Adding agents and admins

You can add agents and admins manually, through a bulk import of users, or through the Zendesk API. You must be an admin to add agents and admins.

This article covers the following topics:

• Adding an agent or administrator
• About the user options
• About agent privileges and ticket access

To add users in a bulk import, see Bulk importing users and organizations. To add users with the API, see Zendesk REST API: Introduction.

Tip: If you want to learn more about how to add users and define their roles, check out the Zendesk Support for Admins, I training course.

Adding an agent or admin

Admins can add end-users, agents, and admins. The account owner can also add agent seats to your subscription. The account owner is included as an agent seat in your subscription.

To add a user

1. Hover over the +Add tab, then select User.

   

2. Enter the user's Name and Email.
3. Choose Staff member for the User type.

   Users you add to Zendesk can either be staff members (agents or admins) or end users.

4. Select a Role.
5. Click Add.
   Note: If you receive an error, you might need to purchase more agent seats. Depending on your account, owners can add agent seats a few different ways (see Adding agent seats to your subscription).
6. In the user's profile, enter user information (see About the user options below), set agent permission (see About agent privileges and ticket access), and then change the agent's default group, if needed (see Changing the default group for your account or an agent).

   On Enterprise plans, agent permissions are not set in the user profile, but are determined by the custom role you select for the agent (see Creating custom roles).

7. If you want to add additional contact information, click Add contact, select the type of contact, then enter the contact info in the field that appears. Repeat as needed.

   The new user is saved automatically, so when you are finished you can simply navigate away. The new user receives the welcome email and verification link to choose a password and sign in for the first time.

You can also watch this short video about adding agents.

Adding an Agent (01:02)

About the user options

The following table describes the options that can be set for a new user.

Profile data	Description
Name	User's name.
Email	Email address used for all email communications with the user.
Role	Defines the user's function and access level in your Zendesk Support. There are three user types: End-user, Agent, Admin. On Enterprise plans, you can create custom roles for agents. Roles and product access are managed in Admin Center. Only admins can change a user's role. For information about user roles, see Understanding Zendesk Support user roles. For information about custom roles, see Using custom agent roles.
Contacts	Other contact information for the user, such as Phone, Twitter handle, Facebook page, and Google account.
Phone	Personal telephone number for the user.
Alias (Professional and Enterprise)	Alternative name for an agent to use on all communications with end-users instead of the agent's real name. If this field blank is blank, the agent's real name will be used in email communications.
Signature	Closing line added to an agent's email notifications.
Tags	List of tags that will automatically be added to new tickets created by this user. Separate tags with a space. Tags are added to new tickets only, not updated tickets. This is an optional feature and you may not have enabled user tagging. For more information about user tags, see Adding tags to users and organizations.
Organization	A collection of users (both end-users and agents) created by an admin. On the Team plan, users can belong to only one organization. On Professional and Enterprise, users can belong to multiple organizations, up to 300. A user does not have to belong to any organization, however. For more information, see About organizations and groups.
Language	Language the user will view your Zendesk Support in. This setting affects this user only.
Time zone	Local time zone for the user; used to time stamp tickets. This setting affects this user only.
Details	Additional details about the user. Address, for example. Details are visible to other agents but not end-users.
Notes	Additional notes about the user. Notes are visible to other agents but not end-users.

About agent privileges and ticket access

When you add agents you need to define their privileges (groups they will be assigned to, their access to tickets, if they can make both public and private comments, and their forums access). These privileges are described in the following table.

Note: On Enterprise plans, you set the agent's groups in the agent's profile, but you do not set agent permissions and ticket access in the agent's profile. Agent permissions and access (except for groups) are determined by the agent's custom role.

Privileges	Description
Groups	List of groups the agent belongs to. Agents must belong to at least one group. Click the group name to edit the groups for the agent. For information about groups, see Creating, managing, and using groups.
Access	Define the agent's access to tickets as one of the following: All tickets Tickets in agent's groups Tickets in agent's org Assigned tickets only If you select to restrict the agent to an organization, you must also set the agent's organization (on the Add user page). See Restricting an agent to one organization. Notwithstanding ticket access restrictions, CC'ing an agent on any ticket lets the agent receive email notifications of all public and private updates to the ticket. Note: On Enterprise plans, you do not set ticket access in agent profiles. Agent permissions are determined by the agent's custom role (see Custom agent roles).
Comments	Determine the type of comments an agent can make on tickets. Notes and replies enables the agent to add both internal notes and public replies to tickets. Notes only enables the agent to add only internal notes to tickets.