Zendesk-ServiceNow integration bridges the gap between customer support and IT teams, ensuring faster issue resolution and eliminating manual data entry errors. This integration streamlines data flow, automates ticket creation, and boosts collaboration.
If your business is tech-driven, technical issues can significantly impact your customers. Unlike other problems that support teams handle, these issues often affect multiple customers—sometimes even all of them—at once. For instance, server-side glitches in an online store might prevent all shoppers from completing their purchases.
A quick response is essential in these cases. By integrating systems used by your customer service and IT support teams, you will ensure seamless data flow, helping your staff react promptly to any issue. In this article, we’ll explore how to integrate Zendesk, a popular customer service solution, and ServiceNow, a well-known ITSM tool.
But before we zero in on the nuances of Zendesk-ServiceNow integration, let’s clarify what app integration actually means.
What Is App Integration?
App integration is connecting different software applications so they can communicate with each other. In short, users of one app can easily access and modify data from another app without having to switch back and forth between the two.
This connection can involve cloud-based applications, on-premise software, or a mix of both. The main goal is to create a seamless system that breaks down data silos, making the process more efficient and user-friendly.
App integrations come in many forms and shapes. Talking specifically of Zendesk and ServiceNow, you might want to consider a few different types, depending on how data flows between the two platforms.
Zendesk-to-ServiceNow integration
Zendesk-to-ServiceNow integration is basically having Zendesk send data to ServiceNow. Whenever a new ticket is created in Zendesk, a new incident is created in ServiceNow.
This kind of connection helps IT teams track and manage customers’ tech issues effectively, ensuring that nothing falls through the cracks.
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ServiceNow-to-Zendesk integration
This type of Zendesk-ServiceNow integration involves ServiceNow sending data to Zendesk. When an incident is created in ServiceNow, a corresponding ticket is automatically generated in Zendesk.
ServiceNow-to-Zendesk integration helps support agents stay informed about critical IT incidents that could affect customer service. This leads to faster response times and better service quality.
If integration isn’t what you’re looking for, but you need to migrate data from ServiceNow to Zendesk, Help Desk Migration makes it effortless. Our Migration Wizard securely transfers incidents, users, companies, knowledge base content, and more to Zendesk, ensuring a seamless setup for your customer support team. Plus, you stay in full control with flexible mapping and filtering options. Start with a free Demo Migration to explore the possibilities.
Bidirectional Zendesk-ServiceNow integration
This type of ServiceNow-Zendesk integration enables two-way communication between Zendesk and ServiceNow. When a ticket is created in Zendesk, an incident is instantly generated in ServiceNow. Likewise, any updates made to incidents in ServiceNow will reflect as updates to tickets in Zendesk.
Take Exalate, for example—a platform that allows you to create bidirectional integrations with zero coding. With Exalate, you can easily exchange the following types of data between Zendesk and ServiceNow:
- Incidents and tickets. All details related to incidents in ServiceNow can be synchronized with Zendesk tickets. At the same time, Zendesk tickets can be mirrored as incidents in ServiceNow.
- Comments and updates. Comments added to tickets in Zendesk will sync back to the corresponding incidents in ServiceNow. Similarly, any updates made in ServiceNow—status changes or new comments—will be reflected in the related Zendesk tickets.
- Change requests and problems. Change requests and problems from ServiceNow can be tracked alongside customer support activities in Zendesk, providing a comprehensive view of both IT and customer issues.
- Attachments. Any attachments linked to incidents or tickets can be synchronized across platforms so that all relevant documents are accessible in both systems.
- Custom fields. Users have the flexibility to choose which custom fields they want to sync between Zendesk and ServiceNow.
Why Do You Need Zendesk-ServiceNow Integration?
Speed and quality are essential ingredients of great customer service. If your business involves IT in any capacity—whether you run an online store, an airline, or an internet service provider—Zendesk-ServiceNow integration can help you take a leap toward delivering faster and more effective support.
Frictionless ticket/incident creation
ServiceNow-Zendesk integration allows for a quick and seamless transformation of incidents into tickets when they impact customer experience—or tickets into incidents when customer requests originate from IT issues. Swift conversion helps your teams resolve problems promptly.
Accurate data entry
In a setup without integration, your agents have to manually enter ticket and incident data whenever they need to convert a ticket into an incident or vice versa. This can be a hassle, and mistakes can happen, leading to bottlenecks.
However, with automated conversion, you eliminate the risk of human error during data entry. This not only streamlines the workflow but also enhances the quality of customer service.
Easy escalation
Sometimes, when talking to a customer, it becomes clear that their issue is related to an IT problem. Let’s take payment processing. You might assume the customer entered incorrect credit card details, whereas, in fact, engineering glitches in the payment gateway are to blame.
In such situations, integration can make a big difference. It allows you to quickly forward the issue to the engineering team by converting the ticket in Zendesk into an incident in ServiceNow.
Easy collaboration
After Zendesk is integrated with ServiceNow, your IT support team gains a complete view of customer conversations related to any incident. This includes attachments, status updates, agent comments, and other relevant details. The same goes for the customer service team using Zendesk.
As a result, both teams can collaborate seamlessly without having to switch between platforms. This means less time wasted bouncing between apps and more time focused on providing excellent service.
In other words, ServiceNow-Zendesk integration allows you to deliver outstanding service without wasting time or money. The best part? You don’t need to switch to a new solution that combines IT support and customer service or build a system from scratch. What’s more, connecting the platforms is fairly easy.
Integration of Other Popular Services with Zendesk and ServiceNow
If you use Zendesk, ServiceNow, or both, you can take full advantage of their ability to connect with other applications. You can easily link various teams together—whether an IT support team collaborating with developers or customer service reps working alongside sales—without building new software solutions and migrating terabytes of data.
Here are some popular integration pairs to consider.
ServiceNow and Salesforce Service Cloud
If you rely on Salesforce Service Cloud as a customer service platform, there’s good news for you, too. ServiceNow also integrates with Salesforce products, which means you can easily improve collaboration between your customer service and IT support teams.
The integration provides real-time visibility into each team's activities. For instance, when a new incident is logged in ServiceNow, a corresponding case is automatically created in Salesforce Sales Cloud. This seamless connectivity enhances teamwork and helps resolve IT-related customer issues faster.
ServiceNow and Microsoft Teams
If you want to improve communication about IT support issues inside your company, integrating ServiceNow with Microsoft Teams is a fantastic solution. This connection will empower your team to do many tasks without leaving Teams:
- Create and manage incidents and service requests.
- Get notified about new incidents and service requests.
- Collaborate on service requests and incidents.
- Automate responses to FAQs using ServiceNow's Virtual Agent.
Here’s a typical use case to illustrate how it works:
Imagine this scenario: a team member spots an IT issue and wants to report it without leaving Microsoft Teams. They simply post a message in a designated Teams channel. This message triggers the creation of a respective incident ticket in ServiceNow. Then, the relevant support team receives an actionable notification in their channel, getting a chance to respond immediately.
By integrating ServiceNow with Microsoft Teams, you can streamline your IT support processes, improve response times, and enhance collaboration within your organization.
Zendesk and Slack
If you use Zendesk as your help desk ticketing system but all in-house communication happens in Slack, integrating these platforms can be a game changer. This integration allows you to:
- Create and manage Zendesk tickets directly from Slack.
- Use the Answer Bot for self-service in Slack.
- Connect Slack interactions with Side Conversations to collaborate on tickets with experts outside your support team.
To get started, simply log into Slack and initiate the integration by visiting Zendesk’s marketplace.
Zendesk and Shopify
You can boost your customer service by making all essential sales information easily available to your agents. Integrating Zendesk with Shopify allows your customer service team to:
- Quickly access payment, shipping, and other Shopify data to resolve requests faster.
- Handle order cancellations, refunds, and other shopping-related inquiries directly from Zendesk.
- Help customers through Zendesk’s live chat embedded into your Shopify online store.
Zendesk has a native integration with Shopify, so getting started is easy! Simply visit the Zendesk marketplace to activate Slack integration.
Conclusion
Connecting Zendesk and ServiceNow can bring your customer support efforts to the next level. Your teams will be able to address issues quickly and keep your business running smoothly. The best part? Setting up Zendesk-ServiceNow integration is easy.
Migrating data between Zendesk and ServiceNow is even easier. If you're considering moving to Zendesk for customer service, to ServiceNow for IT support, or both, Help Desk Migration is here to assist you with its no-code Migration Wizard.
