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Zendesk Connection

The Zendesk connection integrates your Zendesk instance with OpsTower, giving agents the ability to search tickets using Zendesk Query Language (ZQL), view ticket details with full conversation history, analyze CSAT ratings, browse help center articles, and review performance metrics like first reply time and resolution time.

Prerequisites

Section titled “Prerequisites”

You need a Zendesk account with admin access to create an OAuth client. Unlike most OpsTower integrations, Zendesk requires you to register an OAuth client on your own Zendesk admin panel first.

Creating the OAuth Client

Section titled “Creating the OAuth Client”
  1. Go to your Zendesk Admin Center (your-subdomain.zendesk.com).
  2. Navigate to Apps and integrations > APIs > OAuth clients.
  3. Click Add OAuth client.
  4. Set the Client Name to “OpsTower”.
  5. Add a Redirect URL: https://app.opstowerapp.com/api/oauth/callback
  6. Click Save and copy the Client Identifier and Client Secret.

Setup in OpsTower

Section titled “Setup in OpsTower”
  1. Go to Connections > Customer Support > Add Connection.
  2. Select Zendesk.
  3. Enter your Zendesk subdomain (e.g., mycompany if your URL is mycompany.zendesk.com).
  4. Enter the OAuth Client Identifier and Client Secret from the prerequisite step.
  5. Click Connect to Zendesk.
  6. A popup opens to Zendesk’s authorization page. Sign in and grant access.
  7. Optionally add Support Instructions to guide how agents search and analyze your tickets.

What Agents Can Do

Section titled “What Agents Can Do”

Once connected, agents have access to eight tools:

  • Search Tickets — search using Zendesk Query Language (ZQL) with status, priority, tags, assignee, date, and more
  • Get Ticket — view full ticket details including conversation history (comments)
  • Get Ticket Metrics — first reply time, resolution time, wait times, reopens (single ticket or bulk summary)
  • Query CSAT — customer satisfaction ratings with score and date filtering, plus CSAT percentage calculation
  • Search Users — find requesters and agents by name, email, or role
  • List Organizations — browse or search customer organizations
  • Search Articles — search help center knowledge base articles
  • List Views — see saved ticket filters with optional ticket counts

ZQL Examples

Section titled “ZQL Examples”

Agents use Zendesk Query Language (ZQL) to search tickets. Common patterns:

  • status:open priority:urgent — urgent open tickets
  • tags:billing status:pending — pending billing tickets
  • requester:john@example.com — tickets from a specific user
  • created>2026-04-01 group:"Tier 2 Support" — recent escalations
  • assignee:me status<solved — your unsolved tickets
  • subject:login error — tickets about login errors

ZQL uses implicit AND (space-separated terms). Date format is YYYY-MM-DD.

Support Instructions

Section titled “Support Instructions”

You can provide optional instructions that guide how agents search and analyze your Zendesk data. For example:

Focus on billing tickets. Group ‘Tier 2 Support’ handles escalations. Tag ‘vip’ marks high-priority customers.

These are injected into the agent’s system prompt as preferences.

Use Cases

Section titled “Use Cases”
  • “Show me all open urgent tickets from the last 7 days”
  • “What’s our average first reply time this month?”
  • “What’s our CSAT score? Show me recent bad ratings with comments”
  • “Find tickets from user john@example.com”
  • “Search our help center for articles about password reset”
  • “Which support views have the most tickets right now?”
  • “Show me ticket #12345 with all its comments”
  • “What organizations have the most open tickets?”