Analyzing your ticket backlog history with Explore

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<p id="docs-hc-snippet" style="display: none;">Your ticket backlog is a snapshot of your unsolved tickets at the end of any given date and can be a useful indication of how your support organization is doing. To help you report on your backlog, Zendesk Explore includes theSupport: Backlog historydataset. This dataset functions a little differently than other Explore datasets. For example, theSupport: Ticketsdataset shows you the current state of the tickets in your Support account, and theSupport: Updates historydataset can show past events and changes to tickets.</p>
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<p class="p">Your ticket backlog is a snapshot of your unsolved tickets at the end of any given date
and can be a useful indication of how your support organization is doing. To help you
report on your backlog, Zendesk Explore includes the <em class="ph i">Support: Backlog history</em>
dataset. This dataset functions a little differently than other Explore datasets. For
example, the <em class="ph i">Support: Tickets</em> dataset shows you the current state of the tickets
in your Support account, and the <em class="ph i">Support: Updates history</em> dataset can show past
events and changes to tickets.</p>
<p class="p">The backlog history dataset is different in that it shows a snapshot of unsolved tickets
at the end of any given date. Unlike the other datasets, this information cannot be
found anywhere else in your Zendesk account. Explore collects backlog information every
time your <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408820703386" target="_blank">data synchronizes</a> with Explore.</p>
<p class="p">If you're used to other Explore datasets, you'll find that the backlog dataset contains
fewer metrics and attributes than other Explore datasets. This is because of the large
amount of historical ticket information it stores. However, this does mean that backlog
history reports can be a little easier to create.</p>
<p class="p">Use this article to learn more about how to examine your ticket backlog using
Explore.</p>
<p class="p">This article contains the following sections:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="Explore_backlog_dataset__ul_ubn_5wf_mnb">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_hrm_c2g_4nb">Using the pre-built backlog history reports</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_sbd_kwf_mnb">Creating a backlog history report (Explore Professional and Enterprise)</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title2" class="topic nested1" id="topic_hrm_c2g_4nb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title2">Using the pre-built backlog history reports</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">To make things easier for you, Explore contains a selection of pre-built backlog
history reports.</p>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">To view the pre-built backlog history reports</strong></p>
<ol class="ol" id="topic_hrm_c2g_4nb__ol_kxz_dfn_4nb">
<li class="li">In Zendesk Support, open the <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408838272410" target="_blank">product menu</a>.</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">From the list of products, click <strong class="ph b">Analytics</strong>. Explore opens and
displays the dashboard library.</li>
<li class="li">From the list of dashboards, select the <strong class="ph b">Zendesk Support</strong> dashboard.</li>
<li class="li">In the <strong class="ph b">Support</strong> dashboard, click the <strong class="ph b">Backlog</strong> tab.</li>
</ol>
<p class="p">On the <strong class="ph b">Backlog</strong> tab, you can view the following reports:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_hrm_c2g_4nb__ul_x2g_jfn_4nb">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Daily historical backlog by status (30 days):</strong> A list of your open ticket
backlog over the last 30 days to help you identify trends.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Weekly historical backlog by status (12 weeks):</strong> A list of your open
ticket backlog over the last 12 weeks to help you identify trends.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Weekly historical backlog by selected attribute (top 10/12 weeks):</strong> The
number of unsolved tickets at the end of each week for the last 12 weeks. Choose
a tab to display results by ticket brand, group, channel, priority, or
type.</li>
</ul>
<p class="p"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_hrm_c2g_4nb__image_qsp_fgg_4nb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/explore-prebuilt-dash-81.png" width="550"></p>
<p class="p">For more information about the <strong class="ph b">Backlog</strong> tab and the other tabs on the Support
dashboard, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408835846810" target="_blank">Analyzing your Support ticket activity and agent
performance</a>.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title3" class="topic nested1" id="topic_sbd_kwf_mnb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title3">Creating a backlog history report (Explore Professional and Enterprise)</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">If you can't find what you need in the pre-built reports and you're using Explore
Professional or Enterprise, you can use the supplied metrics and attributes in the
backlog history dataset to build your own reports.</p>
<p class="p">Here's an example report that displays the number of tickets that were unsolved in
your account at the end of each month. If you need help building Explore reports,
see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408821589530" target="_blank">Creating reports</a>.</p>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">To create the report</strong></p>
<ol class="ol" id="topic_sbd_kwf_mnb__ol_l5p_pgn_4nb">
<li class="li">In Explore, click the reports (<img class="image" id="topic_sbd_kwf_mnb__image_m5p_pgn_4nb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/Explore_query_icon.png" width="16">) icon.</li>
<li class="li">In the Reports library, click <strong class="ph b">New report</strong>.</li>
<li class="li">On the <strong class="ph b">Choose a dataset</strong> page, click <strong class="ph b">Support</strong> &gt; <strong class="ph b">Backlog
history</strong> &gt; <strong class="ph b">Support: Backlog history</strong>, then click <strong class="ph b">Start
report</strong>. The report builder opens.</li>
<li class="li">In the <strong class="ph b">Metrics</strong> panel, click <strong class="ph b">Add</strong>.</li>
<li class="li">From the list of metrics, choose <strong class="ph b">Backlog tickets (unsolved) </strong>&gt;
<strong class="ph b">Tickets</strong><strong class="ph b">, </strong>then click <strong class="ph b">Apply</strong>. </li>
<li class="li">In the <strong class="ph b">Rows </strong>panel, click <strong class="ph b">Add</strong>.</li>
<li class="li">From the list of attributes, choose <strong class="ph b">Time - Backlog recorded </strong>&gt; <strong class="ph b">Backlog
recorded - Year</strong> and<strong class="ph b">Time - Backlog end of period</strong> &gt; <strong class="ph b">End of
month</strong><strong class="ph b">, </strong>then click <strong class="ph b">Apply</strong>.<p class="p">For this example, the finished
report is displayed with the <strong class="ph b">Table</strong> visualization, but you can use any
chart type you want.</p>
<p class="p"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_sbd_kwf_mnb__image_dvk_whn_4nb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/Explore_backlog_sample_1.png" width="400"></p>
</li>
</ol>
<div class="p">
<div class="note tip">
<span class="tiptitle">Tip:</span> If you're report takes too long to generate or if you see a timeout error, add a
filter to your report to restrict the results. For example, you could add the
<strong class="ph b">Time - Backlog recorded</strong> &gt; <strong class="ph b">Backlog recorded - Date</strong> attribute
to the <strong class="ph b">Filters</strong> panel in the report builder to restrict your results to
specific dates.</div>
</div>
<p class="p">For a list of all the metrics and attributes you can use to build backlog reports in
Explore, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408827693594" target="_blank">Metrics and attributes for Zendesk
Support</a>.</p>
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