Help Desk: Zendesk

This page covers a Zendesk instance: creating it, and everything on its Help Desk page. For the Help Desk list and instance statuses, see Help Desk.

Creating a new instance

1. Install the Flexivity AI app from the Zendesk Marketplace.
2. Open Help Desk and click Add Instance, or start from the setup card on your dashboard.
3. Click Connect Zendesk, enter your Zendesk subdomain, and allow Flexivity access in Zendesk.

On your first instance, this also sets the account’s ticketing system to Zendesk; see One ticketing system per account. Connecting reads your Zendesk brands and starts syncing your tickets and Help Center articles. See Connecting Zendesk for each step.

The instance page

The top of the page reports the connection’s state. Below it is one list of cards, each something you set.

Zendesk App

• Status: whether the connection is working
• App Version: the version of the Flexivity app installed in Zendesk
• Subdomain: the Zendesk account this instance is connected to
• Last Heartbeat: when Flexivity last checked the connection, every five minutes

Instance Setup

• Reconnect Zendesk repeats the authorisation, for example after the connected Zendesk user’s access changed, or when the instance says a reconnect is required.
• Rotate Widget Secret issues a new signing secret for the Flexivity sidebar app and sends it to your Zendesk install directly. Nothing needs copying. Use it if you suspect the secret has leaked, or on a routine schedule.
• Disconnect Zendesk revokes Flexivity’s access to Zendesk, deletes the credentials Flexivity stored, and stops processing.
• Deactivate Instance stops all processing and sets the instance to Suspended. Reactivate Instance turns it back on.
• Delete Instance, offered once an instance is deactivated, removes it permanently, with its sync jobs, connection and indexes, and revokes Flexivity’s access to Zendesk.

Multibrand Domain

Each Zendesk brand is its own brand in Flexivity, with its own knowledge, rules and settings. The card lists your brands, read from Zendesk when you connect. Refresh brands reads them again after you add or rename one in Zendesk.

Untick a brand to switch the AI off for it: its tickets are left alone, and not billed. A brand you deactivate in Zendesk is shown as inactive and cannot be switched on until Zendesk reactivates it. A brand Zendesk stops reporting is marked rather than deleted, so its knowledge is kept.

The brands listed here are the ones you choose between on AI Configuration and the Knowledge Builder.

Classification / Attributes

Configure opens the page that decides what the AI records about each ticket, grouped by who provides the attribute:

• Mapped attributes: your own Zendesk ticket fields, such as a topic or category drop-down, up to 5. Each one either reads the field, so your team’s value is used as it is, or is decided by the AI and can be written to it. Writing is off until you switch it on for the attribute. Even then a value is written only when the AI is sure enough: by its own confidence against a threshold, or by agreement with similar tickets your team labelled by hand. A written value can drive your own Zendesk triggers and views.
• Flexivity attributes: your own attributes, kept only in Flexivity and never written to Zendesk, up to 10. New attribute adds one. The AI decides each from the descriptions of its values, so write them the way you would explain the value to a new agent.
• System attributes: built into Flexivity and not counted against either limit. Some are decided by the AI, like Sentiment; others are worked out from the ticket, like Agent has replied, which records whether someone on your team has already answered, for all brands or the ones you choose. Each is switched on or off with the tick box on its row.

When an agent changes a value the AI chose, the agent’s value wins, and the change is recorded so you can see how often the AI was corrected.

Rules on AI Configuration act on these attributes.

Zendesk Messaging

Whether the AI answers customers in Zendesk messaging for this instance:

• Not connected: Connect Zendesk Messaging starts the connection.
• Connected: the connection is in place, and Flexivity AI still needs assigning to your channels in Zendesk. The card lists the steps.
• Answering: conversations are reaching Flexivity.

See Connecting Zendesk Messaging.

Ticket History

Your solved tickets, indexed so the AI can find similar cases and how they were resolved, and so the Knowledge Builder has your history to work from. The sync starts when you connect. The card shows the index size. Its Sync button opens the Historical Ticket Database page. See Syncing ticket history.

Knowledge Base

Your Help Center articles, indexed so the AI can answer from them. They are managed on Knowledge Sources, not on this page, where you can also choose which articles are included. They sync when you connect, and published or unpublished articles are picked up as they change, with a full re-sync once a day.

Syncing ticket history

The first sync runs by itself when you connect. To reach further back, or to sync again, open the Historical Ticket Database page:

1. Under Start a New Sync, choose how far back to go in Sync tickets from the last: 3, 6 or 12 months, as far as your plan allows. The choice is saved as soon as you make it.
2. Optionally, narrow the sync to tickets solved since a date.
3. Click Start Sync.

A progress card shows how many tickets are done and an estimated finish, with a button to cancel. New tickets keep being processed while a sync runs. Tickets already indexed are skipped, so reaching further back only adds the newly included ones.

Past Sync Jobs lists earlier runs and their status. One that was Interrupted can be Resumed from where it stopped.

How far back the Knowledge Builder looks is set separately, in its Analysis Period.

Disconnecting and uninstalling

Removing Flexivity from Zendesk takes two steps, one on each side:

1. Disconnect Zendesk on the instance’s Help Desk page revokes Flexivity’s access to Zendesk, deletes the credentials Flexivity stored, and stops all processing. The instance shows Disconnected.
2. Uninstall the app in Zendesk: Admin Center → Apps and integrations → Zendesk Support apps → Currently Installed → Flexivity AI → Uninstall. This removes the sidebar panel, the app’s settings, and the webhooks and triggers it installed.

If messaging is connected, remove the Flexivity AI bot as well; see Disconnecting and removing messaging.

To confirm nothing is left, check that no Flexivity — webhooks remain under Admin Center → Apps and integrations → Webhooks, and that Flexivity AI is no longer listed under Connected apps.

When an instance is not Active

• Degraded: Zendesk refused Flexivity’s access. A brief refusal clears by itself at the next check, five minutes later. If the page says a reconnect is required, access has ended for good, usually because an admin removed it under Admin Center → Apps and integrations → Connected apps: click Reconnect Zendesk.
• Disconnected: someone clicked Disconnect Zendesk. Reconnect to resume.
• No events arriving while the instance is Active: check that the app’s webhooks and triggers are still present and active in Zendesk.

See Troubleshooting: Zendesk.