Creating custom roles and assigning agents (Enterprise)

In the Enterprise version of Zendesk Support, you can define your own agent roles and assign those roles to any Support agent. This allows you to define agent roles that suit your own organizational structure and workflow.

This article covers the following topics:

• Understanding the predefined Enterprise agent roles
• Creating custom agent roles
• Assigning custom roles to agents

Understanding the default Enterprise agent roles

Zendesk Support also offers a number of default agent roles that reflect typical Zendesk Support Enterprise roles. You can use these agent roles as is or clone them and create variations to suit your needs. Or, you can create your own agent roles.

Table 1. Default agent roles

Agent role	Description
Advisor	Advisors manage the workflow and configure your Zendesk. They create or manage shared automations, macros, triggers, and views. They also set up the service level agreements, channels, and extensions. Advisors don't solve tickets, they can only make private comments.
Staff	A Staff agent's primary role is to solve tickets. They can edit tickets within their groups, view reports, and add or edit personal views and macros.
Team Leader	Team leaders have greater access to your Zendesk than staff agents. They can read and edit all tickets, moderate forums, and create and edit end-users, groups, and organizations.

Other unique agent roles

Depending on your plan, products, and add-ons, you might see these unique agents roles in your account.

Table 2. Unique agent roles

Agent role	Description
Chat-only Agent	Chat-only agents can initiate chat with your customers. They can also view, be CC'd on, and add private comments to tickets accessible to them. They can also view reports of all tickets in your Zendesk Support account. Chat-only agents cannot be assigned to or edit tickets. For more information, see Understanding default roles in Zendesk Chat.
Contributor	If you are using Zendesk Chat Phase 4 with an integrated Support account, each new Chat agent is also added to your Support account as a contributor. Contributors in Support have limited privileges; for instance, contributors can view some tickets, but cannot respond or otherwise interact with them. Contributors do not occupy an agent seat in Support, unless they are manually upgraded to an agent role. If you have a Chat-only Phase 4 account, and later create an integrated Support account, existing Chat agents will be added to your Support account as contributors. For more information, see Creating agents and departments in the Zendesk Chat Help Center.
Legacy Agent	This is transitory role that includes all agents who have yet to be assigned to a role. For all these agents, we are maintaining the permissions they previously had on the plan you upgraded from. Also, you cannot assign agents to this transitory role. Lastly, this role will disappear after all its members have been assigned to other roles.
Light Agent	Light Agents are available as a Professional or Enterprise Add-on. Light agents can be CC'd on tickets, can view tickets, and can add private comments to tickets within their groups. They cannot be assigned to or edit tickets. Light agents can be given permission to view reports or they can be restricted from viewing any reports. They cannot create or edit a report. You can add an unlimited number of light agents at no charge.

Creating custom agent roles

You can create your own agent roles or base a new role on one of the predefined agent roles. You can either edit or clone the Staff, Team Leader, and Advisor roles.

To create a new agent role from a predefined role

1. Click the Admin icon () in the sidebar, then select Manage > People.
2. Select Roles.

   

   All of the agent roles (predefined and custom roles, if any) are displayed.

3. Locate the role you want to edit or clone, then select Edit.
4. Define and create the agent role as described below in Agent permissions.
5. When you've finished defining the new role, click Create Role.

To add a new custom agent role

1. Click the Admin icon () in the sidebar, then select Manage > People.
2. Select Add role.

   

3. Enter a role name and description and then select the permissions for the role (described below).
4. Click Create role.

Agent permissions

When creating custom agent roles, you choose from an extensive list of permissions that define what agents can do.

Permissions	Description
Tickets	You can define an agent's access to tickets, the types of comments they can make, and their editing permissions. An agent may access tickets in one of the following ways: Assigned to this agent only Requested by users in this agent's organization All within this agent's group(s) All, including suspended tickets Note: When “Assigned to this agent only" is selected, agents with this access permission can assign tickets to any other agents in their groups, but cannot assign tickets to agents outside their groups. Notwithstanding ticket access restrictions, CC'ing an agent (including a Light Agent) on any ticket lets the agent receive email notifications of all public and private updates to the ticket. Agents can add ticket comments in one of the following ways: Private only Public and private In addition, you can grant agents permission to do any of the following: Can edit ticket properties Can delete tickets Can view deleted tickets (the Can delete tickets permission must be selected for this option to appear) Can merge tickets Can edit ticket tags Note: In the Enterprise version, the ability to delete tickets has been moved from the Agents settings page and is now an agent-level permission.
Tools	The Tools section includes access and editing permissions for views, reports, customer lists, macros, and dynamic content. One option can be selected for each. Reports: Cannot view Can view only Can view, add and edit Views: Play views only See views only Add and edit personal views Add and edit personal and group views Add and edit personal, group and global views Customer lists: See customer lists only Add and edit personal customer lists Add and edit personal and group customer lists Add and edit personal, group, and global customer lists Macros: Cannot add or edit Can add and edit personal macros Add and edit personal and group macros Add and edit personal, group, and global macros Note: To create or edit multiple-group macros, agents must be assigned a role with permission to add and edit global macros (not just “group” macros, which will limit them to single-group macros). Selecting Can access dynamic content enables the agent to review, add, and edit dynamic content.
People	You can define an agent's access to users and user profiles. One option can be selected for each. Viewing and editing end-user profiles: Read only Add and edit within their organization Add, edit, and delete all End-user editing rights enables the agent to verify end-users. Only administrators can change a user's role. Browsing and searching for users: Cannot browse or search for users Can view all users in your account Selecting Can add or modify groups and organizations enables an agent to create and edit groups and organizations for users. This option is only available when Add, edit, and delete all is selected for view in and editing end-user profiles.
Guide (if Guide is enabled)	You can decide the level of permission agents should have. Can manage Guide When this option is selected, agents in this role have Guide Manager permissions. When this option is not selected, agents in this role have Guide viewer permissions. For more information, see Understanding Guide roles. Note: When this setting is not selected, it does not necessarily mean that agents can't add and edit articles and posts. Permission to add and edit articles is set at the section level in the knowledge base (see Allowing agents to add or edit articles) and at the topic level in the community (see Allowing agents to add or edit posts in community topics).
Channels	Depending on the channels that have been enabled for your account, agents may also be allowed to do any of the following: Can manage Facebook Pages Can access Twitter functionality Can answer phone calls Can view the Zendesk Talk dashboard
System	The following two options allow the agent to create and edit triggers, automations, and SLA targets and to manage channels and extensions. Can manage business rules Can manage channels and extensions Channels are modes of communication such as chat, email, and Twitter. Extensions includes integrations and widgets.

Assigning custom roles to agents

You can assign a role to an agent by editing their profile, or you can assign a role to multiple agents at the same time.

To change the role of a single agent

1. Click the Admin icon () in the sidebar, select People, and then click the link to browse agents.
2. Click Edit next to the agent's name.
3. In the agent's profile, click the Role field and select a role.

   In the following example, the agent is assigned a custom role called Forum Moderator.

   

The change is saved immediately.

To change the role of more than one agent

1. Click the Admin icon () in the sidebar, select People, and then click the link to browse agents.
2. Select the checkbox next to the names of the agents you want to update and click the Change Role link at the top of the list.

   

3. Select the role, then click Submit.