Zendesk - How to implement a basic email ticketing solution using Zendesk

The following article provides some basic guidelines to assist you with setting up a basic Zendesk Support ticketing solution.

The Zendesk solution consists of multiple objects or modules that are combined to provide a custom CX solution to fit the needs of your organization.

Here are the most common modules used in a standard implementation:

• Support (The core CX component) 
• Guide (The Help Center hosting knowledge base articles, ticket forms, Self-help solutions)
• Explore (Reporting solution)
• Chat (Live chat with agents)
• Talk (Voice communication)

Other modules for more advanced implementations include:

• Messaging
• Answer Bot
• Sunshine conversations
• Zendesk Sell

In this article, we would like to focus on a basic Support implementation that will allow tickets to be created via email.

Use Case:

• Anyone should be able to submit support tickets through a specified email account.
• All new tickets must be routed to the 1st Tier Support Team.
• 1st Tier Support Agents should be able to escalate tickets to the 2nd Tier Support Team.

Implementation Steps:

• Overview of steps to follow
  
  • Add agents
  • Create groups
  • Configure support email addresses
  • Configure fields and forms
  • Configure routing and notification triggers
  • Test
• Add agents
  • To add agents:
    • Access the Admin Center by clicking the Zendesk Products icon () in the top bar and selecting Admin Center.
    • Click the People icon () in the sidebar, then select Team > Team members.
    • At the top of the page, click add user.
    • Enter the user's Name and Email.
    • Choose Staff member for the User type.
    • Select a Role.
    • Click Add.
  • See additional information Zendesk Support: Adding agents and admins
• Create groups
  • Groups are used to group agents. In this case, we need to create two groups, a "1st Tier Support" group, and a "2nd Tier Support" group. To create a group:
    • Access the Admin Center by clicking the Zendesk Products icon () in the top bar and selecting Admin Center.
    • Click the People icon () in the sidebar, then select Team > Groups.
    • Click Add group.
    • Enter a group name ("1st Tier Support")
    • Optionally, in Group description, enter a description for the group.
    • Select the agents you want to add to the group.
    • Repeat these steps to add additional groups ("2nd Tier Support")
  • See additional information Zendesk Support: Creating Groups
• Support email address
  • When you configure your Zendesk Support instance a default support email address will be created which will look like support@yoursubdomain.zendesk.com. Emails received at this address become tickets. You have the ability to create additional Zendesk email addresses or external email addresses that belong to your own domain. In this example we will just use the default support address.
  • See additional information Zendesk Support: Adding support email addresses for users to submit tickets
• Configure ticket form
  • A ticket form is a set of predefined ticket fields for a specific support request. A default ticket form will be created when you first configure your instance. You might have the ability to create additional forms depending on your subscription.
  • The default ticket form does not include any custom fields. If you would like to add custom fields to the form you will first need to create them and then add them to the form.
  • To create custom fields (see Adding custom fields to your tickets and support request form):
    • In Admin Center, click the Objects and rules icon () in the sidebar, then select Tickets > Fields.
    • Click the Add field button.
    • Click in the New Field at the top of the page, and enter a title for the field.
    • Select the type of custom field you want to create.
    • In Description, enter an optional description for the field, visible only to administrators.
    • Under Permissions, select an option.
    • Enter a Title shown to agent and a Title shown to end-users.
    • Select Required to solve a ticket and/or Required to submit a request options if needed.
    • Enter an optional Description shown to end-users
  • To edit or create forms (see Creating multiple ticket forms to support different request types)
    • In Admin Center, click the Objects and rules icon () in the sidebar, then select Tickets > Forms.
    • Click Add form if you want to create a new form or select the form you want to edit.
    • Click New form to edit the name of the ticket form when creating new forms. This is the name agents see from the ticket form drop-down list in the ticket interface.
    • If you want the form to be visible to end users, select the Editable for end users check box.
    • Drag any ticket field from the right side, and drop it onto the ticket form on the left side.
• Configure routing and notification triggers (see About triggers and how they work)

  • Triggers are business rules you define that run immediately after a ticket is created or updated and automatically perform actions if specified conditions are met.

    Here are some uses for triggers:

    • Notifying customers when you're out-of-office
    • Sending customer satisfaction score follow-ups
    • Routing your priority customers into a specialized support group
    • Adding and removing tags
    • Assigning tickets by channel
    • Escalating tickets
  • For the purposes of this example we need to create a trigger that will route all incoming tickets to the "1st Tier Support" group. To create this trigger:
    • In Admin Center, click the Objects and rules icon () in the sidebar, then select Business Rules> Triggers.
    • Click Add Trigger and provide a trigger name "Route all new tickets to 1st Tier Support".
    • Under Conditions>Meet ALL of the following conditions click Add Condition and add the following:
      •  Ticket Is Created 
    • Under Actions click Add Action and add:
      • Group> 1st Tier Support
    • Save the trigger
    • Move the trigger to the top of the list (see Reordering and sorting triggers):
      • In Admin Center, click the Objects and rules icon () in the sidebar, then select Business rules > Triggers.
      • On the Triggers page, click Edit order. You'll see a list of triggers in the default sort order.
      • Select the triggers you want to move.
      • Click and hold the drag-and-drop handle () for the triggers you want to move.
      • Drag the triggers into position and release the handle. Repeat as needed to reorder your triggers list.
      • Click Save.
• Testing
  • Your basic email ticketing system is now configured. Test the setup by sending an email to the support email address. A ticket should be created and should be assigned to the 1st Tier Support group.