Ensure tickets are addressed in the appropriate order with Guided mode, a custom role option that requires agents to work through tickets using the Play button.
Understanding the agent experience in Guided mode
In Guided mode, agents can access views using the Play button. When agents click the Play button, the system automatically opens the first ticket in the view. After addressing the ticket, the agent clicks Submit to update it and automatically move to the next ticket. The Submit button is not available until a change is made to the ticket.
The next ticket is the next ticket in the view according to the view's sort order (see Using views to manage ticket workflow) that the agent hasn't already skipped and that no other agent is currently viewing. For more details, see Using the Play button.
When an agent completes or skips the last ticket in the list, the list wraps back to the top and the first ticket in the view is opened.

- See and open all tickets assigned to them in the system Your assigned tickets view.
- Click on any other view to open its available ticket and start Play mode. They won't be able to see a list of the tickets in the view. Once they've started a view in Play mode they can click Skip to skip a ticket, but are prompted to enter a reason.
Keep in mind that agents in Guided mode will still be able to view and open tickets they have access to from end-user or organization profiles and through search.
Setting agent access to Guided mode
You'll need to create or edit a custom role and assign it to the agents who should have Guided mode access. For details, see Custom agent roles (Enterprise).
- Click the Admin icon (
) in the sidebar, then select Manage > People.
- Select Roles.
- Next to the role you want to modify, click edit.
- In the Agent workflow section, select View permissons > Play views only.
- Click Save.
Viewing skipped tickets
In Guided mode, agents can choose to skip a ticket. After they click Skip, a window appears prompting them to enter a reason.
Note that Guided mode agents can still click Skip in the above window without entering a reason. If you're looking for specific information from agents when they skip tickets, you should communicate expectations on entering reasons and how you'll be using the responses.
Review skipped tickets and reasons in a Guided mode agent's user profile. Looking through skipped tickets can help you identify specific knowledge areas and processes that agents are struggling with.
Admins can view skipped tickets for any agent in Guided mode. Guided mode agents can view their own skipped tickets only.
- Click the Admin icon (
) in the sidebar, then select Manage > People.
- Click Agents.
- Open the agent's profile you want to view.
- Click Play only.
- A list of tickets the agent has skipped, along with each reason entered, appears. Click on a ticket to open it and view additional details.
70 Comments
Hi!
We seem to have an issue where people in guided mode get into the same tickets, very often also without seeing eachother in the same ticket, which then has resulted in a bad timing with the customer having 2 answers at the same time from our agents.
Any one else having this issue? Zendesk any solution to this issue?
Hi Elliot -
If Guided mode is working properly, this shouldn't arise.
First, I recommend reading through and following the troubleshooting steps in this article:
How can I troubleshoot agent collision issues
If that doesn't resolve things, we'll most likely need to get you in touch with one of our Customer Advocates to do a more in-depth review of your account to see if there's a bug.
Hello!
Do you have any update from Aaron Elliot's suggestions? If you are checking the comments from your users, those are the most requested feature in Zendesk Support.
By having those features enabled, it will definitely prevent cherry picking, will save time of the supervisors, will ensure that the tickets are handled properly and efficiently.
Hi Mark Lester Estacio -
I see that this is your first post - Welcome to the Zendesk Community! If you'd like to say hello to everyone, you can introduce yourself here.
Updates are typically shared on requests in the Feedback Forum. With 16k articles in our knowledge base, our product managers found it best to centralize where they receive and respond to product feedback in a single community space, rather than trying to track and make sure communications get distributed to all article comment threads. Here's the relevant product feedback conversation: Guided Mode Improvements
While there are a fair number of comments here, this is by far not the most requested feature on the list. But I encourage everyone who is interested to up-vote the feedback post and add your comments. The product managers use the number of votes and comments on a feedback thread to evaluate need and gauge interest so that they can prioritize the higher-demand requests.
Hello Guys,
A simple clarification here as I'm not finding the information.
Do the Guided Mode atributes automatically the ticket to the agent or this should still be a manual task?
Hey Henrique,
Guided Mode will still require that the agent assign the ticket to themselves. This isn't done automatically so if you're looking to auto-assign tickets, you may want to take a look at the Round Robin app.
Hope this clears up any confusion!
Amazing, Thank you Brett!!!
Happy to help!
Where is the Agent workflow in the Roles?
Hey Nicolas,
I've attached a screenshot for you below where this option is located:
I hope this helps!
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