Zendesk is a popular customer service software that allows companies to manage customer support interactions. One of the core features of Zendesk is its ticketing system, which allows customers to submit support requests that are tracked as “tickets” within the platform.
Zendesk has several different types of tickets that can be created for various purposes. The main ticket types include:
Support Tickets
Support tickets are the most common type of ticket in Zendesk. Customers can submit support tickets when they need help or have questions about a company’s product or service. Support agents use these tickets to provide customer service and technical support.
Some key features of support tickets:
- Customers can submit them through email, web forms, social media, etc.
- Tickets include details like subject, description, attachments
- They can be assigned to agents or groups with different skill sets
- Tickets progress through statuses like New, Open, Pending, Solved, Closed
- Metrics like satisfaction ratings and response times can be tracked
Incident Tickets
Incident tickets are used to report problems, errors, or outages. They help document issues that need to be escalated and addressed by support teams.
Characteristics of incident tickets:
- Used to report high severity issues like service outages
- Often submitted automatically from monitoring tools
- Require timely responses and escalation
- Progress from New to Identified to In Progress to Resolved
- Post-mortems can be conducted after resolution
Problem Tickets
Problem tickets are related to incidents but are more focused on the underlying problem versus a specific instance or occurrence. They help get to the root cause of recurring incidents.
Problem tickets:
- Used to investigate root cause of multiple related incidents
- Involve more complex troubleshooting and diagnosis
- Lead to knowledge base articles or permanent solutions
- Help eliminate recurring incidents in the future
Question Tickets
Customers can submit question tickets when they have non-urgent inquiries that are not related to resolving a specific issue. These range from general questions to how-to advice.
Question tickets:
- For general customer queries and how-to advice
- Usually lower priority than issues that affect service
- May lead to knowledge base articles over time
- Lightweight interactions with shorter replies
Task Tickets
Task tickets enable internal teams to track projects and assignments. They help coordinate work between departments and employees.
Task tickets:
- Used for internal tasks and projects
- Assigned to specific agents or teams
- Help manage workflows and track progress
- Can have due dates and checklists
- No customer involvement
Ticket Fields
In addition to the type, Zendesk tickets include a variety of fields to capture important information. Some of the key ticket fields are:
Field | Description |
---|---|
Ticket ID | Unique number to identify the ticket |
Requester | Person who submitted the ticket |
Subject | Short summary of the ticket topic |
Description | Longer description of the issue or question |
Priority | Level of urgency such as High, Medium, Low |
Status | Current state of the ticket such as New, Open, Pending |
Assignee | Agent responsible for working the ticket |
Group | Team or department the ticket is assigned to |
Tags | Keywords that categorize and filter tickets |
Due date | Optional date the ticket should be completed by |
Ticket Views and Management
Zendesk provides a variety of ways for agents and admins to view and manage large volumes of tickets.
Key ticket views and management features:
- List views to see tickets with certain statuses or fields
- Custom views to filter tickets based on criteria
- Ticket queues to assign tickets to teams
- SLA policies to set response time goals
- Automations to trigger actions on new tickets
- Macros to quickly update multiple tickets
- Metrics and reports for analyzing performance
Ticket Forms
Ticket forms allow admins to customize the fields and options when submitters create tickets.
Ticket form uses:
- Tailor fields to your support process
- Add dropdowns, checkboxes, text fields
- Make some fields required
- Customize based on ticket type
- Improve quality of ticket data
Email Piping
Email piping enables customers to create tickets by sending emails to your Zendesk account. Replies also become ticket comments.
Benefits of email piping:
- No need to login to portal to create tickets
- Easy way to attach files and logs
- Lightweight way to follow-up
- All history stored in one place
- Works for receiving and sending updates
Ticket Satisfaction Rating
At the conclusion of a ticket, submitters can rate their satisfaction with the experience. This provides useful customer feedback.
Satisfaction ratings help:
- Measure customer satisfaction
- Identify areas for improvement
- Compare performance across agents, teams
- Factor into performance metrics
- Incentivize great service
Agent Collision
Agent collision helps avoid having multiple agents work on the same ticket simultaneously.
Collision features:
- Locks ticket when agent opens it
- Shows agent faces on collab tickets
- Notifications when another viewing
- Only one assignee at a time
- Reduces duplicative efforts
Macro Usage
Macros allow agents to apply predefined actions to tickets with a single click. This speeds up repetitive tasks.
Macro automations:
- Canned responses for common queries
- Tagging tickets for workflows
- Setting status on new tickets
- Updating many tickets at once
- Saves time on repetitive tasks
Ticket Metrics and Reporting
Zendesk provides robust metrics and reporting capabilities to gain insights from your tickets.
Ticket data can provide:
- Volume over time
- Backlog trends
- Resolution rates
- Comparisons across agents
- Satisfaction ratings
- Identification of gaps
Conclusion
Zendesk offers a flexible and customizable ticketing system to track customer support interactions. The various ticket types each serve different purposes, from responding to incidents to managing internal tasks. Features like views, collision detection, and macros help agents work efficiently. And satisfaction ratings, metrics, and reporting provide valuable insights into the customer experience. With its robust capabilities, Zendesk tickets enable modern support teams to collaborate, optimize operations, and deliver great service.