Nurturing customers for life with Freshworks and Slack
Leveraging the Slack app toolkit to build seamless customer support workflows
When building the Freshworks integrations for Slack (Freshdesk & ServiceBot), our goal was to empower customers with easy-to-use integrations that enable them to respond effectively and efficiently—without switching between browser tabs.
Using the latest, modern features for Slack apps, we built an integration that makes it easy for users to create or update tickets and collaborate with people on tickets across the organization, right from Slack. Coupled with the home tab, which serves as a personalized dashboard, users can receive real-time updates on tickets and stay responsive to customer needs.
Building for three mighty groups of users
Before building our app, we made sure to take a step back and consider the three different groups of users that collaborate in Freshdesk. By identifying the unique role each type of user plays, we could thoughtfully build a personalized, dynamic experience in Slack based on their needs.
1️⃣ The agents
Freshdesk or Freshservice agents who handle support tickets
- Agents can use the app to create new tickets, edit existing tickets, and invite collaborators to help them resolve issues in real-time.
2️⃣ The admins
Admins who handle support tickets as well as manage notifications in Slack
- These users have the authorization to map groups from their Freshworks account to channels in Slack. When a ticket gets updated, a notification will pipe into the channel for everyone to see and act on.
3️⃣ The collaborators
Team members on Slack who are not agents in the Freshworks account
- Supporting the agents and admins, these collaborators provide assistance and feedback to help resolve tickets.
- Their primary responsibility is offering expertise relating to a particular issue or problem, and their responses within Slack are automatically synced to Freshdesk or Freshservice. Their assistance is often beyond the customers’ purview.
Together, these three different groups work in Slack to become the “Three Musketeers”—with our app joining in and aiding them in their endeavors with customer support.
🏗 How our app was forged
Even if your app has robust functionality, it will need an intuitive user experience to drive adoption and success. To maximize the impact of our app for our three user types, we built using multiple components of the Slack app toolkit: Block Kit, surfaces like modals and the home tab, and shortcuts.
When building with Block Kit, we were extremely impressed with the Block Kit Builder and its simple drag and drop functionality. It helped quickly visualize how the multiple views within our app would appear to our users, and also displayed the basic code we would need to build these views.
When a product and design decision needed to be made, we were able to quickly visualize the outcomes of our choices. For example, we used this to decide whether to show notifications and/or how to display them.
✨ Modals: the new and improved “Dialog”
With Block Kit, we also had the opportunity to replace dialogs with a more powerful surface: modals. These interactive modals support richer user experience, including new fields such as multi-select, checkboxes and date pickers. For example, our “create a ticket” modal brings multiple interactive fields together in a simple and intuitive user experience.
⚡️ Shortcuts: as quick as lightning, as powerful as thunder
Next up was figuring out what would trigger our “create a ticket” modal experience. We used the new shortcuts feature as a nifty way for customers to quickly perform actions within our app. Instead of using slash commands, our Freshdesk users have an intuitive, UI-based way to use our app—so a ticket update or a collaboration invite is just a shortcut away.
🏠 A personalized homecoming
In addition to taking key actions in Slack—like creating a ticket—each user can also interact with a personalized experience in the app home. Agents can see a snapshot of their assigned tickets, while admins can continue to manage and create group-to-channel mappings.
This dynamic dashboard view reduces context switching and brings critical information from Freshdesk into Slack, where teams are spending a lot of time throughout the day.
🔗 Bringing interactivity to link sharing
Some tickets aren’t created in Slack, which is why we made sure any Freshdesk link shared in Slack would automatically unfurl with key details about a ticket. We also include a broader range of actions to Freshdesk messages, including CTA options that support quick action and prompt resolution to tickets.
🛠 Ready to build your adventure?
Whether a user is creating a ticket, triaging open tickets, or sharing tickets — it all works seamlessly in Slack. Block Kit, shortcuts, and surfaces like modals and app home allowed us to build a powerful tool in Slack that complements advanced tools like Freshdesk and Freshservice.
As an engineering team, we loved Block Kit and its plethora of available field types, designed to ensure a great UX. We hope you have as much fun as we did building apps for Slack!
Join our webinar to understand how the Freshworks integration for Slack transforms collaboration.
