Downgrading and removing an agent

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<p id="docs-hc-snippet" style="display: none;">When an agent leaves your team, it's important to maintain your lines of communication with your customers. This article describes steps you should take for downgrading and removing an agent from Zendesk.</p>
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<p id="docs-ai-summary-content">When an agent leaves your team, reassign their open tickets to maintain customer communication. Downgrade their role to end user to retain ticket information, but note that CSAT data and personal views are lost. Finally, suspend the account to prevent access. This process helps manage transitions smoothly and ensures continuity in customer support.</p>
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<p class="p">When an agent leaves your team, it's important to maintain your lines of communication with
your customers. This article describes steps you should take for downgrading and removing an
agent from Zendesk. </p>
<p class="p">Watch the video below for more information on downgrading and removing agents.</p>
<p class="p"></p>
<div class="non-responsive"><iframe allowfullscreen="true" class="iframe" controls="controls" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/p46b4C7Qr2M" width="640"></iframe></div>
<p class="p">How to demote or remove agents (1:46)</p>
<p class="p">This article contains the following sections:</p>
<div class="p">
<ul class="ul" id="topic_f4n_bq5_w2b__ol_b5t_dym_y2b">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_m51_vq5_w2b">Reassigning an agent's tickets</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_n1j_vq5_w2b">Downgrading an agent's role</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_zfr_vq5_w2b">Suspending an agent's account</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<p class="p">Related articles:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_f4n_bq5_w2b__ul_t1l_zwt_pzb">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408887050266" target="_blank">Reassigning tickets troubleshooting advice</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title2" class="topic nested1" id="topic_m51_vq5_w2b">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title2">Reassigning an agent's tickets</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">It's recommended that you reassign an agent's tickets before they leave your team. Ideally,
the agent will reassign their own tickets before leaving. If they can't, then an admin
should reassign their tickets before removing the agent from the account. </p>
<p class="p">You can reassign tickets that aren't in the closed state. If you don't reassign tickets
before the agent is removed, then the tickets are reassigned to the admin removing the
agent. On Enterprise plans, this could also be an <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408882153882" target="_blank">agent in a custom role with permission</a> to manage group
membership.</p>
<p class="p">If the admin, or agent in a custom role with permission, removing the agent isn't a member
of the group to which a ticket is assigned, then the ticket is reassigned to the first agent
in the group. The first agent is the agent with the lowest user ID, based on when the agent
account was created in Zendesk (the oldest active agent account).</p>
<p class="p">If you have <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408832762650" target="_blank">Auto-assign tickets upon solve</a> activated in your
account, any of the agent's solved tickets are assigned to the admin removing the agent.
Additionally, if an admin has turned on solved ticket reassignment, a departing agent's
solved tickets may be automatically reassigned based on the options selected.</p>
<p class="p">The agent being removed remains the assignee of closed tickets. </p>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">To reassign an agent's tickets</strong></p>
<div class="p">
<ol class="ol" id="topic_m51_vq5_w2b__ol_usr_fc3_m5b">
<li class="li"><span class="ph">In <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4581766374554#topic_hfg_dyz_1hb" target="_blank">Admin Center</a>, click <img class="image" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/ac_people_icon.png">
<strong class="ph b">People</strong> in the sidebar, then select <strong class="ph b">Team &gt; Team members</strong>.</span></li>
<li class="li">Find the agent, click the options menu icon (<img class="image" id="topic_m51_vq5_w2b__image_cgv_cpt_5xb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/ticket_field_options_icon.png">) on the agent's row, then select <strong class="ph b">Manage in
Support</strong>.</li>
<li class="li">On the <strong class="ph b">Tickets</strong> tab in the <strong class="ph b">Assigned tickets</strong> view, do one of the
following:<ul class="ul" id="topic_m51_vq5_w2b__ul_t2b_vd3_m5b">
<li class="li">
<p class="p">Manually reassign tickets one-by-one by opening each ticket, then selecting the
agent you want to reassign the ticket to in the <strong class="ph b">Assignee</strong> field.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">Bulk assign tickets by selecting the tickets' check boxes, then
click <strong class="ph b">Edit(number) ticket(s)</strong>. <p class="p">Select the agent you want to reassign the
tickets to in the <strong class="ph b">Assignee</strong> field.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Submit</strong>.</li>
</ol>
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<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title3" class="topic nested1" id="topic_n1j_vq5_w2b">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title3">Downgrading an agent's role</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Downgrade an agent's role to an end user before removing them from your account so you can
maintain information about the tickets they handled. </p>
<div class="p">Keep in mind the following for downgrading an agent:<ul class="ul" id="topic_n1j_vq5_w2b__ul_q5x_wg5_pzb">
<li class="li">The downgraded user can access only tickets where they are the requester.</li>
<li class="li">The downgraded user is removed as a follower on any tickets they were following.</li>
<li class="li">CSAT data for the agent isn't retained. Consider <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4483481898266" target="_blank">exporting agent-specific CSAT scores</a> if needed.</li>
<li class="li">Any articles posted by the agent will continue to display the agent's name instead of
a deleted user's name as the author.</li>
<li class="li">Aliases aren't preserved, but are replaced with their profile name.</li>
<li class="li">Agents' personal views and macros are deleted. Shared views and macros created by
admins or agents with permission are not deleted. </li>
<li class="li">If the agent is a member of your Workforce management account, make sure to <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6931913462042" target="_blank">delete any schedules and shifts</a> they're part of.</li>
<li class="li">If you remove the agent's seat after you downgrade the agent, it has an impact on the
amount of data and file storage available in your account. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408835043994#topic_izq_c22_hlb" target="_blank">Default storage limits</a> for details.</li>
<li class="li">Apps and integrations might fail if they were set up by an admin you're downgrading.
Remember to update any app, integration, or API request that uses the admin credentials
(<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408831452954" target="_blank">Authentication for API requests</a>). Another admin
will need to reauthorize these apps before you downgrade the admin.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<p class="p">Before you downgrade an agent, be sure you've reassigned all of their tickets (see <a class="xref" href="#topic_m51_vq5_w2b">Reassigning an agent's tickets</a>).</p>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">To downgrade an agent to an end user</strong></p>
<div class="div">
<ol class="ol" id="topic_n1j_vq5_w2b__ol_jk1_yds_cgb">
<li class="li"><span class="ph">In <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4581766374554#topic_hfg_dyz_1hb" target="_blank">Admin Center</a>, click <img class="image" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/ac_people_icon.png">
<strong class="ph b">People</strong> in the sidebar, then select <strong class="ph b">Team &gt; Team members</strong>.</span></li>
<li class="li">Find the agent, click the options menu icon (<img class="image" id="topic_n1j_vq5_w2b__image_cgv_cpt_5xb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/ticket_field_options_icon.png">) on the agent's row, then select <strong class="ph b">Manage in Support</strong>.</li>
<li class="li">On the agent's profile, set the <strong class="ph b">User type</strong> to <strong class="ph b">End user</strong>.<p class="p">You'll see a
warning screen that informs you of the privileges that will be lost by this user if you
continue with the downgrade. Verify that this is what you want by selecting <strong class="ph b">Yes,
downgrade this user</strong>. Once you select this, your agent is no longer an agent and
will no longer count towards your agent limit.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<div class="p">
<div class="note">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> Downgrading the agent does not change your agent seat count. You will be charged for the
same number of agents unless you change your subscription (see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408834640666#topic_xtw_3kw_zgb" target="_blank">Changing plan subscriptions)</a>. </div>
</div>
<p class="p">Explore users might experience issues with some reports when they downgrade an agent.
Potential issues include:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_n1j_vq5_w2b__ul_k1q_2p3_m5b">
<li class="li">Reports that slice via user role can be affected, as the downgraded agent is now an
end user.</li>
<li class="li">Report tabs with user filtering enabled will no longer show the downgraded agent in the
drop-down.</li>
</ul>
<p class="p">If your Zendesk plan includes light agents, you may want to downgrade an agent to a light
agent, then suspend them, to mitigate the impact on their Explore reports.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title4" class="topic nested1" id="topic_zfr_vq5_w2b">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title4">Suspend an agent's account</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">After you've reassigned the agent's tickets and downgraded the agent's role to end user,
you can optionally suspend the agent's account to prevent the user from signing in to your
help center. You can suspend an agent's account immediately after you've downgraded
them.</p>
<div class="p">
<div class="note">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> If the suspended user authored any Explore dashboards, you will lose access to them.
To regain access, upgrade the suspended user to an admin, share the dashboard with another
admin, and then suspend the user again. <p class="p">If the user account of the dashboard owner has
been deleted, any unshared dashboards they created cannot be recovered.</p>
</div>
</div>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">To suspend a user from your account</strong></p>
<div class="p">
<ol class="ol" id="topic_zfr_vq5_w2b__ol_wvw_n3s_cgb">
<li class="li"><span class="ph">In <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408838272410" target="_blank">Support</a>, click <strong class="ph b">Customers</strong>
(<img class="image" id="topic_zfr_vq5_w2b__image_l11_mrz_lqb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/ac_people_icon.png">) in the sidebar.</span></li>
<li class="li">Click the name of the agent who was downgraded to an end user.</li>
<li class="li">Click the drop-down icon at the top right of the profile and select
<strong class="ph b">Suspend</strong>.<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_zfr_vq5_w2b__image_xcb_5cs_cgb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/user-options-suspend-updated-2.png"></p>
</li>
<li class="li">Enter the reason for the suspension and select <strong class="ph b">Suspend user</strong>.</li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
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