Each month, we host an AMA-style conversation in the Zendesk Community on hot support topics, where we invite a panel of guest experts to answer user questions and share their specialized knowledge.

Zendesk Customer Advocate Trent Mendez was one of the experts for our February 5, 2020 conversation on Support Triggers and email workflows. 

Mind telling everyone a little bit about yourself and what you do here at Zendesk?

Trent: I’m a Technical Support Engineer in Advocacy! What I do is answer users’ questions on our products to the best of my ability. And drink coffee.

For some of our newer users, what would you recommend to those just starting out with Zendesk?

Trent: Keep an open mind! There are usually a few different ways to address workflows in the system - so if one path seems to end, there may be another close at hand.

When you are not crushing it as a star Advocate here at Zendesk what do you enjoy doing in your free time?

Trent: I’m an unpaid critic of all forms of entertainment media. :D

With Business rules and Email workflows, what is the most common mistake you see first-time users make?

Trent: For business rules, when working through SLA policies, less can be more - try to keep the total amount of policies in play lean and mean.

For email, if you’re using custom support addresses, always keep one eye on the relay from the support address into the system. If emails aren’t creating tickets, something may have changed there!

Are you a dog or cat person and got any cute pet pics we could see?

Trent: More dog than cat. And haha, all pet pics I could share would have to be stolen from people on the internet who currently own a pet. 

Thanks, Trent, for taking the time to chat with us.