How to setup your messaging channel

Zendesk Messaging: Connect with Customers on Their Terms

Zendesk Messaging allows you to have rich conversations with your customers that are persistent, with full context and history.

Messaging provides multiple conversational styles, ranging from real-time chat to asynchronous communication.

Messaging combines modern channels with a powerful management tool for support teams. It's easily scalable and highly customisable.

Why Use Zendesk Messaging?

• Customer expectations: Customers expect conversational care when they engage with companies. They want to connect with businesses in the same way they connect with family and friends. Over 70% of customers expect anyone they interact with to have full context of their issue, regardless of the channel.
• Improved customer experience: Messaging promotes an ongoing dialogue between customers and businesses. It allows customers to start and pick up conversations anywhere, any time, without losing their history.
• Increased customer loyalty: Companies offering messaging for personalised interactions can create better relationships between their brand and their customers, resulting in increased customer loyalty.
• Seamless conversations: With messaging, conversations can connect across any channel, so customers never have to repeat themselves or join a different queue.
• Better agent experience: Messaging provides agents with a unified workspace with all the tools and customer context they need to maintain relevant, personalised conversations across any channel.
• Efficiency and cost savings: By having a unified workspace, teams are more productive and efficient, resulting in more cost savings.
• AI and automation: Messaging provides built-in AI and automation to customer conversations, providing faster service at scale. A native bot builder experience helps deflect common questions, help customers find answers, and collect important information for agents.
• Customisation: Messaging is completely open and customisable, allowing you to integrate outside tools, like bots, apps, or other software.

Benefits of Zendesk Messaging

• Multiple channels: Communicate with users seamlessly across your website, help centres, mobile apps and social messaging channels.
• Persistent conversations: Agents and end users can interact multiple times over a period of time, across different channels, all within a single conversation.
• Ticket creation: Tickets are generated for requests received through messaging channels, enabling agents to follow up on more complex requests through Zendesk Support when needed.
• Integration with the Zendesk Agent Workspace: Agents can use familiar productivity aids within the Agent Workspace to handle messaging conversations.
• Conversational automations and bots: Automations and bots can enhance your customer experience by automating deflection options and triaging support issues.
• Extensive customisation options: Admins can quickly set up messaging channels in Admin Center and use the bot builder to create interactive conversation bots.

How to Set Up Zendesk Messaging

Here's how to set up messaging for your website or help centre:

1. Set up a Web Widget for messaging: Create an embeddable web widget with a ready-to-use default messaging experience. A basic Web Widget is created by default.
   • In Admin Center, click Channels in the sidebar, then select Messaging and social > Messaging.
   • Click the default widget in the Channels list.
   • Under Start with the basics, confirm or change the Channel name, then click Next.
2. Configure your basic Web Widget appearance: Design the appearance of the app your customers will be interacting with. Choose window and text colours, logos and more.
   • Select a Primary color for the launcher and header by using the color picker or by entering a hexadecimal number.
   • Enter a Title that will appear in the header of the Web Widget.
   • Upload an optional Logo.
3. Customise your default messaging behaviour: Craft the language used to greet your customers. You can also create separate experiences based on your business hours, if you've set up a schedule.
4. Install the Web Widget on your website or help centre: Add the widget to your website or help centre.
   • For your website, copy the code snippet to paste in your website now or click Email code to team member to send the code to yourself or a team member.
   • For your help centre, select Automatically embed Web Widget in your help center.

After configuring your messaging channel, you can use it as-is, or add a conversation bot to automate the customer experience.