Articles in the series
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.
| 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. |
| X (formerly Twitter) | This channel enables you to convert incoming direct messages and liked tweets to tickets. See Setting up your X (formerly 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 X (formerly 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 Messages
for Business. 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.
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
Zendesk bots
Zendesk's AI-powered bots can help your customers locate the answers they need without having to contact a human agent or wait for hours or days to receive a response during non-business hours.
Zendesk bots can be used in email notifications, where they can respond to customers with recommended help center articles derived from the content of the requester's email message or the information that has been entered into your contact form.
They are also part of messaging’s advanced bot-enabled functionality, where they can recommend relevant help center articles and guide customers through automated conversation bots designed in bot builder.
You can use bot builder to create a bot that interacts with customers and provides answers to common questions.
For more information, see Understanding everywhere you can use Zendesk bots and About the bot builder.