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Admins and agents with permissions can create custom user fields to store additional customer details, enhancing user profiles. On Enterprise plans, visibility and editing permissions depend on custom roles. On other plans, fields are visible to all agents, but only those with full ticket access can edit them. You can also clone existing fields to streamline the setup process.

Admins and agents in custom roles with permissions can create numerous types of custom user fields and add them to user profiles to store additional customer details.

On Enterprise plans and above, custom user fields are visible to agents based on their custom role. In addition, agents must have the Manage user fields permission enabled for their role to edit end user fields.

On all other plans, custom user fields are visible to all agents. Only agents with access to all tickets can edit custom user fields for end users. They can also edit these fields for themselves, but not other agents.

End users can’t see or edit custom user fields.

This article contains the following topics:
  • Creating custom user fields
  • Cloning custom user fields
Related articles:
  • Managing custom user fields
  • Recipe for the customer-centric company: Collect customer insights and act on them

Creating custom user fields

Administrators and agents in custom roles with permission can create user custom fields.

To add a custom user field
  1. In Admin Center, click People in the sidebar, then select Configuration > User fields.
  2. Click Add field.
  3. Select a field type.

    For information about the field types, see About custom field types. Credit card fields are not supported for users.

  4. Enter a Display name.

    When naming custom fields, don't use reserved system or feature names such as "channel." These names are reserved by Zendesk and won't work in custom fields.

  5. Verify that the field key is the value you want it to be.

    A field key enables the custom field to be referenced in placeholders and the API. When you enter a name for the field, the field key is automatically populated. If you want the name and key to be different, you must edit the field key. You can't change the field key after you create the custom user field.

    Note: Avoid using id, name, tags, details, role, and notes for field keys, as these are used by system fields and can cause issues if they overlap. For a complete list of standard system user properties, see the Zendesk placeholder documentation.
  6. (Optional) Add a Description for the custom field. This is visible to admins only.
  7. Set other properties for your field. Options vary depending on the type of field you are adding.
    • Field option (checkbox fields only, optional):

      Enter a tag to apply to a ticket when the checkbox is selected.

    • Field validation (regex fields only):

      Enter a regular expression to create an input mask to validate entry.

    • Field values (drop-down and multi-select fields):
      • Enter a value for each option to include in the list, along with an associated tag.

        Each tag must be unique (see Understanding tags and fields). You can bulk import field values if you have a large number to add. Click the X to remove a value.

      • Click Sort ascending or use the grabber icon () to manually reorder the field values.
      • To create a nested drop-down list, separate categories and values with a double colon (::). See Organizing drop-down lists.
    • Related object and Set a filter (lookup relationship fields only)

      Select the type of object to relate, and optionally define filters that restrict possible values for the field. See Adding lookup relationship fields.

  8. (Enterprise plans only) Select an option for Select how field permissions are assigned to role:
    • Select All roles can view this field to make the field visible to agents in all custom roles.
    • Select Manually assign permissions for existing roles to make the field visible to agents in select custom roles. Then, select the View check box for each role to give agents in that role view permissions.

    See Managing custom user fields for more information on view permissions, including limitations.

  9. Click Save or, to create another custom field, click the drop-down icon and select Save and add another.

    New fields are active by default and are added to all users.

  10. If needed, you can reorder your custom user fields.

Cloning custom user fields

Administrators and agents in custom roles with permission can create new custom fields from scratch or clone existing user fields and modify them as needed.

To clone a custom user field
  1. In Admin Center, click People in the sidebar, then select Configuration > User fields.
  2. Hover over the row of the user field you want to clone, then click the option menu icon () and select Clone.

    A detailed view of the user field's settings is displayed.

  3. Edit the Display name and Field key so that they are unique.

    The field key is populated by the field name, but you can edit it when creating the custom field. You can't change the field key after the custom field is created. The field key can be used to reference the custom field in placeholders and the API.

  4. Set any other options for your field and review permissions (Enterprise plans only), depending on the type.
  5. Click Save.

    New user fields are active by default and are added to all organizations.

  6. If needed, you can reorder your custom user fields.
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