Slack for Zendesk Support is a Built-by-Zendesk integration that can connect one or more Zendesk subdomains to multiple Slack workspaces. It allows you to interact with Zendesk Support tickets in your Slack channels.
This article covers the following topics:
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About the Slack for Zendesk Support integration
The Slack for Zendesk Support integration includes the following features:
- Ticket event notifications in Slack: Slack users can see information about Zendesk Support ticket events in specified Slack channels. Using triggers, Zendesk administrators can configure which conditions will send notifications, the Slack channels to send them to, and the information included in the notification message.
- Create 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. See Creating tickets in Slack.
- Side conversations: Agents can use side conversations in a ticket to initiate and participate in Slack threads.
- Answer Bot for Slack: The Answer Bot for Slack integration is included in the Slack for Zendesk Support integration and utilizes Answer Bot to listen on selected Slack channels. It resolves questions by providing article suggestions from your Guide knowledge base.
- Support for multiple connections: You can connect multiple Zendesk accounts to one or more Slack workspaces.
Considerations when connecting multiple accounts
It's common for organizations to have internal teams with their own Zendesk accounts but share a single Slack workspace. Similarly, a company can have just one Zendesk account and collaborate in several Slack workspaces.
The good news is that the integration is flexible and allows you to use one or more Slack workspaces to respond to customer inquiries sourced from multiple Zendesk accounts.
- When installing the integration, you add one Slack-to-Zendesk connection at a time.
- When adding new connections between Zendesk and Slack, create triggers for the Slack ticket notifications you want to send.
- If you're using Answer Bot for Slack and a question is posted in a channel, users will receive article suggestions from all your help centers. Article suggestions aren't combined into a single response from Answer Bot—users will see multiple Answer Bots responding.
- If you plan to use Slack in side conversations, you must turn on side conversations for each Slack workspace.
- The integration supports multi-workspace channels, which are shared among multiple workspaces in an Enterprise Grid organization. However, it does not support organization-shared channels, which are configured to be shared among all workspaces in an Enterprise Grid organization (applies to Slack Enterprise Grid plans only).
Installing the integration to add a connection between Slack and Zendesk
To install the integration, you must have administrative privileges in Zendesk Support and have permission to install apps in the Slack workspace. Additionally, the integration cannot be installed on a shared Slack workspace (a workspace you don't own but have been invited to as an external user).
The installation adds a connection between one Zendesk account and one Slack workspace. To add multiple connections, run the installation for each connection. For example, if your company uses one Slack workspace with three Zendesk accounts, run the installation three times to make these connections.
After the integration is installed, tickets can be created from any Slack channel, but the app needs to be added to each channel that requires notifications and Answer Bot.
To connect Slack and Zendesk
- In Admin Center, click
Apps and integrations in the sidebar, then select Integrations > Integrations.
- Click the options menu icon (
) next to Slack, then click View.
- Click Connect workspace.
- If your company uses multiple Slack workspaces, make sure the drop-down list in the
upper right corner displays the name of the workspace you'd like to connect to Zendesk,
then click Allow.
- Enter the subdomain of the Zendesk account to connect to the workspace, then
click Continue.
You can connect additional Zendesk accounts to the workspace after you finish setting up this connection. Connections are added one at a time.
- At Allow Slack to access your Zendesk account?, click Allow.
The installation is complete.
- Click Set up in Zendesk Admin Center to configure this connection, or repeat this procedure to add more connections.
Removing a connection between Zendesk and Slack
If you no longer want to use the Zendesk app in a Slack workspace, disconnect the integration for that workspace. You can disconnect from Admin Center or Slack; the result is the same. It's important to note that you won’t receive ticket notifications in your channels for that workspace or be able to create tickets from Slack.
Your configuration settings will not be lost even if you reinstall the app. However, you will have to re-add the app to Slack channels.
To disconnect using Admin Center
- In Admin Center, click
Apps and integrations in the sidebar, then select Integrations > Integrations.
- Click the options menu icon (
) next to Slack, then click View.
- Click Configure under the name of the Slack workspace to disconnect.
- Click Actions, then click Disconnect from the drop-down menu.
- Click Disconnect in the confirmation message.
To disconnect using Slack
- Sign in to your Slack workspace.
- Under Apps, click Zendesk.
- Under Connected Zendesk accounts, click Disconnect for the account you'd like to disconnect.
154 comments
Kelli
Vlad Shlosberg, Where I need help is slack. I want to consider who the message is coming from in Zendesk before sending it to slack OR I want slack to stop posting anything but the original message to the channel and only threading all of the replies.
Background: We are using Zendesk for external support. Customer emails in, we respond in Zendesk. The only reason slack is involved, is this is low volume and the employees working the queue are not in Zendesk normally. They only go there as needed, so they need to know when new messages or new replies are sent. The current setup with integration from Zendesk to Slack is too cluttered because every new message posts to the channel (this is good and wanted), but also every reply posts to the original slack thread (this is good and wanted), but it also posts to the channel (this is bad and causes confusion).
0
Vlad Shlosberg
Kelli - Option 1 around considering who the message is coming from is possible. I believe Zendesk uses a trigger to send updates to Slack. I believe you can modify that trigger and add additional conditions to check the author of the comment based on your criteria. However, i believe both options 1 and 2 are possible with Zapier - do you use that at all?
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Kris Parker
Is it expected that the Slack notifications for updated tickets would post in a thread, but ALSO to the channel?
Is there a way for it to only post updates in the thread?
0
Jira-Bot
I just updated the integration a few days ago, and it seems to work with a small problem. All updates to existing tickets are put in a thread in Slack, and it makes the updates look quite confusing.
The "title", if I can call it that, of each update sent to Slack has therefore two lines - something like this:
replied to a thread: An Open ticket has been updated by Agent A
A Pending ticket has been updated by Agent B
My successor owner of this support system is quite unhappy at the unclearness of it, and I am now being asked to "fix" this behaviour.
So the difference I notice from the old behaviour to the new one is that, in the new one, all new messages are put into these threads in Slack. And this is new. Can it be changed to the old behaviour in some way, so all messages in Slack are independent from each other?
0
Landry Norman
Kind of a different question for this thread, but which company would be responsible in a data breach? Our legal team is concerned since this is a bit of a gray area with this app.
0
James Molina
I see comment notes referring to "To add the app to a private channel" however I didn't see any reference to this in the article. Are there currently separate steps needed to add a private slack channel?
0
Kristie Sweeney
Envoy The steps to add the app to a channel are the same for all channels (public or private). See Adding the app to a Slack channel. Sometimes comments refer to or link to procedures that have since been updated.
0
Christine Diego
We have created a ticket on your behalf to further check your query about the slack notification. Kindly check your inbox, and we'll assist you from there.
0
Tom
Similar request to Perla in 2021: Our organization has a need to connect two Zendesk accounts to one Slack for two separate groups for notifications and ticket collaboration.
2
Vlad Shlosberg
Hey Tom, many are using Foqal for this - https://www.foqal.io/integrations/zendesk you can set up one Zendesk account with the native Zendesk Slack bot, and any additional ones with Foqal. Probably depends on what you are trying to do, but Foqal has a really deep integration with Zendesk and is very flexible, so you can configure it to your use case. Happy to help you walk through it (you can book a quick demo on foqal.io)
0
Binh Du
Hello,
Is there a way to have Zendesk send Slack notifications for SLA targets or violations? Currently there are no SLA selections in triggers, and no Slack for Zendesk Support integrations in Automations so I'm unsure how to set this up.
2
Tom Walker
Binh Du - This page outlines what you need to do to get set up for that use case.
0
Linda Wu Pagano
I saw a comment from back in 2021 where this doesn't work with Slack Connect. Does this app have the ability now to work with Slack Connect?
Thanks,
Linda
0
JR Lausin
Upon checking Slack integration can work in shared channels (Slack Connect channels). Here's our documentation on how to set that up:
https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408843621530-Using-the-Slack-for-Zendesk-Support-integration#topic_xcj_hd5_1tb
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Adam Martin
Hi there, I saw a comment from 2021 where it was mentioned you were looking at being able to edit the notification that posts in Slack after creating a ticket through the shortcut, did I miss this or is it still on the roadmap? I only ask as having the full ticket contents in a Slack message can potentially violate our no customer PII in Slack rules, so it would be a great option to have!
0
David Gillespie
Hi Adam Martin,
Thanks for reaching out.
We don't currently have this on the roadmap but I have captured your feedback as a feature request.
Thanks,
David
0
Ryan Gino
It looks like the behavior of this changed when sending messages. Before, the header message was posted as a message and then the body as an attachment, but now everything goes to the attachment. So now every follow-up says "replied to a thread" instead of "replied to <the first message>". This has now become noise to our support team. Can we change this or get more insights into when the integration changes, like a changelog?
0
Frank Roberts
I'm unable to see all of the Slack Channels to which @Zendesk is a member when choosing the Slack Channel in a trigger. I added one this morning, but now I have no access to additional channels.
0
David Gillespie
Hi Ryan Gino,
Apologies for the delayed response - I've followed up with a direct message to get some more details!
Hi Frank Roberts,
Are you a member of all the channels the app has been added to?
If so, this sounds like something our Advocacy team can help debug as it will require more details. Here's some steps about how to reach out to our customer support team.
Thanks,
David
1
道才 晃好
Hello.
Since around February 20th, I have been unable to receive Zendesk app notifications on Slack.
I am using Zendesk's trigger feature.
There seems to be no problem with the trigger settings on the zendesk side, but do you know the cause?
No changes have been made to the settings recently.
Thanks
0
Frank Roberts
Thanks for the response David. Being a member of the private channel was needed to see the channel in the trigger. Also, all public channels where @Zendesk has been invited appear in the trigger menu.
0
Jeffrey LeBlanc
Did an update for this app get pushed out over the weekend and are there release notes?
0
Marius
道才 晃好 It seems like it requires a header now, where before it didn't. I have the same issue, and adding a header seems to fix it, allthough it ruins all formatting on the messages.
0
David Gillespie
Hi Jeffrey LeBlanc & Marius,
We released the ability to connect multiple Zendesk accounts to a Slack workspace which also included a number of other changes to the integration. One of these was to migrate off Slack's legacy message attachments to block-kit, and unfortunately Slack doesn't have a direct replacement of the coloured bars in block-kit.
Our recommendation is to use markdown to add emojis within the notification body of your Slack triggers to add the additional colours and highlights to the messages.
See the GA announcement for more details of the changes to the integration.
Thanks,
David
-3
Micah Yee
I dunno if there's been a recent update to the Zendesk><Slack app but the /zendesk slash command no longer works for me. I'm getting a /zendesk failed with the error "invalid_service”.
The
/zendesk create_ticket
command no longer works for us.Support for both slack and zendesk can't seem to help me remove what looks like the stale slack command. Any advice here?
0
Bill Reed
Does creating a trigger that utilizes the Notify by > Zendesk integration > Slack integration Action now require the Admin role to create?
I had a user who created them before but recently was no longer able to do so, or even see the existence of the Slack integration, until I switched their role to Admin.
0
Ryan
I ended up creating a simple bot to solve the two-way sync problem so replies from Zendesk go back into Slack. You can check it out here: https://slacktozendesk.com/
0
David Gillespie
Hey folks, aploigies for the delayed replies from our side!
Hi Micah Yee - that's correct, the old /zendesk create_ticket command was deprecated and replaced by the simpler /zendesk command. Are you able to confirm that the new command is working?
Hi Bill Reed - Yes, they will need to an Admin to create the trigger in Zendesk.
Thanks also Ryan for sharing your bot too!
Cheers,
David
0
Perla Rimmerman
The biggest challenge for us with the new /zendesk command is that the info on the ticket created is sent as a DM instead of posting in the channel it was created. This reduces visibility for the team. The current workaround is to post a message in the channel, then create a ticket for the message. Is there a way to make it post in the channel again without the added step?
0
Patrick Arrastia
Hello,
We have been using the Slack integration with Side Conversations heavily and without issue for the past year, on June 18 our agents began reporting an issue where messages were being duplicated multiple times. for example, an agent would send a side conversation message from a ticket, and that message would hit the intended Slack channel as expected, however, that same message duplicates x times in the Slack channel. This is occurring across multiple agents, different browsers, cache clearing and all the usual tricks aren't solving. I just tried uninstalling and reinstalling the Slack app, and the install page from the Zendesk marketplace seems to be unavailable.
Please help, refer to ticket 12693528 if needed.
@...
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