# Ebbot Live Chat in Zendesk

### Introduction

Ebbot offers a seamless integration with Zendesk, allowing businesses to enhance their customer support capabilities. Through this integration, Ebbot chatbots handle initial customer inquiries, gather essential details such as name or email, and automatically escalate chats to human agents in Zendesk when required.

### Sunshine API / Channel

This integration leverages Zendesk’s Sunshine Conversations platform, enabling real‐time messaging through Ebbot’s web widget. Sunshine differs from legacy Chat/Tickets in that it provides a more flexible conversation model, integrates multiple channels seamlessly, and stores richer context about the conversation.

### Requirements and Setup

• **Zendesk Subscription:** Ensure you either have access to Zendesk Suite Professional (or higher) with Sunshine Conversations enabled, or any Zendesk Suite with the Sunshine Conversations API add-on.&#x20;

• **API Credentials:** You will need a Zendesk subdomain, API key, and app credentials (App ID, Key ID, Secret) to connect Ebbot to Zendesk.&#x20;

• **Ebbot Configuration:** The integration can be found in the side panel of the Ebbot platform, navigate to **Settings** → **Channels** → **Agent** → **Zendesk** to set it up.

{% content-ref url="ebbot-live-chat-in-zendesk/zendesk-setup-guide" %}
[zendesk-setup-guide](https://docs.ebbot.ai/ebbot-docs/integrations/zendesk/ebbot-live-chat-in-zendesk/zendesk-setup-guide)
{% endcontent-ref %}

### Setting Customer Information (Email, Phone)

During the chatbot conversation, Ebbot can prompt users for information such as email addresses or phone numbers. This data can be passed along with the conversation to Zendesk, allowing your agents to see key customer details in the ticket. Make sure you configure these fields in Ebbot so they sync correctly with Zendesk’s requester details.

### Statuses and Custom Statuses

Zendesk provides default statuses (e.g., “New,” “Open,” “Pending,” “On-hold,” “Solved”) and may also allow custom statuses based on your configuration. These options appear in Ebbot’s “On chat close” dropdown. Selecting a status here means:&#x20;

• If a chat ends in Ebbot, Zendesk is automatically updated with the chosen status.&#x20;

• If an agent marks a ticket with the chosen status in Zendesk (for instance, “Solved”), Ebbot also closes the chat for the user.&#x20;

• If “Send message” is selected (the default), Ebbot does not change the Zendesk ticket status when the user ends the chat; instead, it sends a customizable closing message to inform the user the chat has ended.

### Group ID

If your Zendesk setup uses multiple groups, you can specify a Group ID for incoming chats. This ensures that tickets generated from Ebbot go directly to the appropriate support team or department. Define the correct Group ID in the Ebbot integration settings based on your Zendesk environment.

### Handover and Chat History

Once a user requests to speak to a human agent (or the chatbot determines an agent is needed), Ebbot escalates the conversation to Zendesk. Agents will see the chat history directly in Zendesk’s Agent Workspace, maintaining full context for a seamless handover. Any messages sent by the user or chatbot before escalation remain visible in the conversation transcript.

### Requesters in Zendesk: Merge, Create, and Anonymous Users

• **Merge with Existing Users:** If the chatbot collects an email address matching an existing Zendesk user, Ebbot merges the chat with that user’s profile, ensuring a consistent support history.&#x20;

• **Create New Users:** If the email is not found in Zendesk, a new user record (requester) is created automatically.&#x20;

• **Anonymous Users:** Should the conversation lack an email or identifiable data, Zendesk may show the requester as an anonymous user. Agents can then prompt for identification or merge the requester manually if needed.

### Known Limitations

• **“action\_leave\_queue”-status:** If you have this custom status in Ebbot, it will not function as intended in Zendesk (i.e., the user cannot be immediately removed from the queue).&#x20;

• **No Status Applied:** If “Send message” is chosen and the user closes the chat, Zendesk’s ticket status remains unchanged. The agent must manually solve or update the ticket.&#x20;

• **Lack of Contact Data:** Without a valid email or phone, merging conversations with existing user records is not possible—Zendesk treats them as separate or anonymous requesters.
