Introducing messaging

As customer preferences have shifted, especially given the new digital-first world we live in, messaging has quickly emerged as the people’s choice for their go-to communication channel. 64% of consumers have tried a new way to get in touch with customer service in 2020, with messaging and bots leading the way (Source: Zendesk Benchmark 2021). Customers prefer messaging because it’s convenient, it’s fast and it’s personalized.

Given the rise and popularity of messaging, today we’re extremely pleased and excited to introduce Zendesk messaging. It delivers rich conversational experiences for businesses that are connected across web, mobile or social apps. It’s easy to automate right out of the box, and can be completely customized with our open and flexible platform.

Messaging provides customers with the unique flexibility to pop in and out of the conversation at their leisure, while giving CX teams the tools to automate answers to get back to customers faster (using Answer Bot with Flow Builder), and easily manage all conversations from a unified workspace.

1. Make it easy for your customers
2. Set your team up for success
3. Work the way that works best for you
4. Ready to get started? 

Make it easy for your customers

Introducing new messaging SDKs for Web, Android and iOS, and enhanced Answer Bot capabilities to help provide support wherever your customers are.

See About messaging for more information.

Rich, interactive conversations

Built on top of Sunshine Conversations, our new Web, Android and iOS SDKs feature a rich, interactive messaging experience for your customers to engage with, including activity indicators, quick replies, data capture via form fields, links, images, carousels & more.

Learn about adding messaging to a website or help center, or to a mobile app.

A modern look and feel, customizable to fit your brand

Our new messaging SDKs have been completely redesigned with a more modern, playful look & feel. As an admin, you can easily configure your SDKs via Admin Center, and tailor the logo, colours, text & labels to seamlessly integrate them with your existing brand. All without altering any existing integration code.

Learn about configuring messaging for a Web Widget, or for a mobile SDK.

Ongoing conversations with full conversation history

Zendesk messaging lets you stay engaged anywhere and have ongoing conversations with your customers so they never have to repeat themselves. 

Learn more about Conversation history and persistence.

Conversational shortcuts with Artificial Intelligence (AI) 

Messaging also features a more powerful and configurable Answer Bot, backed by enhanced AI and Flow Builder. So when customers type in a question, Answer Bot can identify the intent and take conversational shortcuts, jumping straight to the relevant part of a flow or to an agent transfer. And if a flow doesn’t exist to address a question, Answer Bot automatically tries to find relevant articles to recommend.

Learn about bot-enabled messaging.

Set your team up for success

Zendesk messaging increases your team's productivity and efficiency with a unified agent workspace that comes right out of the box and gives agents the context they need to respond to customers across any channel.

We built messaging into Agent Workspace so your agents a more personal, efficient and conversational customer experience without having to context switch.

We built messaging into Agent Workspace so your agents can provide support across multiple channels, all through one, unified workspace. Messaging enables agents to offer a more modern, efficient and conversational customer experience without having to context switch.

Learn about Agent Workspace for messaging.

Keep the conversation going

With messaging, agents never lose the conversation history, and can continue where they left off, be it web, mobile app, or social. By having the context of previous conversations, agents can provide a more conversational, convenient, and contextual experience to your customers. Agents can also switch to another channel like email, phone and internal notes seamlessly, without leaving the conversation and serve the customers wherever they are.

Learn about continuous conversations.

Give your agents the right context

Empower your agents with the right context they need to resolve customer issues efficiently. Messaging brings all the interactions and customer data collected by Answer Bot right into Agent Workspace so your agents can quickly jump into solving the problem. Agents can also keep track of ongoing conversations easily with activity indicators such as sent, delivered, seen, and typing.  

Learn about customer context in Agent Workspace.

Manage your team’s workload efficiently

Increase your team’s efficiency by routing messaging conversations to the right agent based on a combination of flexible business rules and information collected by Answer Bot before escalating to an agent. Stay on top of ongoing conversations through notifications list for new responses. Use Shortcuts and Macros to delight your customers with fast and personalized responses. 

Make more informed workforce management decisions and monitor agent performance on messaging channels quickly by filtering reports for each messaging channel within Zendesk Explore.

Learn about messaging routing, reporting, and agent staffing.

Work the way that works best for you

Zendesk messaging offers faster & more personalized interactions with Answer Bot’s newest tool Flow Builder, a click-to-configure tool that allows admins to build engaging conversational experiences for Zendesk messaging without writing a single line of code.

This powerful tool helps businesses provide 24/7 support for customers with built-in automation for faster service as your business scales and rich content for more interactive conversations.

Learn about Flow Builder.

Guide your customers through the conversation 

Use Flow Builder to cover your most common support scenarios and get end users the answers they need faster. Quick reply options help preempt incoming questions and keep the conversation flowing.

Provide instant answers 24/7 

Let Answer Bot be your first line of defence and offer answers instantly, 24/7. Answer simple questions directly in conversation (like your business hours or quick troubleshooting topics), and handle more complex requests by linking to your Help Center articles.

Learn about bot flow response types.

Support your agents by collecting important data upfront

We know that not all issues can be solved by a bot alone. Some require assistance from a human. Help your agents by configuring your bot to collect information upfront, giving them the context they need to jump straight into problem-solving.

Learn about agent transfer and other conversation handoff events.

Give your bot a personality 

Take full control over how Answer Bot greets and interacts with end-users.  Say “Hello” using your brand’s personality by writing out your own greeting message and choosing your own logo. 

Ready to get started? 

Zendesk messaging for web & mobile is available as opt-in on all Suite offers and Support + Chat customers who are using Agent Workspace. Admins can enable messaging by going to Admin Center > Channels.

To get started, you can read the getting started guide or learn more about messaging in our documentation.