Simplesat surveys can reach your Zendesk customers inside the emails your Zendesk triggers send, in Zendesk messaging conversations, or in an email Simplesat sends when Zendesk reports a solved ticket. Survey code pasted into a Zendesk email works without connecting Zendesk.

Connect Zendesk to use the integrations on Simplesat's Zendesk page. They put feedback on the rated ticket or on the customer's Zendesk user, and fill in ticket and agent details on the response. They can also add your Zendesk users to Simplesat as customers and open follow-up tickets.

What the Zendesk integrations do

The Zendesk page groups its integrations under Account-wide integrations, Survey integrations and Ticket integrations.

Account-wide integrations

These work on your Zendesk account as a whole, not on survey responses.

Integration	What it does	Where it shows
Sync contacts from Zendesk to Simplesat	Reads your Zendesk users once a day and creates or updates a Simplesat customer for each	Customers, in Simplesat

Survey integrations

These can run on responses from any survey, however it was sent. The Messaging integrations, which send surveys, are listed here too.

Integration	What it does	Where it shows
Sync latest rating to customer's custom fields	Writes the customer's latest rating, sentiment and comment to fields on their Zendesk user	The user's profile in Zendesk
Sync latest rating and sentiment to customer's tags	Replaces the Simplesat tags on the customer's Zendesk user	The user in Zendesk
Create follow-up ticket after receiving rating	Creates a new Zendesk ticket from the response	A new ticket in Zendesk
Messaging: Send in-app survey when ticket is marked as solved	Posts the survey into the Zendesk messaging conversation when its ticket is solved	The conversation
Messaging: Send in-app survey when messaging session is ended	Posts the survey into the conversation when the messaging session ends	The conversation

Sync latest rating to customer's custom fields and Create follow-up ticket after receiving rating run on any survey you pick in their When should this integration run? setting. Sync latest rating and sentiment to customer's tags has no such setting, so it runs on every response whose customer email belongs to a Zendesk user.

Ticket integrations

These work with the Zendesk ticket a response came from, so they run only on surveys connected to Zendesk. A survey is connected when:

its delivery method is External email embed, with the Zendesk or Zendesk Chat option, or
it's an Event-based or Web-embed survey with Connected service set to Zendesk.

Integration	What it does	Where it shows
Sync ticket details from Zendesk	Reads the ticket, its requester and its assignee onto the response	The response, in Simplesat
Add feedback to ticket as an internal note	Adds the response to the ticket as an internal note	The ticket
Add rating and sentiment to ticket tags	Tags the ticket with the rating and sentiment	The ticket
Sync feedback to ticket custom fields	Writes the rating, sentiment and comment to ticket fields	The ticket
Sync feedback rating to Zendesk	Writes the rating as a Zendesk satisfaction rating, or as a response to a Zendesk CSAT survey	The ticket, and Zendesk's CSAT reports
Sync feedback to ticket custom fields (older version, marked deprecated)	Writes the rating, sentiment and comment to ticket fields, like the current version	The ticket
Sync Simplesat feedback to Zendesk ticket as a satisfaction rating (older version, marked deprecated)	Writes the rating as a Zendesk satisfaction rating, for Zendesk's legacy satisfaction ratings only	The ticket, and Zendesk's CSAT reports

Before you start

To connect Zendesk and turn integrations on, you need the Manage integrations permission in Simplesat. Owner and Admin have it by default.

Connect as a Zendesk admin. The integrations create ticket and user fields, add ratings on the requester's behalf and create webhooks, and Zendesk lets only admins do those things. Integration security, permissions and data flow lists what the connected Zendesk user can read and write.

Some integrations need a particular Zendesk plan or setting:

Integration	What it needs in Zendesk
Messaging: Send in-app survey when ticket is marked as solved and Messaging: Send in-app survey when messaging session is ended	Zendesk Team plan or above, with Zendesk messaging turned on
Sync feedback rating to Zendesk	Zendesk CSAT turned on. CSAT is available on Suite Growth, Professional, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus, and on Support Professional and Enterprise.
Sync Simplesat feedback to Zendesk ticket as a satisfaction rating	Zendesk's legacy CSAT turned on
Sync latest rating and sentiment to customer's tags	Tags on users and organizations turned on, in Admin Center → People → Configuration → End users. Available on Zendesk Team and above.
Add rating and sentiment to ticket tags, on closed tickets	Modify closed ticket turned on, in Admin Center → Objects and rules → Tickets → Settings. Only Zendesk admins can modify closed tickets.

Note: Zendesk has a legacy CSAT and an updated CSAT, and only one can be on at a time.

Connect Zendesk

On the Integrations page, open Zendesk.
Click Authenticate.
Enter your Zendesk subdomain, which is the part of your Zendesk address before .zendesk.com, and click Authenticate. For acme.zendesk.com, enter acme.
On Zendesk's sign-in page, sign in as a Zendesk admin and allow access.
When the Zendesk page shows Authenticated with Zendesk, click Activate integration on each integration you want, then fill in its settings and Field mapping.

Before you rely on an integration, test it with a real ticket, as shown in Testing an integration end to end.

Send surveys from Zendesk

Choosing a survey delivery method compares these routes with the other ways Simplesat can send a survey.

Zendesk support email

To put the survey in an email Zendesk sends:

Create or open the survey and choose External email embed.
Under Choose where to add your survey, choose Zendesk.
On Publish, click Generate embed code.
Choose HTML and click Copy survey.
In Zendesk, paste the HTML into the email of the trigger that should send the survey, for example the trigger that emails the requester when a ticket is solved.

A Zendesk trigger's email action with the Simplesat HTML pasted into the email body

Heads up: Zendesk doesn't run triggers on closed tickets, so set your trigger to send the survey when the ticket changes to Solved.

When Zendesk sends the email, it fills in the placeholders in the survey links, so each response comes in with its ticket, customer and team member:

What the link carries	Zendesk placeholder
Ticket ID	`{{ticket.id}}`
Ticket subject	`{{ticket.title}}`
Customer email	`{{ticket.requester.email}}`
Customer ID	`{{ticket.requester.id}}`
Customer first name	`{{ticket.requester.first_name}}`
Customer last name	`{{ticket.requester.last_name}}`
Company	`{{ticket.organization.name}}`
Team member email	`{{ticket.assignee.email}}`
Team member ID	`{{ticket.assignee.id}}`
Team member first name	`{{ticket.assignee.first_name}}`
Team member last name	`{{ticket.assignee.last_name}}`
Group, saved as a ticket field on the response	`{{ticket.group.name}}`

Placeholders and merge fields explains how placeholders work in every tool.

If a link still shows {{ticket.id}}, Zendesk didn't fill it in, and the link opens an error page.

Zendesk Chat

The Zendesk Chat option, under External email embed, gives the same code and placeholders as Zendesk, except that:

responses credit the team member with the role Team member, not Assignee
Remove placeholders from rating URLs isn't offered

To survey customers inside a Zendesk messaging conversation, use a Messaging integration instead.

Zendesk messaging

To post the survey right in a Zendesk messaging conversation, turn on one of the Messaging integrations:

Messaging: Send in-app survey when ticket is marked as solved sends the survey when a ticket that came in through Zendesk messaging is solved.
Messaging: Send in-app survey when messaging session is ended sends it when a messaging session ends, whatever channel the ticket came from.

Zendesk's agent workspace composer on a Messaging conversation with its End session button

The survey arrives as a message from the ticket's assignee, with the Simplesat logo as its avatar. It says "Please let us know how we did!" and has a "rate our service" button that opens the survey in the conversation. Each part is a row you can edit in the integration's Field mapping:

Author Display Name: the sender's name
Author Avatar URL: the avatar
Content Text: the message
Content Action Text: the button's text
Content Action URI: the button's link

A Zendesk messaging bubble reading CONTENT TEXT with a CONTENT ACTION TEXT button

The survey opened inside the Zendesk messaging widget, How did we do? with five answers from Absolutely amazing! to Terribly disappointing

To set it up:

Open a survey set to External email embed → Zendesk. On Publish, click Generate embed code, choose Link and click Copy survey.
Zendesk messaging needs its own connection. In the Messaging integration's section on the Zendesk page, click Authenticate, and enter your Zendesk subdomain if you're asked for it.
In the same section, click Activate integration.
In its Field mapping, paste the link into Content Action URI. Don't edit it: Simplesat fills in the Zendesk placeholders with the ticket's details before the message goes out.
To change the wording, edit Content Text and Content Action Text.
Click Save.

Messaging responses go through the Ticket integrations like responses from a Zendesk email. If the requester has no email address, Simplesat records them under an address made from their Zendesk user ID, ending in @auto-generated.email, and creates a customer with that address.

Warning: Turning on a Messaging integration adds a webhook and a trigger to your Zendesk. Don't edit or delete them in Zendesk. Zendesk shows this warning on them: "Do not change these triggers/webhooks within Zendesk as the API handles this."

Simplesat email when a Zendesk ticket is solved

On this route, Simplesat sends the email and a Zendesk webhook tells it when.

In Simplesat:

Create the survey with Direct email delivery → Event-based.
On its Delivery subtab, set Connected service to Zendesk so the Ticket integrations run on its responses.
Copy the Endpoint, and copy the request body with Copy request body.
Create an API key, as described in Direct email surveys.

In Zendesk:

Create a webhook that sends a POST request to the survey's Endpoint, with your API key in the X-Simplesat-Token header.
Create a trigger that runs when the ticket's status changes to Solved, with an action that notifies the webhook and sends the request body.
In the request body, use {{ticket.requester.email}} for the customer's email, {{ticket.assignee.email}} for the team member's email, {{ticket.id}} for the ticket ID and {{ticket.title}} for the subject. Keep the double braces. Without them, Zendesk sends the text exactly as typed.

Zendesk's Create webhook page with Trigger or automation chosen under Select a way to connect

The survey's Endpoint in Simplesat beside Zendesk's webhook form with Name, Description and Endpoint URL filled in

The Zendesk trigger's Conditions with Ticket status, Changed to, Solved under Meet ALL of the following conditions

Zendesk's trigger decides which tickets send the request. Simplesat then waits for the survey's Delay, in hours, and applies its Suppression, in days per customer.

These emails show on the survey's Email activity. If one doesn't arrive, When a survey does not send lists what to check.

Exclusions and one survey per ticket

Simplesat records one response per ticket for each survey, so a second rating on the same ticket updates the first. How you stop a second survey from going out depends on the route.

Your Zendesk trigger decides who gets the Zendesk email and how often. To skip tickets, add conditions to the trigger, for example on a tag.

Zendesk runs triggers every time a ticket is updated. Writebacks such as the internal note, ticket tags, custom fields and a legacy satisfaction rating all update the ticket. If your survey trigger's conditions still match afterward, the survey goes out again.

Tip: Have your survey trigger add a tag such as survey_sent, and add a condition that the ticket doesn't have that tag.

A Zendesk survey trigger's Actions with Add tags survey_sent above the Email user action that holds the survey HTML

The Simplesat email and the Messaging integrations don't check whether a ticket was surveyed before, so a ticket that's solved again gets the survey again. For the Simplesat email, set Suppression so the same customer doesn't get repeat survey emails. Direct email surveys explains how Suppression works.

For the Messaging integrations, turn on only one, or a conversation can get the survey from each.

Feedback in Zendesk

A ticket integration needs the ticket ID that came in with the response. A customer integration needs a Zendesk user whose email matches the response's customer email.

Writebacks run no sooner than five minutes after a response arrives, and again when it changes. Create follow-up ticket after receiving rating runs only when a response arrives. Writing feedback back, and mapping the fields covers timing and settings.

When Zendesk refuses an update, Simplesat shows no error. That happens, for example, when the Zendesk user who connected Zendesk isn't an admin. Send us the response's link and support can read the integration's log, then run it again once the cause is fixed. If the internal note or follow-up ticket integration runs again, it adds a second note or ticket.

Add feedback to ticket as an internal note

Agents see the response on the ticket as an internal note, which customers can't see. The note holds the customer, the sentiment, every question and answer, and links back to the response in Simplesat. A comment added after the note is written adds a second note.

The internal note on a Zendesk ticket from a test customer, with How did we do? and the answer 4 - Great, I'm satisfied

Add rating and sentiment to ticket tags

The ticket gets one tag for the rating and one for the sentiment, such as ss_nps_9 and ss_sentiment_positive. You can use them in Zendesk views and triggers. When the rating changes, the new tags replace the old ones. These are all the tags it can add:

NPS: ss_nps_0 to ss_nps_10
CSAT: ss_csat_1 to ss_csat_5
CES: ss_ces_1 to ss_ces_7
5-Star: ss_5-star_1 to ss_5-star_5
Sentiment: ss_sentiment_positive, ss_sentiment_neutral and ss_sentiment_negative

Sync feedback to ticket custom fields

The rating, sentiment and comment go into Zendesk ticket fields. By default, the integration creates and fills these fields:

Field	Type	What it holds
Simplesat rating	Number	The metric rating
Simplesat sentiment	Text	The sentiment
Simplesat comment	Text	The follow-up answer
Simplesat metric	Text	The metric
Simplesat response date	Date	The date of the response, in UTC

It creates the set only when Simplesat rating is missing. So if you rename Simplesat rating in Zendesk, the next run creates all of them again. If you rename any other Simplesat field, the integration stops writing to it. The fields are optional, and customers don't see them in your Zendesk help center.

Auto configure fields, on by default, creates the Simplesat fields. While it's on, the integration writes only to them and ignores the Field mapping. To use your own fields, turn the setting off and map them in the Field mapping, which starts empty and lists the ticket fields in your Zendesk, including any you create later.

The Field mapping of Sync feedback to ticket custom fields with the Auto configure fields row switched on

Tip: A Zendesk ticket form shows only the fields added to it. Add the Simplesat fields to your ticket forms to see them on tickets.

Zendesk Admin Center's search with ticket forms typed and the Forms result under Tickets

A Zendesk ticket form with the Simplesat rating, Simplesat sentiment and Simplesat comment fields added

A Zendesk ticket showing Simplesat rating 5, Simplesat sentiment positive and Simplesat comment Great!

Sync feedback rating to Zendesk

Your Simplesat ratings show up as Zendesk satisfaction ratings, on the ticket and in Zendesk's CSAT reports. Before it writes, the integration checks which Zendesk CSAT is on.

Zendesk Admin Center's search with end users typed and the End users result under Configuration

Zendesk's End users settings on the Satisfaction tab with Allow customers to rate tickets checked, which means legacy CSAT is on

Zendesk Admin Center's search with customer satisfaction typed and the Customer satisfaction result under Business rules, where the updated CSAT is turned on

If Zendesk's legacy CSAT is on:

a positive rating is written as good, and a neutral or negative one as bad, because legacy ratings can only be good or bad
the follow-up answer becomes the rating's comment
it rates as the response's customer email, or as the ticket's requester when there's no email
Zendesk accepts the rating only on a solved ticket, or one reopened after it was solved, and only from the ticket's requester, who has to be a verified end user

A legacy satisfaction rating on a Zendesk ticket, Rating Good, I'm satisfied with the comment Great work!

If the updated CSAT is on:

it adds a response to a Zendesk CSAT survey on the ticket, as the customer's Zendesk user or the ticket's requester
the response goes to the Zendesk survey whose ID you enter in Survey ID, or to your first enabled survey if you leave Survey ID empty
it always goes in as en-us, and no setting changes the language
your Simplesat survey has to use the same scale as the Zendesk survey, or its ratings come through wrong
a CSAT or 5-Star rating sent to a 1-to-5 Zendesk survey counts 1 or 2 as bad, 3 as neutral, and 4 or 5 as good
the follow-up answer isn't sent

The Field mapping of Sync feedback rating to Zendesk with an empty Survey ID and the Save button

Sync latest rating to customer's custom fields

Agents see the customer's latest rating, sentiment and comment on their Zendesk profile. The integration writes to the Zendesk user whose email matches the response's customer email. If no user matches, it writes nothing.

Field	Type	What it holds
Latest CSAT, Latest NPS, Latest CES, Latest 5-Star	Number	The rating, in the field for the survey's metric
Latest sentiment	Text	The sentiment
Latest comment	Multi-line text	The follow-up answer

If Latest sentiment is missing, it creates the whole set of fields.

Sync latest rating and sentiment to customer's tags

The customer's Zendesk user carries tags for their latest rating and sentiment. Each response replaces the Simplesat tags on the user whose email matches its customer email.

Heads up: Zendesk copies a user's tags onto every ticket they submit, so the customer's Simplesat tags appear on their new tickets too. To keep them off, remove them with a Zendesk trigger that runs when a ticket is created.

Closed tickets

A closed ticket accepts no updates unless Modify closed ticket is on in Zendesk. Even then, Zendesk lets admins change only tags, the subject, the priority, and checkbox, multi-select, drop-down and text fields. Add rating and sentiment to ticket tags can tag a closed ticket. Internal notes and legacy satisfaction ratings can never be added to one.

Zendesk's ticket Settings section Modify closed ticket with Allow admins to modify specific fields on a closed ticket checked

Sync feedback to ticket custom fields sends all its fields in one update. Simplesat rating is a number field and Simplesat response date is a date field, and neither type is on that list. So the custom fields may not reach a closed ticket.

Reports in Zendesk Explore

Custom CSAT reports in Explore need Zendesk Suite Professional or above, or Support with Explore Professional. Suite Growth has Zendesk's prebuilt Support dashboard.

Ticket, customer and agent details in Simplesat

Each response can show which ticket was rated, who rated it and which agent handled it. These details first come from the placeholders Zendesk fills into the survey link. Sync ticket details from Zendesk then replaces the customer and ticket details with what's on the ticket. Attribution: linking feedback to tickets, customers and agents explains how Simplesat connects them.

Sync ticket details from Zendesk

As soon as a response arrives, it picks up these details from the ticket:

the team member: the assignee, with their Zendesk ID, name and email, in the role Assignee
the customer: the requester, with their Zendesk ID, name and email
the company: the ticket's organization
ticket details: ID, subject, priority, type, group, and every custom field, named by its title in Zendesk. Drop-down fields show the option's name.

A response's Ticket and Customer details in Simplesat, Ticket ID, Ticket subject, Team member, Assignee, Zendesk Type and Zendesk Priority, then the customer's Name, Email and Company

The ticket's channel, brand, tags and status aren't read.

This runs only on surveys connected to Zendesk, for responses with a ticket ID. An unassigned ticket, or an assignee without an email address, gives no team member. A requester without an email address gives no customer, so a response that arrived without a customer stays without one.

Sync contacts from Zendesk to Simplesat

Your Zendesk users become Simplesat customers, kept up to date once a day. The first run tries to import all your existing users, and each later run picks up users updated since the last successful run. Nothing is written to Zendesk.

Agents, admins and suspended users come in along with end users. Users without an email address are skipped.

Each customer gets their name, email and Zendesk user ID, a company from the user's organization, and the user's Zendesk tags as customer tags. They also get the attributes Contact Active, Contact Suspended and Contact Verified. Contact Verified shows whether any of the user's identities is verified.

Contact sync from a connected tool has more on how contact syncs work.

Follow-up tickets in Zendesk

To follow up on feedback in Zendesk, turn on Create follow-up ticket after receiving rating. It opens a ticket when a response arrives, and doesn't open another if the rating changes.

The integration's Field mapping sets the new ticket's details. By default, the ticket:

has the subject "New sentiment feedback from customer name on survey survey name", or "New sentiment feedback on survey survey name" when there's no name
has Low priority and New status, with no group or assignee
holds the answers in its first comment, as an internal note
has as its requester the Zendesk user whose ID matches the customer's ID in Simplesat. That ID comes from the survey link, Sync ticket details from Zendesk or Sync contacts from Zendesk to Simplesat.
is a follow-up of the rated ticket when the survey is connected to Zendesk, and a standalone ticket otherwise

You can change any of these, or add a group or assignee, in the Field mapping, which lists every field Zendesk accepts on a new ticket. Or contact us, and support can set them for you.

The Field mapping of Create follow-up ticket after receiving rating with its defaults, Subject typed, Priority low, Status new, Comment from All responses (plaintext) and Comment Public? false

Tip: Until you change When should this integration run?, every rating opens a ticket. To open tickets only for unhappy customers, choose Let me choose there and turn on the neutral and negative switches. Every switch starts off, and nothing runs until at least one is on.

When should this integration run? set to Let me choose, with the neutral and negative switches on and the positive ones off for the Zendesk CSAT survey

Creating a follow-up ticket from feedback goes into follow-ups in more depth.

The Simplesat apps in Zendesk

The Simplesat apps in the Zendesk Marketplace let agents see feedback and get survey links without leaving Zendesk. They're optional: you turn integrations on and set them up on Simplesat's Zendesk page, not in the apps.

Simplesat for Support adds a sidebar to each ticket with that ticket's feedback, and one to each customer's profile with all of their feedback. It also puts a Simplesat button in Zendesk's main navigation that opens Simplesat inside Zendesk.

The Simplesat listing in the Zendesk Marketplace with its Install button

Simplesat for Chat adds a sidebar to Zendesk Chat with a button for each survey. Clicking one makes a survey link with the current chat's details, for the agent to paste into the chat. Zendesk is retiring Zendesk Chat but still lets existing customers use it.

A Zendesk Chat conversation with the Simplesat sidebar showing a button per survey, such as Satisfaction Survey 40

Change the Zendesk account or move Zendesk

Change the Zendesk account

To connect a different Zendesk account, or reconnect as a different admin, click Revoke access, then Authenticate. Revoke access stops every Zendesk integration, including the contact sync and the Messaging integrations. Their settings are kept, and any that was on switches back on by itself when you authenticate again. Check that each one you use shows Deactivate integration, and click Activate integration on any that's still off. If you connected a different Zendesk account and Create follow-up ticket after receiving rating or Sync feedback rating to Zendesk is on, click Deactivate integration on it. Both rely on the customer IDs Simplesat saved from your old account, and those don't match users in the new one. Move to another Zendesk subdomain explains what to do before you turn them back on. Responses that arrive while an integration is off aren't written to Zendesk. Integration security, permissions and data flow has the full steps.

Heads up: An integration marked deprecated is listed only while it's on, so Revoke access takes it off the page. If it was on, it switches back on, and back on the page, when you authenticate again.

Survey code in your Zendesk triggers keeps working. So does the Simplesat email, because its webhook uses a Simplesat API key.

If the admin who connected Zendesk leaves, or the access is revoked in Zendesk, the integrations stop while the page still shows Authenticated with Zendesk. Reconnect the same way.

Move to another Zendesk subdomain

To move to a new Zendesk instance, or from a Zendesk sandbox to production:

Click Revoke access, then Authenticate with the new subdomain.
Any integration that was on before switches back on by itself. If Create follow-up ticket after receiving rating or Sync feedback rating to Zendesk is on, click Deactivate integration on it. Check that every other integration you use shows Deactivate integration, and click Activate integration on any that's still off.
Paste the survey code into the new Zendesk's triggers.
Set again any Field mapping value you picked from your old Zendesk, such as a field or a value chosen with Lookup.

Each integration creates its fields again the first time it writes to the new Zendesk.

The integrations you held back use the customer IDs Simplesat saved from the old Zendesk. Zendesk user IDs differ between instances, so those IDs won't match users in the new one. Contact us before you turn those integrations on, and support can sync your Zendesk users again so their IDs match the new Zendesk, as long as their email addresses are the same.

The Messaging integrations' webhook and trigger stay in the old Zendesk.

Older versions of the Zendesk integrations

An integration marked deprecated on the Zendesk page stays listed only while it's turned on. Set up its newer version before you turn the deprecated one off.

The older Sync feedback to ticket custom fields writes to the same Simplesat rating, Simplesat sentiment and Simplesat comment fields as the newer one. If both are on, every response is written twice.
Sync feedback rating to Zendesk replaces Sync Simplesat feedback to Zendesk ticket as a satisfaction rating, which works only while Zendesk's legacy CSAT is on.

Writing feedback back, and mapping the fields explains how to move to a newer version.

Troubleshooting

Feedback doesn't populate my Zendesk custom fields

Check these:

Auto configure fields, which creates the Simplesat fields, is on by default. While it's on, the integration writes only to those fields and ignores the Field mapping. If you turn it off, map your fields in the Field mapping, which starts empty.
Renaming a Simplesat field in Zendesk stops it being written. Renaming Simplesat rating makes the next run create the whole set again.
A ticket form shows only the fields added to it.
The survey has to be connected to Zendesk, and its link has to carry the ticket ID.
Writebacks run no sooner than five minutes after the response.
A closed ticket may not accept the update.
Saving the Field mapping of an integration that's off marks it active, but it gets no responses until you click Deactivate integration, then Activate integration.
After Revoke access and Authenticate, any integration that was on before switches back on by itself. Check that each one you use shows Deactivate integration, and click Activate integration on any that's still off.

Zendesk's refusals don't show as errors in Simplesat. If none of these explains it, send us the response's link and support can read the log.

My ratings don't show as satisfaction ratings in Zendesk

Check that:

Zendesk CSAT is on, and your Zendesk plan includes it.
Zendesk was connected by a Zendesk admin.
You're using Sync feedback rating to Zendesk. The older Sync Simplesat feedback to Zendesk ticket as a satisfaction rating works only with legacy CSAT.
On Zendesk's updated CSAT, Survey ID has the ID of the Zendesk survey you want, or is empty to use your first enabled survey, and your Simplesat survey uses the same scale as that survey.

On legacy CSAT, Zendesk accepts a rating only on a solved ticket, or one reopened after it was solved, never on a closed one. It also accepts it only from the ticket's requester, who has to be a verified end user. The integration rates as the response's customer email, or as the requester when there's no email. So Zendesk refuses the rating when the response's email isn't the requester's. It also refuses it when an agent or admin requested the ticket, such as a test ticket you opened yourself.

Zendesk's refusals don't show as errors in Simplesat.

My responses aren't assigned to the agent on the ticket

The team member is the ticket's assignee. It comes from the survey link first, then from Sync ticket details from Zendesk. A response gets no team member when:

the ticket is unassigned, or the assignee has no email address
the survey isn't connected to Zendesk, or the response has no ticket ID, so Sync ticket details from Zendesk doesn't run
for the Simplesat email, the request body is missing {{ticket.assignee.email}}

Responses from the Zendesk Chat option use the role Team member, not Assignee. To change the team member on a response, see Attribution: linking feedback to tickets, customers and agents.

Zendesk won't save my trigger: "Email size cannot exceed 8192 bytes"

Turn on Remove placeholders from rating URLs in the code window, copy the code again and replace it in the trigger. It's on the Zendesk option, and it resets each time you generate the code. It takes every placeholder except the ticket ID out of the rating links and the Link output. Customer details then come from Sync ticket details from Zendesk instead of the link. You can also paste the Link output instead, which is shorter than the HTML.

My survey email shows "liquid error: internal"

Older copies of the survey code use {{ticket.requester.organization.name}}. When the requester has no organization, Zendesk shows that as "liquid error: internal". The code Simplesat generates now uses {{ticket.organization.name}}. Generate the code again and replace the old code in your trigger.

My customers get the survey twice for the same ticket

Zendesk runs triggers on every ticket update. Writebacks such as the internal note, ticket tags, custom fields and a legacy satisfaction rating update the ticket, and a ticket that's solved again matches again too. Have your survey trigger add a tag such as survey_sent, and add a condition that the ticket doesn't have it. Either way, Simplesat records one response per ticket per survey.

My customers get the survey in the chat, then again by email when we solve the ticket

Your Messaging integration and your Zendesk email trigger work separately. Add a condition to the trigger that leaves out tickets from messaging. Also turn on only one Messaging integration, or a conversation can get the survey from each.

My customers on WhatsApp don't get the messaging survey

The messaging survey is a message with a button that opens the survey inside the conversation. Zendesk's web widget can show that kind of message, but WhatsApp can't, so WhatsApp customers never see it at all. Contact us, and support can switch on a WhatsApp version that sends a text message with a short link to the survey instead. Other messaging channels differ in what kinds of message they can show, so let us know too if customers on another channel don't get the survey.

Simplesat tags show up on my customers' new tickets

Sync latest rating and sentiment to customer's tags tags the customer's Zendesk user, and Zendesk copies a user's tags onto every ticket they submit. To stop it:

Remove the tags with a Zendesk trigger that runs when a ticket is created. They all start with ss_. The rating tags are ss_nps_0 to ss_nps_10, ss_csat_1 to ss_csat_5, ss_ces_1 to ss_ces_7 and ss_5-star_1 to ss_5-star_5. The sentiment tags are ss_sentiment_positive, ss_sentiment_neutral and ss_sentiment_negative. A trigger set up to remove simplesat_ tags won't catch them.
Or use Add rating and sentiment to ticket tags instead, which tags only the rated ticket.
Or turn off Tags on users and organizations in Zendesk. That stops the copying, but it also stops the integration.

Follow-up tickets are created with me as the requester

This happens when the customer has no Zendesk user ID in Simplesat. The integration then leaves the requester empty, and Zendesk sets the requester to the person who connected Zendesk to Simplesat. The internal note on the ticket still names the customer when Simplesat has their name.

Normally, the requester is the Zendesk user whose ID matches the customer's ID in Simplesat. That ID comes from the survey link, Sync ticket details from Zendesk or Sync contacts from Zendesk to Simplesat. Create follow-up ticket after receiving rating runs on responses from any survey, and a customer ID set by another tool isn't a Zendesk user ID.

To stop it:

Turn on Sync contacts from Zendesk to Simplesat, so your customers carry their Zendesk user IDs.
Or, in the follow-up integration's When should this integration run?, choose only your Zendesk surveys.

Only some of my Zendesk users came in as customers

Users without an email address aren't imported. The first run tries to bring in every user, but it can stop at 10,000 users, because Zendesk's user search returns no more than that. A very large import can also hit a size limit and stop. If your first import stopped short, contact us, and support can import your users in parts. After the first run, only users updated since the last successful run come in.

I see a message that the integration used in my survey is being deprecated

The integrations on the Zendesk page replace it. Click Configure new Zendesk integration to open that page, and set up the integrations you need there. If an integration on the Zendesk page is itself marked deprecated, it's an older integration. Set up its newer version before you turn it off.

My Zendesk integrations stopped working, but the page still says Authenticated with Zendesk

Simplesat doesn't check the connection after you connect. If the admin who connected leaves Zendesk, the access is revoked in Zendesk, or the connection lapses, the integrations fail and the page still reads Authenticated with Zendesk. Click Revoke access, then Authenticate. Any integration that was on before switches back on by itself. Check that each one you use shows Deactivate integration, and click Activate integration on any that's still off. Integration error messages and what they mean explains what the page shows.

FAQ

How do I get Simplesat feedback into Zendesk and report on it in Explore?

To put feedback on tickets and users, turn on the ticket and customer integrations on the Zendesk page. For Explore, turn Zendesk CSAT on and turn on Sync feedback rating to Zendesk. It writes ratings as Zendesk satisfaction ratings or CSAT survey responses, so Zendesk's CSAT reports include them. Custom CSAT reports need Suite Professional or above, or Support with Explore Professional.

Can I re-sync existing feedback to Zendesk after fixing my mapping?

A mapping change applies to responses that arrive after you save it. For responses already written, send us their links, and support can run them through the integration again. Running the internal note or follow-up ticket integration again adds a second note or ticket.

A rating syncs to Zendesk as good or bad. What happens to a neutral rating?

On Zendesk's legacy CSAT, a neutral rating is written as bad, because legacy ratings can only be good or bad. If you ask, support can have your workspace write neutral ratings as good on legacy CSAT instead. On the updated CSAT, a CSAT or 5-Star rating of 3 counts as neutral.

Does the satisfaction rating sync work with Zendesk's newer CSAT surveys?

Yes, Sync feedback rating to Zendesk does. It adds a response to the Zendesk CSAT survey whose ID you enter in Survey ID, or to your first enabled survey when Survey ID is empty. Responses always go in as en-us. Your Simplesat survey has to use the same scale as that Zendesk survey. A CSAT or 5-Star rating sent to a 1-to-5 survey counts 1 or 2 as bad, 3 as neutral, and 4 or 5 as good. The follow-up answer isn't sent. The older Sync Simplesat feedback to Zendesk ticket as a satisfaction rating works only with legacy CSAT.

Does Sync feedback rating to Zendesk replace the older satisfaction rating integration?

Yes, it replaces Sync Simplesat feedback to Zendesk ticket as a satisfaction rating. Set up the newer integration before you turn the older one off, because an older integration disappears from the page once it's off.

Where do I find the HTML for my Zendesk trigger?

Set the survey to External email embed → Zendesk. On Publish, click Generate embed code, choose HTML and click Copy survey. Paste it into the email of the Zendesk trigger that should send the survey. Zendesk fills in the ticket's details when it sends the email.

How do I set up the survey in Zendesk messaging?

Copy the Link output of a survey set to Zendesk. On the Zendesk page, click Authenticate in a Messaging integration's section to connect Zendesk messaging, then activate that integration. Paste the link into Content Action URI in its Field mapping, and click Save. You need Zendesk Team or above, with Zendesk messaging on.

The messaging survey is sent under the agent's name. Can we change it?

Yes. By default, the sender is the ticket's assignee and the avatar is the Simplesat logo. To send under a name of your choice, open the Messaging integration's Field mapping, choose Type a value for Author Display Name and enter the name. To change the avatar, do the same with Author Avatar URL.

How do I make sure only one survey goes out per ticket?

For the Zendesk email, have your survey trigger add a tag such as survey_sent, and add a condition that the ticket doesn't have it. Zendesk runs triggers on every ticket update, and writebacks update the ticket. For the Simplesat email, set Suppression, which doesn't look at tickets but holds back the same survey from the same customer for the number of days you set. The Messaging integrations survey a ticket again each time it's solved. Whatever the route, Simplesat records one response per ticket per survey.

Can Simplesat send the survey automatically when a Zendesk ticket is solved or closed?

Yes, when it's solved. Create an Event-based survey with Connected service set to Zendesk. Then, in Zendesk, add a webhook to the survey's Endpoint and a trigger that notifies it when a ticket changes to Solved. Zendesk doesn't run triggers on closed tickets. In messaging conversations, the Messaging integrations send the survey instead.

Can we connect more than one Zendesk account?

The Zendesk page connects a workspace to one Zendesk account, and a Zendesk sandbox and production are two separate Zendesk accounts. For a second Zendesk account, you can use a second workspace, which has its own subscription.

Which Zendesk permissions does Simplesat need, and what can it access?

Connect as a Zendesk admin. In Zendesk, only admins can create ticket and user fields, add a rating on the requester's behalf, create webhooks and modify closed tickets. A custom role without admin rights can't do those things, and the integrations that need them fail.

Beyond that, the integrations read and update tickets and users, add tags and notes, and create tickets. No integration deletes a ticket or a user in Zendesk. The connection acts as the admin who signed in. It asks Zendesk for read, write and impersonate access. Impersonate lets it add the satisfaction rating as the ticket's requester.

Integration security, permissions and data flow has more on what the connection can read and write.

Do we need to install a Simplesat app in Zendesk?

No. Every integration on Simplesat's Zendesk page works without a Simplesat app installed in Zendesk. The Messaging integrations need one extra step: authenticating Zendesk messaging in their section of the Zendesk page. Simplesat for Support and Simplesat for Chat are optional apps that show Simplesat inside Zendesk.

Can I revoke access and connect another Zendesk account without breaking the surveys already in Zendesk?

Survey code in your Zendesk triggers keeps working, and so does the Simplesat email. Revoke access stops every Zendesk integration, the Messaging survey included, and any that was on switches back on by itself when you authenticate again. Responses that arrive before then aren't written to Zendesk. Check that each integration you use shows Deactivate integration, and click Activate integration on any that's still off.

My Zendesk subdomain changed. What do I change in Simplesat?

Click Revoke access, then Authenticate with the new subdomain. Any integration that was on before switches back on by itself. If Create follow-up ticket after receiving rating or Sync feedback rating to Zendesk is on, click Deactivate integration on it. Check that every other integration you use shows Deactivate integration, and click Activate integration on any that's still off. Paste the survey code into the new Zendesk's triggers, and set again any Field mapping value you picked from the old Zendesk. Customer IDs saved from the old Zendesk won't match users in the new one. Contact us before you turn on the integrations you held back, and support can sync your Zendesk users again so their IDs match the new Zendesk, as long as their email addresses are the same.

What does Contact Active mean on a customer, and does it come from Zendesk?

Contact Active shows whether the user was active in Zendesk at the last sync that included them. It comes from Zendesk: Sync contacts from Zendesk to Simplesat imports it along with Contact Suspended and Contact Verified. On its own it changes nothing in Simplesat, but you can use it in an audience rule. A user deleted in Zendesk drops out of the sync, so their Contact Active stays true.

Does the Zendesk connection handle OAuth token expiry and refresh?

Yes. The Zendesk connection renews its access automatically. You need to authenticate again only if 30 days pass without an integration reaching Zendesk. Zendesk is also retiring older connections whose access never expires, in waves until April 1, 2027. If you haven't authenticated Zendesk again since we asked customers to, or you aren't sure whether you have, do it before then.

A lapsed or retired connection still shows Authenticated with Zendesk on the page. To reconnect, click Revoke access, then Authenticate. Any integration that was on before switches back on by itself. Check that each one you use shows Deactivate integration, and click Activate integration on any that's still off.

Can we get notified when the Zendesk integration stops working?

No. Nothing in Simplesat notifies you, and the page keeps showing Authenticated with Zendesk. To get the integrations working again, click Revoke access, then Authenticate. Any integration that was on before switches back on by itself. Check that each one you use shows Deactivate integration, and click Activate integration on any that's still off.

Can I stop ticket fields or customers' emails from being pulled into Simplesat?

For ticket fields, yes. Sync ticket details from Zendesk reads every ticket custom field, and you can't pick them on the Zendesk page, but support can limit them for your workspace. Contact us with the fields to leave out.

The integration also imports the requester's name, email and Zendesk ID, and the assignee. To stop that for a survey, use When should this integration run? to turn the integration off for it. Remove placeholders from rating URLs takes the details out of the rating links and the Link output, but the HTML's open-tracking image still carries them.