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Channels

Setting up the Zendesk channel

Sync support tickets, internal notes and satisfaction ratings from Zendesk into a Reos project.

On this page

The Zendesk channel brings support tickets from your Zendesk account into a Reos project. Once they are in Reos, tickets are research data: Reos pulls out observations, groups them into insights and links every insight back to the tickets it came from.

Reos reads tickets on its own. It writes to Zendesk only when someone selects Flag in Zendesk on an insight or solution (see Flag tickets from an insight below).

What you need

  • A Reos account with permission to edit the project.
  • A Zendesk admin account. Zendesk only lets admins export tickets and create webhooks, so an admin has to do the connect step. Reos checks this when the channel is created and stops with a message if the account is an agent.
  • Your Zendesk subdomain: acme if your agents work at acme.zendesk.com.

Connect Zendesk and create the channel

  1. In your Reos project, open Ingest > Channels and choose Create channel > Zendesk.
  2. Connect. Type your Zendesk subdomain (you can also paste a URL such as https://acme.zendesk.com/agent) and select Connect Zendesk. A Zendesk window opens and asks you to allow Reos. Once you approve, the wizard moves on by itself. You can also connect Zendesk ahead of time in your account settings under Connected accounts.
  3. Filters. Choose which tickets to import. Every filter is optional; a ticket must match all the filters you set.
    • Brands and Groups: import only tickets in these brands or groups. Leave them on All brands and All groups to import everything. The brand picker only shows when your account has more than one brand.
    • Only tickets tagged: import a ticket only if it has at least one of these tags.
    • Skip tickets tagged: never import a ticket that has any of these tags.
    • Statuses: the ticket statuses to import (New, Open, Pending, On-hold, Solved, Closed). All are selected by default.
  4. Settings.
    • Channel name, as it shows in Reos.
    • Historical import: how far back to import existing tickets (none, 7, 30 or 90 days).
    • Sync interval: how often Reos checks Zendesk when real-time updates are off (every 5, 15, 30 or 60 minutes).
    • Include internal notes: off by default. Turn it on to import your agents' private comments next to the public conversation.
    • Include satisfaction ratings: on by default. Imports the customer's CSAT rating and comment with the ticket.
  5. Review the summary and select Create channel.

Tags you type are matched the way Zendesk stores them: lowercase, with commas or spaces separating them.

What gets imported

Each Zendesk ticket becomes one text source in Ingest > All data, named after its subject. It holds:

  • the ticket's status, priority, type, channel, tags, brand, group, organization and any custom fields that have a value;
  • the satisfaction rating and comment, if the customer left one and satisfaction ratings are included;
  • the public comments, oldest first, with who wrote each one (the requester or the agent who replied);
  • internal notes, marked [Internal note], only if you turned them on;
  • a list of everyone who took part in the ticket.

Deleted and spam tickets are never imported. When a ticket gets a new comment, a status change or a rating, Reos updates the source, so it always holds the whole ticket.

Real-time updates

When the channel is created, Reos registers a webhook in your Zendesk account. Zendesk then tells Reos about new tickets, new comments, status, tag, brand and group changes, and new satisfaction ratings as they happen, and the ticket is synced within moments. Every webhook call is signed by Zendesk and checked by Reos before anything is read.

While the webhook is on, Reos also checks Zendesk once an hour to catch anything a webhook call missed. If the webhook could not be set up, the channel page shows Real-time updates: Off with the reason and a Retry button. The channel keeps syncing at the interval you chose in the meantime.

Deleting the channel, its project or the Zendesk connection removes the webhook from Zendesk.

The channel page

The channel page shows the Zendesk account, whether real-time updates are on, the active filters, when the channel last synced and how many tickets it holds. Select Edit settings to change the filters, the sync interval, internal notes or satisfaction ratings. New settings apply to tickets that change from then on; tickets already imported stay. To apply new filters to earlier tickets, run the historical import again.

A large historical import runs in the background and can take a while, because Reos stays within Zendesk's API rate limits. Its progress shows on the channel page. If an import stops (for example because your organization ran out of units), select Import last 30 days to run it again. Tickets already imported are skipped.

Flag tickets from an insight

On an insight or solution backed by Zendesk tickets, select Flag in Zendesk. Reos finds the tickets behind it (through the observations the insight is built on) and, on each ticket:

  • adds the tag reos_insight (or reos_solution) and a tag for that specific insight or solution;
  • adds an internal note with the insight's title and a link to it in Reos. Customers never see this note.

Flagging is safe to repeat: a ticket that already carries the tag for that insight is skipped. Tickets are flagged in batches to stay within Zendesk's rate limits, up to 500 per insight or solution. You need permission to edit the project.

Your agents can then find every ticket behind an insight with a Zendesk search or view on its tag.

The Reos app in Zendesk

The Reos app adds a panel to the ticket sidebar in Zendesk. For the open ticket it shows:

  • whether the ticket is imported into Reos, with a link to the source;
  • the Reos insights that cite the ticket, with links to them;
  • a Send to Reos button that imports the ticket, or refreshes it, right away.

The app only shows data from Reos projects with a Zendesk channel for the same Zendesk account. A Zendesk admin installs it from the Zendesk Marketplace once it is listed there; until then, contact support to get it. When installing, set Reos region to the data region of your Reos workspace: eu or us. If the panel says no project imports tickets from your account, check this setting first.

Privacy

Imported tickets follow your project's anonymisation settings, like every other source. If anonymisation is on, names and contact details are redacted before anyone sees the text.

To stop syncing, delete the channel in Reos. To revoke access completely, also disconnect Zendesk in your Reos account settings and remove Reos from the OAuth clients in Zendesk Admin Center.

Troubleshooting

  • "Connect Zendesk with an admin account" when creating the channel: the connected Zendesk user is an agent. Disconnect Zendesk in your account settings and connect again as a Zendesk admin.
  • "Enter your Zendesk subdomain": type only the part before .zendesk.com, for example acme.
  • Real-time updates: Off on the channel page: select Retry. If it fails again, the message says why; tickets still sync at the sync interval.
  • "Last sync failed" on the channel page: Reos tries again at the next sync. If the message stays for more than an hour, reconnect Zendesk or contact support.

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