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[Closed for comments] Customization of the dashboard
Posted Dec 10, 2012
In the new Zendesk Interface, the dashboard by default displays a "Tickets Requiring Your Attention" view. (I realize this is not a "view" in the Zendesk-defined sense) This way of looking at tickets is not customizable - the fields displayed cannot be altered, the column widths cannot be changed, and there's no way to "anchor" alternate views on the left side where the existing icons (for dashboard, reporting, settings, etc) reside. Those are features we consider vital in order for us to use the Lotus interface. The most glaring omission on the default dashboard is the absence of the ticket number. It would be great if Zendesk started by making that change, and then making the dashboard customizable so that it has real value to those users who need a different dataset than Zendesk has provided by default.
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203 comments
Matt Picio
It's been 30 months since I submitted this request / comment. Darla hit the nail on the head on June 2nd with this remark:
The solution is to 1) make it customizable; or 2) allow an agent to set a default view.
Darla also mentioned that this page is Zendesk's Agent "front door" - it sets the expectations for the product, the importance of which cannot be overstated. Despite more than 80 people commenting in this thread over the past 2-1/2 years, Zendesk has yet to address this very basic functionality - functionality which existed in the previous interface, which was lost during the change to the current UI - and the current UI has never restored feature parity in this regard.
I've been a fan and a promoter of the product for nearly 3 years, but this is a recurring frustration - as is the lack of updates / response back to the community about what we've expressed is an important issue.
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Ross
two and a half years and this is still ongoing...
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Michelle Esguerra
+1 We'd really find this useful
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Dirk Sanders
+1
I would like to be able group on organization in Dashboard view, same way this is possible in Views.
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Owen Pragel
This request is getting pretty close to its third birthday.
Even though lacking this feature isn't a dealbreaker, really wish more attention was paid to the dashboard. Zendesk has great metrics, good view customization, and the dashboard is missing both. Would prefer something customizable that you could scope to groups just like views.
Searching tickets in Zendesk is massively improved now that the results are more like regular views. Even without other additions that would be a big stride.
Please, take some development time to improve the dashboard! It's the first thing every agent sees on login, and having it in top form would add instant appeal to the product.
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Dan Lauer
+1 Hard to believe there is not, at least, a customizable view for the Dashboard.
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Yoav Brog
Zendesk team - it was mentioned in this thread on January 2015 that there's a development task for this. Any news?
My main motivation for using the agent dashboard is having my agents see their relevant tickets along with the feed of changes. This is the winning combination for me. Is there a way to get the feed to show when using other views?
Thanks!
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Graham
Please address this Zendesk team. As others have stated, a simple win would be to allow us to choose a custom view to display.
The home page is pretty useless to us currently which is absurd for the first thing every user sees,
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Chris Emick
Would love to see the dashboard customizable. Right now, I feel it's the weakest park for the zendesk experience. IE, nobody uses it
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Mike Uy
I would love to see an update on this as well.
This would be a much needed functionality in my organization and it's disappointing to see this request on its third birthday, with 115 votes and barely addressed by Zendesk.
I see product discussions with less votes that have been completed.
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Patrick Müller
We need these function, too. We are using the SLA module and we need the SLA time in the dashboard.
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jw
We have long defined which editors and groups can see which tickets / views. To found out in the end, that they can see over the dashboard all tickets :-(
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Angeli Ho
It is a waste of this home dashboard page that we are not able to customize for the agents. Please think about this.
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Matt Picio
It's very frustrating that after 3+ years and over 100 comments since I originally posted this, the ONLY thing that Zendesk has done to address this issue is to add the ticket number to the view.
Ok, and the column headers can be clicked to change sort order. That's it.
I get 6 unchangeable columns with no ability to add others, and there still is no means by which to get a "Support Manager" view of my Zendesk, so see which tickets I need to address before they generate an escalation. This isn't new functionality anymore, the interface has been in place for over 3 years.
Zendesk is the industry leader because the platform is flexible, but it's still sorely lacking in management and enterprise features and in key flexibility / customizability. And the product manager hasn't visited this thread in quite some time, despite the continued steady trickle or remarks and "me toos" generated in this thread.
I think all of us who are still on Zendesk would love it if Zendesk would please start to address this issue, or at least let people know if it's on the product map, or never going to be.
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Dan Lauer
I just don't understand why, with the ability to define custom views, why it's not possible to specify which view a particular agent uses as the default "dashboard" view? How hard can it be?
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Remco de Waard
After reading these last messages, like I said before, I have to stand up for Zendesk. Because I work at a software company too, I know what it is like to promise, inform, develop and deliver.
When a certain feature is not present in the product, it doesn't mean that the complete product sucks. For instance, when a light in my car is broken it disturbs me at first. But after a couple of days I don't even see it any more. The most important thing is that the engine keeps on running.
If somebody from Zendesk is kind enough to answer one of the questions in this thread, do not use his answer as a weapon against him. If he says that Zendesk is developing the requested feature, then this answer is a service to inform you. If you keep using these answers to fight Zendesk, then eventually Zendesk will stop offering this service. Because everything they say to keep the customers happy will come back as a boomerang in their faces.
And besides, we are not the ones to judge about the complexity of our desired change. None of us are working at Zendesk so none of us is capable of doing such an assumption.
If you are in need of a certain feature, you can either develop it yourself as an app, or you can either ask Zendesk to modify in their product. If you choose for the last option, it means that sometimes you have to wait.
And yes, that waiting sucks for me also the first few days, weeks or months.. But hey, as long as the engine keeps on running, right?
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Matt Picio
Remco,
Many of the commenters on this thread also work at software companies. The rest are business owners and Zendesk admins. Respectfully, I think almost everyone on this thread is aware of the SaaS development lifecycle and resource constraints. I've seen very few comments in this thread saying that the product sucks. Zendesk is an industry leader, and the product is easier to use and has a fuller feature set than nearly every one of its competitors - and that's exactly why we hold them to a higher standard.
I'm not sure how it's "holding it against them" to point out that the last update from Zendesk on these issues was more than a year ago, or that the underlying issues still remain unresolved after nearly 40 months, despite over 100 public comments asking for more flexibility. It's also fair to say that Zendesk has a history of letting these threads lapse without comment, and a failure to provide follow-up in the community channel.
The main issues here are:
1. This is basic functionality. There is no good reason why the default Zendesk view cannot be selectable. Customers shouldn't be forced into the default Zendesk dashboard view. And it's inconsistent - the dashboard view is the only view in Zendesk where the number of columns is fixed, where the columns are not selectable, where the default sort order and filtering cannot be set by the administrator. This is all basic functionality and basic requirements for a support desk - and the classic Zendesk interface supported it. The current interface (Project Lotus) does not, and in many respects was a step backwards since some of the functionality and flexibility inherent in the original platform was never incorporated into the new interface.
2. This is Zendesk's front door. This is the main screen that everyone sees, and it's the public face of the product every time it's launched. The dashboard should have a larger feature set and MORE functionality than other views, not less. To extend the analogy, Zendesk for the last 3 years has been a fancy house with an pink-painted aluminum storm door in front. All the other doors can be made of wood, or steel, and different colors, but the front door of the house only comes in one color, one material, and you can't control who has the key. Sure, it's a door, it works - but why can all the other doors be configured while the front door cannot?
I think that 100+ comments prove that this isn't just the griping of a handful of users. Your post appears to dismiss out of hand what are valid and legitimate criticisms of the product which remain to be addressed by the company.
I strongly urge Zendesk to review how they're implementing the dashboard and whether it's adequately serving their entire user base.
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Ben Lucier
Yeah, I have to agree with Matt on this.
I've implemented and managed Zendesk at four different companies. All companies have been SAAS-based. Zendesk is an amazing platform and it has helped my teams provide amazing service to our customers.
This one small missing piece of customization has been a huge struggle for us. As a leader my job is to provide clarity to my teams. I've had teams of 100+ and teams as small as 6. We've set up SLAs, we work to be as tight as possible around all things, including the views we've carefully configured so individuals know exactly what work is to be done.
All of this carefully-crafted workflow falls apart every time my agents login, when the default page is every ticket in the queue and not the primary view for the agent.
It isn't possible for me to love a company like Zendesk any more than I already do. I think a lot of us feel that way. They have an amazing team and I don't know how I'd manage without them. The product is world-class.
If and when this "challenge" is solved, it will be the equivalent of Christmas for us.
Love,
-Ben
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Corrin Duque
Several months back we purchased "Lovely Views" by LoveStock and Leaf: http://www.lovestockleaf.com/zendesk/zendesk-apps/lovely-views.html
This has been an excellent addition as we have multiple custom views and need to be able to see them all in one left menu. Plus we can create multiple customized views to raise to the surface the hightest priority tickets.
Thank you Remco for your comment. Zendesk has a great product. In addition to the multiple features they are rolling out it is possible to pay the extra to have them develop either an app or other customization where the value justifies the investment. Or, if you have a developer on staff you can build your own app using the Zendesk app builder resources. Very powerful tool.
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Matt Picio
Thanks for posting that link, Corrin - I'll definitely check that out!
It's always possible to get customizations which address most of the issues - I think a lot of my frustration is that I shouldn't have to pay for a customization to get basic functionality which should be built into the product. I think Ben spoke well to that point. Like Ben, I am an unabashed Zendesk enthusiast - I think it's the best product out there, and I recommend it to others every chance I get. I just want my agents to see the information they need to do their job on the front page of the app, without having to click on a 3rd party product icon.
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Corrin Duque
Well said Ben and Matt,
I posted several months back the value a customized dashboard would have for us as we too are a Software as a Service organization and everything we can do to make this tool have value greatly impacts our ability to streamline our workflows. As we are managing complex projects with Zendesk, tools like "custom checklists" and "sub tickets" (Lovestock and Leaf "Tickler" and "Fork") are attractive options and things I wouldn't expect all ZD users to need. But I agree with your sentiment in that I would love to have this all built into the product. So looking forward to more updates from Bob Novak and the ZD team.
I feel the same as Ben. It will be like Christmas for us once the Dashboard is customizable.
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Erin the mentor
Hi all,
I'm going to bravely wade in here. I've spoken with a lot of you and even met a few of you (hi Matt!) in person over the years. First and foremost, we are reading, and we are listening. It may not seem like that at times. It is easy (even for me; maybe especially for me) to get frustrated when we're not able to address all of the feedback and all of the needs in the product in the timeframes we want, but we are still committed to doing the best we can to give you the best product possible.
While the dashboard constantly comes up in internal conversations as a part of the product we need to improve, it is not immediately on the roadmap. That being said, we are increasingly spending a lot of effort going back and improving existing features, so I'm hopeful we'll do something incredible here in the future.
We will let you know when the status changes and start to plan great things. In the meantime, keep the use cases coming. One of the first things we do when starting a new project is combing back through these threads and reading each comment. They really do help.
Best,
Erin
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Jose Luis de la Rosa
I will be happy if you just add a column to see the SLA state in this dashboard. It does not make sense to see what needs my attention but not to know what requires more attention
Thanks!
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Samantha Flaherty
I'd also just like to add that I've been struggling for some time with asking people to 'ignore the dashboard' and use our customised views.
I'd question why features like Product Trays and Pathfinder (etc) are being prioritised over something absolutely fundamental?
I love Zendesk but it is a little embarrassing to have to explain to a team of agents that they are incorrect in picking tickets up from the dashboard... I feel I can hardly criticize someone for working on the wrong ticket when they've picked it up from the most natural place. Why are we able to add fields yet not able to build this into the most fundamental workflow - I want to be able to highlight tickets but Zendesk is overriding me?
Some prioritisation on this is really required, please!
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Marie Hankinson
Please oh please can we add the ability to update the layout/columns in the home page view? It's really confusing our agents!
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Martijn Spronk
Another +1
Stumbled upon this issue from 2013 and find it hard to believe this has not been addressed yet.
Why not have the ability to allow us to select which of our views is displayed on the dashboard??? Even as a software developer I have to say: this really should not be that hard, should it?
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Crystal Bishop
+1
I also have to tell agents to ignore the home page and only use the views...
The home page dashboard would be a nice place to do the following:
1) Post specific widget reports you want the agents to see (SLA success rate?)
2) Set a default ticket view below the widget reports. Maybe the default would be 'Your Unsolved Tickets'
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David McKnight
We've been using Zendesk for a little more than a year, and like it a lot. I have tried searching a few times to attempt to understand what data actually drives the dashboard -- and I agree, if you're going to actually have a dashboard it ought to be configurable. Otherwise, for gosh sakes just dump the dashboard, and replace it with a default view (which seems to be what the dashboard is).
Which is where my question comes up. Views are AMAZING. And the simplicity of creating a one-click bookmark that takes you right to the login page, then directly to your primary view, well, that's amazing too. I mean, that's my fully-configurable dashboard.
And yet, I see a ton of complaining about the dashboard not being configurable, and while I generally agree it ought to be, or it's just a waste -- I couldn't find a single comment in four pages of comments as to WHY a bookmark to your own personalized and customized view doesn't work. Not one.
So... Can someone enlighten me by filling in the following blank (because I'm seriously interested in better understanding this):
"A one-click bookmark that takes me directly to the login page, and then right to my favorite view doesn't work for me, because _______________."
And, please don't answer that by saying it's a hack or a workaround; that's not an answer.
I'm really interested in why it doesn't work. Frankly, I hadn't even thought of it, and I think it's brilliant, and have immediately implemented it. But, I am certain I must be missing something, and am anxious to see that answered. Is there some specific function or group of function lost by jumping directly to a view?
Thanks! -DAVID
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Remco de Waard
+1 to you David.
I especially like the way you do not ignore that the dashboard needs an update. Even more, I like the way you confront complainers about their complaining.
Indeed, we also bookmark views and since the moment I ordered to do so, everybody was happy with the workaround. No more complaining ever since.
I do agree that the dashboard needs more flexibility but for as long that is not going to happen, we have a small workaround by using one of the key features of ZD; views.
Thanks for your refreshing post :)
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Samantha Flaherty
The issue is that this is a workaround, whether you like to call it that or not. I have also resorted to bookmarking views as I can't use the dashboard at all (and also, I have more personal views than can fit in the Views panel).
We use Zendesk across our entire business, so our agents and workflows vary. It's an unnecessarily difficult task to have to explain to a large number of agents that they need to ignore the dashboard and instead use a view or a bookmark, so the issue is very simple. It does have an easy to access workaround, it's more an issue with the product/UX design of the product whereby users have to manually bookmark/ignore quite a central element to the product. It's also not an intuitive workaround - as you mentioned you hadn't initially thought of it - meaning that most users that are just getting familiar with using Zendesk will naturally look to the dashboard as the place to pick up requests.
I guess if a Zendesk account is set up in a more simple manner, this probably isn't an issue at all - which therefore highlights this as perhaps a scalability issue.
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