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-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.

Overview of Zendesk-Slack Integration

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.

Four Benefits of Zendesk-Slack Integration

1. Enhanced Customer Experience‍

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.

2. Increased Support Productivity

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.

3. Improved Cross-Department Collaboration

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.

4. Ownership of Customer Requests

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.

Common Problems with Native Integrations

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.

1. The Bi-directional Integration Does Not Exist

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. 

2. No Capability to Configure and Automate Support Requests 

There is also no capability to configure and automate support requests to go directly to Zendesk.

3. Tricky White-labeling

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.

4. Noisy

It is also impossible to configure Zendesk to be silent and come on only when you want it to.

5. Severely Restricted Natural Language Processing Capabilities

The Zendesk App for Slack offers extremely limited Natural Language Processing (NLP) features for ticket creation and the ability to flag potential requests.

Advantages of Using Thena’s Zendesk Integration

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).

Let’s unpack some of the main Thena’s benefits.

Easy Ticket Creation

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.

Streamlined Management of the Entire Ticket Lifecycle

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.

Straightforward Tracking of a Customer Request

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.

Kanban Board for Visual Organization of Support Tickets

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.

CSAT Feature

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.

Noiseless and White-labeled

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.

Enhanced Configuration Capabilities

Thena offers enhanced configuration capabilities for your Zendesk-Slack integration, including white-labeling, support agent response customization, and user notification preferences.

Request Escalation

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.

Your CSM is Always in the Loop

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.

How to Integrate Slack with Zendesk Using Thena

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.

1. First, sign up for Thena and add it to your Slack workspace.
2. Once you’re in, navigate to the ‘Settings’ section and click ‘Integrations.’
3. From the integrations list, select Zendesk.
4. On the next screen, you’ll see various configuration preferences, including enabling the bi-directional flow of messages and setting an initial default response. Choose the most appropriate settings for your use case.
5. Once you’ve configured your preferences, click the ‘Save’ button.
   ‍

For more detailed instructions, you can visit Thena's knowledge base.

Best Practices for Using Slack-Zendesk Integration

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:

• Customize the appearance of replies from Zendesk support agents in Slack. You can choose between the agent's personal or company profiles.
• Establish an initial default response to automatically acknowledge customers’ inquiries on Slack.
• Use the CSAT feature to gauge customer feedback and enhance your customer service operations.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

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.

The Bottom Line

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!

Signup today!