Core concepts for Getting Started with Zendesk Support

Be sure to also check out our Getting Started guide and our Launch guide.

Zendesk Support offers a centralized solution that organizes and tracks all incoming customer support requests from any channel.

Navigation: Getting around in Support

The following table gives an overview of the main areas in Support. For more information see Introduction to the Zendesk agent interface.

Icon	Name	Description
	Dashboard	Summary information page. View summary information and vital statistics.
	Getting Started	Task list for configuring. Follow a step-by-step checklist of items to configure to get up and running.
	Views	Ticket groupings. Views define a collection of tickets based on a set of criteria. You create and use views to group tickets into one area, such as "My open tickets" or "Recently solved tickets." See Using views to manage ticket workflow.
	Reporting	Analytics of your support performance with Insights reporting. Access pre-built reports or create custom Insights reports for your business. Explore, the updated analytics tool for Support, is accessible through the product tray if it is included with your account.
	Admin	Manage and settings pages. Browse and install apps or manage user profiles, views, ticket fields, macros, tags, business rules, account security settings and more.

Roles: Who uses Zendesk

Everyone at your company plays a role in supporting your customers. Depending on their assigned role, what they can see and what they can do in your Zendesk changes. For more, see Understanding Zendesk user roles.

Role	Quick definition	Description
Owner	Person who created your Zendesk	The account owner is a type of administrator. The account name is associated with this person's name, usually the person who created the account. There can only be one account owner; however, account ownership can be reassigned by the account owner to another administrator if needed. The account owner has access to areas of your Zendesk that other administrators do not, such as invoicing, payment options, and benchmarking for the account.
Administrator	Person in charge of your Zendesk	Administrators are agents with additional privileges to manage and customize your Zendesk. Administrators can be assigned tickets, like agents, but can do many more things, such as edit business rules, change settings, assume another user's identity, and more. There can be multiple administrators.
Agent	Your support personnel	Agents are the customer support individuals on your staff. They are assigned tickets and interact with customers as needed to resolve support issues.
End user	Your customer	End user refers to people who generate support requests from any of the available support channels (for example, via your Help Center, email, Twitter, or Voice). End users can submit and track tickets and communicate with agents publicly (meaning their comments can never be private).

Ticket: Record of the support request conversation

Zendesk manages support requests by creating a ticket for each request. A ticket is simply a record of all conversations, from any channel. A ticket keeps everything in one place and keeps your entire team in the loop.

By creating a series of recorded events tied to one ticket, agents and end users can stay on the same page. This also creates a level of accountability that can ensure a problem is solved quickly.

Item	Quick definition	Description
Ticket	Support request with question or issue from customer	Support requests received from any of your channels (see Channels: Ways to engage with customers ) become tickets. Each ticket is assigned to an agent to solve, and all activity related to solving the support request is captured as comments within the ticket.
Ticket fields	Containers for information about the ticket	Ticket data is included in fields such as Subject, Email, Description, Status, Type, Priority, Group, Assignee, Tags, and any other custom fields you create. See About ticket fields.
Custom ticket fields	Containers for specific information about your tickets	You can add custom fields to tickets that are visible to agents only or to both agents and end users. Custom fields are typically used to gather more information about the support issue or product or service. See Adding custom ticket fields.
Status	Current ticket situation	Each ticket is assigned a status. There are five values for status: New, Open, Pending, Solved, Closed. See About ticket fields.
Type	Support request category	Each ticket is assigned a type. There are four values for type: Question, Incident, Problem, Task. The ticket type is used throughout your Zendesk to generate views and it's also used as a condition in automations, macros, and triggers.
Priority	Urgency of the ticket	Each ticket is assigned a priority. There are four values for priority: Low, Normal, High, and Urgent. See About ticket fields.
Tag	Word(s) associated with the ticket or article to categorize it	To help you categorize, act on, or search for tickets and forum articles, you can add tags. Once added, you can create views by tags, search for tags and the tickets in which they are included, and use tags in your triggers, automations, and macros. See Using tags.
Requester	Person who made the support request	Requester refers to the person who opened the ticket and made the support request.

Channels: Ways to engage with customers

Channels are the pathways in which you can engage with your customers and receive support requests.

Channels include:

For information about these channels, see the About Zendesk channels.

Email options

The following table provides an overview of some ways you can customize your email. For a complete introduction, see Getting started with email in Zendesk. Also, see all our Email resources.

Email	Quick definition	Description
Personalized email replies	Your reply-to email name	The email address used in replies to end users can be configured to show the agent's name as the friendly name rather than your Zendesk account name. For example, "Claire Grenier < notifications-support@yoursubdomain.zendesk.com >" instead of "MondoCam Support Center < notifications-support@yoursubdomain.zendesk.com >". See Enabling personalized email replies.
Email forwarding	Send email from your company support email address to your Zendesk	When you set up your Zendesk account, a default email address is created that end users can use to submit support requests. You might prefer to use your own email address rather than the Zendesk-provided address. You can use email forwarding to accept email at your own address (for example, help@mycompany.com)) and then forward it to your Zendesk address (support@yoursubdomain.zendesk.com). See Forwarding incoming email to Zendesk Support.
External email domain	Change email address “From” field	You can change your email address to an email domain other than yoursubdomain.zendesk.com, making it appear that it originated from your own email address (help@mycompany.com mailto:help@mycompany.com ). See Using an external email domain.