Managing Tickets in Zendesk

Zendesk is a software that organizes emails, phone calls, orders, and more into tickets. By learning how to successfully manage Tickets in Zendesk, you will be able to address customer concerns promptly and professionally.

What is a Ticket?

Tickets are records of conversations between agents and customers. They also store other relevant information about customers. This can include information about previous email chains, conversations, and more. Every interaction between an agent and a customer is stored in a Ticket. 

Tickets go through cycles as agents and customers interact. This is known as changing a Ticket's Status. In total there are six Statuses that follow a particular order. From start to finish, Statuses include the following steps:

 

Recently created or received Tickets are displayed as "New". When an agent is assigned to or claims a Ticket, the Status of that Ticket becomes "Open", signifying that an agent is currently working on it. As a result of ongoing conversations between agents and customers, Tickets will bounce back and forth between "Pending" and "Open."

The Difference between "Pending" and "On-hold"

Tickets are set to Pending when an agent is waiting for a customer's response to a question, concern, or other inquiry. This can include confirming a customer's address, payment information, confirming order, or other important information.

On-hold is commonly used when agents are waiting for a response from a third party. The third party will typically be upper management or other members of Safety Provisions Inc. However, it can also be other departments that need to repair something, or perhaps add some final touches to a product. These Tickets are put on hold until the third party finds a solution or until the agent understand the steps that will take place to resolve the problem.

Some Tickets will not need to change back and forth between Statuses and can be quickly set to "Solved." Any replies to the Ticket will update the Ticket Status to Open. However, Tickets that receive no reply after a certain number of days will be moved to "Closed" automatically. Only Zendesk's system can set a Ticket to Closed.

Ticket Life Cycle Example

 

Agent Workspace

As an agent, you will use the Agent Workspace in Zendesk to manage, respond to, and solve Tickets. When you log in to your Zendesk account, you will see a screen that looks similar to this.

This is your home page. Here, will see New Tickets that have been sent in. You can filter these Tickets by group and check any recent updates to the Tickets you are currently working on. At the far left of the screen, on the blue bar, you can navigate to the other tabs in Zendesk such as Views, Customers, Reporting, and the Admin Page (depending on the permissions applied to your Account). Since resolving Tickets the most important task you will use Zendesk for, we will only cover the Home and Views tabs in this article.

Near the Home button is an Add button at the top right corner of the page. Hovering over this button will allow you to create a New Ticket, search for a previous Ticket, or view the most recently viewed Tickets in Zendesk. 

Note: The Add button will be available for agents on every tab in the Agent Workspace.

 

View Tab

By clicking the View tab agents will be able view all the Tickets on Zendesk. By changing the category on left you will be able to see unsolved Tickets, unassigned Tickets, etc. 

Note: - Pending Tickets - Open Tickets - On-hold Tickets - Solved Tickets

After selecting an available Ticket, you will be able to interact directly with the customer who submitted it to help them resolve questions or simply to direct them the product or training they need. To the left, you will see something similar to the image below. Selecting "take it" will automatically set you as the current assignee for that ticket. You can also use the drop down menu if you need to assign it to another member of your team (for example, someone who has previously worked with that customer). If you would like to allow other agents or managers to receive updates on your conversation, you can select them from the drop down menu under "followers." Tags can also be added to categorize the conversation. This can be a helpful to remember what the customer needs from you.

Once you have responded to the customer you can update the Status of the Ticket in the bottom right corner of the screen. If you have completed the customer's request or answered their question, set the Ticket Status to Solved. If you have additional questions for the customer, set the Status to Pending. If a customer responds to a Solved Ticket, then that ticket will reopen so you can interact with it again. This will require the Agent to help the customer with their needs until it is Solved again.

Tickets are a versatile tool that puts almost everything you will need as an agent in one place. Learning to manage and solve Tickets will help you become successful in your role as a customer support agent, and it will help you work more effectively with your team. If you have any questions about managing Tickets or any other tasks, be sure to ask your supervisor.