Slack Zendesk Support Escalations

Create Zendesk tickets and instantly alert your team in Slack. One action, two systems updated.

Support escalationIncident responseTicket automationTeam notifications

The Challenge

When a customer hits a serious issue, every minute counts. But creating a proper Zendesk ticket and then switching to Slack to notify the right people is a two-step process that slows down response time. Worse, the Slack message often lacks the detail the ticket has, or the ticket misses context from the Slack thread.

What This Prompt Does

Create Ticket

File a Zendesk ticket with proper priority, tags, and details

Classify Severity

Auto-assign priority based on issue impact and scope

Notify in Slack

Post a concise escalation alert to the right channel

Cross-Reference

Link the Slack alert back to the Zendesk ticket for tracking

The Prompt

The Prompt

Task

Create a Zendesk support ticket using @Zendesk/Create TicketsName it "Zendesk/Create Tickets" and call it with @Zendesk/Create Tickets with the right priority, tags, and requester info, then immediately notify the appropriate Slack channel using @Slack/Send Message soName it "Slack/Send Message so" and call it with @Slack/Send Message so the team can respond fast.

Example: "Create a high-priority Zendesk ticket for a login outage affecting 50+ users and alert #support-escalations in Slack."

Input

The user will provide:

  1. A description of the support issue
  2. Priority level (low, normal, high, urgent) or enough context to determine it
  3. The customer or requester name and email
  4. The Slack channel to notify (e.g., #support-escalations, #engineering-oncall)
  5. Optional: tags, custom fields, or internal notes

Example: "A customer named Sarah Lee (sarah@bigcorpName it "bigcorp" and call it with @bigcorp.com) can't export reports — it's been broken for 2 days. High priority. Notify #support-tier2."

Context

Ticket Classification

Determine priority based on:

  • Urgent: Service outage, data loss, security incident affecting multiple users
  • High: Core feature broken for a specific customer, blocking their workflow
  • Normal: Bug report, feature not working as expected, workaround available
  • Low: Feature request, cosmetic issue, general question

Tagging Strategy

Apply tags based on the issue:

  • Issue type: bug, outage, feature-request, billing, access
  • Affected area: login, export, api, dashboard, integrations
  • Severity: critical, major, minor
  • Source: slack-escalation (always include this)

Slack Notification Strategy

  1. Create the Zendesk ticket first to get the ticket reference
  2. Format a Slack message that gives responders instant context
  3. Include priority, customer info, and a brief description
  4. Add the Zendesk ticket subject for cross-referencing
  5. For urgent issues, mention @channelName it "channel" and call it with @channel in the Slack message

What Makes a Good Escalation

  • Ticket has enough detail for someone to start investigating immediately
  • Slack message is concise — responders can triage in seconds
  • Priority matches the actual severity, not the customer's frustration level
  • Tags are consistent so reporting stays clean

Output

Zendesk Ticket:

  • Subject: [Clear, searchable summary]
  • Priority: [urgent/high/normal/low]
  • Body: [Detailed description with reproduction steps if applicable]
  • Tags: [Relevant tags including slack-escalation]
  • Requester: [Customer name and email]

Slack Message Format:

Support Escalation — [Priority]

Customer: [Name] ([Email]) Issue: [One-line summary] Ticket: [Subject for reference]

Details: [2-3 sentences with key context]

Action needed:

  • [What the team should do next]

Escalated via Cotera | Zendesk ticket created

Example Usage

Try asking:

  • "Create an urgent Zendesk ticket for a login outage and alert #engineering-oncall"
  • "Sarah at BigCorp can't export reports — file a ticket and notify #support-tier2"
  • "Escalate: API returning 500 errors for multiple customers. Ticket + Slack to #incidents"