If you want a quick route to becoming a Zendesk power user, take a look at its marketplace. It includes over 1700 add-ons and sidebars designed to extend the functionality of the platform. 

For customers, this means they can customize and develop their helpdesk solution without having to wait on new features from the official roadmap. And for Zendesk, it creates more reasons for customers to continue using this great product. Everyone’s a winner.

With so many integrations for apps like Slack, Zoom, HubSpot…where do you start? That’s the question we’ve been trying to answer over the last few weeks. We’ve been digging through the marketplace to find the most popular and effective apps for CS teams. Here are our favorites:

1. Trello

❓ About Trello

Trello is a popular workplace project management and collaboration tool that’s used to help organize everything from marketing teams to IT support. It helps keep colleagues on the same page through Boards, Lists, and Cards, through which users can create and assign tasks, add comments, and much more.

CS teams often use Trello as a knowledge base or to assign tickets to specific agents.

⭐ Key features

The Trello Zendesk add-on is designed to help agents reduce context switching between the two platforms. It’s designed for those who already use both and aims to make the experience smoother.

Once installed, the add-on will allow you to create Trello cards from your Zendesk tickets, via a sidebar that appears on the right of the screen. You can also choose whether to add the ticket to a Board, List, or Card.

🪙 Pricing

The app is free to install and use, though users will need to have or create a Trello account to use it. The main Trello product offers a freemium model with a basic tier and three additional paid tiers, ranging from $5 to $17.50 per user/month.

⬇️ How to install

To install the add-on, head to the Trello page on the Zendesk Marketplace and click install.

🤔 The Next Matter view

If you’re already using Trello and Zendesk, this integration is definitely going to create a smoother experience between the two. And since it’s free with whatever level of Trello subscription you have, there’s no reason not to get started.

If you’re a Zendesk user in the market for a project management tool, Trello might be a good choice for you. But there are also plenty of great competitors like Asana, ClickUp, Monday.com, and others – all of whom also have Zendesk integrations.

➡️ Check out Trello on the Zendesk Marketplace

2.  Tables

❓ About Tables

Tables is a purpose-built app made specifically for Zendesk. You can probably guess what it does just from the name: Allows users to add tables to their Zendesk tickets.

The app was created by Sparkly, a Dutch software development company that was specifically designed around the Zendesk environment. In fact, they’ve built 16 add-ons in total. Here's what they share:

We are an early adopter of Zendesk and have been working with it since 2011. With this experience our developers know the product inside out, what works and what doesn’t work.
‍
- Sparly, Tables developer

⭐ Key features

Tables has one simple function, allowing agents to add tables to Zendesk tickets - just like in Google Docs, Word, or Excel. Despite its simplicity, this solves a commonly-held Zendesk frustration – and has therefore become one of the most popular apps on the Zendesk marketplace.

🪙 Pricing

Tables is free to install and requires no additional third-party subscriptions.

⬇️ How to install

Tables can be installed via the Zendesk marketplace. From there, agents should see a new icon at the bottom of the ticket, next to the ‘attach items’ button.

🤔 The Next Matter view

Sometimes, the simplest things can be the most effective, and that’s definitely the case with this app. It has a 4/5 star rating on the Zendesk Marketplace and has since become one of the most popular Zendesk add-ons around. That being said, some reviewers have mentioned that they’d also appreciate the ability to add these tables into macros.

Either way, the functionality that’s there is already hugely useful and, most importantly, free… so what have you got to lose?

➡️ Check out Tables on the Zendesk Marketplace

3.  Next Matter

❓ About Next Matter

Well, we weren’t exactly going to leave ourselves out, were we?

At Next Matter, we specialize in making complex processes simple using workflow automation. While other tools on this list are great for automating simple, transactional tickets and customer communications – very few have both the customizability and integration capability to automate more complex cases from ticket request to resolution.

Chatbots, RPA tools, and macro-based automations aren’t really designed to manage complex, multi-stage cases like product returns or claims handling. There are simply too many people, systems, customer touchpoints, and 3rd party logistics involved, which – historically – require dedicated human orchestration to manage.

📖 READ: Complexity: The Hidden Factor at the Heart of Poor Customer Experience

If you’ve got complex processes that require your best CS talent to manage them by hand, you can’t expect a chatbot to effectively deliver the same service. Next Matter helps you create an effective, automated workflow for each of these processes.

⭐ Key features

Instead, you need a robust, rules-based workflow automation tool that allows you to build and customize your own processes. Here’s how it works:

• Drag-and-drop builder – Our no-code drag-and-drop builder lets you easily build your own rules-based workflows. Ensure tasks are always completed in the specified order, by the right people, and on time – according to your own unique processes.
• Wide integrations – Next Matter’s API enables quick integration with CRMs, ERPs, and more – perfect for complex processes with several moving parts across multiple systems.
• Automated communications – Create personalized templates for common customer communications like ‘return confirmed’, ‘request for more information’, ‘product delivery update’ – and much more.
• Reminders, tasks, and escalations – Automated tasks and escalations ensure the right agents receive the right tasks in the right order – every time. Then, a bird’s-eye view of the workflows can help managers identify bottlenecks and delayed tasks.
• Zendesk sidebar app – Through the Next Matter sidebar, agents can run, track, and resolve complex support tickets without leaving Zendesk. This enables agents to quarterback the resolution of complex tickets themselves, instead of escalating directly to more senior support.

📖 READ: What is the Difference Between Low-Code and No-Code Automation?

🪙 Pricing

One of the key benefits of workflow automation tool like Next Matter is its ability to manage the entire workflow. This is cheaper and simpler than the alternative, which is often to dovetail multiple apps and add-ons into a complex, cumbersome, and expensive solution. 

Instead, with Next Matter you get a single, flexible subscription. The platform is available at a fixed cost in three packages, based on the number and complexity of workflows you’re using, and the level of support you require. 

Our goal is to keep pricing as flexible and scalable as possible, so these costs are based on the number of agents and managers using the workflows - but not the external customers who interact with them.

Get in touch to get your demo and bespoke price. 

⬇️ How to install

Next Matter can be installed via the Zendesk Marketplace page, though users will need an active account to do so. If you don’t already have an account, sign up for a demo or free trial.

🤔 The Next Matter view

We’ll leave this one in the capable hands of our very satisfied customer, Frank:

Next Matter was the only solution that could automate our workflow exactly as we wanted. It’s simple, integrates with all our tools, and is super easy to use.
‍
- Frank, COO, Home 24

➡️ Check out Next Matter on the Zendesk Marketplace

4.  Slack

❓ About Slack

Slack almost certainly needs no introduction – it’s the workplace collaboration tool for small and medium-sized businesses right across the world. It offers instant one-to-one messaging as well as groups, channels, and more.

When it launched in 2014, it revolutionized the world of workplace communication by offering employees the same interactive features they enjoyed on consumer chat apps. Today, it remains one of the most popular workplace collaboration tools.

⭐ Key features

Like with Trello, this add-on is designed to improve the experience of using Slack alongside Zendesk, by reducing context switching between the two apps. It does this through several key features, allowing agents to:

• Create a new ticket from within Slack, complete with subject, requester, assignee, description, and more. Users can eg. file an IT ticket by sending a message to a designated IT help channel.
• Send automated Slack notifications via triggers.
• Integrate the Zendesk Answer Bot into Slack so users can find answers to common questions without leaving the Slack interface.‍

🪙 Pricing

The Slack add-on is free to install and use. Users must already have an existing account to use the add-on.

⬇️ How to install

To install the integration, you’ll need an existing domain and administrative permissions in both Slack and Zendesk. Then, you should be able to install it via the Slack page on the Zendesk Marketplace. Check out the full installation guide here.

🤔 The Next Matter view

While Slack itself is a hugely popular app, the features in this add-on are fairly modest. The key benefit here is the same as many integrations on this list – to reduce the amount of time that agents spend clicking between Slack and Zendesk. 

It’s also worth pointing out that the add-on is largely focused on recreating Zendesk features in Slack - rather than vice versa. This may be less appealing to customer service teams who generally prefer to see Zendesk as their base of customer operations. 

Nonetheless, if you’re using both apps already, the add-on will definitely create a smoother experience between the two. 

➡️ Check out Slack on the Zendesk Marketplace

5.  Zendesk Workforce Management (Formerly Tymeshift)

❓ About Zendesk Workforce Management

Formerly known as Tymeshift, the Zendesk Workforce Management tool is a Zendesk-specific app, designed to extend the reporting and management functionality of the helpdesk platform. It’s designed to help admins understand and forecast which agents are working on what tasks.

The platform was acquired by Zendesk last year and has since become an important part of their extended product offering. Here's what they say:

From day one, we developed tymeshift exclusively for Zendesk. Why? Because Zendesk encourages innovation and even opened access to their API, which inspired us to create a workforce management solution just for Zendesk.

Laura Dutilh, Senior Manager, Business Operations at Zendesk

⭐ Key features

The Zendesk Workforce Management add-on features a whole range of features to make forecasting and managing agents easier. This includes:

• Staffing forecast – AI-powered predictions to visualize and plan staffing needs, per day, season, and month.
• Agent scheduling – Granular schedules for each agent, including training and breaks.
• Activity tracker – A bird’s-eye view of agent activity, progress, and productivity. Includes custom reports at the end of the shift for each agent.
• Ticket analytics – Metrics to show how and when tickets are resolved or escalated, and by whom. This helps identify bottlenecks and problem areas, and helps you decide which tasks to assign to which agents. 

🪙 Pricing

Zendesk Workforce Management is available as a paid Zendesk add-on. Customers on all Zendesk plans are eligible for the add-on, which costs $25/€25 per user/month. Check out the Zendesk pricing page for more details.

⬇️ How to install

The add-on can be installed via the Zendesk Marketplace. From there, you’ll need to enable role and group restrictions when prompted, before completing the installation. Zendesk encourages users to reach out to their Account Executive to get a free demo.

🤔 The Next Matter view

Such a great app! The platform accurately tracks metrics and task-related information that is truly useful in order to fulfill objectives.

Zendesk user review, via the Zendesk Marketplace

The fact that Zendesk acquired this tool tells you a lot about how useful it is to customer service admins - particularly those managing a large team of agents. If you find yourself needing a quick look at agents’ workload and activity, this is absolutely the platform for you.

The add-on has 4/5 stars on the Zendesk Marketplace, with 21/23 reviewers giving it five stars. It’s pretty universally popular, with users particularly praising its ability to monitor agent activity and productivity.

➡️ Check out Zendesk Workforce Management on the Zendesk Marketplace

6.  Klaus

❓ About Klaus

Klaus is another recent Zendesk acquisition, though one that’s still operating as an independent brand for the moment. They provide a range of AI-powered solutions designed to help automate quality assurance and customer feedback processes.

⭐ Key features

Here are a few key features of the Klaus Zendesk add-on:

• AI suite – Analyzes agent conversations to provide quantifiable metrics on areas like language, sentiment, tone, spelling & grammar, and more. 
• Survey suite – Automated customer service surveys to help easily create customer satisfaction scores (CSAT) and customer effect scores (CES).
• Coaching suite – Designed to identify areas for improvement for specific agents, including examples, action items, and performance metrics.‍

🪙 Pricing

While the add-on itself is free, users will need to set up a paid Klaus account to use it. There are three packages available; Growth Suite, AI Suite, and Enterprise Suite. Klaus does not publish its pricing.

⬇️ How to install

Once you’ve set up your Klaus account, you’ll be able to install the add-on via the Zendesk Marketplace. You’ll need admin privileges to do so. From there, you can connect Zendesk to Klaus via Oauth to start setting up your team and adding members.

🤔 The Next Matter view

The Klaus app is great! Its user-friendly interface and powerful analytics make it a game-changer for our team. The intuitive design simplifies the feedback process, allowing us to seamlessly monitor and improve our customer interactions.

- Zendesk user review, via the Zendesk Marketplace

Klaus is another almost universally popular add-on. It has 5/5 stars across 113 reviews, with users particularly praising its ability to create automated customer feedback surveys. While this is a fairly basic automated process, there’s definitely potential for it to save CS teams plenty of time.

➡️ Check out Klaus on the Zendesk Marketplace

7.  Shredder

❓ About Shredder

Another notable entry here from Sparkly, the brains behind Tables. Shredder is designed to help companies keep track of suspended tickets at scale. These tickets are generally rejected as likely spam, fake users, unauthenticated customers, and more.

⭐ Key features

Shredder aims to make it easier to manage, recover, and delete suspended tickets. This helps eliminate clutter in Zendesk for obviously fake or invalid requests, and helps identify and recover genuine tickets that might have slipped through the net. Here are the main features:

• Advanced recovery – Automatically recover suspended tickets.
• Automate – Set up automated rules for which tickets get flagged suspicious and what actions to take.
• Bulk management – Recover or delete suspended tickets at scale.
• Search – Search and filter suspended tickets.

🪙 Pricing

Shredder is a paid add-on – though it does have a free tier. The basic tier offers bulk recovery and deletion, up to ten rules. The following three tiers add increasing levels of automation functionality. Each includes a seven-day free trial. Here’s the basic pricing for each package:

• Team - $99 per month
• Professional - $199 per month
• Enterprise - $34 per month

⬇️ How to install

The Shredder add-on can be installed directly from the Zendesk Marketplace, after which it should be available via a sidebar.

🤔 The Next Matter view

Really well-built plugin that's going to save us hours and hours each week. The free version is super useful if you don't need to automatically process your rules. But the pro plans are very worthwhile. Brilliant all-around.

- Zendesk User Review, via the Zendesk Marketplace

Shredder has a 5/5 star rating on the Marketplace across 13 reviews. Users generally agree that the app is a huge time saver when it comes to suspended tickets – which agents might otherwise have to manually review one by one. If these tickets are a huge drain on your time, there’s a good chance that Shredder is the solution for you.

➡️ Check out Shredder on the Zendesk Marketplace

8.  Chat Automation by Ultimate

❓ About Chat Automation by Ultimate

Ultimate is another company in the process of being acquired by Zendesk. They specialize in AI-powered tools to help automate the simplest customer service tasks, with a particular emphasis on chatbots. Chat Automation is one of three Zendesk add-ons offered by Ultimate.

⭐ Key features

The Chat Automation product is essentially an out-of-the-box chat app designed to offer a 24/7 digital front door to your support team. Here’s what that involves:

• Chatbot - A generative AI bot designed to crawl knowledge bases to find relevant results.
• Wide support – Supported across 109 languages.
• No context switching – The integration allows organizations to retain and view chatbot conversations from within Zendesk.

🪙 Pricing

Ultimate does not specify pricing for either the add-on or their own products. Users are encouraged to book a free consultation to find out more.

⬇️ How to install

Users should book a consultation to explore using the product.

🤔 The Next Matter view

Chat Automation has a 5/5 star rating on the Zendesk Marketplace. Users particularly praise the brand’s friendly and responsive customer service team.

Chatbots can be a hugely useful addition to your CS team, but it’s important to use them wisely. The main use case that Ultimate discusses is replying to customer queries with relevant knowledge base articles. This is a classic use case for chatbots – and a great way to deflect some of the simplest tasks.

📖 READ: AI in Customer Service: How To Use It – And When Not To

It’s worth remembering, however, that chatbots aren’t a replacement for a real agent and are only really suited to the most basic customer service tasks. If the ticket can’t be resolved through self-service, the chatbot needs to be able to triage the ticket to the right place from there. By all accounts, Chat Automation is a great chatbot tool – but it’s important to be aware of its limitations. 

➡️ Check out Chat Automation on the Zendesk Marketplace

9.  TeamViewer

❓ About TeamViewer

TeamViewer is a cybersecurity platform designed to help IT teams deliver remote support and service management. It features a number of features, including asset management, mobile device management, device monitoring, and endpoint protection.

⭐ Key features

The TeamViewer add-on is designed to create a smoother experience when using both TeamViewer and Zendesk. This is useful for IT teams who use Zendesk to receive and manage IT support tickets, and TeamViewer to help respond to them.

Here’s how it works:

• IT teams can create remote support sessions from within a Zendesk ticket.
• You can also insert a link for employees to click when they’re ready for remote device takeover.
• When employees click the link, they’ll appear in the service queue, waiting to be connected.

This helps avoid a lot of waiting around and wasted time as the IT team and the employee wait for each other to be available before the remote device takeover session can start. 

🪙 Pricing

The add-on is free to install, but you will need a paid TeamViewer account to activate. Pricing can be viewed on the TeamViewer website, and packages range from 13.90€ per month for single users all the way up to 139.90€ for corporate teams. Despite these prices being quoted monthly, all billing is charged yearly.

⬇️ How to install

The add-on can be installed from the Zendesk Marketplace page. Check out the link below for full instructions.

🤔 The Next Matter view

TeamViewer’s own product is a popular remote access tool, which has been positively reviewed by the likes of PCMag and many others. Users generally praise its ease of use and access.

The add-on is really designed for those already using Team Viewer with Zendesk. If you are, using the add-on is a no-brainer – since it comes at no extra cost. The ability to send remote support links and have employees wait in a queue is particularly valuable for IT teams. No more missed calls, ignored messages, or waiting around for each other to be free.

➡️ Check out TeamViewer on the Zendesk Marketplace

10. Unbabel

❓ About Unbabel

Unbabel is an AI-powered ‘LangOps’ platform that allows organizations to deliver machine translation to customers and employees at scale. In short, it helps agents more effectively communicate with customers that don’t speak their language. It promises ‘native-level translation’ which aims to outperform traditional machine translation tools.

⭐ Key features

The basic function of Unbabel is simple: To allow agents and customers to easily communicate, whatever language they’re speaking. Here’s how it works: 

• Integration – Once installed, Unbabel slots into the Zendesk interface and automatically translates messages as they’re received and sent. Both the original and translated versions will be shown in the chat.
• Analytics – The Unbabel platform also features ongoing analytics about translation quality, helping managers refine their strategy.
• GDPR compliance – The tool is also programmed to detect and redact sensitive data to help ensure customer privacy.

🪙 Pricing

While the add-on is free to install, users will need a paid Unbabel plan. There are four tiers available, a pay-as-you-go tier, along with starter, standard, and enterprise. Prices are charged for each word translated and range from $0.00046/word to $0.00060/word.

⬇️ How to install

The add-on can be installed via the Zendesk Marketplace. An existing Unbabel account is required and free trials are available.

🤔 The Next Matter view

Machine translation is one of the great breakthroughs that generative AI has given us. Even a few short years ago, a human was really the only way to effective translation. Now, you can get a lot closer to that gold standard with much less difficulty.

In truth, you’re probably never going to get perfect native-level translation quality for all languages, everywhere. But in our view, this solution is more than effective enough for customer service teams dealing with basic requests. When more complexity is required, however, it might be time to get a native in.

Unbabel has a 4/5 star rating on the Zendesk Marketplace, across 29 total reviews.

➡️ Check out TeamViewer on the Zendesk Marketplace

11. Proactive Campaigns

❓ About Proactive Campaigns

Proactive Campaigns is another tool built specifically for Zendesk. It helps organizations send and manage bulk communications to customers without leaving the helpdesk. This includes customer satisfaction surveys, automated email campaigns, customer announcements, and more.

⭐ Key features

Through a handy set of features, Proactive Campaigns aims to make the experience of managing large email lists in Zendesk much easier. Here are some of the main features on offer:

• Send automated emails.
• Use Zendesk customer lists to send targeted messages to specific segments.
• Create and manage NPS and CSAT surveys.
• Test bulk campaigns to avoid spam filters.
• Track email open rates.

🪙 Pricing

Proactive Campaigns features three pricing plans, each of which has the option to bill either yearly or monthly:

• Lite Plan: $5 per agent/month (monthly), $4.17 per agent/month (yearly).
• Pro Plan: $15 per agent/month (monthly), $12.50 per agent/month (yearly).
• Enterprise Plan: $25 per agent/month (monthly), $22 per agent/month (yearly).

⬇️ How to install

You can install the Proactive Campaigns add-on from the Zendesk Marketplace. You will need admin permissions to do so. 

🤔 The Next Matter view

Fantastic tool that we use both to send mass emails, as well as a means to bulk create tickets that we use for internal purposes like training. Highly recommended!

- Zendesk User Review, via the Zendesk Marketplace

Proactive Campaigns’ features aren’t groundbreaking when compared to email marketing platforms like Mailchimp and HubSpot, who’ve long since established this as a standard feature set among email marketing platforms. But, arguably, that’s not really the point.

The USP is that these features can be bought directly into the Zendesk interface – making it easier to send bulk campaigns without switching context. That’s going to be a real draw for people who are used to constantly switching between Zendesk for one-to-one messages and other tools for bulk communications and campaigns.

And its users certainly agree, with a 5/5 star rating on Zendesk Marketplace across 91 total reviews.

That being said, these features are common in workflow automation tools that can automate more complex customer service processes. CS teams may find it easier to consolidate with one solution for all their automation needs - rather than creating overlapping solutions and services. 

➡️ Check out Proactive Campaigns on the Zendesk Marketplace

12. Amazon Connect

❓ About Amazon Connect

Amazon Connect is Amazon’s cloud-based customer contact center service. It’s essentially a virtualized telephony service, letting organizations run a cloud-based contact center without needing to host it on-premises. This add-on is the official Zendesk integration and it allows agents to manage both voice and chat communications from the same Zendesk interface. 

⭐ Key features

Key features of the Amazon Connect include:

• Integrate Amazon Connect’s Voice Channels, Chat Channels, Task Channels, and more into the Zendesk Support instance.
• Attach Amazon Connect contact details, call recordings, transcriptions, sentiment analysis, and more into a Zendesk Support ticket.
• Associate Amazon Connect customers with Zendesk Support user profiles, based on identifiers, ID, and more.
• View call recordings from within a Zendesk instance.

🪙 Pricing

Like most AWS services, Amazon Connect uses a pay-as-you-go structure, with users being charged different rates for each service being used. Here are a few examples of the voice and video chat rates for the United States:

• Inbound voice usage - $0.018/ minute
• Outbound voice usage - $0.018/ minute
• Outbound campaigns voice usage - $0.025/ minute
• In-app and web calling audio usage - $0.01/ minute
• Video connection - $0.015/ minute

These are just some of the pricing metrics. There are also different rates for each country. Check out the full pricing page to find out more.

⬇️ How to install

Instructions on signing up for Amazon Connect and installing the integration can be found here.

🤔 The Next Matter view

This is a solid integration between Zendesk and Amazon Connect. The team behind this is employing the newest Zendesk technologies in close collaboration with Zendesk. We have engaged the integration product team on several occasions and they were very responsive.

- Zendesk User Review, via the Zendesk Marketplace

Again, this is an add-on that’s predominantly designed for those already using Amazon Connect with Zendesk. If so, it’s almost certainly going to make life easier for your agents and customers, by reducing context switching and offering a complete view of customer conversations.

If you’re in the market for a virtual telephony service – Amazon Connect might well be a good solution, particularly because of this integration.

However, a word of caution: The pricing of AWS services is a common frustration for users. The complex web of different pricing metrics makes it difficult to understand and predict costs – and they can quickly spiral out of control as a result.

➡️ Check out Amazon Connect on the Zendesk Marketplace

👉 Let’s take the hassle out of complexity

📖 READ: Product Return Workflow Guide

If you’ve made it this far, there’s a good chance that you and your agents spend a lot of time in Zendesk - and are looking for ways to make that experience smoother.

The tools on this list offer several fantastic ways to do that. Whether you’re looking to improve email communication, language translation, or staff forecasting – there really is a tool for everybody here.

But when it comes to complex processes like product returns, claims, and more - there really is only one show in town: Next Matter. It’s the only tool on this list that offers both the simplicity of a drag-and-drop builder and the ability to build bespoke, customized processes that work for your agents and customers.

Ready to find out more? 

📖 READ: How Next Matter helps customer service teams