Introduction
The charles Zendesk integration seamlessly integrates into your existing customer support processes. It lets you automatically open tickets on Zendesk via charles, and enables your agents to respond from Zendesk via WhatsApp.
Features
Create Zendesk ticket node The Create Zendesk Ticket node can be added at any point in a flow. Once your customers reach that step of the flow, charles will open a Zendesk ticket. On the node you have the following configuration options:
Ticket subject Each Zendesk ticket is created with a subject line. If you want to create rules or filters based on the subject line, here is the place to define it as you like
Note that every ticket is also created with a charles tag. You can also use this to filter tickets and create rules.
Number of messages this setting lets you define how many of the last messages with that customers should be attached to the ticket when creating it. Add up to 20 to give your agents enough context to close the ticket as fast as possible
2. Ticket status check The check of the ticket status in the condition node lets you filter out people that currently have an open Zendesk ticket. We recommend not to send campaigns and other marketing content to customers who have an open service request as this most likely will decrease customer satisfaction.
3. Bi-directional communication between charles and Zendesk With the integration you can easily use the familiar Zendesk interface to chat with your customers on WhatsApp. Simply type your message and hit Send, it’s that easy. All photos and videos from your customers will also be added to the ticket and your agents can also respond with attachments of any sort, e.g. photos, videos, or PDFs.
Installation
Note that to install the Zendesk integration on charles, you need to be the Account Administrator of the Zendesk instance. Please also pay close attention to what needs to be copied from where to avoid mistakes. Take your time 🙂
Connecting Zendesk and charles
To install the Zendesk integration on a charles instance, please follow the following steps:
Generate charles API Key
In charles, navigate to Settings > API Keys.
Next, click on Generate API Key in the top right corner, enter a name, e.g. Zendesk and description and click Save and close the dialogue
Next, open the newly created API key from the table, click Show and copy the displayed API Key
Connect charles and Zendesk
In charles, navigate to Settings > Integrations and click on the Marketplace tab
Click on the Zendesk card, click Configure and on then on Next
Now, you need to enter the credentials both for Zendesk and charles.
Copy the charles instance URL (
https://<domain>.hello-charles.com) and paste it into the field Universe Host. Next, paste the copied charles API key into the corresponding field.Now, copy the following link, replacing
<instance_name>with your Zendesk instance name.
https://<instance_name>.zendesk.com/admin/apps-integrations/apis/zendesk-api/oauth_clients/new
Note that for this step, you need to be the Account Administrator of your Zendesk instance.
Click create new client and enter a name for the OAuth client, e.g.
charles_<your_brand_name> , enter an optional description and copy and paste the following link in the last input field redirect URL
https://oauth2.integrations.hello-charles.com/callback
Under Client kind, select confidential
Next, hit Finish and enter the Unique Identifier of the OAuth client in the charles configuration under Client ID.
Copy and paste the generated secret from Zendesk and paste it into the respective field on charles.
Finally, hit Connect.
Congrats! 🎉 You just successfully connected the charles Zendesk integration.
For more info on how to create a Zendesk auth client, please follow the Zendesk guide: Using-OAuth-authentication-with-your-application
Installing the charles Zendesk App
On Zendesk, please navigate to Apps, go to the marketplace and search for charles or go to
Click install and select the environment you want to install it on.
Next, find the subdomain of your charles instance in the URL of your browser (my-company if the URL is https://my-company.hello-charles.com) and replace the text in the first input field.
Finally, copy the charles API key you generated earlier, paste it into the respective field and hit Install.
Tada! You have successfully installed the charles Zendesk app and can start using charles in your customer service team 💛
Setting up your Zendesk Flow(s)
Depending on your ideal set up, you might want to forward every incoming message to Zendesk or you only want to open tickets in specific scenarios. If the former is the case, please create a new flow.
Next, right-click on the canvas and select Create Zendesk Ticket from the menu. Connect the trigger to the node and publish the flow.
Finally, go to
https://<your-company>.hello-charles.com/journeys/settings/triggers
and select the flow you just created from the drop down on the right.
With this setup using the Catch-all trigger, every incoming message will open a new Zendesk ticket and for customers who already have an open ticket, the message will be appended to the ticket.
In case you only want to open tickets in specific instances, add the Create Zendesk ticket node in the flows where you want to create the tickets.
Using the condition node
If you want to avoid sending customers promotional content while they have an open service ticket, you can use our condition node to filter these people out. Simply add a condition node to the canvas and select properties from the drop-down menu.
Replying via Zendesk
When a ticket is created in Zendesk, you notice it comes with helpful context. You can see the previous 5-10 messages between you and your customers and a link to the conversation in charles. This way, your customer service agents know immediately what to respond with and how to help your customer.
To reply to a ticket, you can use the native Zendesk text editor to reply to tickets. Sending attachments is also supported.
If you are outside of the 24 hour window, you can't respond using regular WhatsApp messages. In these cases, we recommend creating a few update templates in charles which are accessible in the right panel once approved. For instance, create an update template with quick reply buttons to nudge your customers to open the 24 hour window again.
To send templates, type in the template name in the input field in the charles app panel on the right. Once selected, click the "Send message" button and the template will be sent to your customer.
Automations in Zendesk
Tickets that are opened via WhatsApp are created with a "charles" tag. This can be used as an entry point to trigger all sorts of other automations in Zendesk. For instance, you can add additional tags, once a ticket with the tag "charles" was created.
