Boost B2B Support with Thena’s Freshdesk Slack Integration

Q: What Exactly Is Thena’s Freshdesk Integration?

Freshdesk-Slack integration by Thena enables you to link the two applications and synchronize their chats. Due to the integration's bi-directional nature, neither your customer care employees nor your clients will need to switch platforms, thereby minimizing resolution times. The integration also supports a multitude of different capabilities, including auto-detection of customer requests in Slack, ticket escalation, analytics, and trends.

Freshdesk is a cloud-based customer support tool designed for intelligent, omnichannel ticket management. Over 50,000 companies of different sizes and industries utilize Freshdesk to build a proactive customer support system.

While Freshdesk is a popular customer support software in the business-to-business (B2B) space, we know that the management of B2B customers now takes place in Slack. Slack is where real conversations happen, and Freshdesk is what your customer service agents use to serve them.

So, in this article, we’ll go over Freshdesk-Slack Integration with Thena and how easy it is to convert customer messages on Slack into Freshdesk tickets.

What Exactly Is Thena’s Freshdesk Integration?
Three Foolproof Benefits of Freshdesk-Slack Integration
Core Capabilities of Freshdesk-Slack Integration With Thena

What Exactly Is Thena’s Freshdesk Integration?

Freshdesk-Slack integration by Thena enables you to link the two applications and synchronize their chats. Due to the integration's bi-directional nature, neither your customer care employees nor your clients will need to switch platforms, thereby minimizing resolution times.

The integration also supports a multitude of different capabilities, including auto-detection of customer requests in Slack, ticket escalation, analytics, and trends.

Three Foolproof Benefits of Freshdesk-Slack Integration

If you want to narrow the communication gap between your support agents and customers, integrating Freshdesk with Slack is a logical step. But, if you are not convinced, here are three reasons why it is worthwhile to integrate Slack with Freshdesk using Thena.

Customers Don’t Want to Leave Slack

According to one study, 40% of customers expect companies to solve their problems in the channel of their choice. Since your customers are already on Slack, it makes sense to keep it that way, even when it comes to bugs and issues that you need to resolve.

Besides, Slack allows context-rich ticket resolution without wasting time establishing what’s gone wrong or who needs to take charge of the ticket. As a result, your agents can take immediate action and, in this way, improve customer experience and boost loyalty.

Native Integrations Lack Necessary Capabilities

Native integrations don’t work as well as we want them to, resulting in constant context switching and productivity losses. Thena’s Freshdesk integration not only allows you to overcome the limitations of native integrations but offers truly beneficial capabilities to take customer management to another level.

Scale Your B2B Customer Support With Ease

Do you have more than 20 Slack Connect channels with your customers? Then, your support team on Freshdesk needs a solution that scales.

Yes, you can add agents to individual channels, but this will quickly get messy. You can also ask customers to switch to Freshdesk, but this won’t work, as they enjoy talking to you on Slack. With Thena, you don’t need to do any of these!

Core Capabilities of Freshdesk-Slack Integration With Thena

Automatic Ticket Creation

Conversing between you and your customers should be seamless. Thus when a client asks a question, Slack creates a Freshdesk conversation with the click of a button. If you forget to create a ticket, the Smart Inbox feature ensures that the message is highlighted as a suggested request.

Better Control of the Entire Ticket Lifecycle

A fully functional Freshdesk-Slack integration is about empowering your agents with the right capabilities to manage tickets. Thanks to Thena’s Freshdesk integration, your customer support team can control the entire ticket lifecycle (for instance, Open > Pending > Close), escalate, tag colleagues, or share rich media — all on Freshdesk.

Meanwhile, the response shows up to your customers as a normal Slack conversation.

Kanban Boards for Improved Visualization

Thena also supports Kanban boards, making it easier to see and track conversations at the customer or organization levels.

CSAT Support Ratings to Get Your Customer Service Metrics in Check

You can't improve your customer service if you don't measure it — and Thena makes it simple to do so with another helpful feature known as CSAT support scores. So, if you need to solicit client feedback using Slack, Thena has you covered.

First-Class Configuration

Want to make the Freshdesk-Slack integration look your own? Thena offers unbeatable customization and configuration capabilities, including white-labeling and responding as a customer support agent.

Colleague Tagging and Escalation

Handling tickets at speed can inch you ahead of your competition. With Thena’s Freshdesk integration, you can easily tag your colleagues or escalate requests for immediate resolution. Your customers can also leverage escalation features within Slack — the platform they like to stay and converse within.

Keep Your CSM Informed

Finally, if someone else creates the support ticket, Thena ensures that key stakeholders, such as your CSM, are tagged in the dialogue. Keeping your CSM in the loop is the best way to prevent customer churn and keep your clients happy.

‍Should You Integrate Freshdesk and Slack? A Look at the Pros and Cons

Pros of Freshdesk Slack Integration:

Enhanced Communication and Collaboration: This integration allows agents to communicate directly within Freshdesk tickets from Slack, fostering real-time collaboration and faster issue resolution. Imagine an agent needing to consult a developer about a technical issue. With the integration, they can easily tag the developer and discuss the issue within the ticket itself, eliminating the need for context switching between platforms.
Increased Agent Efficiency: By centralizing communication within Slack, agents can manage tickets and collaborate with colleagues without switching between applications. This streamlined workflow reduces the time spent navigating different platforms and allows them to focus on resolving customer inquiries.
Improved Customer Experience: Integrating Freshdesk with Slack offers a more seamless experience for customers. They can receive updates and interact with agents directly within Slack, a platform they might already be familiar with, eliminating the need to switch to an unfamiliar interface.
Streamlined Workflow: This integration centralizes communication and keeps all relevant information related to a ticket within one platform. This reduces the risk of information silos, prevents duplicate efforts, and simplifies the overall workflow for both agents and customers.
Increased Visibility: Real-time information flow within Slack allows agents to gain immediate visibility into ongoing conversations. This facilitates collaboration with other team members involved in resolving customer issues, ensuring everyone is on the same page and can contribute effectively.
Improved Knowledge Sharing: Agents can easily share knowledge base articles and other relevant information within Slack conversations. This empowers them to provide faster and more accurate solutions to customer inquiries, ultimately enhancing the overall quality of customer service.

Cons of Freshdesk Slack Integration:

Potential for Information Overload: Integrating two communication platforms can lead to information overload for agents who need to manage both Slack messages and Freshdesk tickets simultaneously. Juggling notifications and switching between platforms can be distracting and decrease overall productivity.
Learning Curve: Implementing this integration might require additional training for agents unfamiliar with either platform. This can create initial disruptions to workflows and potentially slow down overall adoption.
Cost: Additional costs may be associated with paid plans for both Freshdesk and Slack, especially for larger teams or those requiring advanced features. Businesses need to weigh the potential benefits against the additional financial investment.
Limited Customization: Current integration features might not offer complete control over the communication flow or user interface. This could hinder specific needs or workflows, making it challenging to fully tailor the experience to your organization's unique requirements.
Security Considerations: Integrating two platforms introduces additional security considerations that need to be addressed to ensure data privacy and user security. Implementing robust security measures is crucial to protect sensitive customer information and prevent unauthorized access.
Potential for Distractions: Real-time notifications from both platforms can be distracting for agents, impacting their focus and productivity. Managing constant notifications and maintaining focus on individual tasks can be challenging and requires strong time management skills.

Slack vs. Freshdesk (with Thena.ai Integration)

Feature	Slack	Freshdesk	Thena.ai Integration Benefits
Primary Focus	Real-time team communication & collaboration	Ticketing system, customer support, and help desk management	Streamlines B2B customer service by enabling real-time communication within Freshdesk tickets.
Communication Style	Informal, conversational, fast-paced	Formal, professional, and focused on customer inquiries and solutions	Facilitates contextual communication and knowledge sharing for customer inquiries.
Communication Format	Primarily text messages, voice calls & video conferencing	Comments within tickets, ticket descriptions, @mentions, file sharing	Enables real-time discussions and updates directly within relevant Freshdesk tickets.
Collaboration Features	Shared channels, threaded messages, file sharing, real-time mentions	Shared inboxes, collaborative editing on tickets and comments, @mentions, document sharing	Enhances team collaboration and knowledge sharing around customer issues.
Integrations	Integrates with numerous external tools and services	Integrates with various business applications, but focus leans towards customer service and help desk functionalities	Bridges the communication gap between Slack and Freshdesk, creating a unified customer service workflow.
Search Functionality	Powerful search for messages, channels, and users	Robust search within tickets, knowledge base articles, and customer data	Enables efficient search for relevant customer information and past interactions.
Cost	Free tier with limited features, paid plans for additional features and users	Free tier with limited features, paid plans for additional features and agents	Thena.ai potentially reduces costs through improved collaboration, agent efficiency, and self-service options.
Mobile App	Available with full functionality	Available with full functionality	Enables on-the-go customer service management and team collaboration.
Learning Curve	Relatively easy to learn and use	Moderate learning curve for advanced functionalities and automations	Thena.ai simplifies communication and ticket creation within Freshdesk for B2B customer service agents.
Suitable for:	General team communication, project discussions, quick updates	Ticketing, customer support interactions, knowledge base management	B2B customer service, especially for managing customer inquiries and interactions.

Get Thena Now

Ready to experience how Thena’s Freshdesk integration can help you manage your customers better? Ditch back-and-forth switching, boost agents’ productivity, and delight your customers via their preferred communication tool — Slack!

Sign up for Thena today.

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