How to test and refine your Zendesk bot

In this article, we address how to test a bot that is already connected to the Zendesk channel

There are a number of limitations to the Zendesk Widget, which means that when you're testing your bot in the Certainly Platform and everything appears to be working correctly, the same might not hold true when you're testing it in Zendesk. We recommend following the steps described in this guide to ensure that your testing experience is reflective of what your end users will encounter. 

We differentiate between two types of testing in Zendesk, and we'll explore each below:

Testing agent availability and handover functionality

To test whether an agent is available in Zendesk and to initiate the handover to said agent, please follow the steps below for the best possible testing experience.

  1. Open one browser window in incognito mode and another browser window without incognito mode. Alternatively, you can use two different browsers.

  2. Make sure that the human agent is online in Zendesk Chat in the incognito window.

  3. Make sure that the bot is online in Zendesk Chat in the other browser window.

  4. Replace the values "ZZZ" and "XXX" in the following URL: 
    https://www.zopim.com/landing/simulatev2?id=ZZZ.zendesk.com&ww=true&lang=en&fallbackAccountKey=YYY
  5. The value "ZZZ" is your Zendesk subdomain. The subdomain can be fetched from your Zendesk account's URL: https://{your_subdomain}.zendesk.com

  6. The value "YYY" is your Account Key, which can be fetched by navigating to https://{your_subdomain}.zendesk.com/chat/agent#home, clicking on your profile picture, and selecting "Check connection".

  7. After filling in the information, you should be able to use the link to navigate to a page that will simulate a visitor and allow you to test the agent availability and handover functionality.

Testing conversation flows

To test conversation flows, there's no need to have a human agent online, as you are just testing the end user journey in a flow that has no agent availability or handover functionality.

Please follow the steps below for the best possible testing experience.

  1. Make sure that the bot is online in Zendesk Chat.

  2. Replace the values "ZZZ" and "XXX" in the following URL: 
    https://www.zopim.com/landing/simulatev2?id=ZZZ.zendesk.com&ww=true&lang=en&fallbackAccountKey=YYY
  3. The value "ZZZ" is your Zendesk subdomain. The subdomain can be fetched from your Zendesk account's URL: https://{your_subdomain}.zendesk.com.

  4. The value "YYY" is your Account Key, which can be fetched by navigating to https://{your_subdomain}.zendesk.com/chat/agent#home, clicking on your profile picture, and pressing "Check connection".

  5. After filling in the information, you should be able to use the link to navigate to a page that will simulate a visitor and allow you to test an end user's journey.