please, check this screenrecording here: https://files.fm/u/4x9f5jzv6)
Thank you in advance!
Hi @...,
Thanks for flagging this, this needs to be escalated to our support team for resolution.
I've raised a ticket on your behalf and our support team will be in contact with you shortly.
Thanks,
David
Hello.
I have a similar problem with Mike Mike and Vladyslav Oboronko.
I've linked the public channel with the Zendesk App and confirmed that I'm notified of ticket updates.
And then I changed the channel to private.
Then I noticed that I was no longer notified of ticket updates.
As you can see in the image, the Zendesk App is set up to access the ss_iot channel.
In addition, there is one interesting description in the document.
"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."
The ss_iot channel was created around the end of last month. Is this the reason why I can't set notifications?
Thanks
So is the feature where you can dedicate a channel to be all the incoming (new, open, updated) tickets now broken in Slack?
You say:
"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."
Is there any way to get a channel with updates?
Hi @... - this is probably why you can't receive notifications into this channel.
Hi Jeff - the notifications feature still works, its certain channels that are broken due to recent changes made by Slack.
We are actively trying to fix this problem but this requires a re-build of our integration due to it being built on Slack's Workspace apps. We hope to have this fixed shortly, a specific date will be communicated soon.
Thanks for your patience.
David
Hello @...
Thank you for contacting us.
I was relieved to hear that the app was being modified.
By the way, how can I receive the announcement?
Can create tickets in Zendesk from Slack, but after that there is no communication whatsoever between slack and zendesk (Ticket replies are not shown in slack, slack replies in the threads are not shown in the zendesk ticket) e.g. No communication besides create ticket in zendesk :-(
Hi @...,
Thanks for the feedback on the Slack integration. I've captured this as a feature request for the new integration.
Cheers,
David
Hello.
When you press "Add Channel" or "Edit Existing Settings" in "Zendesk Support Ticket Notification", the image below will appear and you will not be able to specify the channel.
I've successfully set up ticket notifications once in this workspace, and I'm still receiving those notifications. However, as mentioned above, it is not possible to add new notification settings or change existing notification settings.
I have confirmed that the link between the app and the channel has been set.
Can you give me some advice on how to solve this problem?
Thank you.
Any updates around timing on the Slack integration update/rebuild? This Q3? Q4? Into 2022?
I need to decide if I should get a different connection setup to handle Zendesk <-> Slack to drive adoption of Zendesk in my org, and it's hard to make an educated decision in the dark.
Thanks!
Hi @...,
Thanks for flagging this, I've raised a ticket on your behalf as we'll need further details to help resolve this problem.
Hi Stephen,
We're working on a new release of the app that migrates off Workspace in August. This should resolve some of the bugs we're seeing at the moment.
Thanks,
David
Hello @...
Thank you for creating the ticket.
But Please tell me about this ticket.
Is it possible for me to access or check the contents of this ticket?
Or does it require action, such as sharing some additional information?
Hi @...,
Thanks for following up, you should now have a ticket in your inbox.
David
Hi! Is it possible to integrate two separate Zendesk accounts belonging to the same company into one Slack account?
Hi @...,
At the moment, the Slack for Zendesk integration only supports mapping one Zendesk account to one Slack account. I've recorded your feedback, so we can explore the feasibility of this in the future.
Sean
Thank you, @.... Hopefully this is something that can be looked into for a future update.
Hi there ,
When I followed the steps to configure the settings, Zendesk app did not prompt any notification settings in slack direct message , how to I proceed with the settings ? Thank you
It seems like when one tries to edit the app by clicking on 'Edit notification settings' the comment just collapses and the line to the left turns blue.... it refuses to provide notification settings and there is no alternative way, these steps do not work any more - it appears to be broken! Zendesk have raised a ticket to investigate so hopefully it will be sorted soon.
Please sign in to leave a comment.