Getting started with Zendesk Explore for reporting and analytics

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<p id="docs-hc-snippet" style="display: none;">Zendesk Explore for reporting and analytics is designed to help you analyze, understand, and share your business information. Explore provides powerful, prebuilt reports that help you view and analyze key information about your customers, support resources, and more. When you need reports tailored to your unique needs, you can use the tools in Explore to build your own reports.</p>
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<p class="p">Zendesk Explore for reporting and analytics is designed to help you analyze, understand,
and share your business information. Explore provides powerful, prebuilt reports that
help you view and analyze key information about your customers, support resources, and
more. When you need reports tailored to your unique needs, you can use the tools in
Explore to build your own reports.</p>
<p class="p">Explore also lets you share and collaborate on reports with others. Reports can be shared
on a one-time or recurring basis to anyone in your organization. With some plans, you
can even share with individuals who aren't part of your support team.</p>
<p class="p">In this article, you'll learn the basics you need to get up and running with Explore. If
you're looking for a an even quicker start, see the <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4409156141850" target="_blank">Explore quick start guide</a>. If you're an Insights user
upgrading to Explore, you'll find some great resources to help you in <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408834539802-Moving-to-Explore-from-Insights" target="_blank">Moving to Explore from Insights</a>. </p>
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<div class="note tip">
<span class="tiptitle">Tip:</span> Zendesk also offers on-demand <a class="xref" href="https://academy.zendesk.com/page/zendesk-course-catalog#product_analytics-1" target="_blank">training courses for analytics</a>.</div>
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<p class="p">This article contains the following topics:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="Explore-gettingstarted__ul_nr2_tvb_l3b">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_hbl_sst_k3b">Activating Explore</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_jbx_5st_k3b">Giving access to Explore</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_qlv_kst_k3b">Understanding key Explore concepts</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_udk_bst_k3b">Next steps</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_yfd_whd_pwb">Additional resources</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title2" class="topic nested1" id="topic_hbl_sst_k3b">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title2">Activating Explore</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Before you can use Explore, you must activate it. When you first open Explore, it
prepares your Zendesk data for reporting. Depending on the amount of information and
tickets you have, this could take a few minutes to a few hours. You can select an
option to have Explore inform you when it's ready for use. </p>
<p class="p">For more information, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4799941569690" target="_blank">Activating Explore and giving yourself access</a>.</p>
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<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title3" class="topic nested1" id="topic_jbx_5st_k3b">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title3">Giving access to Explore</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">To help ensure the security of your business information, Explore provides different
user roles and permissions that give different levels of access to Explore's
capabilities. Before your agents can access Explore, you must configure their roles
and permissions.</p>
<p class="p">The following roles can be configured:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_jbx_5st_k3b__ul_gwl_cny_1fb">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Editors</strong> can create custom reports and dashboards. </li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Admins</strong> have the same abilities as editors and can manage viewers and
permissions as well. </li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Viewers</strong> can view and interact with prebuilt and shared dashboards.</li>
</ul>
<p class="p">For more information, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408836002970-Adding-users-to-Explore" target="_blank">Giving users access to Explore</a>.</p>
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<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title4" class="topic nested1" id="topic_qlv_kst_k3b">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title4">Understanding key Explore concepts</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">This section introduces you to some of the main concepts you'll need to know to get
the best from Explore:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_qlv_kst_k3b__ul_rqb_jm3_l3b">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_cyx_5st_k3b">Dashboards</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_d1z_5st_k3b">Reports</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_lny_5st_k3b">Datasets</a></li>
</ul>
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<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title5" class="topic nested2" id="topic_cyx_5st_k3b">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title5">Dashboards</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_cyx_5st_k3b__image_ecg_4xc_pwb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/Explore-support-dashboard.png" width="600"></p>
<p class="p">A <em class="ph i">dashboard</em> is a space to present information about your Zendesk products.
Each dashboard is made up of <em class="ph i">components</em>, which can include reports, text,
and more. </p>
<p class="p">Zendesk provides you with prebuilt dashboards that contain information about your
product metrics, agent activity, and more. Depending on your Explore plan, you
can use the prebuilt dashboards, create editable copies of them, or create
completely new dashboards.</p>
<p class="p">For more information, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408846844826" target="_blank">Understanding dashboards</a>.</p>
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<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title6" class="topic nested2" id="topic_d1z_5st_k3b">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title6">Reports</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_d1z_5st_k3b__image_lwp_nzc_pwb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/explore-prebuilt-dash-4.png" width="400"></p>
<p class="p">A <em class="ph i">report</em> is a question you ask about your business information. You can
ask simple questions like “How many tickets do I have in an open status?” or
complex questions like “Between March and December, which agents closed the most
tickets?”</p>
<p class="p">Report results are typically displayed as charts or tables. After you’ve created
a report, you can customize it to your needs and add it to a dashboard.</p>
<p class="p">For more information, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408839341082" target="_blank">Understanding reports</a>.</p>
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<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title7" class="topic nested2" id="topic_lny_5st_k3b">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title7">Datasets</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p"><img alt="Explore datasets menu" class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_lny_5st_k3b__image_ekf_f1m_w2b" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/explore_select_a_dataset_cropped.png"></p>
<div class="p">A <em class="ph i">dataset</em> is a collection of <em class="ph i">metrics</em> and <em class="ph i">attributes</em> that
query information from different Zendesk products.<ul class="ul" id="topic_lny_5st_k3b__ul_bwn_yl3_l3b">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Metrics</strong> are quantitative data like the number of tickets or phone
calls.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Attributes</strong> are qualitative data like agent names or ticket
channels.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<p class="p">Metrics and attributes are what you use to create reports. When you create
report, you must choose the dataset that includes the information you want.
Explore features a range of datasets that enable you to query your data across
the different Zendesk products.</p>
<p class="p">For more information, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408839218842" target="_blank">Understanding Explore datasets</a>.</p>
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<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title8" class="topic nested1" id="topic_udk_bst_k3b">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title8">Next steps</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Now that you have a basic overview of Explore, you're ready to put this new knowledge
into practice. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408824320794-Getting-started-with-Explore-Walkthrough" target="_blank">Getting started with Zendesk Explore: Hands-on
tutorial</a> for a step-by-step walkthrough that guides you through creating
a report, adding it to a dashboard, and sharing it with others.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title9" class="topic nested1" id="topic_yfd_whd_pwb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title9">Additional resources</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">As you get started with Explore, you might find the following resources helpful:</p>
<div class="p">
<ul class="ul">
<li class="li">
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408839345306" target="_blank">Navigating the Explore interface</a>:
A reference guide to finding your way around the Explore interface.</li>
<li class="li">
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408846357018" target="_blank">Zendesk Explore resources for reporting
and analytics</a>: A useful map of all available Explore
documentation.</li>
<li class="li">
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4409149172890" target="_blank">Explore recipes reference</a>: A list
of articles that include step-by-step instructions for reporting on a wide
range of business scenarios using Explore.</li>
<li class="li">
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408824134810" target="_blank">Zendesk Explore glossary</a>: A
glossary describing the key concepts and terminology used throughout
Explore.</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
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