The Microsoft Exchange Connector allows you to integrate your non-Zendesk email servers, based on Microsoft Exchange, directly into your Zendesk Support instance. This is ideal for Microsoft customers looking to connect their online Microsoft 365 or Exchange servers and leverage their Exchange/Outlook workflows.
The main advantage of this solution is that it allows you to send and receive email traffic to and from your customers using your domain’s email services, while ensuring encrypted and secure relays to and from Zendesk.
Microsoft Exchange is the server powering all Microsoft email products, including Microsoft 365. Therefore, the Zendesk Microsoft Exchange Connector is compatible with the online version of all Microsoft email products. The connector is incompatible with Exchange Server on-premise. In this situation, the Authenticated SMTP Connector may be a better option.
This article includes the following topics:
- About the Exchange Connector
- Considerations
- Important information about email headers
- Connecting your Microsoft Exchange account
About the Exchange Connector
Using an Exchange API, the Microsoft Exchange Connector allows you to fetch email from an Exchange inbox and automatically convert email messages to tickets. The API is also leveraged to deliver outbound email from Zendesk to your Exchange mailbox.
Figure 1: Email flow with the Microsoft Exchange Connector
Zendesk Support frequently checks for new email in your Exchange inbox. Only new, unread email messages in the inbox will be converted into tickets. Ticket notifications will be sent from your Microsoft email address.
Considerations
- CCs and followers must be turned on in your account.
- We recommend testing this feature in your Zendesk sandbox environment before using it in production.
Important information about email headers
Email headers, (such as To, From, CC, and Reply-To) contain important data and metadata about an email message.
Your administrator may want to change email headers for several reasons. However, it’s important to note that some header fields should never be altered since they are critical for ensuring the correct delivery and integrity of the message. Changing standard headers at the account's email domain before outbound sending is not supported. Any issues that emerge as a result of this should be investigated and corrected at the external domain.
The below headers should persist throughout the outbound relay process:
Auto-Submitted: auto-generated
X-Auto-Response-Suppress: All
X-Mailer: Zendesk Mailer
X-Zendesk-From-Account-Id: ******
X-Zendesk-Email-Id: ************************
Changing your email header fields doesn’t change how Zendesk works; it only changes how you send your outbound messages and how you might receive responses. The relationships between the requester, agents, and CCs in the email and subsequent ticket should not change.
The Exchange Connector doesn't give you the ability to send email on behalf of your Zendesk system support addresses (example: support@yoursubdomain.zendesk.com).
Connecting your Microsoft Exchange account
You must be a Zendesk administrator to connect your Exchange account to Zendesk.
When you connect to your Exchange account, make sure you sign in to the Exchange account you want to connect to. If you sign in to a different Exchange account in the same browser as your instance of Zendesk Support, you will connect to the wrong account.
To connect to your Microsoft Exchange account
- In Admin Center, click Channels in the sidebar, then select Talk and email > Email.
- In the Support addresses section, click Add address, then click Connect external address.
- Select Microsoft Exchange Connector.
- Click Continue to Microsoft.
You will be redirected to Microsoft. - Click Accept to approve access to that email account.
You may need to sign in to Microsoft using your account credentials for that email address. - Click Accept, then click Done.
Your Zendesk instance is now connected to your Microsoft account. If you want to connect to multiple accounts, repeat these steps.