Changing an agent's role

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<p id="docs-hc-snippet" style="display: none;">Administrators can change an agent's Support role, for example, by promoting an agent's role to administrator or downgrading it to end user. Before proceeding, we recommend readingDowngrading and removing an agent, which contains suggestions to avoid some of the common pitfalls in this process.</p>
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<p id="docs-ai-summary-content">Change an agent's role to adjust their responsibilities. Upgrade agents to administrators or light agents to agents, or downgrade agents to end users. After downgrading, you can suspend users. Role changes appear in the audit log, showing who made the change and any system-attributed adjustments. Be aware of potential impacts on reports when downgrading roles.</p>
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<p class="p">Administrators can change an agent's Support role, for example, by promoting an agent's role
to administrator or downgrading it to end user. Before proceeding, we recommend reading <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408888690842" target="_blank">Downgrading and removing an agent</a>, which contains suggestions to
avoid some of the common pitfalls in this process.</p>
<p class="p">This article covers the following topics:</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">Upgrading the agent to an administrator
role</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_qsp_w45_5zb">Upgrading a light agent’s role</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_n1j_vq5_w2b">Downgrading the agent to an end-user
role</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_f4n_bq5_w2b">Removing a user from your
account</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_ixk_cjh_4xb">Understanding role changes in the audit log</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title2" class="topic nested1" id="topic_m51_vq5_w2b">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title2">Upgrading an agent's role to administrator</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Administrators can promote agents to the administrator role.</p>
<div class="p">
<strong class="ph b">To promote an agent to the administrator role</strong><ol class="ol" id="topic_m51_vq5_w2b__ol_xsb_dhc_x2b">
<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">From the list, click the agent you want to upgrade.</li>
<li class="li">On the <strong class="ph b">Roles and access</strong> tab of the agent's page, select <strong class="ph b">Admin</strong> from the
<strong class="ph b">Role</strong> drop-down list for Support.<p class="p"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_m51_vq5_w2b__image_rwy_wlv_r4b" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/ac_promote_agent_admin.png" width="450"></p>
</li>
<li class="li">When you're finished, click <strong class="ph b">Save</strong>.<p class="p">An email is sent to all administrators
notifying them that the agent has been added as an administrator.</p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
<p class="p">The agent's existing group assignments remain; you can add or remove them from groups as
needed.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title3" class="topic nested1" id="topic_qsp_w45_5zb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title3">Upgrading a light agent’s role</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Admins and <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408882153882" target="_blank">agents in custom roles with permission</a> can promote a
light agent to an agent. Admins can promote light agents to admins. You need an available
agent seat to change the role. </p>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">To promote a light agent</strong></p>
<ol class="ol" id="topic_qsp_w45_5zb__ol_nqh_1p5_5zb">
<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">From the list, click the light agent you want to upgrade.</li>
<li class="li">On the <strong class="ph b">Roles and access</strong> tab of the agent's page, open the <strong class="ph b">Role</strong> drop-down
list for Support and change <strong class="ph b">Light agent</strong> to <strong class="ph b">Agent</strong>.<p class="p"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_qsp_w45_5zb__image_c33_bg5_5zb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/add_light_agents_promote2.png" width="400"></p>
</li>
<li class="li">When you're finished, click <strong class="ph b">Save</strong>.<p class="p">An email is sent to all administrators
notifying them that the light agent’s role has changed. </p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title4" class="topic nested1" id="topic_n1j_vq5_w2b">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title4">Downgrading an agent's role</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Administrators and <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408882153882" target="_blank">agents in custom roles with permission</a> can downgrade
an agent's role to end user.</p>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">To downgrade an agent's role</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-title5" class="topic nested1" id="topic_zfr_vq5_w2b">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title5">Removing a user from your account</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">After downgrading the agent to an end user, you can suspend them from the account. This removes them
from your Support instance.</p>
<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>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title6" class="topic nested1" id="topic_ixk_cjh_4xb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title6">Understanding role changes in the audit log</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">When an admin or <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408882153882" target="_blank">agent in a custom role with permission</a> changes an
agent's Support role, the change to the Support role will be attributed to the admin as the
actor in the audit log. Any associated changes, such as roles in other products or ticket
restrictions, will be attributed to the system user.</p>
<div class="p">For example, when an admin changes an agent's custom role and the new custom role includes
editor access to Explore, you'll see two changes in the audit logs:<ul class="ul" id="topic_ixk_cjh_4xb__ul_syb_1y3_k5b">
<li class="li">The change to the Support role (the admin is attributed)</li>
<li class="li">The change to the Explore role (the system user is attributed)</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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