Getting started with Zendesk Suite - Part 2: Adding team members

Articles in the series

• Introduction: Getting started with Zendesk Suite
• Part 1: Accessing Zendesk Suite admin settings
• Part 2: Adding team members
• Part 3: Understanding how end user accounts are handled
• Part 4: Managing user access security and authentication
• Part 5: Adding support channels
• Part 6: Routing incoming support requests
• Part 7: Managing support requests during non-business hours
• Part 8: Guaranteeing customer support expectations with service level agreements
• Part 9: Reporting on support activity
• Part 10: Enabling customer satisfaction ratings
• Part 11: Using the Zendesk developer platform to extend your support solution
• Part 12: Rolling out your Zendesk Suite support solution

When you add admin and agent users to your Zendesk Suite account, you select the products they have access to and also their role permissions.

All users are added to your account in Admin Center via the Team members page or the Add tab in the Agent Workspace.

Note: Users can also be added via a bulk import and the Zendesk API. For more information about all your options for adding users, see Adding end users.

When you add a user, you choose their type as either a staff member (team member) or an end user. You then assign your team members to the different parts of Zendesk Suite by editing their user profile.

In a team member’s profile you click the Manage in Admin Center link, as shown above. See Opening the team member profile for step by step instructions.

On the team member’s profile page in the Admin Center, you choose which Zendesk Suite products the team member has access to and also their role (what actions they are allowed to take in each of the selected products).

As you can see above, all team members have access to Support; however, what they are allowed to do in Support (and in the other products) is based on their assigned role. See Setting roles and access in Zendesk Admin Center.

Each product contains an admin role, which allows the person assigned to this role to access the product’s admin settings to do things such as configuring the product, setting up workflows, and so on. You can assign the admin role to as many people as you need to.

Agents provide customer support, interact with end users (via email, chat, messaging, voice, and other channels) and solve their support issues. Admins are also agents.

What an admin or agent can do in a product varies. Also, there are additional roles for each product. The role options are displayed when you click the Role drop-down list. For a detailed explanation of the roles for each product, see About team member product roles and access.

Note: In the Enterprise and Enterprise Plus versions of Zendesk Suite, you can also create custom roles. See Creating custom roles and assigning agents.

Organizing team members into groups

After you’ve added your team members (your admins and agents and other team member roles), you organize them into groups. This is also done in Admin Center.

Groups collect team members together based on criteria those agents have in common. Groups can only contain team members; no end users can be included. All team members must be assigned to at least one group, but they can be members of more than one.

Groups are essential to defining support workflows. For example, you may have a group of agents who specialize in a particularly complex support area. When a support request is received that requires that level of expertise, the request can automatically be assigned to that group.

For more information about creating groups, see Creating groups and assigning agents and Creating private ticket groups and granting agents access. Automatic routing of tickets is described below in Part 6: Routing incoming support requests.

Continue to Part 3: Understanding how end user accounts are handled.