Implementing a low code buyer help resolution powered by Zendesk and Azure Logic Apps

    0
    165


    On this put up, we’re going to discover ways to implement buyer help capabilities utilizing a minimal code method and counting on third social gathering companies. There are plenty of conditions wherein you would possibly have to implement some buyer help capabilities. Possibly you might be creating your individual product, or possibly you might be working for a corporation that should enhance their operations.

    With the arrival of COVID-19, e-commerce has turn out to be a significant concern for many companies. Having an excellent buyer help technique in place is a should as of late. On-line shoppers demand options like on-line reside chat or multi-channel communication and anticipate excessive responsiveness from on-line companies.

    The pandemic has generated unprecedented ranges of uncertainty for enterprise they usually want to have the ability to adapt within the shortest time attainable. For that reason, we’re going to actually on third social gathering companies and use a minimal code method. This permits us to dramatically cut back the time to market and growth price. Operational price can also be extremely versatile as a result of each Zendesk and Azure can adapt their choices and costs to our enterprise scale and wishes.

    The very first thing we’re going to do is to go to https://www.zendesk.com/ and create an account. I can’t doc how to do that as a result of Zendesk may be very intuitive and it has superb documentation.

    After creating the account, you’ll be able to go to the settings web page and go to the channels part to search out out your help e-mail:

    Zendesk support email

    The format of this e-mail handle needs to be help@yourcompany.zendesk.com. You will have to recollect this handle as a result of we’re going to want it later.

    We are able to then go to the widget part underneath the channels part to allow the contact type and the net chat options:

    Zendesk support widgets

    In the event you go to the settings it is possible for you to to search out the set up information:

    Chat settings

    All you have to do is so as to add a script tag to your web site’s supply code:

    <script id="ze-snippet" src="https://static.zdassets.com/ekr/snippet.js?key=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx"></script>
    

    We now have enabled the contact type widget which is displayed when there are not any buyer help brokers on-line:

    Contact form

    We now have additionally enabled the reside chat widget which is displayed when buyer help brokers are on-line:

    Live chat

    A little bit icon shall be then displayed on the underside proper of your webpage. When a person clicks on the icon, the contact type or the reside chat type shall be displayed.

    Ideally, we wish to have a single level to handle all our buyer request. The request could have originated in our web site, our e-mail or social media:

    • Internet: We at the moment are able to handle requests that originated on our web site.

    • Electronic mail: Managing e-mail requests may be achieved by enabling e-mail forwarding from one among your organization e-mail addresses to your Zendesk e-mail handle.

    • Social media: You may go to the channel settings in Zendesk to attach your social media accounts with Zendesk.

    • Telephone calls. Zendesk additionally means that you can handle cellphone calls as buyer requests tickets. You may be taught extra utilizing the Zendesk documentation.

    Generally, the default Zendesk implementation can be sufficient to get began. Nonetheless, in my case, I wanted an extra customized contact type:

    React web form

    I wanted this way to be extremely seen and the underside proper “assist” button didn’t have sufficient visibility for me. The webform was carried out utilizing React and Formik.

    I wished to ship the request that originated utilizing this way to Zendesk. The best resolution can be to ship an e-mail to the Zendesk help e-mail handle. We have to implement an HTTP POST endpoint that takes the shape particulars as JSON and ship an e-mail to the Zendesk help e-mail handle. I wished to implement this with as little code as attainable and the very first thing that got here so my thoughts was to make use of an Azure operate.

    Utilizing an Azure operate would require us to outline an HTTP set off and the code that sends the e-mail. We would wish to handle the permissions so our e-mail server permits us to ship an e-mail. This wasn’t an enormous job however it required me to avoid wasting the code in a repository, deploy it, and so forth. It was an excessive amount of work for one thing so easy. I wished to discover a higher manner and that’s how I ended up utilizing Azure Logic Apps.

    We are able to go to the Azure portal and create a brand new Azure Logic App, then use the designer to create the logic guidelines of our app. The very first thing that we have to do is to outline an HTTP set off for our HTTP POST request:

    Logig App incoming HTTP request

    You may paste an instance of the physique of your request and the Logic App designer will robotically translate it into the request schema.

    While you save your logic, Azure will generate an URL you can invoke out of your app.

    The second factor that we have to do is so as to add a step:

    Login App adding a new step

    We have to add a step that may return an HTTP response:

    Logic App send response step

    We then want so as to add a parallel step to ship an e-mail. In my case I take advantage of Gmail however there are different integrations out there.

    Logic App send email step

    We have to extract the info from the unique HTTP request so as to add it to the e-mail contents. We are able to do that utilizing an expression:

    Logic App using expressions

    We are able to use triggerBody() to entry the request physique and json(triggerBody()) to remodel it into JSON. We are able to then entry the properties within the request physique as follows json(triggerBody()).firm.

    We are able to then save every part and two assets ought to have been created:

    Azure resource group

    We are able to then invoke the HTTP set off in our logic app by sending an HTTP request from the net app:

    const response = await fetch(`INSERT_THE_TRIGGER_URL_HERE`, {
        technique: "POST",
        physique: JSON.stringify(values),
    });
    const json = response.json();
    

    You may then use the browser developer instruments to see if the request was profitable:

    Dev Tools HTTP request

    And eventually, head to the Azure Logic App monitoring part to see if all of the steps labored as anticipated. The monitoring instruments with offering you with some particulars if one thing fails:

    Logic App monitoring

    If every part labored you must now have a brand new ticket in your Zendesk buyer help dashboard:

    Alt Text

    The operational price of operating this logic app is sort of zero and we are able to get began with Zendesk for simply $60 a yr. We are able to now ship knowledgeable buyer help expertise on a funds and in only a few hours!

    As we are able to see Azure Logic apps may help us to unravel real-business wants with nearly no code. This permits us to maneuver quicker and adapt quicker in a time of unprecedented uncertainty.

     

    5

    Kudos

     

    5

    Kudos

    LEAVE A REPLY

    Please enter your comment!
    Please enter your name here