Introduction to the Support agent interface

Review these topics to familiarize yourself with the Support agent interface.

• Agent Dashboard overview
• The sidebar
• The top toolbar
• The main window
• The apps panel
• Quick tips for getting up to speed with Zendesk Support

You can also watch the video below for a brief overview of the Support agent interface.

Navigating the Agent Interface (1:09)

Tip: If you want to learn more about being an agent, check out the Zendesk agent training courses.

Agent Dashboard overview

When you open Zendesk Support, the Agent Dashboard appears. The interface has the following sections:

• The sidebar, the area down the left side of the interface, with navigation buttons to major features.
• The top toolbar, the area at the top of the interface, with tabs to open and move between tickets, as well as quick links to search and other apps.
• The main window, where most of your content is displayed.

The sidebar

These sidebar icons navigate you to major feature areas. Your sidebar may include additional icons for apps installed by your admin.

Table 1. Sidebar icons

Icon	Task
	Home: Displays the agent dashboard, where you can access your recently updated tickets and tickets that require your attention. You can also view the following headline metrics about your tickets, and customer satisfaction: Open Tickets You: Open tickets that are currently assigned to you. Groups: New and open tickets that are currently assigned to one of your groups. Ticket Statistics Good: Solved good satisfaction tickets that were set to solved during the current week and are currently assigned to you. Bad: Solved bad satisfaction tickets that were set to solved during the current week and are currently assigned to you. Solved: Solved tickets that were solved during the current week and are currently assigned to you. Note: For ticket statistics, the current week is Monday to Sunday. Satisfaction Statistics You: Percentage of the solved good satisfaction tickets that were set to solved during the last 60 days and are currently assigned to you. Help Desk: Percentage of the solved good satisfaction tickets that were set to solved during the last 60 days in your Support account.
	Views: Displays your shared views and any personal views you've created, and enables you to access and work through tickets in each space. You create views in Admin settings.
	Customer Lists: Displays shared customer lists (created by Admins), and enables you to create personal customer lists for your own use.
	Reporting: Displays the Reporting Overview, where you can view data about your ticket volume and management, updated on an hourly basis. It also enables you to compare your own ticket metrics, and against those of your fellow agents. It may include other tabs, such as Insights and Satisfaction, if these options are enabled.
	Admin: Displays the Admin home page, where you can find the tools you need to configure Zendesk Support and view your current setup. Agents can view a version of the Admin page tailored to their permissions.

The top toolbar

The top toolbar runs along the top of the agent interface. Here, you'll find tabs and icons that open new and existing tickets, open the search function, and access channels like Chat and Talk (if available). Your top toolbar may include additional icons for apps installed by your Admin:

Table 2. Top bar tabs and icons

Tab/Icon	Task
	Add tab Click to quickly create a new ticket, or hover and click to create a new ticket, user, organization, or search, and view your five most recently viewed tickets.
	Tabs: Any ticket, organization, user, or search you open appears as a tab. Click the tabs to move among these elements, or click the X to close the tab.
	Search: Opens a search box, and displays a link to Advanced search.
	Zendesk Products: Click to display icons linking to Zendesk Support, and to available Help Centers. See Navigating between Zendesk Support and Help Center.
	Your profile: Opens a menu containing links to your profile, help, a user feedback form, and keyboard shortcuts.

The main window

The main window is in the center of the agent interface. What's in it depends on which icon you have clicked in the sidebar or top bar. You're most likely to be using the ticket interface, which we'll go over in this section. Other feature interfaces may be available to you, depending on your settings and installed apps.

When you click on the Home icon in the sidebar, the agent dashboard appears. From there, you can click on a ticket to open it in the main window.

The information displayed on your ticket can vary, again, depending on your setup. For example, administrators can use contextual workspaces to control the ticket fields, macros, and apps that appear. The sections below describe some of the more common elements you may run into.

Properties panel

Down the left side of the window, you'll see the Properties panel. The fields displayed here contain metadata about the ticket. These fields, including their field type (drop-down, text entry, and the like) are defined on the Admin Home page. For more information on the Properties panel, see Managing your tickets.

Ticket toolbar

Along the top of the ticket is the Ticket toolbar, displaying a series of labels containing information about the ticket and who submitted it:

• Organization is the name of the organization the ticket submitter belongs to. Clicking this label takes you to a list of all tickets submitted from this organization.
• User is the name of the person who submitted the ticket. Clicking this label takes you to a list of all the tickets submitted by this person.
• Ticket info displays the ticket status, type, and number.
• Next ticket scrolls you to the next ticket in your selected view.
• The Apps button opens a panel listing all of your available apps.

Ticket header

Below the Ticket toolbar is the Ticket header. Here, you'll see a number of items conveying additional information about the ticket:

• Subject is the title given to the ticket. You can edit this by clicking on the subject and entering a new one.
• Requester is the name of the user who submitted the ticket. You can change this by clicking the change link.
• SLA displays any user-specific rules applied to the ticket. In the example above, tickets from this company must be solved within seven days, per the Service Level Agreement. Hovering your mouse over the rule displays the date by which the ticket must be solved.
• Ticket options is a drop-down menu displaying actions you can take on the ticket.

Comment type

The Comment type allows you to select what kind of comment you want to leave on the ticket:

• Click Public reply (the default selection) so your reply is visible to anyone viewing the ticket.
• Click Internal note so your reply is visible only to other agents with permissions to view the ticket.

In line with the comment types, you may see one or both of the following optional buttons:

• Preview (optional) displays your reply as it will appear to other users, including any Markdown text formatting. For information on Markdown, see Formatting text with Markdown.
• Call (optional) displays options for selecting or entering a phone number to initiate a phone call with the customer.

Ticket conversation

The Ticket conversation allows you to choose what information you want to view in the comment stream. For information about comments, see Adding comments to tickets.

Click the Conversation drop-down to choose what to display in the body of the ticket:

• Conversation displays only the communication between the agent and the customer, or the agent and other agents.
• Events displays all replies, status changes, and the like, applied to the ticket by an agent or a business rule.

Use the Comment filters to choose what type of comments to display in the comment stream:

• All (the default selection) displays all of the activity happening to a ticket, including (but not limited to):
  • Internal notes (highlighted in yellow in the comment stream)
  • Public comments
  • Chat logs
  • Talk recordings
  • Facebook messages
• Public displays only those comments and events the end-user can view, including (but not limited to):
  • Public comments
  • Chat logs
  • Talk recordings (if your account is set up to make them visible to the end-user)
  • Facebook messages
  • Channel Framework posts
  • Any other external communication to or from the customer
• Internal displays only comments visible to agents and administrators, including:
  • Internal notes
  • Talk recordings (if your account is set up to make them hidden to the end-user)

The number by each comment filter indicates how many events are included in that filter.

Bottom toolbar

At the bottom of the main window is the Bottom toolbar. Here, you'll see options for qualities to apply when you submit your comment:

• Click the Apply macro button to view and select any available macros, and apply them to the ticket. For more information on macros, see Using macros to update tickets and chat sessions.
• Tab action allows you to select what happens to the tab after the ticket is submitted. Click to select Close tab or Stay on ticket.
• Status options allows you to submit ticket updates and select the status applied to the ticket upon submission. Click to select a ticket status: Open, Pending, On-hold, or Solved, and submit the ticket.

Other pages may be displayed in the main window, depending on your settings and installed apps. Click the links below for more information on these features:

• The Views interface
• The Customer Lists interface
• The Reporting interface
• The Admin home page

The apps panel

Apps enable you to customize, and enhance your Zendesk products. You can use the Zendesk Marketplace to browse, and install apps. If you have installed apps, agents can click Apps to view and interact with the apps panel on the right of the interface. To learn more about managing apps with Zendesk, see Managing your installed apps.

Quick tips for getting up to speed with Zendesk Support

Here are some quick tips for common agent tasks.

• How do I create a ticket, add a user, or add an organization?
• Where is my list of recent tickets?
• How do I search my Zendesk account?
• Where is the link to my Help Center?
• Where do I find the user options?
• Where do I find the tickets options?

How do I create a ticket, add a user, or add an organization?

You create new tickets, add users and organizations, or start a search by hovering over the Add tab in the top toolbar. If you click the Add tab, a new ticket is created.

For more information, see the following articles:

• Adding and managing end-users
• Creating a ticket on behalf of the requester

Where is my list of recent tickets?

Your list of recent tickets is under the Add tab. Your five most recently viewed tickets are displayed.

When you click a ticket's title, it opens in new tab in the agent interface.

How do I search my Zendesk account?

Click the Search icon ( ) in the top toolbar.

For more information, see the following articles:

• Zendesk search reference
• Zendesk advanced search
• Searching the data in your Zendesk
• Searching tickets
• Searching users, groups, and organizations

Where is the link to my Help Center?

You can easily open your Help Center from the Support agent interface.

To open your Help Center from the Support agent interface

• Click the Zendesk Products icon () in the top bar, then select Guide.

  

Where do I find the user options?

The user actions are located on the user's profile page.

To access user options

1. Click the user name on a ticket.
2. Click the User options menu on the upper-right side of the user's profile page, then select an option.

For more information, see the following articles:

• Merging a user's duplicate account
• Resetting user passwords
• Suspending a user
• Deleting users

Where do I find the tickets options?

The ticket options are located in the Ticket options menu on the upper-right side of a ticket.

For more information, see the following articles:

• Creating macros from existing tickets
• Merging tickets
• Marking a ticket as spam and suspending the requester
• Deleting tickets