Benefits of Connecting Zendesk to Windmill
Connecting Zendesk to Windmill brings customer support and service work into performance conversations — without agents needing to create reports or justify their impact.- Automatically surfaces ticket work, response patterns, and resolution outcomes
- Ensures support teams get recognition for effort, communication quality, and problem-solving
- Reduces prep time for performance reviews, calibrations, and promotions
- Helps managers coach using real conversation and case-handling context
- Makes performance reviews more fair, consistent, and grounded in measurable customer outcomes
Connected Data
When connected, Windmill securely reads support activity metadata from Zendesk:| Data Type | How Windmill Uses It |
|---|---|
| Ticket assignments and ownership | Attributes work to the correct support rep |
| Ticket status and resolution timelines | Highlights responsiveness, workload management, and follow-through |
| Tags, categories, and issue types | Helps contextualize complexity and scope of work |
| Public reply + internal note metadata | Surfaces communication and collaboration patterns (not message bodies by default) |
| CSAT scores (if enabled) | Supports coaching and success recognition based on real customer feedback |
Windmill focuses on signals, not full transcript content — unless deeper analysis is explicitly enabled.
Permissions
Windmill requests read-only, scoped API access via Zendesk OAuth.| Permission | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Read ticket metadata | To reflect workload, responsiveness, and resolution patterns |
| Read assignment + group/team data | To correctly attribute work and collaboration |
| Read comment/note metadata (not full text) | To surface communication context for coaching |
| No write access | Windmill never updates tickets, statuses, or comments in Zendesk |
| Scoped to selected support groups/teams | You choose exactly what Windmill can access |
Windmill follows a least-privilege access model — collecting only data needed for performance context.
FAQs
Does Windmill read full customer message content?By default, no. Windmill syncs metadata (timestamps, assignment, tags, counts) rather than full text.
Full text analysis can be optionally enabled, with separate approval. Does Windmill write anything back to Zendesk?
No. The integration is entirely read-only. How often does Windmill sync data?
Continuously. Ticket activity and trends appear in Windmill shortly after they happen in Zendesk. Is the integration secure?
Yes. All data is encrypted in transit and at rest. Windmill meets SOC 2 requirements and uses scoped, revocable OAuth tokens. What happens when a support rep changes teams or leaves?
Their historical contribution context remains available, but Windmill stops attributing new work once the user is deactivated.