Getting started with Zendesk Suite - Part 5: Adding support channels

Articles in the series

• Introduction: Getting started with Zendesk Suite
• Part 1: Accessing Zendesk Suite admin settings
• Part 2: Adding team members
• Part 3: Understanding how end user accounts are handled
• Part 4: Managing user access security and authentication
• Part 5: Adding support channels
• Part 6: Routing incoming support requests
• Part 7: Managing support requests during non-business hours
• Part 8: Guaranteeing customer support expectations with service level agreements
• Part 9: Reporting on support activity
• Part 10: Enabling customer satisfaction ratings
• Part 11: Using the Zendesk developer platform to extend your support solution
• Part 12: Rolling out your Zendesk Suite support solution

We’ve mentioned support channels briefly several times in this article. You know that live chat, messaging, and voice, for example, are channels your customers can use to contact you for support. These are just several of the many channels that you can add.

All incoming support requests from each channel you set up automatically become tickets, which you can then view, manage, and resolve in the Agent Workspace.

Admins are able to add channels using the Channels section of the Admin Center.

Here’s a quick summary of the channels you have available to add. Follow the links for more information about and instructions for adding these channels.

Note: Some of the following channels may not be available on all Zendesk plans. The articles that are linked below indicate the plans that are included.

Email	Customers contact you via email addresses that you create in Admin Center. You can also redirect external email addresses (a support email address you already have on your own or a different email provider) to your Zendesk account. See A complete guide to understanding email in Zendesk.
Contact form in your help center	This web form is included in your help center. You can use the standard contact form or create custom ticket forms with custom and conditional ticket fields. See Optimizing your ticket forms for a better agent and end-user experience.
Comments in your help center	You can create tickets from the comments added to the articles and community posts in your help center. Replies from agents are added as comments. See Creating a ticket from a comment on a knowledge base article and Creating a ticket from a community post or comment.
Messaging	Messaging provides ongoing messaging conversations that persist across devices and sessions. You can embed messaging into your help center and your websites. See Getting started with web and mobile messaging.
Voice via Zendesk Talk	You provide support telephone numbers to your customers so they can contact agents. Customers can also leave a voicemail when agents are unavailable or during off hours. These are captured as recordings in new tickets, which can then be followed up on. See Enabling Talk and configuring general settings.
SMS text messaging via Zendesk Talk	If you enable it, customers can send text messages to your support telephone numbers. See Getting started with Text.
Facebook wall posts and private messages	The Facebook channel enables wall posts and private messages from Facebook Pages to become tickets. See Setting up your Facebook channel.
Twitter	This channel enables you to convert incoming direct messages and liked tweets to tickets. See Setting up your Twitter channel.
Social messaging channels	You can connect several social messaging channels to your Zendesk. Messages sent through private channels, such as Facebook Messenger and Twitter DM become tickets, and agents can respond to messages from these third-party channels in the Agent Workspace. See Getting started with social messaging.
Additional chat, messaging, and voice channels using Sunshine Conversations	The Sunshine platform enables you to add even more social messaging channels. For example, you can also add Viber, Telegram, and Apple Business Chat. Messages sent to these channels become tickets in the Agent Workspace. When an agent responds in the Agent Workspace, the comment appears as a reply in the user's messaging app. See Adding Sunshine Conversations channels to the Zendesk Agent Workspace. Note: The social messaging channels that can be enabled through Sunshine Conversations are only available if you’re also using messaging and the Agent Workspace.
Third-party apps and integrations	In the Zendesk Apps Marketplace you can find many third-party apps and integrations that also become channels and create tickets in Support. For example, you can create a ticket from a Slack message, and in Google Play, you can convert reviews into tickets. Details and set up instructions are provided in the descriptions you’ll find in the Marketplace.
Zendesk API	You can use the Zendesk API to create custom channels, which create new tickets. See Part 11: Using the Zendesk developer platform to extend your support solution.

The channel that was used to submit a support request is visible on the ticket below the ticket title, as in this example.

You’ll also use this channel source information when viewing reports in Explore (see Understanding ticket channels in Explore) and if you want to set up routing for tickets that are received from specific channels (more about this below in Part 6: Routing incoming support requests).

About the Web Widget, Web Widget (Classic), and the mobile SDKs

The mechanisms for providing several different channels to your end users are the Web Widget, Web Widget (Classic), and mobile SDKs. All three enable you to embed elements of your support solution where your customers are.

The Web Widget, Web Widget (Classic), and the mobile SDKs are considered channels, but they’re essentially channels for other channels.

Web Widget. The Web Widget is used to embed live chat, ongoing messaging conversations, and automated conversation bots using created with bot builder into your websites and your help center. See Working with messaging in the Web Widget.

Web Widget (Classic). You use Web Widget (Classic) to embed into your websites and help center live chat (Zendesk Chat), your help center knowledge base articles, a contact form for submitting a support request, autoreplies, and other options. See Providing omnichannel support using Web Widget (Classic) for Zendesk Suite.

Note: You can use either the messaging Web Widget or the Web Widget (Classic). You can’t use both at the same time.

Mobile SDKs. Mobile SDKs for iOS and Android enable you to embed live chat, messaging, automated conversation flows into your mobile apps, your help center knowledge base articles, a contact form for submitting a support request, and other options. See Working with messaging in the mobile SDKs and Embedding customer service in mobile apps with the Support SDK.

Continue to Part 6: Routing incoming support requests