Maximizing Customer Support Efficiency: Zendesk + Salesforce Integration - Worth the Investment?

 

A CRM enables businesses to address customers, increasing engagement quickly. Customer support combined with CRM can be an extremely powerful force, helping increase sales while increasing satisfaction and creating an unforgettable customer experience.

Zendesk's integration with Salesforce is an outstanding example of this potential combination.

Zendesk Support is an established salesforce ticketing system created to track, prioritize, and solve customer service interactions.

One useful integration between Zendesk Support and Salesforce that businesses can use to meet most of their sales goals is Zendesk integration with Salesforce. If you are curious about the specifics between Zendesk and Salesforce integration, this post provides all the answers! Here you will learn the ins and outs of merging these social platforms seamlessly.

---

What Does Salesforce's Integration Mean?

 

Integrating Salesforce into your current software gives you access to additional data while simplifying life for social channel managers and marketers.

Your team can gain from CX integration of their social software. They'll gain more insight into customer journeys and more agility in providing meaningful assistance to their customers.

Teams in sales and customer service department often employ separate platforms like Zendesk and Salesforce for customer engagement purposes, operating separately.

Integrating Salesforce Zendesk would benefit these teams as both systems could access key customer data more seamlessly.

The integration allows teams to share customer data, seamlessly creating an outstanding customer experience.

Utilizing the appropriate tools enables community managers to respond to customer issues quickly while planning and strategizing accordingly for direct customer interactions, increasing CRM data quality and enhancing face-to-face meetings with clients.

Want More Information About Our Services? Talk to Our Consultants!

---

Customer Experience Metrics

 

Quantifying customer satisfaction through quantitative data may seem impossible, but with enough expertise in CX strategy and data collection techniques, it is still achievable.

Knowing their pain points and which insights could become tactics can make the challenge manageable; keep this in mind for future use! To recap:

1. Retention rates: Which percentage of customers have cancelled in any given period? Product insight experts may use this data to use contact lists as an opportunity.
2. Retention: How many customers have been retained over a specific timeframe? Using this figure as the basis of your retention marketing strategy.
3. Conversion: How Many Convert?: Use this data to understand the user journey and set conversion objectives.
4. Resolution time: How long do your team members need to solve customer issues? Using this data, business goals for resolution time should be established and benchmarks on when problems should be resolved.
5. Effectiveness of your campaign: Find out where customers have issues during their journey and the consequences it will have on your campaigns, then focus on prioritizing that part of it in future campaigns.
6. Cart Abandonment Rate: What percentage of shoppers add items to their cart but never complete checkout? Knowing this data can provide invaluable insight for your e-commerce campaign and overall content strategy, from sending automated reminder emails of cart static content or encouraging people to complete purchases more frequently to other methods for persuading people to complete purchases.
7. Customer Acquisition Rate: How many new happy customers did your organization acquire over time? Setting goals that increase customer acquisition rates in future can be useful.
8. Page per Visit: How many pages does your customer view during each session? These analytics provide useful data that allows you to determine the amount and nature of user-Generated content to create and their interactions with your website.

---

What Is Automation For The Customer Experience? (cXA)?

 

Automating customer experience typically uses AI. Your company's nature will dictate which automation techniques to employ; live chat customer service could be automated.

Alternatively, you might use more traditional options like FAQs or self-help sections, resource and insight pages, email automation or creating cells with resources.

What key benefits will end users realize from automated business processes?

1. Processes that are streamlined.
2. Get feedback from customers to gain quick insights and improve customer service.
3. Improved response times for tickets

Automating customer service processes can bring significant time savings. Automation enables customer service teams to focus on more difficult problems while developing long-term strategies to address them more quickly and efficiently.

---

Does Salesforce Resemble Zendesk?

 

Zendesk and Salesforce share many similarities; however, each has distinct features and limitations that differentiate them.

Zendesk provides more specialized features than Salesforce, including messaging and live chat services, community forums and software to power live chat software.

Salesforce is known to provide more dynamic platforms and improved customer visibility, along with additional features and functionalities, than its rivals.

1. History of all users.
2. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a growing field.
3. Management of opportunities.
4. Lead Management
5. Management of pipelines and forecasts
6. Management of contacts and accounts.
7. Mobile devices have a lot of great capabilities.

Your choice of CRM platform depends upon factors like company size, marketing goals and desired capabilities.

---

Integration Between Zendesk And Salesforce

 

What steps should your company take if its support team uses Zendesk and sales teams prefer Salesforce as a tool? How will information flow easily among them and make collaboration simpler for all? What solutions exist here?

Zendesk salesforce integration has simplified sales support, uniting two teams that interact directly with customers via these tools and connecting their services seamlessly.

Your sales team can use Zendesk integration for Salesforce to:

1. Both tools provide complete access to sales and support information
2. It creates one shared database of customers between support and sales that's always at the sink.

Integrating Zendesk and Salesforce creates seamless communication, transparency, and an efficient team workflow.

This integration lets you easily view Zendesk ticket information within the Salesforce account. Select only those functions relevant to your organization.

---

How Can Zendesk Be Integrated With Salesforce To Provide You With Benefits?

 

Zendesk and Salesforce integration facilitates collaboration among sales and support teams by giving access to customer data and insights, among many other benefits which help strengthen customer service delivery.

Below are a few key advantages associated with their pairing.

1. Zendesk Tickets can now be viewed directly in Salesforce via their account, opportunity and lead pages - providing teams access to customer data in both systems simultaneously.
2. Furthermore, synced data from Salesforce with Zendesk Support makes an additional feature available.
3. Zendesk Salesforce Integration does not impose restrictions by language; you can tailor its functionalities to best meet your requirements.
4. This version boasts seamless updates, full Salesforce Lightning support, and compatibility with all versions; in fact, your entire Sales team can be found under one roof!
5. Every coin has two sides; on the one hand, it provides immense benefits, while on the other can bring some limitations.

---

Zendesk And Salesforce Integration: Limitations

 

Not all integrations can support every function needed - even those promising integration solutions may fall short.

1. Salesforce Personal Accounts require an accompanying Corporate account to access API rights; organizations cannot utilize Salesforce APIs without this right.
2. Meanwhile, Zendesk lacks a hierarchy structure preserving functionality when exporting.
3. Salesforce data presents challenges when exporting this information into Zendesk.
4. Let's now examine how Zendesk and Salesforce can be seamlessly combined.

---

How To Pick The Best Salesforce Zendesk Integration Solution

 

When selecting an integration technology, certain key considerations must be considered to guarantee its intended goals are accomplished.

---

Security Integration and Decentralization

Integration tools should provide you with a safe environment to work without concern for what the other party might be up to, letting you choose exactly which data and forms of delivery you send over.

Integrating decentrally will allow each party to select what information should be included in the transfer, helping ensure you do not inadvertently transmit critical or confidential data by mistake.

Consider also security measures like encrypted file transfer protocols that safely exchange this data type.

---

Flexible Payments

Your tool must change with your integration expectations; it must be flexible enough to adapt to shifting systems or workflows and support any additional data sharing or advanced logic that needs filtering, all while requiring minimal effort.

---

Reliability

Failures of computer systems may occur unexpectedly and cause your synchronization process to stop, with all changes and syncs expected to be implemented as scheduled in their correct sequence upon restarting your machine.

When this occurs, automatic resumes should resume without manual intervention; all required changes and syncs will need to take effect as planned.

Decentralized integration is enabled by both incoming and outgoing sync rules, which control information flow on both ends.

A scripting engine makes complex integration scenarios possible with minimal configuration while automatically applying updates in case of failures or downtimes.

Let's go ahead with setting up the Salesforce Zendesk Integration.

Read More: Integrating Salesforce With ERP Systems For Holistic Business Management

---

The Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up a Zendesk Salesforce Integration

 

Install Exalate on each platform before creating a connection, and begin the synchronization process by setting triggers and configuring your connection.

---

Step 1: Exalate Is Installed On Salesforce.

1. Search Exalate in Salesforce AppExchange and select "Get It Now".
2. After clicking this, you will be asked for installation location details: "Install This Org" (or Sandbox Org).
3. I opted to install Exalate here in this org.
4. Once you've selected, scroll to the bottom and accept our Terms and Conditions before clicking "Confirm and Install".
5. Now is the time to choose who should have Salesforce installed; later changes may be possible.
6. I chose "Install for all Users", click Install, then continue until installation was completed, and hit Continue again before clicking Done to achieve it.
7. Navigate now to your Salesforce instance and create an app. Save any relevant details such as Consumer Secret, Key and other generated details generated during this process before returning to Salesforce and clicking Apps; search "Exalate".
8. Click "Request Node" to create an Exalate Node and provide either your Consumer Secret/Key to access.
9. Or click on "Allow" for Exalate to gain entry.
10. After clicking "Agree and submit", an email from the Exalate License manager with your details will be sent directly to your inbox for your reference. After opening it, click "Verify Exalate Instance" within it to be taken straight back into the Exalate admin interface.
11. If you are asked to log in to the Exalate Console for Salesforce, please follow these instructions.
12. Furthermore, install Exalate now on Zendesk!

---

Step 2: Exalate for Zendesk

1. Zendesk Marketplace makes installing Exalate simple with this wizard-driven installation method.
2. After signing in and selecting "Apps", select the Zendesk Marketplace, then "Marketplace", and search Exalate in the search field - each app should display an "Install button".
3. Once clicked "Install", a prompt will appear for selecting an account to install with Exalate.
4. If there are multiple user accounts, choose which account(s) will be used during installation; either use an existing one or create one specifically for Exalate installation.
5. When finished, click the button that says "Done Installing".
6. Now you can change the name, add restrictions or select the default options of an application, then click "Install".
7. When finished, click "Install". Eventually, select Exalate from the left menu by selecting it there.
8. Exalate should then appear as an available option within its menu on the right-side panel, and click on its icon there before finally clicking Allow so it may access your Zendesk account.
9. Fill in the Exalate-provided form to verify your account; then, you'll receive an email confirming it and an opportunity to click "Verify Exalate Instance."
10. From there, you will be taken directly to Zendesk for further verification.
11. After successfully validating, you can start your free 30-day trial by selecting "Continue" and moving on to the next step.

---

Step 3: Establish The Connection Between Zendesk And Salesforce

Installing Exalate in both Salesforce and Zendesk enables us to establish a Salesforce Zendesk Integration easily.

One party initiates the link while the other accepts it; once this connection has been made, both sides can share data freely.

1. Begin connecting Zendesk or Salesforce; in this guide, I will focus on using Salesforce as my starting point.
2. Press "Initiate Connection" within Exalate Console if this screen hasn't appeared yet; or to the "Connections Menu", which shows all meaningful connections you've established to date (it will likely be empty if this is your initial connection).
3. Next, enter the URL for your destination instance on the next screen.
4. Exalate now checks if a model exists on the other end. If one lives, additional options will become available, including selecting connection mode as such a choice.
5. Exalate offers two modes, Basic or Script mode.
6. Designed for basic synchronization scenarios, this mode includes predefined sync rules and mappings which cannot be customized or changed.
7. Furthermore, Exalate Free Plan gives users up to 1,000 free syncs each month in this Basic mode, making this an excellent way to test out Exalate before moving up to Script Mode at any point later.
8. Customize Script mode to meet the unique integration needs of your business.
9. Customizing integrations has never been simpler! Both modes offer different flow rates; therefore, we will cover them individually here.

---

The Basic Mode

1. After selecting Basic mode, click "Next." In our example, this involves verifying whether or not you already possess administrator access at your destination. Since you already have admin rights at this location, I select "Yes, this is my access".
2. If this applies to you but not you, follow the steps below before initiating. Once done, click "Initiate".
3. Once at Zendesk, enter your ticket key here; this key will sync up with Salesforce instances so you can immediately synchronize Zendesk Tickets or Salesforce Entities.
4. Create triggers to automatically sync tickets and entities when conditions are fulfilled, with keys or entities automatically synced on both ends.
5. Bulk connect all tickets or entities you would like to synchronize or use Connect for individual tickets synchronization; once you have entered your ticket code, click "Exalate."
6. For an enhanced user experience, the screen from Salesforce should look similar here.
7. Entering your Case Key into Zendesk will enable synchronization.
8. As indicated below, its location can be found via URL. This process should take only minutes to finish; after successful synchronization, you will be informed accordingly.

---

Using the Script Mode

1. Select "Script" mode before clicking "Next."
2. Specify names for local and remote instances: in our case, Salesforce serves as our local instance, while Zendesk will act as our remote.
3. Instantaneously, you can change your name. I am trying to remember an explanation, especially if your business network is vast.
4. Click "Initiate" when ready. Exalate will now generate an invitation code; copy and paste this unique identifier onto the other side of the network to complete the connection.
5. Save this unique number using "Copy Invitation Code" before finally clicking "Done".
6. Once completed, close the window. Your connection will still appear under "Connections," with its status showing as "Pending".
7. As soon as your Zendesk setup has been completed, this status will change to "Active".
8. Exalate makes this easy by giving you access to this screen from its left-side menu by selecting "Accept Invitation." Once on this page, a textbox with multiple lines appears where you can paste your saved code before clicking "Next".
9. Once connected, click "Configure Sync", as indicated below, to customize and configure your connection.

---

Step 4: Configure Your Connection So That You Can Control The Information Shared

1. Clicking the "Configure Sync Button" will allow you to continue setting up the connection.
2. Suppose you configure the connection later. This can be accomplished easily by visiting the "Connections tab" on the left-side menu and finding your most recent relationship listed as active.
3. Here is how it should work on Zendesk; Exalate offers a uniform interface, making this task straightforward.
4. Once your connection is created, there will be an icon to edit its connection near its name. Clicking this icon allows you to begin configuring, while three dots allow for activation/deactivation/deletion as necessary.
5. There are four tabs within the Edit Connection Page: Rules/Triggers/Statistics, and Information.
6. Step Two consists of investigating the Rules tab and Triggers tab.
7. The Rules and Triggers Tabs provide an overview of sync statistics, such as comments or attachments being synced, while issues recently synced are also listed with times/dates.
8. This tab provides general details regarding a connection, such as its type, name and description.
9. Let's move to the Rules Tab.
10. Exalate provides two kinds of sync rules - inbound and outbound- written in Groovy scripting language - which are easy to follow and understand, making all parties bound by them.
11. Outgoing rules define which data will be sent out from one platform, while incoming rules determine how information from the opposite side should be understood and processed.
12. Rules can help both ends of an internet connection manage their information transfer more independently, with each side setting their requirements and sharing preferences for what data to send or receive.
13. They're easily edited as needed - remove any unnecessary lines in sync rules if certain information should not be shared between participants.
14. Comments at the start of a line cause it to be disregarded during synchronization. "//" is used for single-line comments, while to comment on multiple lines, place "/*/ */".
15. If you don't wish for Salesforce case descriptions to sync to Outlook, add a Comment as shown here, and you are finished!

In addition, scripts may also be implemented into rules to share certain pieces of information instead of having them deleted themselves.

---

Step 5: Create Triggers To Automate The Flow Of Information

1. Once your sync rules have been edited, click on the Triggers tab to create conditions that automatically trigger sync synchronization when they are met.
2. When that condition is fulfilled, synchronization occurs automatically.
3. Select "Triggers," which displays all existing triggers.
4. For first-time trigger creation, click the green "Create Triggers" button; after clicking Add Trigger, you will arrive at an add trigger page which allows you to specify its type entity for trigger creation.
5. This field asks that you specify the conditions under which a ticket should be synced, providing platform-specific searches if applicable.
6. Filter Salesforce entities by specifying conditions. When we select Opportunity as our entity of interest, we can enter information such as its name, description and quantity.
7. Click "Use Search Query" to use Salesforce Object Query Language, as shown below, as this screenshot illustrates.
8. Add notes explaining the purpose of each Trigger.
9. Using the toggle button ("Active?"), turn triggers on or off if needed - helpful if creating new ones frequently takes too long - although making it active for it to function is necessary for proper business operation.
10. After making changes and clicking "Add", navigate to the Triggers tab, where you will see newly added triggers and edit or delete as necessary.
11. From here, you can also "Bulk Exalate" existing Salesforce entities or tickets by pressing the Publish button and then leaving synchronization to run.
12. Step 6: Begin Synchronization between Zendesk and Salesforce

Once your integration between Salesforce Zendesk has been successfully created, its automatic synchronization will begin based on triggers and rules you set in Zendesk.

Your conditions control when tickets created or modified are synced to docusign salesforce entities; bi-directionally or uni-directionally can be held depending on desired information.

Bulk Connect also makes it simple to synchronize existing entities or tickets.

---

Typical Usage Cases

 

Sales teams could benefit greatly from receiving updates regarding tickets related to key customers created with Zendesk and automatically reflecting in Salesforce; when tickets are updated in real-time, Salesforce will notify the sales team instantly of changes; sales can then work toward building stronger relationships with their key accounts while customer support agents use Zendesk Case Reviewing on Salesforce to obtain feedback or queries which allows for quicker ticket resolutions.

Salesforce also makes it possible for them to measure the size and value of each deal for each customer, triage high-value clients more quickly, develop strategies to assist more rapidly, sync all support tickets with organization levels for an overview, and gain visibility over all tickets across an organization level.

Salesforce can give customer success agents an overall view of customers, giving them the insight needed to enhance customer experiences and satisfy more of them.

Want More Information About Our Services? Talk to Our Consultants!

---

Conclusion:

Integrating Zendesk into Salesforce is ideal for businesses that wish to provide exceptional customer service.

Not only will Zendesk help your teams work more cohesively together, but it will also increase the visibility of customer care services and visibility of customer support processes.

Do you need help setting up Zendesk with Salesforce? Need some assistance setting it up? Contact us.

As one of the premier field service salesforce Providers with extensive expertise in Salesforce Solutions, our team of developers and salesforce consultants offer solutions for each phase of Zendesk Integration with Salesforce.