The main Microsoft Teams Zendesk integration is the Zendesk for Microsoft Teams app. Zendesk paid for it, and a company called SoftServe builds and supports it. It lets your team make, view and update Zendesk tickets from Teams and get ticket alerts in a channel or a direct message. Side conversations let support ask a Teams channel for help from inside a ticket, and Zendesk action flows or a Zapier zap can post messages too. Where it stops: side conversations need a higher Zendesk plan and skip direct messages, files and @mentions, alerts follow fixed rules rather than reading the ticket, and nothing chases a ticket that has waited too long. AI agents do that sorting and chasing.
Why a Microsoft Teams Zendesk integration matters
Your support team works in Zendesk. Everyone else works in Microsoft Teams. When a customer asks something only billing or a developer can answer, someone copies the ticket into a Teams chat, waits, and copies the reply back onto the ticket.
So connected has to mean two things. The tickets that matter reach the right people in Teams, with enough detail to act. And what people say in Teams lands back on the ticket, so the next person who opens it sees the whole story.
Four ways to connect Microsoft Teams and Zendesk
The first two come from the same app. The other two post messages for you.
The Zendesk for Microsoft Teams app
- How it works
- Paid for by Zendesk, built and supported by SoftServe, and installed from the Microsoft marketplace. Your team can make, view and update tickets in Teams, add internal notes and public replies, and get ticket alerts in a channel or direct message based on status, priority, type and updates. Agents can add Zendesk views as tabs in Teams.
- Good for
- Companies on Teams that want staff to raise and follow tickets without opening Zendesk.
- Where it breaks
- It works on Zendesk's Team plan and up, and app problems go to SoftServe, whose listing promises a reply within one business day. Alerts follow the rules you set, so a routine ticket and an angry one look the same. Zendesk's listing for it shows only 8 reviews.
Side conversations in Teams
- How it works
- From inside a ticket, an agent starts a thread in a Teams channel. Anyone in that channel can reply without a Zendesk login, and replies come back to the ticket.
- Good for
- Support teams that often need a quick answer from another team to close a ticket.
- Where it breaks
- It needs the Professional plan or higher, or the Collaboration add-on. Direct messages aren't supported, nor are @mentions or emoji reactions. Files sent straight in Teams don't reach the ticket unless sent through the bot's upload link. If the app is removed or the channel is archived, updates stop.
Zendesk action flows
- How it works
- An admin builds a flow in Zendesk that starts on a ticket event, like a change of assignee, and posts a Teams channel message or a direct message. Zendesk's example sends the new owner a direct message with the ticket and customer details.
- Good for
- Teams that want one set message, like telling a person the moment a ticket is given to them.
- Where it breaks
- Each flow is one rule an admin builds and tests. It posts what the rule says; it doesn't read the ticket to see if it's urgent.
A Zapier zap
- How it works
- Zapier lists Zendesk triggers like New Ticket, Updated Ticket and New Ticket in View, and Teams actions like Send Channel Message and Send Chat Message. It also works the other way: a New Channel Message in Teams can make a Zendesk ticket.
- Good for
- Small teams with one simple rule, like posting each new ticket to one channel.
- Where it breaks
- Some Teams steps need the Zapier app added from the Teams store. A zap moves fields; it doesn't judge which ticket matters, and a failed zap doesn't tell your support lead.
Arkeo agents
- How it works
- Agents read each new ticket in Zendesk, tag it, give it to the right person, and post the urgent ones to the right Teams channel. They check open tickets each hour and nudge the owner in Teams when one has waited too long. They also log requests your staff post in a Teams channel and follow them until they're done.
- Good for
- Companies that get more tickets than one person can sort, with help spread across several teams.
- Where it breaks
- Anything your rules keep for a person, like a refund over a set size or a legal question, goes to your lead in one message.
How to set up the Zendesk integration with Microsoft Teams
You need Zendesk admin sign in, and a Microsoft admin who can approve apps. Zendesk's pages have the full screens.
- 1Check your Zendesk plan
The Teams app works on Zendesk Suite Team, Growth, Professional, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus, and Support Team, Professional and Enterprise. Side conversations in Teams need Professional or higher, or the Collaboration add-on.
- 2Install the app in Teams
Install the Zendesk for Teams app from the Microsoft marketplace. In Teams, open Chat, select Zendesk and click Grant permissions, then accept Microsoft's consent page.
- 3Connect your Zendesk account
Click Connect subdomain, enter your Zendesk subdomain, and sign in with Zendesk admin details. When you see the all set message, install the app for all Teams users.
- 4Turn on side conversations
An admin installs the latest version of the app and turns on side conversations. Agents then open a ticket's context panel, select the Side conversations icon, click the plus sign, select Microsoft Teams, set the team and channel, and click Send.
- 5Add a message for new owners
If you want a direct message when a ticket is given to someone, build an action flow that starts on Ticket assignment changed and ends with Post direct message in Teams. Test it, then turn it on.
Where the Zendesk Teams integration stops
What's said in Teams only partly reaches the ticket. Zendesk's own side conversations guide lists what doesn't come across: direct messages aren't supported, @mentions and emoji reactions don't work, and a file sent straight in Teams or straight in Zendesk doesn't show on the other side. You also can't start one thread in two channels. If someone removes the app from a channel or archives it, the ticket keeps the old thread but gets no new replies.
Alerts follow rules, not judgment. The app posts ticket alerts by status, priority, type and updates. In Zendesk's community, a support team asked in 2022 how to alert a channel about new tickets and tell an owner about tickets with no update for a set time. A Zendesk employee said it couldn't be done out of the box yet and offered a workaround through SLAs, an hourly automation, a webhook and Zapier, which they called a bit convoluted. A 2023 follow up asking for an update got no answer.
Staff still ask in chat. In another community request, support teams said people message the helpdesk in Teams every day, and those messages can turn into suspended tickets with no email address, which can't become tickets on their own. Someone reads them and makes the ticket by hand.
The app is also built by a third company. Zendesk sends app problems to SoftServe. And public reviews are thin, with 8 on Zendesk's listing. So the sorting stays with a person: reading each ticket, deciding who in Teams should see it, and checking back on the ones that went quiet.
The agents that do it
Each agent does one job from start to finish in your Zendesk and Microsoft Teams, and tells your team in Teams when a person is needed.
The right person sees each ticket first.
- Reads new ticketsas they come
- Tags them and sends them to the right personright away
- Flags urgent ones to your leadright away
No customer waits days for a reply.
- Checks open ticketsevery hour
- Finds ones waiting too longper ticket
- Nudges the owner and tells your leadright away
Staff ask once. Someone owns it.
- Takes requests posted in your Teams channelas they come
- Logs them and sends each to the right personright away
- Follows up until it's doneevery day
Questions
Is my customers' information safe?
Yes. Agents work in your own Zendesk and Microsoft Teams and see only what their job needs. Customer details never go into public AI. Agents connect to AI through business-grade connections audited under SOC 2.
Does Zendesk integrate with Microsoft Teams?
Yes. The Zendesk for Microsoft Teams app works on Zendesk's Team plan and up. Zendesk paid for it and SoftServe builds and supports it. It lets your team make and update tickets in Teams and get ticket alerts in channels or direct messages.
Can I use Zendesk side conversations with Microsoft Teams?
Yes, on the Professional plan or higher, or with the Collaboration add-on. Agents start a thread in a Teams channel from the ticket, and replies come back to it. Direct messages aren't supported; Zendesk's workaround is a channel with one member that has the app added.
Who do I contact when the Teams app stops working?
Zendesk's guide sends app problems to SoftServe, the company that maintains the Teams app. Its listing says SoftServe answers support within one business day.
What does it cost?
You get the price on the call, along with the hours it saves your team.
Sources
- support.zendesk.com: About the Zendesk for Microsoft Teams integration
- support.zendesk.com: Using Microsoft Teams in side conversations
- support.zendesk.com: Using Microsoft Teams actions in action flows
- zendesk.co.uk: microsoft teams for support
- community.zendesk.com: zendesk for teams app missing documentation on how to setup the automa
- community.zendesk.com: accept and communicate tickets via microsoft teams with a bot 5079
- zapier.com: microsoft teams