How To Set Up Zendesk For Small Business

Zendesk is a software platform that allows businesses of any size to keep close track incoming information. The system allows team members to respond to quickly and in a standardized way. The system is a framework that can help keep focus on customer experience. Let’s take a look at some of the most powerful features that make an immediate impact in how your respond to incoming messages.

You will need the Team level of Zendesk to use Triggers and Integrations.

The Macros

The Marcos is a very powerful feature. The Macros allows users to do all of the following with one click:

Write a templated e-mail
Change the status of a ticket (Open, closed, pending)
Add tags
Initiate Triggers

Set Global Agent Signiture

Here is the guide.

Settings > Agents > Signature

Interaction Timeline - Left Panel

You can find the intercation timeline wich shows all of the intercations you have had with a certain client.

You can also click on the name and see all of the interactions with that customer

Apps Panel - Right Panel

100s of third-party apps and you can be added, you can even develop your own.

You can import articles directly from guide into your replies.

Admin - Getting Started

A couple places to start:

Gear Icon > Email >

People > Groups >

Create a group

SET UP AN AUTO RESPONDER

Trigger > Add Trigger

Name group

Received at

Assign to a group

Action > Email User, text user, or another action

Macros:

Actions, make an email, enter in fields. Set priority. Add tags

Automates are like triggers, but they are time based. So you can:

Close tickets after 30 days, for example

SLA – Policies, such as all tickets need to be resolved within 1 hour, Tickets closed within 48 hours?

Next SLA Breach (can be displayed on the main feed)

Messages can be seperated by different keywords.

What’s App Integration

Tracking Daily Requests and Updates

Zendesk will track any communications you have with your customers via email or social media

Send Templated E-mails

So many similar emails come in, you will want to set up some automated templates. Here are a coupe guides to get this set up.

Macros – Pre-canned responses for support to efficiently answer FAQ’s.
Triggers and Automation resources – Ensure proper ticket routing and efficiency.

Tracking Sales Leads

I am hoping we can set up some sales lead questions and tracking swith Macros, Triggers, and Automation. We will see and I will update.

Tracking Job Applicants

Zendeskcan help you in managing the communication with applicants. You can also integrate Zendesk with an HR tool to track progress. You can find all of the Zendesk integrations, here.

Adding Inline Internal Notes

As of April 2019 this is on the development board for Zendesk, but it is not clear if this will be officially implemented. There is a documented workaround found here. It uses URL Targets to set up a custom action in triggers and automation, called Notify Target. You will be able to write a message that is shown each time an email matches the conditions you set up.

I had to put my username as: email@mydomain.com/token

I had to put my API key in the password field to get it to work.

More About Triggers

About triggers and how they work <https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/203662246-About-triggers-and-how-they-work>

Triggers resources <https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/203662226-Triggers-resources>

About the Support default triggers <https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/203662176-About-the-Support-default-triggers>

Trigger conditions and actions reference <https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115015611647-Trigger-conditions-and-actions-reference>
 
Triggers best practices and recipes reference <https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115015611647-Trigger-conditions-and-actions-reference>

More About Automations

About automations and how they work <https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/203662236-About-automations-and-how-they-work>

Automations vs. Triggers – When To Use What <https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/203660246-Automations-vs-Triggers-When-To-Use-What>

Automations best practices and recipes reference <https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115015790028-Automations-best-practices-and-recipes-reference>

Automation conditions and actions reference <https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115015611667-Automation-conditions-and-actions-reference>

Guide - Knowledge Base

You can build a knowledge base via Zendesk. Here are a few guides.

Here is a case study about how businesses built their help centers:

Help Centers powered by Zendesk

We may also go the route of a password protected blog. Which Elementor and Astra make a very. I also like the blog format. I guess I will see how the Zendesk guide is compared to the tool I already know. Certainly, the AI-powered chatbot offered by Zendesk has my eye.

You can open up CSS, HTML, and JavaScript. So you can customize your support articles with any web look you like.

At the bottom, if your customers still do not have their questions answered, they can submit a ticket.

Knowledge Base Accessibility

User segments – You apply user segments to a knowledge base article or a topic in your community to define viewing access, which means that some articles would be visible only internally and some externally.

Knowledge Capture App

The Knowledge Capture App is perhaps the one thing that is keeping me from just making a subdomain and using Echo Knowledge Base in wordpress. I am not a fan of the cost for the Guide Knowledge base, nearly $180 for the year. But it is handy to have everything in one system and I have found that I have already made an help article I probably would not have taken the time to write if I had to login to a seperate WordPress page.

Social Media

Zendesk allows replies and engagement with Social Media posts. You can integrate with Facebook and Twitter and answer all requests directly from Facebook. Here are the guides.

Workflow From CRM emails

Automation can be set up to automatically send emails to customers if they don’t respond within X number of hours.

Visits ended – send feedback survey & send thank you postcard from ClickSend – Zendesk would not able to help with that but we integrate with marketing tools.

Invoice paid with tip – automatically send an email with “Thanks for the tip!” – Zendesk would not able to help with that but we integrate with marketing tools.

Integrations

ClickSend

Integrate Zendesk with ClickSend using Zaipier. This guide shows how to send SMS. I am hoping we can set up a Zendesk trigger to send post cards and snail mailed job applications.

Calendly

You can send a calendly link via Zendesk or integrate with Zoom to enable users to schedule and launch Zoom meetings without leaving Zendesk.

3CX

You would need a subscription of Zendesk Talk Partner and 3CX Pro enterprise edition to be able to do that. You can find more information, here. Zendesk Talk Partner costs $12 per month.

Some Info About Zendesk Talk

some articles about
Zendesk Talk
 
https://www.zendesk.com/talk/https://www.zendesk.com/talk/

https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/235709587-Getting-started-with-Text-Talk-Team-Professional-and-Enterprise-

<https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/235709587-Getting-started-with-Text-Talk-Team-Professional-and-Enterprise->

More About Workflows

Fine Tuning: How to build your ideal workflow <https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001996987-Fine-Tuning-How-to-build-your-ideal-workflow>

Chat

The customer can ask questions right on the website. Zendesk Chat

Getting started with Chat
Launch Chat Tasks
How Fossil, Allbirds, and Spartan Race utilize Chat

iFrame Integration - Zendesk

Use this tool to see if the page can display as iFrame

How to set up iFrame & Text Apps zendesk help article

Demos

There is not a recorded version of their demo. You but you can sign up for a live webiner here. You can find here small demos on the key features of Zendesk.

Troubleshooting

SPF Error for e-mail – SPF support article

Dealing With Your Emails Landing In Spam

Here are a couple articles that can help:

I am also entertaining the idea of using PiSync. I am curious if we can use Google Contacts to sync subscribers and contacts between 3Cx and all other systems. At some level I think google contacts will need to be implemented to sync my cell phone, thunderbird, and 3Cx contacts.

I guess there is the possibility of using Nextcloud for calendar and contacts too. I may look at only keeping core files in Nextcloud and only release larger video files when needed.

Support

If you are having trouble with technical aspects of the system you can reach out to the support team via phone at 888-670-4887 or email at support@zendesk.com.

Their sales team has been fantastic too.

Training

Training Classes – I would recommend taking a look at this Virtual learning class or at this on-demand one