Zendesk

Customer service software and support ticket system.

About Zendesk

Zendesk provides a unified workspace for customer support. To deliver great service, context is king. Integrating Zendesk with your CRM and e-commerce platforms puts the customer's entire history—orders, previous chats, and account value—right next to the ticket, enabling agents to provide personalized solutions faster.

Integration Capabilities

Zendesk has 10 native integrations with leading business platforms. Connect via direct API, webhooks, or third-party automation tools for unlimited possibilities.

Browse Zendesk integrations below. Green integrations are native and free. Yellow integrations require an automation platform like Make ↗ to sync data.

Common Integration Patterns

→ E-commerce Context: Integrates with Shopify/Magento to display customer order history, tracking numbers, and lifetime value in the sidebar next to the ticket.
→ CRM Bi-directional Sync: Connects with Salesforce to ensure that sales teams can see open support tickets and support agents can see deal status.
→ Bug Tracking: Standard integration with Jira to create engineering issues directly from customer reports.
→ Ticket Escalation Approvals: Integrates with Jira to require support lead approval before tickets are escalated to engineering, ensuring proper triage and resource allocation.

Integration Challenges

⚠ Data Duplication: Poorly configured integrations can create duplicate customer records (contacts) in Zendesk if the email match logic isn't strict.
⚠ Ticket Storms: Automated systems (like email auto-responders) integrated with Zendesk can sometimes create infinite loops of ticket creation.
⚠ Sidebar Clutter: Installing too many integration apps can clutter the agent interface, making it harder to find relevant info.

Before You Integrate

1. Clean Customer Data: Deduplicate your customer lists in your CRM/E-com platform before turning on the sync to Zendesk.
2. Set Role Restrictions: Configure the integration so that only relevant agents (e.g., Tier 2 Support) can push tickets to Jira.
3. Test Widget Visibility: Ensure the Zendesk Web Widget is only firing on appropriate pages and doesn't conflict with other scripts.
4. Map Macro Placeholders: If using macros that pull data from integrations (like 'Order Number'), test that these variables populate correctly.