10 Ways to Automate Zendesk with Zapier to Improve Your Business Operations, Fast

If you use Zendesk, you already know about streamlining and improving operations. It’s all about creating a more streamlined helpdesk and customer service solution that is scalable for all kinds of businesses, from startups to SMBs to enterprise corporations and everything in between. You can find solutions by industry, custom-built platforms, and so much more. Plus, it all comes with the dedicated support of Zendesk’s award-winning team. 

The Zendesk Suite makes it easy for you to meet customers where they are, giving them the seamless, multichannel support that they demand, and more importantly that they deserve. Companies like Siemens, Uber, Mailchimp, Instacart, Tesco, and others rely on the power of Zendesk for some or all of their support needs. 

You’ll also find two options: Zendesk for sales and Zendesk for service. The brand offers a marketplace full of integrations, partners, and other apps and tools, as well. And then, there's the partnership with Zapier. 

With Zendesk and Zapier, there are about two dozen triggers and actions that can be implemented for instant automation or on an as-scheduled basis, making it easy for you to customize any workflow you want with just a few clicks. You can also use the open API to create your own workflows, but pre-built automations exist for:

• New group triggers
• New organization triggers
• New ticket triggers
• New action triggers
• New user triggers
• Creating tickets and organizations
• Attaching files to tickets
• Adding comments or tags to tickets
• Modifying tickets and organizations
• Creating and updating users
• Finding groups, agents, organizations, tickets, users, and more

No matter what you’re trying to do with Zapier and Zendesk, you’ll have an easy time doing it without much effort because these two work together well and they have for some time now. Zapier will allow you to set up any automation that you desire in the way that you choose, regardless of what you have in mind for Zendesk. In fact, in the list below, you’ll get a good look at 10 of the ways that Zapier can help get things done with the other apps and tools that you can use. 

First, though, we can’t let you move on without discussing the value of automation for the help desk and customer service. And speaking of customer service, for those things you can’t automate, ask how our virtual receptionists can deliver solutions like after-hours phone answering, 24/7 live website chat, and so much more. 

The benefits of automation for service and support

In business, we’ve been told for decades that service is a personal interaction—or at least it should be. Of course, there have been several situations that have changed that perspective over the years, including the growing demand from consumers for automated solutions where they are relevant and useful. Of course, what’s considered “useful” to the customer might not feel like a useful investment in automation for your brand at first. 

This is the case with automation, especially for many small businesses and midsize brands still trying to find a good budget. Fortunately, automating things is a lot more affordable these days and there are much better resources. Plus, even if you don’t think that you need automation, you’ll quickly see how you can stand to benefit:

• Self-Service: When you automate certain aspects of your service and support, you give your audience the chance to help themselves. Today’s customer likes the option for automated self-service so that they can get things done quickly, but they still want a person on call when necessary, so don’t skip that step. 

• Streamlined Service and Support: When certain tasks are automated along the service pipeline, the process goes faster, and people get a smoother experience. Your agents also have an easier time and can provide better solutions across the board. Automation makes it easy to streamline processes like customer service and support when it’s called for, and leaves room for you to handle the things that you can’t automate. 

• Lower Costs: Automation is also going to reduce your expenses in several ways. You will spend less on labor and wages, as well as resources that are being used. You can get more done in less time, too, which means you’re saving operating costs overall on every level. The effect of cost savings hits several areas of the organization when you elect to automate areas like customer service and support. 

• Increased Efficiency: As mentioned, streamlining and automating makes your business more efficient. You'll be able to handle more service requests in less time, give people the chance to resolve their own issues before contacting you, and so much more. It makes your operations run more smoothly and cuts down your investment of time and effort, giving everyone plenty to love. 

• Scalability: You will be able to scale automation in all kinds of ways to suit the needs of your business, and it will also enable to you scale your growth. You can scale your automations, but the automations themselves will also make it that much easier to scale your growth for the future. Create solutions that drive your business forward and help you deliver more with less effort and see how your business thrives. 

These are just a few of the biggest perks of automation in service and support. Of course, this also leads to improved customer loyalty and satisfaction, as well as better employee morale and improved company culture, among other things. 

Here’s how you can embrace those perks by combining the power of Zendesk and Zapier. 

1. Turn Typeform entries into Zendesk tickets    

Typeform makes collecting information easy, including offering tons of templates and customization options so that you can use it for just about anything. With this automation, it’s even easier to put it to use because you can automate sending each submission to Zendesk, where it will be turned into a ticket so that it can be handled by the appropriate people. This takes the work out of the task for you and streamlines things while keeping everyone informed. 

2. Add new tickets from Zendesk to Asana as tasks    

If you use Asana for project management and task completion, you’ll love this integration. Zapier makes it easy to take your Zendesk tickets and put them on the agenda without actually having to go through the motions of doing the work yourself. Set up the workflow and anytime a ticket comes in, it will automatically be put into Asana as a task so that the team can get to work, and everyone can do less of the administrative busywork. 

3. Create tickets in Zendesk from Google Forms responses    

Google Forms is another popular form fill and information-gathering tool used by businesses. If you take Google Forms submissions for customer requests or helpdesk tickets, this automation will take yet another task off your plate. Simply set the workflow in place and whenever a response comes in, Zapier will send it over to Zendesk as a ticket so that the right people can respond accordingly. 

4. Add Zendesk tickets to spreadsheets with Google Sheets    

Tracking is easier with Zapier, too. If you use Google Sheets, you’ll find plenty of great ways to put AI to work. Thanks to this automation, you no longer have to manually type up spreadsheets with tickets and other information. You can use the workflow for Zendesk so that every time a new ticket is created, it’s added to a row in Google Sheets based on the rules that you set forth. This will save busywork and give everyone more time to focus on other tasks that require their attention. 

5. Post new tickets from Zendesk to Slack as messages    

Slack makes it easy to keep everyone on the same page and keep things organized in your business. Being able to notify your team when new tickets come in is a great way to put Zapier to work because it takes one more thing off your plate. When you put this workflow in place, you’ll be able to send Slack messages to anyone that you like or post them on specific channels so that everyone knows when a new ticket arrives, and they can get to work. 

6. Create Zendesk tickets from entries in Gravity Forms    

Another form fill tool, Gravity Forms makes collecting information easy. You can use Gravity Forms to create all kinds of forms, including ticket and customer request forms. Zendesk is a great platform to streamline your business operations and when you add Zapier and Gravity Forms, it gets even easier. Your team is tired of the busywork—take it off their hands with workflows like these. 

7. Create Zendesk tickets with new JotForm submissions    

Connect your JotForm submissions to Zapier with this automation and save more time, just like the other form-fill apps on this list. JotForm is yet another tool used for creating forms that can be used for help tickets and customer service requests, among other things. When you combine it with the power of Zendesk and Zapier, you can automate all of the submissions being turned into tickets so that everything is streamlined and gets done in a timely manner. Plus, then you never risk losing a submission when transferring information as you might with manual entry. 

8. Turn Wufoo form entries into Zendesk tickets   

Wufoo forms are another type of form that can be combined with Zendesk to allow users and customers to submit tickets and requests. Normally, when the entries come in from Wufoo forms, someone will have to log them into the appropriate platform, whether that is your CRM or your service desk, such as the Zendesk platform. With Zapier, you can make that happen automatically so that your forms go right to Zendesk tickets, and your team can just get to work on taking care of the customers. 

9. Add Facebook Lead Ads leads to Zendesk as users    

Facebook Lead Ads is one of the best social media lead generation tools available today, and it can be great to incorporate into your stack of marketing tech. Fortunately, it’s also easier than ever to manage your Facebook marketing, between this app and the integrations available with other apps and software through Zapier. With this particular workflow automation, for example, you can easily add all new leads that come in through the Facebook Lead Ads platform as users in Zendesk automatically and cross one more tedious task off your to-do list. 

10. Create tickets in Zendesk from HubSpot form submissions    

Zendesk tickets can also be generated automatically from HubSpot form submissions. There are several different ways that you can use the form submissions to collect information, but once you do that, it will be easy to seamlessly transfer everything without having to lift a finger. Just choose the submissions to tag for Zapier to transfer, then set up the workflow so that anytime a submission comes in, it’s automatically sent to Zendesk and turned into a ticket to be handled accordingly. 

Improve even more operations with Smith.ai by your side

At Smith.ai, we love automation. We also love being a part of what makes your business operations run more smoothly. Choosing to hire our virtual receptionists means that you get a dedicated team to act as the face of your brand for every possible need, from live chat to answering after-hours calls, and so much more. We'll even help you craft the perfect strategy to field those needs. 

Zapier is a favorite of ours because it makes it easy for anyone to create smart workflows between the business apps and tools that they use. It’s thanks to Zapier, too, that Smith.ai integrates with more than 3,000 apps so every call, text, and chat gets logged in the business software platforms you use, from your CRM to marketing tools, and much more. 

Check out our apps to explore how we connect to Zapier! Learn more about Smith.ai’s Answering Service app on Zapier, and explore Smith.ai’s Website Chat app on Zapier.

Learn more when you schedule a consultation to discuss our 24/7 phone and chat answering services, which include after-hours answering, scheduling, new client intake, and much more.  You can also reach us at hello@smith.ai or (650) 727-6484.