Freshworks Partner

Introduction

The Freshdesk-Microsoft Teams integration brings your internal and support teams together, making cross-team collaboration effortless and frictionless. 

The integration enables you to collaborate with your teams in Microsoft Teams and effectively manage support tasks. Here’s what you can do in MS Teams after successful Freshdesk integration: 

• Create, view, and update support tickets directly within Microsoft Teams.
• Get instant alerts from Freshdesk on Microsoft Teams for ticket assignments, ticket updates like priority changes, customer replies, and when a public/private is added.
• Quickly access customer details, respond to queries and add private/public notes.
• Automate ticket workflows based on specific conditions like ticket priority, subject, etc, and instantly notify channels in MS whenever a ticket is created/updated.

In this article, you will learn about:

1. How to set up and use Microsoft Teams?
   • Installing Microsoft Teams on Freshdesk
   • Adding Freshdesk app on Microsoft Teams
2. How to use the Freshdesk app in the Microsoft Teams app?
   • Creating new tickets
   • Taking action on tickets
3. How to automatically push ticket creation notifications to Microsoft Teams?

How to set up and use Microsoft Teams?

To get started with the integration, install the apps in both Freshdesk and Microsoft Teams. 

Existing customers

If you are an existing Freshdesk customer, follow the steps below:

1. Install the Microsoft Teams app on Freshdesk
   This will be done by the Admins.
2. Add the Freshdesk app on Microsoft Teams 
   Once the Microsoft Teams app is installed within Freshdesk, go to Microsoft Teams and install the Freshdesk app (bot).
   Note: Make sure each agent in your team installs and adds the Freshdesk app inside Microsoft Teams.

New customers

If you sign up for a Freshdesk account from Microsoft Teams (from the apps section), the corresponding Microsoft Teams app inside Freshdesk will be automatically installed. This means you need not install the Microsoft Teams app again in Freshdesk manually. 

All you have to do is install the Freshdesk app inside Microsoft Teams.

Installing Microsoft Teams on Freshdesk

1. Login to Freshdesk as an administrator.

2. On the top-right corner, click on the Marketplace icon, and click Marketplace Apps.
   

3. Search for Microsoft Teams and click Install.
   
   

4. Enter your Microsoft account credentials.

5. Accept the permissions request from Microsoft and authorize the connection with Freshdesk.
   

   Once you complete this step, your agents logged into Freshdesk with the same Microsoft account they use on Microsoft Teams will be linked automatically. You can now proceed to install the Freshdesk app on Microsoft Teams.

   Note: If your agents use different email addresses on Freshdesk and Microsoft Teams, they must manually link their ID to set up the connection. Check the steps below:

Authorizing Microsoft Teams manually 

This step is required only if you use different email addresses on Freshdesk and Microsoft Teams. 

1. Login to Freshdesk as an agent.
2. Click on the profile icon and go to Profile Settings.
3. On the right panel, under Connect to Microsoft Teams, click Authorize.
   You will be redirected to the Microsoft login page.     
4. Enter the Microsoft ID you want to associate with your Freshdesk email. Once you do this, your account will be linked to Microsoft successfully.

Note: You can only connect one Freshdesk account with your Microsoft account at a time.

Adding Freshdesk app on Microsoft Teams

Once you complete the Microsft Teams installation on Freshdesk, you can proceed with adding the Freshdesk app inside Microsoft Teams. 

1. Login to Microsoft Teams. 

2. From the left panel, click on Apps and search for Freshdesk.

3. Click Add. 
   

Note: Make sure each agent in your team adds the Freshdesk app inside Microsoft Teams.

Adding the Freshdesk app to a team within Microsoft Teams

You can also add the Freshdesk app to each team within Microsoft Teams.

If your admin or supervisor has configured automation rules in Freshdesk for Microsoft Teams, as an agent you can instantly receive notifications within your team whenever a ticket is updated or created. This helps you easily collaborate with your team on tickets and resolve issues faster. 

To add the Freshdesk app to a team:

1. On Microsoft Team, go to apps and find the Freshdesk app.
2. Click Open and select Add to a team.
3. Choose the team and click Set up a bot. Now you will see the Freshdesk app inside the selected team.
   

This completes the setup. You can now start using the Freshdesk app inside Microsoft Teams to manage tickets.

Signing up for Freshdesk on Microsoft Teams

If you don't have a Freshdesk account, you can install Freshdesk directly from Microsoft Teams. 

1. On the Freshdesk app, click Sign up.
   
2. On the Freshdesk Sign-up page, choose your data location (for example, US) and click Sign up.
   
3. Accept the permission request from Microsoft and authorize the connection with Freshdesk.
   
4. After successful installation, you will see the following message.
    You will receive an email to activate your Freshdesk account. Click on the activation link in your email to activate the account to start using Freshdesk.

How to use the Freshdesk app in the Microsoft Teams app?

The Freshdesk app within Microsoft Teams simplifies cross-team collaboration and improves agent productivity and performance.

When you open the Freshdesk app on Microsoft Teams for the first time, you will see options to create a new ticket or take a tour. You can also go to your Freshdesk account from here.

If you are unfamiliar with using the Freshdesk app, we recommend you to take the tour to explore the various features and options.

The app provides instant notifications for ticket assignments, customer replies, ticket updates like priority changes, and when a public/private note is added. This enables you to quickly perform the following tasks within the Microsoft Teams app and resolve issues faster without switching tabs.

• Update existing tickets

• Reply to customers

• Add public and private notes

Note: You will receive notifications from the Freshdesk app only when a ticket is assigned to you or if you are added as a watcher. Also, you will not receive the new ticket event notification if you assign the ticket to yourself.

Creating new tickets

1. On the Microsoft Teams app, click on the Freshdesk app from the left panel. 
2. Type Create Ticket command on the bot and hit Enter.
3. Click on the Create Ticket button on the bot.
   
4. Enter the following details on the form:
   
   • Requester email
   • Subject
   • Description
   • Status
   • Priority
   • Group
   • Agent 
5. Click Create.
6. On successful creation, you will see the following notification. Use the ticket link to view the ticket directly on  Freshdesk.
   

Taking action on tickets

Every time you receive notifications from the Freshdesk app on customer replies, ticket assignments, or ticket updates, the Freshdesk app allows you to take quick actions directly on Microsoft Teams.

The app gives you a brief summary of the ticket and lets you perform the following actions:

• Reply
  On the ticket view, Click Reply. Enter your response and click Send.
• Add public/private notes
  On the ticket view, click Add Note. Select the type of note (private/public), enter the notes, and click Add Note. 
• Update Ticket
  On the ticket view, click Update Ticket. You can change the priority, status, and group, agent. Finally, click Save.Note: If you choose add/update a group, use the Refresh Agents option to refresh the list of agents in the selected group.
  
  
• View customer info
  On the ticket view, click View customer info.
  

Note: Sometimes, notifications from Freshdesk may not work. For example, if an agent is removed and later added, they may be unable to access the notifications. To resolve this issue, type Connect on the chat window on Freshdesk to re-establish the connection.

How to create automation rules for Microsoft Teams?

As an admin or a supervisor, you can set automation rules in Freshdesk to automatically send notifications to relevant teams within Microsoft Teams. Based on the automation rules, whenever a ticket is created or updated, a notification will be automatically sent to the team to notify all agents about ticket updates.

For example, you can create automation rules to immediately notify specific channels within Microsoft Teams whenever a ticket with "Urgent" priority is received and allow agents to take quick actions on tickets.

Note: To receive the automatic notifications within specific teams, make sure agents add the Freshdesk app to the relevant teams within Microsoft Teams. For instructions, check the steps above.

To create automation rules:

1. Log in to Freshdesk as an admin.
2. Go to Admin > Automations > New rule.
   
3. Click on Ticket Creation/Ticket Updates based on your preference for rule creation.
4. Enter the rule name.
5. Select the ticket property for which you want to create the rule and choose the condition.
   Note: If you want to create a rule for ticket updates, you can also choose the event for which you want to trigger the MS Teams notifications.
6. Under Perform actions, choose Push to MS Teams.
   
7. Under Team name, select the team name, and then choose the channel in Microsoft Teams you want to notify.
   
   Note: If a channel name is not visible, make sure to add the Freshdesk app within the channel on Microsoft Teams.
   
   In the above example, every time a ticket with "urgent priority" is created, agents part of the "Customer Queries" channel of the Billing team in Microsoft Teams will be alerted.