Managing end-user settings

On the Customers (End-users) settings page, you select the settings that affect how your users access and use your Zendesk. For example, if you want your Zendesk to be available to anyone, you select the Anybody can submit tickets setting. This one setting and its related end-user settings determine how open or restricted your Zendesk is to your end-users.

You can configure your Zendesk end-user access for the following:

• Anybody can submit tickets and no registration or email verification is required.
• Anybody can submit tickets but you require that the user proves that they are human using CAPTCHA.
• Anybody can submit tickets but you also require registration and email address verification.
• Anybody can submit tickets but you restrict access to your Zendesk based on email domains or IP restrictions (IP restrictions is a feature available in the Enterprise version of Zendesk). In other words, you only accept registration and tickets from approved users.
• Only users you add to your Zendesk are able to submit tickets and use your Help Center.

There are variations of these configurations as well. For example, you can allow anybody to submit tickets, require registration, and also restrict access using email domains or via IP restrictions. These configurations are also affected by using both social media and enterprise single sign-on (see Single sign-on (SSO) options in Zendesk.

To manage end-user settings

• Click the Admin icon () in the sidebar, then select Settings > Customers.

Selecting who can submit tickets

The Anybody can submit tickets setting is one of the most important end-user settings because it determines which users can access and use your Zendesk. You can allow anybody to use your Zendesk, close it to all but the users you add, or restrict the use of your Zendesk to just users from specific email domains or within a range of IP addresses. These configuration options are referred to as open, closed, and restricted and are explained in detail in the following topics:

• Enabling anyone to submit tickets in Zendesk Support (open)
• Permitting only added users to submit tickets (closed)
• Permitting only users with approved email addresses to submit tickets (restricted)

Controlling spam tickets with CAPTCHA

The Require CAPTCHA setting requires users who are not signed in to complete a verification test before they can submit a ticket.

Note: If you started using Zendesk on or after August 21, 2013, this setting is not available until you enable Guide. See Getting started with Guide.

Allowing anybody to submit tickets might lead to some spam email appearing as tickets in your Zendesk. Requiring users who are not registered and signed in to confirm they're human before they can submit a ticket goes a long way to prevent spam. Zendesk uses Google reCAPTCHA. Most users can simply confirm they're human without having to solve a CAPTCHA. A risk analysis engine predicts whether the user is a human or an abusive agent. If the engine isn't sure, it'll display a CAPTCHA that the user must solve before they can submit a ticket.

The Google reCAPTCHA is included on the Sign Up page by default and can't be disabled.

Requiring that your users register to use your Zendesk

The default configuration of the Help Center is that the Sign Up page is displayed and that your users have the option of registering and creating a user account in your Zendesk. If you enable the Ask users to register option, you are requiring that your users sign up and create an account. To create an account, the user's email address must be verified. Until it is, any support requests they made (via the support request web form, the Web Widget, or email) will be held in limbo (in other words, not added to your Zendesk views).

Note: If you started using Zendesk on or after August 21, 2013, this option is not available until you enable Guide. See Getting started with Guide.

The registration process, and the advantages to the user of requiring registration, are explained in Registration.

Note: If you don't want users to register, you can hide the Sign Up page. For more information, see Removing sign-in links from your knowledge base.

Controlling access to Zendesk Support with the email whitelist and blacklist

The email whitelist and blacklist, shown when you select Anybody can submit tickets, are used to restrict access to Zendesk Support. For example, you can accept user registrations and support requests from users who have email addresses in the email domains you add to the whitelist. You can then reject all other users by adding an asterisk (*) to the blacklist. If you're not setting up a restricted Zendesk, leave both the whitelist and blacklist blank.

The whitelist and blacklist are explained in more detail in Permitting only users with approved email addresses to submit tickets (restricted).

As mentioned above, you can also restrict access using IP restrictions. This is a feature available in the Enterprise version of Zendesk. For more information, see Restricting access to your Zendesk using IP restrictions.

Registration message and verification email notifications

The Sign Up page in the Help Center contains a message prompting users to fill out the registration form.

You can customize this message on the Customers (End-users) settings page by editing the User registration message. You can also add dynamic content to this message. For more information, see Providing multiple language support with dynamic content.

When your users register, they receive a welcome email message (called the User welcome email) that prompts them to verify their email address, which then prompts them to create a password so that they can sign in to your Help Center.

Users receive a similar email message (called the Email verification email) when they add secondary email addresses to their user profiles. Both of these messages can be customized and both support dynamic content.

Note: If you started using Zendesk on or after August 21, 2013, the option to register online is not available until you enable Guide. See Getting started with Guide.

Sending the email verification message to users you add

You have the option of sending the verification email when you add users to your Zendesk by enabling the Also send a verification email when a new user is created by an agent or administrator setting. This is the same email message shown in the previous section. When you add a user yourself, you'll probably also want the user to verify their own email address and then create a password so that they can sign in to your Zendesk. But of course with the many access, registration, and sign-in options, including single sign-on, available in Zendesk you may not want to enable this setting.

Note: If you started using Zendesk on or after August 21, 2013, this option is not available until you enable Guide. See Getting started with Guide.

Please refer to the following topics for a more detailed description of the use of this setting:

• Permitting only added users to submit tickets (closed)
• Permitting only users with approved email addresses to submit tickets (restricted)

Allowing your end-users to edit their profiles and change their passwords

The Allow users to view and edit their profile data setting is enabled by default and allows your users to add information to their user profiles. For example, they can add secondary email addresses, their Twitter account, and so on. You should disable this option if you use remote authentication because your user data is handled outside of your Zendesk.

The Allow users to change their password setting is also selected by default. You normally want your users to be able to change their own passwords. But like the Allow users to view and edit their profile data setting, you'll want to disable this if you administer users and passwords in another system and use remote authentication.

Note: If you started using Zendesk on or after August 21, 2013, this option is not available until you enable Guide. See Getting started with Guide.

Validating phone numbers

With this setting enabled, phone numbers added to user profiles must be in the internationally standardized E.164 format. E.164 numbers can have a maximum of fifteen digits and are usually written as follows: [+][country code][subscriber number including area code]. Numbers that don't conform to this format will fail to save to user profiles.

Enabling user tagging

Enabling user tagging allows you to add tags to a user's profile. These tags are then added to the user's tickets, which you can then use to control your workflow. For example, you can use a tag to escalate a specific user's tickets.

The user does not see the tags that have been added to their profile.

For more information, see Adding tags to users and organizations.