Zendesk Agent Quick Reference Guide

Last updated: January 26, 2026

How to use this guide

This quick reference guide contains basic information that will help you start using Zendesk right away. It’s not an exhaustive guide of all the Zendesk features. Use this guide to follow basic guidance and ticketing procedures.

What is a ticket?

A ticket is a unique customer issue reported to us through one of our ticket entry points.

Ticket statuses

Ticket statuses indicate what is happening with the ticket at different points in its lifecycle. You are responsible for updating a ticket to its correct status each time to reply to the customer.

New indicates that no action has been taken on the ticket. Once a New ticket's status has been changed, it can never be set back to New.
Open indicates a ticket has been assigned to an agent and is in progress. It is waiting for action by the agent. You can view all open tickets using the Open Tickets view.
Pending indicates the agent is waiting for more information from the customer (requester). You can view all pending tickets using the Pending Tickets view. When the customer responds and a new comment is added, the ticket status is automatically reset to Open.
On-hold indicates the agent is waiting for information or action from someone other than the customer. It is similar to the Pending status in that you as an agent can't proceed with resolving the ticket until you receive more information from someone else. However, the On-hold is an internal status that the customer never sees. While a ticket is set to On-hold, the requester sees the status as Open.
Solved indicates the agent has submitted a solution.
Closed four days after a ticket is Solved, it's closed. If a customer replies within those four days, the ticket is moved back to Open.

Ticket types

We are only concerned with two ticket types:

Problem is a larger problem that multiple customers are experiencing
Incident is a unique customer report related to a larger problem

Ticket fields

Zendesk tickets contain helpful information about the customer’s issue, their space, their paid status, and more. Not all fields are available on all tickets. It depends on the source of the ticket. Grapes reports will have a lot more information than a ticket from the help center, for example. Below is a matrix of the fields, what they contain, and what forms they apply to.

Ticket Field	Description	Forms
Requester	The customer who created the ticket.	All
Assignee	The agent assigned to the ticket.	All
Group	The internal group where the ticket was routed.	All
Type	Blank, Incident, or Problem	All
Priority	Normal by default. See priority definitions below.	All
Taxonomy	How we track the issues associated with the customer’s ticket.	All
Space URL / ID	The space ID associated with the source of the ticket.	Grapes - API assigned Others - Customer inputted
A/V Strategy	The A/V strategy associated with the space.	Grapes
Country	The country associated with the space - drop-down list options: Japan, Brazil, United States, South Korea.	Grapes
Country General	The country associated with the space. (text field).	Grapes
Language	The language settings of the customer. English, Japanese, or Portuguese.	Grapes
Paid Status	The spaid status of the space: Paid, Free, Trial	Grapes
SID	The SID associated with the customer.	Grapes
Use Case	The use case associated with the space. This is a required field to close the ticket.	Grapes

Managing tickets with views

Views are how we organize tickets. We have them organized by status, ownership, queue, and language. This helps us get to the right tickets when we need them. Below is a matrix of all the views, what’s included in them, and how to use them.

View	Description	When to use
Your unsolved tickets	All the tickets assigned to you that are not solved.	Keep up on open tickets and make sure customer issues are moving towards resolution.
Unassigned tickets	All the tickets that are unassigned to an agent. This view is filtered to the skills associated with your profile sorted to show the tickets closest to breaching SLA first.	Start here to take on new work.
Premium Support	All unsolved tickets in the Premium Support group: paid remote work offices.	Stay up-to-date on the status of the queue.
Standard Support	All unsolved tickets in the Standard Support group: free offices and paid events.	Stay up-to-date on the status of the queue.
Limited Support	All unsolved tickets in the Limited Support group: free events.	Stay up-to-date on the status of the queue.
Billing Support	All unsolved tickets in the Billing Support group.	Stay up-to-date on the status of the queue.
Brazil Support	All unsolved tickets from Brazil.	Finding tickets for Brazilian customers specifically.
Japan Support	All unsolved tickets from Japan.	Finding tickets from Japanese customers specifically.

Finding tickets and taking ownership

By default, you should use the Unassigned Tickets view when you’re taking on new tickets to work. This view is already filtered to the skills you're assigned to work. You can go directly to other views like Premium Support or Japan Support if you need to take on specific types of work.

The best way to get new work is to hit the Play button. This will pull up the oldest unassigned ticket in the view. Click the take it link to assign the ticket to you. Once you’re done working the ticket, place it in the appropriate status and click Submit. Since you are in Play mode, it will serve up the next relevant ticket. You can choose to Stay on the ticket if you want to submit it without moving to the next ticket.

Otherwise, you can find specific tickets and take them, but only do this if you have a specific intent. We want to avoid cherry-picking tickets and leaving only the hard ones for someone else!

Replying to a customer

When you reply to a customer, it sends an email to their email address. Replies from them show up in the email thread. If you want to compose your message without risking sending it prematurely, you can use draft mode. You can also CC other email addresses as needed.

Replying with an internal note

You can also reply with an internal note. This note is highlighted in yellow to distinguish it from an external reply. It’s only viewable to those who have access to the ticket, including Lite Agents. Lite Agents can view and comment on tickets, but can’t reply to customers. Just as in Front, you can tag other internal users on internal notes.

Collaborating with Side Conversations

Many times the better way to collaborate with others is through Side Conversations. This allows you to collaborate with other teams through Slack without needing to leave the ticket and without them needing to leave Slack. To start a new one, click on the + button next to Side conversations at the top of the ticket. There are three options: email, Slack, or another Zendesk ticket. Most likely, you’ll use Slack.

We’ve started off with the most commonly used Slack channels, but if you don’t find the one you’re looking for, let us know, and we can add it.

Macros

Macros are automations and message templates agents can use to save time. They are great for repetitive tasks or sending common responses.