Verified AI summary ◀▼
Create custom ticket fields to gather detailed information from customers and agents. These fields can be visible to agents only or both agents and end users, and can be used in triggers, automations, and reports. Admins can clone existing fields and manage their visibility and requirements. Note that deleting a field removes its data unless it's a tag-generating field like drop-down or checkbox.
You can add numerous types of custom fields to ticket forms and make them visible to agents only or to both agents and end users.
After you create your custom ticket field, you can use it in triggers, automations, macros, and views. On Suite Professional and above, you can report on custom ticket fields in Explore.
You must be an administrator to create custom ticket fields and add them to ticket forms.
Topics covered in this article:
- How custom ticket fields work
- Adding a custom ticket field for agents and end users
- Understanding the persistence of custom field data
Related articles:
How custom ticket fields work
Drop-down list, multi-select, and checkbox custom fields generate tags that can also be used in automations, macros, triggers, reports, and views (see Understanding custom ticket fields, tags, and business rules). Lookup relationship fields can be used in triggers and views (see Using lookup relationship fields in triggers and views. All custom fields can be referenced as placeholders (see Placeholders for custom fields).
Creating custom ticket fields
You can add custom fields to tickets to gather more information about the customer or issue. Fields can be visible to agents only or to both agents and end users.
You can permit end users to view the custom field in their ticket by making the field visible, or you can add the custom field to the Support Request form by making the field both visible and editable.
Before you begin, see Optimizing your ticket form to understand ticket fields and do some planning to build an optimal ticket form.
You must be an administrator to create custom ticket fields.
The following video gives you an overview of how to create custom ticket fields:
Creating custom ticket fields [1:41]
- In Admin Center, click
Objects and rules in the sidebar, then select Tickets > Fields. - Click Add field.
- Select a field type, then 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.
- (Optional) Enter a Description for the custom field. This is visible to admins only.
- Under Permissions, select an option:
- Agents can edit: Only agents can view and edit the field. It appears in tickets.
- Customers can edit: Agents and end users can view and edit the field. It appears in tickets and in the support request form in the help center.
- Customers can view: Agents can view and edit the field. End users can only view the field. It appears in tickets and on end users' requests, but isn't included in the support request form in the help center.
For a single ticket form, the new field automatically appears in your ticket form. If you use multiple ticket forms, you'll have to manually add the field to any ticket forms you'd like to include it in.
- If the field is visible to customers, enter a Title shown to customers and
Description shown to customers.
The customer title and description options aren't available if the field is only visible to agents. Descriptions appear in plain text, with no line breaks.
- If the agent must complete the field to solve the ticket, select Required to solve
a ticket.Note: Required fields for solving a ticket can be bypassed by triggers and automations . These fields are also bypassed when an agent merges a ticket.
- If the end user must complete this field to submit the ticket, select Required to submit a request.
- Enter an optional Description shown to end users.
- Configure any additional options, depending on your field type.
-
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.
- Enter a value for each option to include in the list, along with an
associated tag.
-
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.
-
Field option (checkbox fields only, optional):
- (Optional) Specify a Default value for the custom field.
In a drop-down list, the default value applies only to new tickets created by agents through the Support interface or created by users wherever the ticket form is displayed. If you change an existing ticket form to one with a drop-down list with a default option, the default option is not displayed and is shown as blank.
- Click Save or, to create another custom field, click the drop-down icon and
select Save and add another.
If you have a single ticket form, the new field automatically appears in your ticket form.
(Enterprise only) If you have multiple ticket forms, edit the ticket forms where you want the field to appear, drag the field from the right onto the ticket form, then click Save. Repeat for additional ticket forms.
- If needed, you can reorder your custom ticket fields.
The custom field appears on new tickets. It also appears on less-than-closed, closed, and archived tickets with a null '-' or empty value.
If the field does not appear on a new ticket, you might need to restart your browser.
Not all custom field types are available across business rules and views. For a list of which custom fields apply, see Using custom ticket fields in business rules and views.
On Suite Professional and above, you can report on custom fields in Explore.
Cloning custom ticket fields
Administrators and agents in custom roles with permission can create new custom fields from scratch or clone existing ticket fields and modify them as needed.
- In Admin Center, click
Objects and rules in the sidebar, then select Tickets > Fields.
- 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 ticket field's settings is displayed.
- Edit the Display name so that it is unique.
- Set any other options for your field, depending on the type.
- Click Save.
If you have a single ticket form, the new field automatically appears in your ticket form.
(Enterprise only) If you have multiple ticket forms, edit the ticket forms where you want the field to appear, drag the field from the right onto the ticket form, then click Save. Repeat for additional ticket forms.
- If needed, you can reorder your ticket fields.
Understanding the persistence of custom field data
If you delete a custom field, the data from the custom field is not preserved in existing tickets, including closed tickets. The data is preserved only if the custom field also adds a tag to a ticket. The three custom fields that add tags are the drop-down list, the checkbox, and multi-select fields. If you delete one of these custom fields, then the data in tickets persist as tags.
For example, suppose you have a drop-down list in your ticket form to associate tickets with different product names. After a while, a decision is made to stop providing support for one of the products. If you remove the product from the drop-down list, the product name persists in existing tickets as a tag. If however you use a text field to record a product ID and you delete the text field, the product ID is not preserved in your tickets.