Recipe for the customer-centric company: Gather customer info for every support request

<div class="article-banners">
<div id="docs-wmp-link"><a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5411234991258-plan" rel="noopener" target="_blank">What's my plan?</a></div>
<div class="article-banner" id="suite_gpee">
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<strong>All Suites</strong>
</td>
<td>Growth, Professional, Enterprise, or Enterprise Plus</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<div class="article-banner" id="support_e">
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<strong>Support</strong>
</td>
<td>Enterprise</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</div>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Nothing slows down the support process more than having to go back and forth with the
customer to gather information. Multiple ticket forms help support teams expedite the support
process by gathering the right information related to a support request.</p>
<p class="p">This recipe outlines a basic set of ticket fields and forms designed for a B2C or B2B
software company to capture information about a customers' technology environment. Featured
ingredients: ticket fields and multiple ticket forms.</p>
<p class="p">Also, see our other recipe for the customer-centric company, <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4409148741786" target="_blank">Collect customer insights and act on them</a>.</p>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">Skill level:</strong> Advanced</p>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">Time required:</strong> 30 minutes</p>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title2" class="topic nested1" id="topic_3db_1yt_mm">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title2">Ingredient list</h2>
<div class="body">
<div class="p">
<ul class="ul" id="topic_3db_1yt_mm__ul_jjk_byt_mm">
<li class="li">
<p class="p">7 drop-down ticket fields</p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<p class="p">3 ticket forms</p>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title3" class="topic nested1" id="topic_rqq_byt_mm">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title3">Instructions</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">Step 1</strong></p>
<p class="p">Start by thinking about the <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408883152794" target="_blank">custom ticket fields</a> you'll need to support your basic ticketing
processes and begin creating your custom ticket fields. These fields might already be in
your Zendesk ticket interface, and that's ok, too.  This list is in no particular order—you
can organize them when you create forms.</p>
<div class="p">
<div class="tablenoborder">
<table border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" class="table" frame="border" id="topic_rqq_byt_mm__table_d3r_fyt_mm" rules="all" summary="">
<colgroup>
<col>
<col>
<col>
<col>
</colgroup>
<thead class="thead" style="text-align:left;">
<tr class="row">
<th class="entry nocellnorowborder" id="d48e116">Name of field</th>
<th class="entry nocellnorowborder" id="d48e119">Field type</th>
<th class="entry nocellnorowborder" id="d48e122">Field options</th>
<th class="entry cell-norowborder" id="d48e125">Requirements</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody class="tbody">
<tr class="row">
<td class="entry nocellnorowborder" headers="d48e116">Product</td>
<td class="entry nocellnorowborder" headers="d48e119">Drop-down</td>
<td class="entry nocellnorowborder" headers="d48e122">"Product A", "Product B", "Product C"</td>
<td class="entry cell-norowborder" headers="d48e125">End-user required<p class="p">Agent required</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row">
<td class="entry nocellnorowborder" headers="d48e116">Platform</td>
<td class="entry nocellnorowborder" headers="d48e119">Drop-down</td>
<td class="entry nocellnorowborder" headers="d48e122">"Web", "iOS", "Android", "BlackBerry"</td>
<td class="entry cell-norowborder" headers="d48e125">End-user editable</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row">
<td class="entry nocellnorowborder" headers="d48e116">Environment/version</td>
<td class="entry nocellnorowborder" headers="d48e119">Drop-down</td>
<td class="entry nocellnorowborder" headers="d48e122">"Production", "Staging/QA", "Development"</td>
<td class="entry cell-norowborder" headers="d48e125"> </td>
</tr>
<tr class="row">
<td class="entry nocellnorowborder" headers="d48e116">Severity</td>
<td class="entry nocellnorowborder" headers="d48e119">Drop-down</td>
<td class="entry nocellnorowborder" headers="d48e122">"Sev 1", "Sev 2", "Sev 3"</td>
<td class="entry cell-norowborder" headers="d48e125"> </td>
</tr>
<tr class="row">
<td class="entry nocellnorowborder" headers="d48e116">About</td>
<td class="entry nocellnorowborder" headers="d48e119">Drop-down</td>
<td class="entry nocellnorowborder" headers="d48e122">"Product area 1", "Product area 2","Specific feature 1", "Specific feature
2"</td>
<td class="entry cell-norowborder" headers="d48e125">Agent required</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row">
<td class="entry nocellnorowborder" headers="d48e116">Operating System/version</td>
<td class="entry nocellnorowborder" headers="d48e119">Drop-down</td>
<td class="entry nocellnorowborder" headers="d48e122">"Windows::8", "Windows::7", "Windows::Vista","OSX::Snow Leopard", "OSX:
Lion", "OSX: Mountain Lion","Other"</td>
<td class="entry cell-norowborder" headers="d48e125">End-user editable</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row">
<td class="entry nocellnorowborder" headers="d48e116">Browser/version</td>
<td class="entry nocellnorowborder" headers="d48e119">Drop-down</td>
<td class="entry nocellnorowborder" headers="d48e122">"Chrome", "Safari", "Firefox", "Opera", "IE9", "IE8", "Other"</td>
<td class="entry cell-norowborder" headers="d48e125">End-user required<p class="p">Agent required</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row">
<td class="entry row-nocellborder" headers="d48e116">Featured status</td>
<td class="entry row-nocellborder" headers="d48e119">Drop-down</td>
<td class="entry row-nocellborder" headers="d48e122">"Not planned", "Planned", "In progress", "Complete"</td>
<td class="entry cellrowborder" headers="d48e125">End-user visible</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</div>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">Step 2</strong></p>
<p class="p">Build <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408846520858" target="_blank">multiple ticket forms</a> based on the ticket fields you
just created to make gathering information on each ticket easier and more comprehensive.
Don’t forget to tailor the ticket forms’ names for agents versus end users.  </p>
<div class="p">
<div class="tablenoborder">
<table border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" class="table" frame="border" id="topic_rqq_byt_mm__table_pmz_hyt_mm" rules="all" summary="">
<colgroup>
<col>
<col>
<col>
</colgroup>
<thead class="thead" style="text-align:left;">
<tr class="row">
<th class="entry nocellnorowborder" id="d48e290">Name of form for agent</th>
<th class="entry nocellnorowborder" id="d48e293">Name of form for end user</th>
<th class="entry cell-norowborder" id="d48e296">Include following ticket fields</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody class="tbody">
<tr class="row">
<td class="entry nocellnorowborder" headers="d48e290">Question</td>
<td class="entry nocellnorowborder" headers="d48e293">Ask a question</td>
<td class="entry cell-norowborder" headers="d48e296">All default system fields<p class="p">Product, Platform, About</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row">
<td class="entry nocellnorowborder" headers="d48e290">Bugs</td>
<td class="entry nocellnorowborder" headers="d48e293">Report an issue</td>
<td class="entry cell-norowborder" headers="d48e296">
<p class="p">All default system fields</p>
<p class="p">Product</p>
<p class="p">Platform</p>
<p class="p">Environment &amp; version</p>
<p class="p">Severity</p>
<p class="p">About</p>
<p class="p">Operating system &amp; version</p>
<p class="p">Browser &amp; version</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row">
<td class="entry row-nocellborder" headers="d48e290">Feature request</td>
<td class="entry row-nocellborder" headers="d48e293">Request a feature</td>
<td class="entry cellrowborder" headers="d48e296">All default system fields<p class="p">Product, Platform, About, Feature
status</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>