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In this article, we cover:
Are you using the Zendesk platform as the ticketing support tool, but your B2B customers are on Slack? Is this creating unnecessary friction and frustration for your customers and support agents? Worry not; there’s a solution—the Zendesk and Slack integration.
Integrating both platforms can pay off immediately, allowing you to leverage the powerful customer service capabilities of Zendesk with the real-time communication of Slack.
So, if you’re wondering how to integrate Slack and Zendesk, you’re in the right place.
In this article, we'll delve deeper into the benefits of this integration, particularly in terms of in-context conversational ticketing. We'll also discuss the drawbacks of native integration solutions and how to overcome them using Thena. Finally, we'll provide a step-by-step guide on integrating Zendesk and Slack with Thena.
Slack-Zendesk integration is a process that connects two platforms for easier and faster customer management. By combining the communication capabilities of Slack with the ticketing and support features of Zendesk, teams can efficiently collaborate and manage customer inquiries in real time.
Your customers are already on Slack. So, it makes perfect sense to manage them via this channel while your agents stay on Zendesk. If both sides are happy, it’s a win-win, right?
Managing your customers on Slack means you can provide more immediate support. According to a survey by HubSpot, 90% of customers expect a fast response when they have an issue.
Thus, by integrating Zendesk and Slack, customer-facing teams can communicate more effectively, leading to faster response times, increased productivity, and higher customer satisfaction. The integration enables seamless team collaboration, resulting in a more positive overall customer experience.
Another benefit is that the integration can streamline the support process, significantly increasing support productivity. How? It’s simple.
The integration allows you to automate manual tasks and provide a centralized platform for customer support. This way, teams can handle more inquiries in less time.
One study found that 40% of US companies struggle to improve customer experience due to poor interdepartmental collaboration.
That said, Slack-Zendesk integration is a perfect solution that enables cross-department collaboration. Teams can take accountability for customer requests, redirect inquiries to the appropriate members, and follow up on unanswered customer messages. All of this can foster a team mentality, becoming a daily routine for all customer-facing team members.
Finally, integrating Zendesk with Slack can also foster a sense of ownership among customer-facing teams by enabling them to take charge of customer requests and follow up on them efficiently. Handling all inquiries via Slack equals more visibility, ensuring no customer requests go unanswered.
So, what's the best way to integrate Zendesk with Slack, you may ask?
You have the option to utilize built-in integrations or explore third-party solutions, both of which entail their own nuances. Below, we’ll examine these in further detail.
Naturally, companies that seek to integrate Zendesk with Slack will first explore native solutions. In this case, it’s the Zendesk App for Slack. Nonetheless, they are likely to encounter (or have already encountered) several challenges with it, which we outline below.
One of the issues businesses face with the Zendesk App for Slack is that they want their support team to be in Zendesk and their customers to remain on Slack. This requires a deep bi-directional integration which includes rich text, bullets, gifs, and attachments. None of these are supported in the native Zendesk app for Slack.
There is also no capability to configure and automate support requests to go directly to Zendesk.
Setting up a white-label branded portal is another difficulty many companies encounter. What's worse, the consumer feels like a bot is responding rather than a human.
It is also impossible to configure Zendesk to be silent and come on only when you want it to.
The Zendesk App for Slack offers extremely limited Natural Language Processing (NLP) features for ticket creation and the ability to flag potential requests.
Given the limitations of native APIs, it becomes clear that businesses should explore third-party solutions. And that’s where Thena comes in.
Thena not only overcomes the obstacles mentioned above but also enables seamless integration of Zendesk tickets with Slack—all to empower agents to provide high-touch conversational support via customers’ preferred channel of communication (Slack).
Take a look at the video where Jared Gaynes from our GTM team discusses the Zendesk Slack integration.
Let’s unpack some of the main Thena’s benefits.
When your customer asks a question in Slack, a Zendesk ticket gets created within Slack at the click of a button. If you forget to create a ticket, the Smart Inbox function leverages Intent Recognition models and ensures the message is highlighted as a suggested request.
The fully functional Slack-Zendesk integration enables support agents to handle the whole ticket lifecycle within one platform—Zendesk.
Thena facilitates the ticket lifecycle (Open>Pending>Close, for example) and allows for escalations and sharing of rich text, attachments, gifs, bullet points, and hyperlinks. Therefore, you no longer have to worry about the communication flow between Slack and Zendesk.
As a customer-facing representative, you can stay in Slack and track the progress of a customer request (or across past customer interactions). If you need to escalate a request internally, Thena can also accommodate that.
Thena also supports the Kanban board function, which lets you see all Zendesk tickets at the customer or organization level. In addition, the customer is also tagged in Zendesk.
Thena also has a CSAT function. This means that when you interact with your client through their preferred tool (Slack), they are more inclined to provide feedback.
Thena is set up to be noiseless and does not let the customer know that the reply is coming from an app. Instead, your support agent’s name and image appear normal, so you can give your customers the white-glove treatment they deserve.
Thena offers enhanced configuration capabilities for your Zendesk and Slack integration, including white-labeling, support agent response customization, and user notification preferences.
Want to bring everyone on board to solve a customer problem? Thena’s escalation feature allows a customer or team to escalate a request in Slack. Subsequently, the escalation can be visible on Zendesk. Thena will also highlight the action items and send them to Zendesk.
Thena simplifies the task of tagging your CSM in Slack when a ticket is created by others, ensuring your CSM stays informed. After all, your CSM is critical to ensuring your customers achieve their desired outcomes with your product and have an exceptional experience with your business.
You’ll be happy to know that Thena’s Zendesk to Slack integration is straightforward. Here’s a step-by-step process on how to set it up.1.
For more detailed instructions, you can visit Thena's knowledge base.
As you’ve seen, integrating the two platforms through Thena can offer several advantages. However, to ensure a successful implementation and an optimal experience for both your customers and internal teams, it is crucial to follow best practices.
So, we suggest paying attention to the following settings:
In today's cutthroat B2B SaaS world, keeping customers and providing top-notch support is key. Luckily, blending Zendesk, Slack, and Thena.ai makes a winning formula. This mix boosts customer care, smooths out processes, and provides deep insights. Here's a quick look at what each brings to the table and how Thena.ai ramps up their combined power:
Slack, the go-to app for teamwork. It streamlines communication, making collaborations seamless. A powerhouse for projects, it connects everyone effortlessly. It's where ideas flow and tasks get done. Simple, yet mighty.
Thena.ai smoothly connects with Zendesk and Slack, adding a smart layer that boosts their functions with features designed for B2B SaaS firms.
Merging Zendesk, Slack, and Thena.ai lets B2B SaaS firms build a strong system. It boosts top-notch customer service, eases chat and teamwork, and offers key lessons for ongoing betterment. This smart mix helps companies stand out with great customer journeys. It leads to better customer keeping and steady growth in a tough B2B market.
Zendesk's platform excels at handling support tickets. Yet, linking it with Slack can boost your customer team's efficiency and performance notably. Here's what your team could be overlooking:
Thena.ai acts as a bridge between Zendesk and Slack by:
Yes, Thena.ai automates tasks in Zendesk (canned responses, field updates) and triggers Zendesk actions (ticket creation) based on Slack events.
Yes, Thena.ai offers features like workflows and channel routing that suggest customization options for notifications in Slack.
Yes, real-time updates are supported.
Thena.ai should work with all standard Zendesk ticket types. Limitations might arise with:
The Zendesk-Slack integration with Thena.ai improves team collaboration in several ways:
Overall, Thena.ai streamlines communication and information sharing within Slack, promoting a more collaborative environment for your customer support team.
Thena.ai uses Slack threads to its advantage:
This helps agents understand issues better, prioritize effectively, and work together seamlessly within Slack.
Yes, the Zendesk-Slack integration with Thena.ai can prioritize tickets in Slack. Thena.ai's smart routing ensures critical tickets reach the right agent quickly, and notifications for these tickets can be directed to designated Slack channels for faster team awareness. Additionally, sentiment analysis can help prioritize tickets based on urgency reflected in customer conversations within Slack. This prioritization happens indirectly within Slack, but allows your team to address critical issues first.
Implementing Thena.ai with Zendesk and Slack likely incurs costs through a Thena.ai subscription and potentially additional Zendesk add-ons for advanced features. However, consider the potential return on investment - increased efficiency, improved customer satisfaction, and cost savings from faster resolutions - might outweigh the initial cost.
Boosts reply speed, enhances teamwork, smooths operations
Yes, use native or Thena.ai for message to ticket conversion
Set up rules to match notifications with ticket details, works with native and Thena.ai
Direct replies might need Zendesk access, but Thena.ai supports in-Slack chat
Yes, Thena.ai, let you search tickets within Slack
Free editions could restrict features or data amount
Map out processes, use ready-made messages, push for team play
While Zendesk-Slack integrations exist, Thena.ai goes beyond the basics. It leverages AI to automate complex tasks within Zendesk based on triggers from both platforms. Thena.ai's advanced sentiment analysis goes beyond text, identifying potential frustration in Slack conversations for proactive customer support. It seamlessly integrates Slack features like mentions and file sharing, fostering collaboration. Customization options and a focus on customer experience through features like chatbots and pre-filled templates solidify Thena.ai's position as a powerful Zendesk-Slack integration solution.
Yep, emails, chats, you name it, Thena.ai's on it.
Spots the urgent from the chill, avoiding customer meltdowns.
Indeed, sneaks helpful articles to customers and agents alike.
Chat, notes, shout-outs included.
Occasionally, users may encounter challenges when attempting to connect Slack to Zendesk.
For instance, certain users have reported difficulties in receiving hyperlinked text on Slack when sending messages via Zendesk or experiencing errors with the appearance of their support agent profiles.
Thena was designed with flexibility in mind, meaning it can adapt to various use cases and configurations. However, it is still possible for certain issues to arise due to the complex nature of software integrations.
To help users troubleshoot and resolve common problems related to the integration, we have created a dedicated FAQ page. This resource answers frequently asked questions and may help you overcome obstacles during the integration process.
As your organization grows and the demand for meeting your customers where they are (Slack) becomes commonplace, your support teams must be set up for success.
Using Thena’s integration with Zendesk, support teams are empowered to act as Thena adapts to their internal processes.
Unlock your team’s productivity now!
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