Automated Chat User Management - With Zapier

Managing Chat Users can be a pain, especially with a large number of agents. Here's how I'm managing ~1,500 chat users, hopefully, you will be able to find some use in this.

Note - We have a regular process to extract all of our chat agents using the API to review their last login date. If they have not logged in within a specific period of the extraction, they will be disabled. We run the same process on the deletion of Chat Agents on a separate time frame.

Automation key benefits:

• Focus on driving change - Remove reliance on System Admins to control onboarding, spend more time doing things that matter.
• Efficiency - Action any request within 5mins.
• Security and Reliability - Zendesk only allows for admins to create chat accounts, with this automation hopefully you can cut the number of admins in your account.

How does this work?
1 - The user will submit the Google Form
2 - Verification step to ensure that the email address contains @{{Domain}} (only allow for people within your domain to gain a chat account)
3 - Automation - Will perform a complete extract of all accounts on the chat platform
4 - Form submitted details will be checked against the full agent extract to assess whether the account is already on the platform

5 - PATH A - If the user with that email address is found on chat
5A - If the account is located a request will be automated to enable the chat account
5B - A log will be captured to mark the account as enabled for reference
5C - A confirmation email will be sent to the requester email

6 - PATH B - If the user with that email address is not found on chat
6A - If the account is not located a request will be automated to create the chat account
6B - A log will be captured to mark the account as created for reference
6C - A confirmation email will be sent to the requester

How can I replicate this?

Please keep in mind I have built this to our requirements. You can adapt the workflow to meet yours.

Prerequisite - Create a Google Form:

• The email address of user raising the request (you can have Google collect this for you)
• The email address of the user requiring chat access (our practice is that our team leads or managers submit these requests)
• The First Name of the user requiring access
• The Second Name of the user requiring access
• Ensure that you have enabled for the responses to the form to be linked to a Google Sheet.
• Additional Sheet column - Action - This will indicate whether it was created or enabled for your reference.

Zapier Automation (Base):

1. Trigger Step - Google Sheets - New Spreadsheet Row - Select the sheet which the Google Form responses will be sent to
2. Filter - Only continue if - Email address of the user requiring chat access - Contains - @{{your_domain}}
3. Webhook - Get Request - https://www.zopim.com/API/v2/agents/email/{{Email_address_of_user_requiring_chat_access}}
4. Paths - Path A = User was found or Path B = User was not found

Zapier Automation (Path A - User Found):

1. Path Details - Name = Found and Update and Rules = ID from Webhook Get request (Number 3 above) exists
2. Webhook - Custom Request - Method = Put - URL = https://www.zopim.com/api/v2/agents/{{User_ID)) from Webhook Get request (Number 3 above)
3. OPTIONAL - Google Sheets - Lookup Spreadsheet Row - Lookup Column = The email address of the user which requires access to chat - Lookup value = Email address of the user
4. OPTIONAL - Google Sheets - Update Spreadsheet Row  - Row = Use Custom Value = row_id from step 3 above - Set Action column as Updated
5. Recommended - Gmail - Send Email - Format an email to send the requester of the chat account letting them know it has been enabled ;)

Zapier Automation (Path B - User Not Found):

1. Path Details - Name = Not Found - Create and Rules = ID from Webhook Get request (Number 3 above) does not exist
2. Webhook - Custom Request - Method = Post - URL = https://www.zopim,com/api/v2/agents/ from Webhook Get request (Number 3 above) - Example request - {"email": "{{email_address}}", "password": "{{password}}", "first_name": "{{first_name}}", "last_name": "{{last_name}}", "display_name": "{{first_name}}", "enabled": 1}
   
3. OPTIONAL - Google Sheets - Lookup Spreadsheet Row - Lookup Column = The email address of the user which requires access to chat - Lookup value = Email address of the user
4. OPTIONAL - Google Sheets - Update Spreadsheet Row  - Row = Use Custom Value = row_id from step 3 above - Set Action column as Created
5. RECOMMENDED - Gmail - Send Email - Format an email to send the requester of the chat account letting them know it has been created ;)

Things to keep in mind:

• Zendesk API does not allow for the Chat Limit of a created user to be set or the Support Address to be set; as a result, the user who requested the for the chat account should update this after they have received their confirmation email.
• I will assume that users you could take this a step further to add users to your desired chat departments.
• I've had just under 600 accounts processed by this automation with no issues.
• If the chat agent is enabled, the previous password will remain.
• This is only built for the creation of agent accounts. I assume you can modify to set different roles, but it's not something I'm looking to do.