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Are your support agents juggling between Zendesk for ticket management and Slack for customer communication? If your B2B customers prefer Slack, but your support operations rely on Zendesk, this disconnect can slow down responses, add frustration, and create inefficiencies on both sides. Fortunately, there’s a powerful solution: integrating Zendesk and Slack.
With Zendesk and Slack working together, support teams can respond to tickets in real time, directly from Slack, without the need to constantly switch platforms. This integration not only boosts response times but also makes support more accessible and streamlined for customers by meeting them in their preferred communication channel.
In this article, you’ll discover:
Ready to connect Zendesk and Slack for better support? Let’s begin by defining exactly what the Zendesk-Slack integration is.
The Zendesk-Slack integration connects Zendesk’s ticketing system with Slack’s messaging platform, allowing support teams to handle customer requests more smoothly.
With this integration, new or updated Zendesk tickets automatically appear in selected Slack channels, so agents don’t miss any important updates.
Support teams can even manage tickets directly from Slack—assigning tasks, updating statuses, and collaborating with teammates—all without switching back and forth between platforms. This integration helps speed up response times and creates a more streamlined support experience by keeping communication and action in one place.
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.
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.
Finally, when it comes to high-priority tickets or complex customer issues, time is of the essence. Zendesk-Slack integration allows for real-time escalation, meaning support agents can notify other teams immediately when additional expertise is needed. This immediacy is especially valuable for urgent or high-ticket customer issues, where response speed can make a big difference in customer satisfaction.
By setting up designated Slack channels or using tags for escalation, teams like product, technical support, or sales can jump in, access relevant information, and offer their assistance on the spot.
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.
Most companies looking to connect Zendesk with Slack start by trying the native integration, known as the Zendesk App for Slack. It seems like the obvious choice—easy to set up, familiar, and able to handle basic needs. The expectation is that it will get the job done without much extra effort.
However, as companies start using it, they often run into limitations. While the native integration works well for simple updates, it can struggle with more complex needs, like involving different teams, handling specific customer requests, or customizing alerts.
Below, we outline some common challenges teams face when relying on the native Zendesk-Slack integration and how it can impact their ability to provide fast, effective support.
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.
So, is there a better way? Yes! And that’s what we’re focusing on in the next section.
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.
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.
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.
CSAT response collection directly in Slack
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 Help Center.
Integrating Zendesk with Slack through Thena offers powerful tools to enhance customer support, but to fully benefit, it’s essential to follow a few best practices. These tips will help you ensure a smooth implementation and create a better experience for both your customers and your internal teams.
Set up your Zendesk-to-Slack integration to control how replies from support agents appear in Slack. Choose whether messages come from the individual agent’s profile or a general company profile to keep communication clear and consistent for customers.
Create an initial automated response that acknowledges each customer’s message in Slack. This reassures customers that their inquiry has been received, setting expectations for follow-up and providing a more responsive experience.
Enable Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) surveys to gauge how customers feel about their support experience. This data can be invaluable for understanding customer sentiment, identifying areas for improvement, and enhancing your service over time.
In the competitive B2B SaaS world, excellent customer support is key to retention. Combining Zendesk, Slack, and Thena creates a high-performance support system that streamlines communication, improves workflow, and offers deep insights. Here’s how each platform contributes:
Integrating Zendesk, Slack, and Thena builds a comprehensive support system for B2B SaaS companies. Precisely, it enhances service quality, facilitates smooth team collaboration, and provides essential insights for ongoing improvements.
Incorporating Slack and Zendesk into your support strategy can transform workflows, but choosing the right tools for ticket management can elevate that experience even further.
While Zendesk provides a strong foundation for managing customer interactions, adding Thena.ai brings AI-driven enhancements that support faster responses, smarter ticket routing, and deeper customer insights—factors that can significantly impact customer satisfaction and team efficiency.
To help you decide which features best fit your team’s needs, here’s a side-by-side comparison of Thena.ai and Zendesk. This breakdown highlights where Thena.ai’s automation and advanced analytics enhance what Zendesk offers, allowing for more seamless, proactive customer support.
The native Zendesk-Slack integration is well-suited for basic ticket updates and notifications but may fall short for complex or cross-departmental inquiries. For more advanced needs, additional tools like Thena.ai can enhance functionality with features like smart routing and real-time collaboration.
Yes, you can set up Zendesk notifications for multiple Slack channels, such as separate channels for billing or technical support. However, it’s important to carefully configure notifications to avoid overwhelming teams with alerts.
Thena.ai acts as a smart bridge between Zendesk and Slack by:
Absolutely. Thena.ai can handle many automations, like sending canned responses, updating fields in Zendesk, and even triggering Zendesk actions (like creating a ticket) based on events in Slack.
Yes! Thena.ai offers workflows and channel routing that allow you to set up notifications based on specific ticket types, urgency, or even customer preferences, so you only see what’s relevant.
Yes, it does. Thena.ai supports real-time updates, so every Zendesk ticket change shows up instantly in Slack, keeping your team in the loop without delay.
Thena.ai works with most standard Zendesk ticket types. However, custom Zendesk features may require extra configuration, and advanced workflows may need a paid Thena.ai plan.
Thena.ai makes team collaboration smoother by:
Thena.ai captures complete Slack threads for Zendesk tickets, so agents have the full context. It can even analyze the sentiment across conversations and link tickets back to the Slack thread, making collaboration seamless.
Yes, Thena.ai can prioritize tickets based on urgency and route them to specific Slack channels for faster handling. Smart routing ensures that high-priority tickets reach the right people quickly, while sentiment analysis helps prioritize tickets based on customer tone.
Using Thena.ai may come with subscription costs and possibly Zendesk add-ons for advanced features. However, the time savings, better efficiency, and improved customer satisfaction often make it a worthwhile investment.
Connecting Zendesk and Slack speeds up responses, improves teamwork, and simplifies support workflows. It’s a powerful way to boost productivity and deliver better service.
Yes! Both the native integration and Thena.ai allow for message-to-ticket conversion, making it easy to kickstart a support request.
You can set up rules in both the native integration and Thena.ai to match notifications with specific ticket details, ensuring alerts go to the right channels.
With the native integration, direct replies often require access to Zendesk. However, Thena.ai allows for in-Slack chats, so agents can discuss issues without leaving Slack.
Yes! Thena.ai lets you search for tickets directly in Slack, giving you easy access to ticket details without toggling back to Zendesk.
With free versions of Zendesk or Slack, some features or data usage might be restricted. For full functionality, teams often upgrade to paid plans.
Map out workflows, set up pre-made responses, and encourage team collaboration to make the integration work smoothly and efficiently.
While Zendesk-Slack integrations cover the basics, Thena.ai goes further by leveraging AI to automate complex tasks triggered from either platform. It also features advanced sentiment analysis, detecting not only keywords but potential frustration in Slack conversations, allowing teams to proactively support customers. Thena.ai seamlessly integrates Slack features like mentions and file sharing to boost team collaboration. With customization options, chatbots, and pre-filled templates, Thena.ai is a powerful, customer-focused solution for Zendesk-Slack integration.
Yes! Thena.ai manages tickets from various channels, including emails, chat, and more, making it versatile across multiple communication platforms.
Thena.ai’s sentiment analysis helps teams identify which tickets are urgent and which are less critical, allowing agents to address high-stress situations faster and avoid potential customer frustrations.
Yes, it does. Thena.ai can recommend relevant help articles to both customers and agents, providing quick answers and reducing support workloads.
Thena.ai brings collaboration features right into Slack, including chat threads, notes, and mentions. This setup makes it easy for teams to communicate directly on tickets, share updates, and assign tasks without leaving Slack.
Integrating Slack with Zendesk can occasionally present a few challenges, especially as each platform has its own settings and nuances.
For example, some users find that hyperlinked text doesn’t always display correctly when Zendesk messages are sent to Slack, or they might experience issues with how support agent profiles appear. While Thena is built for flexibility and adapts to many configurations, sometimes the complexity of integrating multiple platforms can lead to minor hiccups.
To make troubleshooting easier, we’ve put together a dedicated FAQ page that covers frequently encountered issues and common solutions. This resource is designed to help you address obstacles quickly so you can keep your team focused on delivering great support.
As your organization grows, meeting your customers where they are—like on Slack—becomes essential. To keep up with these demands, your support team needs the right tools and a streamlined process to deliver fast, effective service.
With Thena’s integration with Zendesk, your team is equipped to respond efficiently while adapting seamlessly to your unique workflows. Thena empowers your support teams to take action, prioritize customer needs, and maintain a smooth, collaborative process that grows alongside your organization.
Try Thena today to unlock your team’s productivity now!
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