Getting started with Zendesk

You will learn

Learn how to integrate Zendesk with Klaviyo in order to improve your support experience for customers. This integration allows you to:

• Track and target customers based on their interactions with your support team by syncing Opened Ticket and Resolved Ticket metrics from Zendesk to Klaviyo.
• Respond to SMS messages from within Zendesk. When a customer replies to a text sent via Klaviyo, a new ticket will be created in Zendesk. When your support team responds to the ticket in Zendesk, the reply will be sent to the customer via the original Klaviyo phone number. 

Before you begin

The following applies if you are planning to sync SMS conversations:

• If you wish to enable the SMS conversation sync, check the Sync SMS Conversations setting, and then update your settings. 
• If you plan to use Zendesk to respond to SMS, you must have previously set up SMS in Klaviyo. If you haven’t already done so:
  1. Click your account name in the lower left corner, then select Settings > SMS
  2. Click Set up SMS for free
• The SMS piece of this integration only works in countries where you have a toll-free number, long code, or short code.
  • • Branded sender IDs (also called alphanumeric sender IDs) cannot receive text messages, so you cannot use this integration for subscribers in country where you're using a branded sender ID. Learn more about SMS sending numbers.
• Make sure to set up custom subscribe keywords for any prompted responses from customers, in order to set automatic replies and add those customers to specific lists. Any custom subscribe keywords sent by customers will not prompt ticket creation in Zendesk. 
• Make sure that you’ve reviewed our best practices for two-way messaging, including your auto-responder setup.
• This integration is within the 'Support' agent workspace in Zendesk. It utilizes the Ticket API to create and comment on tickets and does not need the Zendesk ‘Talk’ call center workspace to function.

Table of contents

1. Set up the Zendesk integration
2. How the Zendesk SMS integration works
3. When the integration syncs
4. Metrics synced between Klaviyo and Zendesk
5. Optional: Create an automation in Zendesk to mark SMS tickets as "Closed" sooner
6. Optional: Create a view in Zendesk for Klaviyo SMS 
7. Use cases for Zendesk metrics
8. Additional resources

Set up the Zendesk integration

Obtain your Zendesk API token

For security reasons, Zendesk will only show you your full API token once, during the initial generation.

If you've previously created an API token with Zendesk and stored it securely, you can copy that token and use it. 

If you've never generated an API token with Zendesk, or need to generate a new one, follow the instructions below.

1. Make sure Token Access is enabled 
   1. In your Zendesk account, click the Admin icon on the sidebar and navigate to Channels > API 
   2. Click the Token Access toggle to enable API token access
      
2. Generate an API token by navigating to Channels > API and clicking the + button next to Active API Tokens 
3. Enter a name for the token
4. Click Create to generate the token, which will be a long string of letters and numbers, and display it in a popup
   
5. Copy the token and save it in a secure place, such as LastPass or 1Password, for later use
6. Once you're done, exit the popup by clicking the OK, I've copied my token button 
7. If you need assistance with the sync, or run into issues, check out the Zendesk guide on generating a new API token

Integrate Zendesk with Klaviyo

Follow the steps outlined below to integrate Zendesk with Klaviyo: 

1. Log in to your Klaviyo account
2. Click your account name in the lower left corner, then select Integrations
3. Click Add integrations, search for Zendesk, and click the card. Then, click Install
4. Enter the following information:
   • The email address you use to log in to your Zendesk account
   • Your Zendesk API token
   • Your Zendesk URL
     
5. If you want to reply to inbound SMS messages, check the box next to Sync SMS conversations 
6. Click Complete setup.

Test your integration

You can test your integration by sending an SMS to your sending number (if you are already a consented subscriber, and the SMS does not contain a keyword other than HELP or INFO). Within your Zendesk admin, check that a ticket has been created, and then respond to it and see if you receive an SMS. 

Outcome

You've now set up Klaviyo's Zendesk SMS integration. Read on to learn more about how the integration works and what metrics are synced between Klaviyo and Zendesk.

How the Zendesk SMS integration works

After the SMS integration is set up, Klaviyo automatically creates a ticket in Zendesk whenever both of the following are true: 

1. A consented SMS subscriber texts a phone number associated with your account.
2. The text message does not contain a keyword (i.e., one of the subscribe words listed in your SMS Settings page in Klaviyo). The two exceptions to this are HELP and INFO, which will both create a ticket. 

Any replies in the ticket from a Zendesk agent will send an SMS message to the customer. Responses from within Zendesk will also appear in Klaviyo. 

If the ticket’s status is Open, a new customer message will be added to the ticket as a comment. If the ticket’s status is Resolved, a new customer message will reopen the ticket and add the message as a comment. If the ticket’s status is Closed, a new customer message will create a new ticket. 

Replies from Zendesk are sent via a phone number associated with your Klaviyo account; this sending number will be the one to which the inbound message was sent. 

Responses from within Zendesk will also appear in Klaviyo, but responses sent within the Klaviyo Conversations tab will not appear in Zendesk. For this reason, we recommend that you only reply to customers from one platform. Campaign and flow SMS messages sent by Klaviyo will also sync to Zendesk.

When the integration syncs 

The integration syncs in real time. As soon as an SMS subscriber texts you, that message will appear in Zendesk. Opened Ticket and Resolved Ticket metrics also sync in real time. 

Note that there is no historic sync. SMS conversations won’t appear in Zendesk if a subscriber texted you before you set up this integration. However, all further messages will sync. If a subscriber texts you once before you enable the integration and once after, the message that comes in after you set up the integration will show in Zendesk, 

Metrics synced between Klaviyo and Zendesk

Klaviyo tracks two Zendesk metrics: Opened Ticket and Resolved Ticket. The metrics appear on an individual’s profile page and can be used in segments and flows. 

Opened Ticket

This event is tracked when a new ticket is opened in Zendesk, and includes the following information about the new ticket:

• Assignee_email
  email of the support agent assigned to the ticket in Zendesk
• Assignee_name
  Name of the support agent assigned to the ticket in Zendesk
• Channel
  Information about the channel that the ticket came through, (e.g. email, web portal, SMS), populated when available
• Description
  The body of the first message in the ticket
• Fields
  Any custom fields from Zendesk
• Group_name
  Group field from Zendesk
• Priority
  Priority field from Zendesk
• Subject
  Subject of the ticket from Zendesk
• Tags
  Tags associated with the ticket in Zendesk
• Ticket_id
  Ticket ID from Zendesk
• Type
  Type field from Zendesk
• Via
  Information about the source of the ticket, populated when available
• Zendesk_url
  URL of the ticket in Zendesk
• Status
  Status of the ticket in Zendesk

Resolved Ticket

This event is tracked when a ticket is marked as Closed in Zendesk. When a ticket is marked Solved in Zendesk, no event is sent to Klaviyo. Klaviyo's tracking of this event includes the following information about the resolved ticket email:

• Assignee_email
  email of the support agent assigned to the ticket in Zendesk
• Assignee_name
  Name of the support agent assigned to the ticket in Zendesk
• Channel
  Information about the channel that the ticket came through, (e.g. email, web portal, SMS), populated when available
• Description
  The body of the first message in the ticket
• Fields
  Any custom fields from Zendesk
• Group_name
  Group field from Zendesk
• Priority
  Priority field from Zendesk
• Subject
  Subject of the ticket from Zendesk
• Tags
  Tags associated with the ticket in Zendesk
• Ticket_id
  Ticket ID from Zendesk
• Type
  Type field from Zendesk
• Via
  Information about the source of the ticket, populated when available
• Zendesk_url
  URL of the ticket in Zendesk
• Status
  Status of the ticket in Zendesk

Optional: Create an automation in Zendesk to mark SMS tickets as "Closed" sooner

As stated above, a Resolved Ticket metric is sent to Klaviyo once the ticket is marked Closed in Zendesk (not when it is marked Solved). Tickets are marked as Closed in Zendesk via rules set at the account level.

If you use Zendesk with both SMS and email, you may want to mark SMS tickets as Closed sooner than email tickets, depending on your support response times and your time-to-resolution. This can be achieved via a Zendesk automation. For example, you could create the following automation to mark SMS tickets as Closed after 24 hours:

1. Log in to Zendesk and navigate to your Admin Center
2. Select Objects and rules 
3. Select Business rules > Automations
4. Select Add Automation
5. Title your automation
6. Under Meet all of the following conditions, select: 
   1. Ticket: Status / is / Solved
   2. Ticket: Hours since solved / is / 24
   3. Ticket: Tags / Contains at least one of the following / "sms"
      
      
7. Under Perform these actions, select:
   1. Ticket: Status / Closed
8. Click Create automation

You've now created an automation to close SMS tickets after 24 hours. 

Optional: Create a view in Zendesk for Klaviyo SMS

We recommend creating a view in Zendesk in order to organize your Klaviyo SMS tickets.

1. From your Zendesk Admin Center, click the Workspaces dropdown
2. Select Views under Agent tools
3. Click Add view
4. Name your view, add a description, and select who has access
5. Under Tickets must meet all of these conditions to appear in the view, add Status > Is not > Closed
6. Under Tickets must meet all of these conditions to appear in the view, add Tags > Contains at least one of the following > SMS
   
7. Edit any formatting settings to your specifications
8. Click Save

You’ve now created a view to organize your Klaviyo SMS tickets. 

Use cases for Zendesk metrics

Here are a few ways you might consider leveraging metrics synced from your Zendesk integration:

• Exclude users with open tickets from certain flows and campaigns, so your company doesn't risk seeming out of touch by sending promotional emails to those with pending issues

• Proactively track customers in Klaviyo based on their interactions with your support team using your Zendesk data; for example, you can customize an abandoned cart email if you know someone didn't complete their order, but did open a support ticket

• View trends around open and resolved tickets, including a cohort analysis, by using the detailed analytics reporting Klaviyo provides about the Zendesk metrics you've synced

• Tweak your email strategy to reduce support tickets and increase lifetime value; with all your data in Klaviyo, you can build segments to view correlations and gain cross-metric insights

Additional resources

• Learn about Klaviyo’s billing plans 
• Review our guide to SMS conversations
• Learn about how to set up flows to respond to subscribe keywords