Creating custom roles and assigning agents

On Enterprise plans, you can define your own agent roles and assign agents to those roles. This allows you to define agent roles that suit your own organizational structure and workflow. Several predefined system custom roles are provided to help you get started.


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Summary: ◀▼
You can create and assign custom agent roles tailored to your organizational needs, choosing from various permissions like ticket access, user management, and workflow controls. Predefined roles like Advisor, Staff, and Team Lead can be cloned or edited. Custom roles support up to 197 unique roles, but some admin-level permissions remain exclusive. Assign agents to roles via role settings or agent profiles to manage access and responsibilities effectively.




On Enterprise plans, you can define your own agent roles and assign agents to those
roles. This allows you to define agent roles that suit your own organizational structure
and workflow. Several predefined system custom roles are provided to help you get
started.
Admins and agents in custom roles with permission can create and assign custom roles.
However, agents can't modify their own role assignments or permissions or manage admin
roles.
This article contains the following topics:

Understanding system custom agent roles in Zendesk Support
Creating custom agent roles
Assigning agents to custom
roles

Related article:

Understanding standard user roles for
Support





Understanding system custom agent roles in Zendesk Support

There are a few predefined standard custom agent roles that reflect typical customer
support roles. These are called system custom roles. These roles can be used
as-is, or you can create additional
custom agent roles by cloning them.



Table 1. Default agent roles






Role
Description




Advisor
Advisors manage the workflow and configure your Zendesk. They create or
manage shared automations, macros, triggers, and views. They also set up the service
level agreements, channels, and extensions. Advisors don't solve tickets, they can only
create tickets on behalf of end users and make private comments.


Staff
A Staff agent's primary role is to solve tickets. They can create
tickets on behalf of an end user, edit tickets within their groups, view reports, and
add or edit personal views and macros.


Team lead
Team leads have greater access to your Zendesk than staff agents. They
can read and edit all tickets, moderate forums, create tickets on behalf of an end user,
and create and edit end users, groups, and organizations.








Creating custom agent roles

You can create your own agent roles or base a new role on a system custom agent role that's
predefined for you. You can either edit or clone most existing non-admin roles, or
create a new role from scratch. You can create a maximum of 197 custom roles for
your account. Each of your custom roles must have a unique
name that isn’t too similar to the names of existing roles, such as Admin or
Administrator.

To create a new role
In Admin Center, click
People in the sidebar, then select Team > Roles.
Click Create role.
Alternatively, you can copy an
existing role for your new role. Hover over the row of the role you want to
clone, then click the options icon ( ) and select Clone.
Enter a unique Name and Description for the role.
The name must not be too similar to the name of existing roles, such
as Admin or Administrator.

Define and create the agent role as described in Permissions
that agents with custom roles can have.
When you've finished defining the new role, click Save.




Permissions that agents with custom roles can have

When creating custom agent roles, you choose from an extensive list of
permissions that define what agents can do.





Permissions
Description




Tickets

You can define an agent's access to tickets, the types of comments
they can make, and their editing permissions.
An agent may access tickets that aren't suspended in one of the
following ways:

Assigned to them

Requested by end users in their organizations: Access
tickets created by end users only within their organizations.
Agents can still see what organizations are available within
their account, but they won't have access to any tickets
assigned to those organizations unless they are a member. Newly
created end users will automatically be assigned to the agent's
organization. If your account has multiple organizations, the
end user is assigned to the agent's default organization.

Within their groups

Within their groups and all public groups: Enable agents
to access and assign tickets within their groups, all public
groups, and tickets that haven't been assigned to a group.

All, including those in private groups: Access to all
tickets, including tickets in private groups they don't belong
to.

Notwithstanding ticket access restrictions, cc'ing an agent
(including a Light Agent) on any ticket lets the agent receive email
notifications of all public and private updates to the ticket.
An agent may assign tickets to brands in the following ways:

Only assign tickets to brands they belong to: Assign
tickets only within their brand
memberships.

Assign tickets to any brand: Assign tickets to brands
they don't belong to.


An agent may assign tickets to groups in the following ways:
Only assign tickets to groups they belong to and public
groups

Assign tickets to any group: Assign tickets to
private groups they don't belong to.


An agent may manage suspended tickets in one
of the following ways:

Not allowed: Can't access the suspended tickets
view.

Recover or delete: Recover or delete suspended
tickets and export the list of suspended tickets.


Interacting with tickets:


Edit ticket properties: Be assigned to tickets and edit
properties.

Edit ticket tags: Add and remove tags on tickets. Agents
without this can still set custom fields. Agents without this
can't add tags with macros on existing tickets, but they can add
tags with macros upon ticket creation.

Redact ticket content: Permanently remove sensitive
ticket attachments and text in comments and side
conversations.

Manage malicious attachments: Manage access to
attachments with detected malware.

Merge tickets: Merge two tickets.

Delete tickets: Delete tickets and recover them. Can also
mark a ticket as spam if they have permission to delete the end
user.

View deleted tickets: Access the deleted tickets
view, recover deleted tickets, and delete tickets
permanently.



Agents can add ticket comments in one of the following ways:

Private comments only
Public and private comments

Additional ticket settings:

View satisfaction prediction for tickets: View the
predicted satisfaction ratings for tickets. Agents without
this permission can still see the satisfaction prediction in
views they can access.

Manage ticket fields: Create, modify, and delete
ticket fields using the Ticket fields page in Admin Center.
Agents can't take these actions through the API.

Manage ticket forms: Create, modify, and delete
ticket forms.





Custom objects
You can define an agent's access to each custom object in your
account. By default, agents don't have access to custom objects. They
can be granted any combination of the following permissions for each
custom object.
View
Edit
Add
Delete

Permission to View is automatically selected if you
select any other type of permission for an object.



Assets
You can define an agent's access to assets and asset records. An
agent may view and manage asset types in Admin Center in one of the
following ways:
No access

View, create, edit and delete: Create and modify
asset types, asset fields, and asset locations in Admin
Center.


An agent may view and manage asset records in one of the
following ways:
No access

View only: View asset records and asset data in
tickets.

Update asset status and assign assets: View asset
records and data, update asset statuses, and assign assets
in tickets.

Create, edit, and delete asset records, and assign
assets: Create and manage asset records and assign
assets in tickets.


Additional permissions:

Execute IT asset management actions: An agent may
initiate IT asset management actions from the Agent
Workspace.





People

You can define an agent's access to users and user profiles.
When selected, an agent may update or take action on the following
profile and contact fields on their own profile. When deselected,
the field becomes read-only for agents.
Profile name
Alias
Photo
Additional contacts
Signature
Add forwarding numbers


An agent may view and edit individual end user profiles in one of the
following ways:



View only: View end user profiles, but can't create new
end users.

Add, edit, and assume profiles in organizations they belong
to: Newly-created end users will automatically be
assigned to the agent's organization. If your account has
multiple organizations, the end user is assigned to the agent's
default organization.

Add, edit, and assume profiles for any end user:
Newly-created end users won't have an organization associated
with them.

Add, edit, delete, and assume profiles for any end user:
Newly-created end users won't have an organization associated
with them.

Permissions to edit end users enables the agent to verify end users.
Only admins can change an end user's role.
Managing team members:
Not allowed
View only

Create, edit, delete team members, and reassign
roles: Add, edit, and delete team members, and manage
roles for all team members except for admins and their own
role. Agents can't promote users to the admin or billing
admin roles. Additionally, admins can't manage account
owners. This permission includes the ability to import and
export team members.


Managing custom agent roles:

Create, edit, and delete roles: Create and modify all
roles other than their own. Does not give permission to
assign roles to other agents.



Viewing and managing customer lists with the Customer List add-on
(for accounts created prior to September 9,
2020):

View only
Add and edit personal lists
Add and edit personal and groups lists
Add and edit personal, group, and global customer
lists

Managing groups:


Add and remove team members from groups: Manage team
members assigned to groups.

Manage groups: Create, edit, and delete groups.

Managing organizations:


Add, update, and delete organizations: Add, update, and
delete organizations. Gives access to edit field values on the
organization.

Manage organization fields: Gives access to the Admin
Center pages for setting up custom organization fields.


Other user-related permissions:

Manage user fields: Create, modify, and delete custom
fields for user profiles for end users. (Only admins can
manage user fields for agents or other admins.)

View customer lists: Access the Customers page.
When this permission is deselected for agents, they can
still utilize auto-complete to access end-user information,
including name, email address, phone number, and
organization.





Channels

Depending on the channels and admin permissions that have been
enabled for your account, agents may also be allowed to do any of
the following:

Manage channels and extensions: Manage channels
including email, social messaging apps, and other modes of
communication. Extensions include targets, webhooks, and
integrations.
Note: Depending on
your admin permissions, some channels may not appear in
the menu.


Manage Facebook pages: Add Facebook pages that create
tickets from Facebook wall posts.

Access saved X Corp searches: Access tweets from the
X saved search
stream.

Access Chat requests: Access chats from end
users.

Answer and place phone calls: Answer calls from and
place calls to end users.





Agent workflow

The Agent workflow section includes access and editing permissions
for views, macros, and dynamic content.
Views are predefined conditions for a collection of tickets. Agents
may access views in one of the following ways:

Play views only
See views only
Add and edit personal views
Add and edit personal and group views
Add and edit personal, group, and global views

Additional views settings:

Limit number of views: Limits agents to the previous
default amount of views, which is a maximum of 12 shared
views and 8 personal views. Otherwise, agents will have
access to the default amount of views, which is 100 shared
views and 10 personal views.

Access view filtering: Allows agents to view and use
views filtering. This permission gives you more control over
the agent experience.

CSV Export: Allows agents to export CSV files, which
contain an entry for each ticket in the view, along with its
associated ticket information.


Macros apply predefined actions to a ticket. Agents may do the
following with macros:


Apply only: Can apply macros, but can't add or edit
them.
Add and edit personal macros
Add and edit personal and group macros
Add and edit personal, group, and global macros

An agent can only update the groups on a macro if they are a member
of every group.
Additional agent workflow settings:

Access dynamic content: View, add, and edit dynamic
content.

Manage contextual workspaces: View, add, and edit
contextual workspaces.

Contribute to side conversations: Reply to or start
new side conversations with third parties or other agents
outside the ticket flow. Without this, agents can only view
side conversations. This option is only available if your
Zendesk plan includes side conversations (see Using side conversations
in tickets).

Create approval requests: Create and withdraw
approval requests. This only pertains to creating and
managing approval requests, not actually responding to them.
No permissions are required to be an approver.





Business rules

You can decide if agents can manage business rules.

Automations: View, add, edit, and delete
automations.

Service level agreements (SLAs): View, add, edit, and
delete SLAs.

Triggers: View, add, edit, and delete triggers. Does
not apply to Slack ticket
triggers. Agents can still view individual
triggers without this
permission.

Business rules analysis: Can access business rules
analysis.





Omnichannel routing
You can give agents permission to manage the following
routing-related settings.

Manage skills: View, add, edit, and delete skills.

Manage agent status: Change agent status from the live
reporting dashboard.

Manage capacity rules permissions include:
No access
Only view and assign agents to capacity
rules
View, add edit, and delete capacity rules






Security and privacy

You can give agents security and privacy permissions.
Manage deletion
schedules permissions include:

Not allowed

View only: View deletion schedules only.

Create, edit, and delete: Can create, edit, and delete
deletion schedules.

Data masking
permissions (ADPP add-on): Hides end user personally identifiable
information (PII) from the role.
Log permissions include:

View audit
logs: View the audit log to track changes
to your account.

View access
logs (ADPP add-on): View the access log
to track what data has been accessed in your account.





Help center (if enabled)

You can give agents help center permissions.



Manage Knowledge: Access the help center as an admin
to manage articles, themes, and setting.


When this option is selected, agents in this role have Knowledge
admin permissions. When this option is not selected, agents in this
role have Knowledge viewer permissions. For more information, see
Understanding Knowledge roles.
When this setting is not selected, it does not necessarily
mean that agents can't add and edit articles and posts. Permission
to add and edit articles is determined by user management
permissions set on each article (see Setting agent editing and publishing
permissions on articles). Permission to add and edit
posts is set at the topic level and applies to all posts in the
topic (see Allowing agents to add or edit posts in
community topics).



Analytics (if Explore is enabled)

If Explore is enabled, you can configure the level of access that
agents have to analytics.

Explore

No access: Cannot access Explore.

View dashboards: Can view dashboards shared with
them.

Manage reports and dashboards: Can create, edit, and
delete reports and dashboards.

Manage reports, dashboards, and datasets: Can manage
administrative settings and permissions for Explore.


For additional details, see Giving users access to
Explore.
Data they can view and report on


Data from brands and groups they belong to: Restrict
access to only data in brands and groups that the user is part
of.

Data from selected brands and groups: Opens two menus
where you can select the brands and groups that the user can
report on.

All data: No brand or group restrictions are
applied.

View Talk dashboard

View details about calls on the dashboard.








Permissions that agents with custom roles can't have

There are some permissions that are available to admins that you can't
assign to agents with custom roles. For example:

Create or edit other agent or admin profiles
Install apps
Change a user's role
Bulk import orgs or users
Delete call recordings from tickets

Assume
other agents
Edit subscriptions (including trials)
Generate and manage API
tokens

For more information about agent and admin permissions, see Understanding Zendesk Support user
roles.




Assigning agents to custom roles

You can assign agents to a custom role from the role's settings or from the agent's profile.
To add agents to a custom role

In Admin Center, click
People in the sidebar, then select Team > Roles.
On the role you want to add agents to, click the options icon ( ) and select Edit. A detailed view of the custom role's
settings is displayed. A list of team members in this role is visible in a
panel on the right.

Click the Actions menu, then Assign role. The Assign role
window is displayed.

In the Select team members field, select a team member from the list or
search for a team member’s name and select it from the search results. To add
additional team members, search again and select another team
member.
To remove an agent from the Select team members field,
click the x next to their name.

Click Assign role. An updated list of agents in the role is displayed
on the role settings page.




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