Send data to Zendesk

Zendesk is a service-first CRM company that builds software designed to improve customer relationships by providing support, chat, and community services that span channels.

Amperity may be configured to create or update user records in Zendesk by using the Zendesk Users API to create or update users . Use this connector to deliver a better customer support experience by pre-populating Zendesk user records with customer records from Amperity, including:

• Order history

• Loyalty status

• Satisfaction survey results

• Shopping preferences

• and more

Use this data to show customer support representatives information related to product recommendations, next best actions, and likelihood of churn.

Note

Creating or updating records are rate limited to a maximum of 100 users per second.

This topic describes the steps that are required to send audience data to Zendesk from Amperity:

1. Get details

2. Add destination

3. Add data template

How this destination works

Amperity can send audience data to update user records in Zendesk. The audience data is uploaded to Zendesk using the Zendesk Users API.

A Zendesk destination works like this:

	Use a query to build a list of customers to be updated in Zendesk.
	Configure Amperity to send audience data to Zendesk.
	Send a test from Amperity. Important Be sure to send all fields from Amperity that will be required by Zendesk. The name, email or external_id fields must be included. From within Zendesk verify that audience data has been loaded and is usable by all of the use cases you want to use within Zendesk to build better customer experiences.

Get details

Zendesk requires the following configuration details:

	The Zendesk API token , which may be generated via the Zendesk user interface by an administrator with Token Access enabled.
	The email address of the administrator who created the API token.
	The subdomain of the Zendesk instance.
	A query that outputs fields that are mapped to data requirements for the Zendesk Users API.

Add destination

Configure Amperity to send audience data directly to Zendesk.

To add a destination

	Open the Destinations tab to configure a destination for Zendesk. Click the Add Destination button to open the Destination dialog box. Enter a name for the destination and provide a description. For example: “Zendesk” and “This sends audience data to Zendesk”. From the Plugin drop-down, start typing “zen” to filter the list, and then select Zendesk.
	Credentials allow Amperity to connect to Zendesk. The credential type is set automatically. You may use an existing credential or you may add a new one. Select an existing credential from the Credential drop-down. – or – Select Create a new credential from the Credential drop-down. This opens the Credential dialog box. Enter the name for the credential, and then add a description. Zendesk has the following settings: Credential name Zendesk User API token Email address of the administrator who created the token When finished, click Save.
	Each destination has settings that define how Amperity will deliver data to Zendesk. These settings are listed under the Settings section of the Destination dialog box. The following settings are specific to Zendesk: Setting Description Subdomain The subdomain is part of your Zendesk URL. For example: “acme” is the subdomain for acme.zendesk.com.
	By default a destination is available to all users who have permission to view personally identifiable information (PII). A destination may be configured to restrict access to only users assigned to the Datagrid Operator and Datagrid Administrator policies. Enable the Admin only checkbox. A destination may be configured to allow users with limited access to PII. Enable the PII setting checkbox. What is restricted access to PII? Restricted PII access is enabled when the Restrict PII access policy option that prevents users who are assigned to that option from viewing data that is marked as PII anywhere in Amperity and from sending that data to any downstream workflow.
	Review all settings, and then click Save. Important You must configure a data template for this destination before you can send data to Zendesk.

Add data template

A data template defines how columns in Amperity data structures are sent to downstream workflows. A data template is part of the configuration for sending query and segment results from Amperity to an external location.

To add a data template

	From the Destinations tab, open the menu for a destination that is configured for Zendesk, and then select Add data template. This opens the Add Data Template dialog box. Enter the name of the data template and a description. For example: “Zendesk” and “Send audience data to Zendesk.”.
	Verify business user access to queries and orchestrations and access to segments and campaigns. A business user may also have restricted access to PII, which prevents them from viewing and sending customer profile data. If business user access was not configured as part of the destination, you may configure access from the data template. Important To allow business users to use this destination with campaigns, you must enable the Available to campaigns option. This allows users to send campaign results from Amperity to Zendesk. If you enable this option, the data extension settings require using campaign name and group name template variables to associate the name of the data extension to your campaign.
	Verify all configuration settings.
	Review all settings, and then click Save. After you have saved the data template, and depending on how you configured it, business users can send query results and/or send campaign results to Zendesk.

Workflow actions

A workflow will occasionally show an error that describes what prevented a workflow from completing successfully. These first appear as alerts in the notifications pane. The alert describes the error, and then links to the Workflows tab.

Open the Workflows page to review a list of workflow actions, choose an action to resolve the workflow error, and then follow the steps that are shown.

	You may receive a notifications error for a configured Zendesk destination. This appears as an alert in the notifications pane on the Destinations tab. If you receive a notification error, review the details, and then click the View Workflow link to open this notification error in the Workflows page.
	On the Workflows page, review the individual steps to determine which step(s) have errors that require your attention, and then click Show Resolutions to review the list of workflow actions that were generated for this error.
	A list of individual workflow actions are shown. Review the list to identify which action you should take. Some workflow actions are common across workflows and will often be available, such as retrying a specific task within a workflow or restarting a workflow. These types of actions can often resolve an error. In certain cases, actions are specific and are shown when certain conditions exist in your tenant. These types of actions typically must be resolved and may require steps that must be done upstream or downstream from your Amperity workflow. Amperity provides a series of workflow actions that can help resolve specific issues that may arise with Zendesk, including: Authorization error Invalid credentials
	Select a workflow action from the list of actions, and then review the steps for resolving that error. After you have completed the steps in the workflow action, click Continue to rerun the workflow.

Authorization error

A 403 response means that Amperity is not able to access the Zendesk Users API. When a 403 response is received from Zendesk, a workflow action named “Authorization Error” is generated.

Amperity uses two configuration settings – the Zendesk User API token and the email address of the administrator who created the token – to build a credentials string that is added to the request authorization header. The format for the credentials string is:

{email_address}/token:{api_token}

A 403 response from Zendesk indicates that the credentials string does not have the correct information. This could be for a number of reasons, including:

• The wrong values for email address or API token are configured in Amperity.

• The API token was deleted in Zendesk.

• The email address for the user who generated the API token is no longer a valid email address within Zendesk or is not associated with a user who has permission to access the Zendesk Users API.

To resolve this error, you must provide a combination of email address and Zendesk API token that allows Amperity access to Zendesk.

1. Open the Amperity Credentials page in a new tab.

2. Verify that the individual who authorized access to Zendesk has the correct permissions to allow Amperity to access Zendesk.

3. Update the values that build the credentials string as necessary.

   Tip

   You may need to generate a new API token in Zendesk, and then reconfigure Amperity with the updated API token string and the email address for the user that generated the newly-generated API token.

4. Return to the workflow action, and then click Resolve to retry this workflow.

Invalid credentials

The credentials that are defined in Amperity are invalid.

To resolve this error, verify that the credentials required by this workflow are valid.

1. Open the Credentials page.

2. Review the details for the credentials used with this workflow. Update the credentials for Zendesk if required.

3. Return to the workflow action, and then click Resolve to retry this workflow.