Many Zendesk accounts prefer not requiring their end users to sign in to Zendesk. Removing the sign-in requirement means end users can't view or track their requests on the Help Center. These tasks require users to sign in. Instead, all communication between agents and end users occurs using channels such as email, Talk, or Chat.
To provide email-only support, you need to understand the impact of this change on your customers, and then work through the three items described in this topic.
This article includes the following topics:
Understanding how email-only support impacts customers
- Sending email directly to your support email address (for example, support@mycompany.zendesk.com)
- Submitting a Zendesk Support request using the Web Widget
- Chatting with an agent
- Leaving a voicemail
- Sending a request using Twitter
Regardless of the channel by which new requests are submitted, requests become tickets that agents manage using views, creating and applying macros, generating reports, and so on. All communication between agents and end users is captured on those tickets and emails are sent back and forth between both parties.
- Providing your end users with the link to your knowledge base (for example, http://mycompany.zendesk.com/hc)
- Using the Web Widget with knowledge base search enabled
The advantage of using the Web Widget is that your end users get a simple request form coupled with a search of your knowledge base and, optionally, live chat with your Zendesk Support agents. For more information, see Using the Web Widget to embed customer service in your website.
Allowing anyone to submit tickets
To allow requests without requiring end users to sign in to Zendesk Support, you need to modify your end user settings. Only administrators can make these changes to the end-user settings.
For information on making these modifications, see Enabling anyone to submit tickets in Zendesk Support.
When an unregistered end user submits a request for the first time, they are added to your Zendesk Support as a new end user. They receive the request confirmation email but not the verification request email. They remain unverified in Zendesk Support.
Removing links to ticket pages from your email notifications
You must sign in to view ticket pages in the Help Center. Because you don't want to require end users to sign in, you need to remove any links to ticket pages from any email notifications sent to end users. Some of your default triggers create notifications with ticket links. If you signed up with Zendesk before July 12, 2012, the legacy email template also contains a ticket link.
Removing ticket links from your notifications
- Notify requester of received request
- Notify requester of comment update
You'll also need to modify any similar notification triggers (if any) that you created. Only administrators can edit the triggers.
If you've enabled CCs (Admin icon () > Settings > Tickets > Enable CCs on tickets), you should also modify your CC notification email.
- Click the Admin icon (
) in the sidebar, then select Business Rules > Triggers.
- Edit the Notify requester of received request trigger by selecting Edit.
- Remove the {{ticket.id}} and {{ticket.url}} placeholders from the text in the email body. For example, here are before and after versions of the email text in the Notify requester of received request trigger.
Before:
Your request (#{{ticket.id}}) has been received, and is being reviewed by our support staff. To review the status of the request and add additional comments, follow the link below: http://{{ticket.url}}
After:
Your request has been received, and is being reviewed by our support staff. We'll contact you as soon as we have an answer for you.
- Click Save.
- Repeat for the Notify requester of comment update trigger.
- Click the Admin icon (
) in the sidebar, then select Settings > Tickets.
- In the CCs section, edit the CC email text field.
- Remove the {{ticket.id}} placeholder from the text in the email body, as shown here:
Before:
You are registered as a CC on this support request ({{ticket.id}}). Reply to this email to add a comment to the request.
After:
You are registered as a CC on this support request. Reply to this email to add a comment to the request.
- Click Save tab.
Removing sign-in links from your Help Center
In the Help Center, removing elements that link to the sign-in page involves deleting or hiding template components. You must be signed in as a Guide admin to edit template components.
Your agents, like your end users, will no longer see a sign-in link for your Zendesk. To access the sign-in page, your agents need to use the following URL: mycompany.zendesk.com/access. This is the sign-in page.
Removing the ability to sign-in means that every visitor to the Help Center is treated as an anonymous user with limited privileges. Anonymous users can view the public areas of the Help Center and share links to content. They can't comment on articles or participate in the community. For more information, see Understanding Guide roles.
Because anonymous users can't participate in the community, consider disabling your community, if it's enabled. For instructions, see Disabling your Help Center community.
To remove the links to the sign-in page
- In Guide admin, click the Customize design icon (
) in the sidebar.
- Hover your mouse over the theme you want to edit, then click View theme.
- Click Edit code to open the code editor.
- From the list of templates, click header.hbs.
- From the code, comment out the
sign_in
fragment, like this:
If you are using an old theme, you might see a{{!-- {{#link "sign_in" class="sign-in"}} {{t 'sign_in'}} {{/link}} --}}
user_info
in place of asign_in
fragment. Comment this out instead:<!-- {{user_info}} -->
This component displays a sign-in button on the right side of the header.
- Select the article_page.hbs template and delete or comment out the following classes:
<div class="article-comments"> <div class="article-votes">
The vote component and the article-comments section prompt users to sign in.
- Click Publish.
14 Comments
Regarding "Removing sign-in links from the Help Center", I can't find the "Edit Theme" option in my Help Center Customize screen.
Am I looking in the wrong place? I am going to the HC, clicking "Customize" then I only have options for Theme, Appearance, Branding, Mobile branding.
Hi Phil, are you using the Essential plan? Customizing the Theme is only supported in Team, Professional and Enterprise.
Hi Martijn, wow fast reply! thanks :)
Yes I am on Essential ...but at the top of this article is https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/plan_available_all.png. So is this not possible on Essential?
This information is probably focused on the option to get rid of the links in your triggers. Maybe a Zendesk Agent can clarify this for you.
Hi Phil!
Unfortunately the link you provided doesn't seem to be good anymore so I can't see what you're referring to. However, I can confirm that the ability to edit the HTML, CSS, and JS in Help Center is only available on the Team level plan and up. As an Essential customer you don't have access to that functionality.
Please let me know if you have any other questions!
Thanks for the confirmation Jessie. I must say, the information at the top of this article is hugely misleading if that is the case. We chose Zendesk based off of the information here and now I find I can't actually do it unless I upgrade to a considerably more expensive plan?
Hey Phil,
Thanks for bringing that to my attention. I'm going to let our Docs team know about that so we can add a note specifying that the portion of this workflow that require editing the Help Center code isn't available to Essential users. I'm so sorry for the miscommunication!
This section of the documentation is outdated and incorrect concerning the editing of the templates for the guide section, including the process of accessing the templates and editing them, and the elements to remove or comment out.
Thanks, Brandon. I've alerted the documentation team.
How can I create an email only agent for one group but a talk and email in another group?
Hey Melissa!
The workflows and configuration changes recommended in this article are intended for customers wanting to only provide email support for their entire account. The configuration you are inquiring about is possible by having your Zendesk Talk configuration set to only route calls to the Group that you want your Agent to handle calls for.
Hi, I've been searching high and low and I can't find an answer - this article is close, but no cigar.
Basically, I want to disable public sign-up, i.e. only our admins and agents can invite someone to create a user account. Reason is that we only have superficial contact with our customers' end-users - they should be able to reach out to us over a form, which will create a ticket, but that's it.
It looks like I have to remove the ability to log in altogether, because the log-in mask has the option to create an account, but this would mean our customers can't log in over the help center to view their organisations open tickets, for example. Or is there a setting that I have missed?
Best regards,
Francis
Hi Francis Avato -
To achieve this - you would need to restrict anyone from creating tickets.
You can find this option in Admin > Customers > Settings. More details can be found in this post.
Hope this helps!
Brandon
If we "allow anyone to submit tickets" we seem to also eliminate the ability fo any user to create a password, and therefore we also lose the ability to use user segments to limit access to parts of the Help Center. Because users have to be logged in for the HC to recognize them.
Am I understanding this correctly? If so, is there any workaround to allow select users to create a password?
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