Adding and managing skills on tickets

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Learn how to assign and manage skills on tickets to optimize routing. Use triggers or routing rules to automatically add skills, ensuring tickets reach the right agents. You can also manually adjust skills when needed. Skills don't carry over to follow-up tickets; instead, they're reassigned based on your rules. This feature enhances ticket management by aligning skills with agent capabilities.
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<div class="note fastpath">
<span class="fastpathtitle">Location: </span> <span class="ph">Admin Center &gt; Objects and rules &gt; Business rules &gt;
Skills</span>
</div>
<p class="p">To use skills for routing purposes, they must be assigned to tickets. We recommend that
you use triggers to automatically evaluate new or updated tickets and add skills, but
you can also use routing rules to apply skills at ticket creation or manually add or
remove skills at any time.</p>
<div class="p">This article contains the following topics:<ul class="ul" id="topic_pgl_dql_5xb__ul_vxp_5qt_5xb">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_ncp_krt_5xb">Assigning skills to tickets</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_obh_qrt_5xb">Removing skills from a ticket</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_vgq_xxv_3mb">Understanding how skills are applied to follow-up tickets</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<p class="p">For information about who can see the skills field on tickets, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5834247413786" target="_blank">Viewing a ticket's skills</a>.</p>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title2" class="topic nested1" id="topic_ncp_krt_5xb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title2">Assigning skills to tickets</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">A ticket must have at least one skill assigned to it if you want it to be routed to
an agent based on skills. The best way to do this is using triggers or routing
rules, so that skills are automatically added to tickets meeting the specified
criteria, but they can also be added or adjusted manually. </p>
<p class="p">Even when skills are added automatically, it's important to make sure tickets without
skills are also assigned to agents. Omnichannel routing handles this seamlessly, by
considering skills if they are present, but otherwise assigning tickets based on
priority and agent availability. For standalone skills-based routing, you may want
to define a view specifically for tickets without skills. You should also consider
if there is a missing skill or skill condition that would have resulted in a skill
being assigned to a ticket.</p>
<p class="p">Skills cannot be assigned to <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/9204149016346" target="_blank">AI agent tickets</a>.</p>
<div class="p">
<div class="note note">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> All agents are considered matches to tickets that have no skills
assigned.</div>
</div>
<p class="p">There are three ways you can add skills to tickets:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_ncp_krt_5xb__ul_axq_md1_vxb">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_bbs_lrt_5xb">Using triggers to add skills to tickets (recommended)</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_m2t_mrt_5xb">Using routing rules to add skills to tickets</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_ams_nrt_5xb">Manually adding skills to tickets</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title3" class="topic nested2" id="topic_bbs_lrt_5xb">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title3">Using triggers to add skills to tickets (recommended)</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">When omnichannel routing is turned on, you can use triggers to assign skills to
tickets because they can add skills when tickets are updated as well as when
they're created. Additionally, the skills actions for ticket triggers also allow
you to specify the priority of the skills for routing purposes. Skills marked as
<em class="ph i">required</em> can't time out and are always part of the criteria for
routing the ticket to an agent, but <em class="ph i">optional</em> skills stop being considered
for routing purposes when a skills timeout occurs. Trigger actions related to
skills are available when you have created at least one skill. For more
information, see the <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408893545882" target="_blank">Triggers conditions and actions
reference</a>.</p>
<div class="note note">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> If you were previously using skills and had defined routing rules, we
recommend that you delete them and recreate the logic with triggers. If you
don't delete them, they will run before triggers and other business rules when a
ticket is created, but can't be used to add or update skills after the initial
creation.</div>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">To configure a trigger to add skills to tickets</strong></p>
<ol class="ol" id="topic_bbs_lrt_5xb__ol_ypf_151_vxb">
<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" id="topic_bbs_lrt_5xb__d9e1714" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/ac_objects_rules_icon.png">
<strong class="ph b">Objects and rules</strong> in the sidebar, then select <strong class="ph b">Business rules &gt;
Triggers</strong>.</span></li>
<li class="li">
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408886797466" target="_blank">Create</a> or <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408882237722#topic_dwq_zoy_tb" target="_blank">edit</a> a trigger.</li>
<li class="li">Under <strong class="ph b">Conditions</strong>, <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408893545882#topic_i3y_fkz_1cb" target="_blank">specify the conditions</a> under which
you want the skills to be added.</li>
<li class="li">Under <strong class="ph b">Actions</strong>, select <strong class="ph b">Add skills</strong> and then select the
individual skills to be added. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408893545882#topic_ncz_4kz_1cb" target="_blank">Building trigger action
statements</a>.</li>
<li class="li">For each skill you select, specify a priority:<ul class="ul" id="topic_bbs_lrt_5xb__ul_fkz_vxr_mcc">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Required</strong>: Omnichannel routing considers only agents with
required skills eligible to receive the tickets. </li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Optional</strong>: Optional skills are subject to the <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4828787357210#topic_ag5_tlr_wbc" target="_blank">skills timeout</a> defined in
the omnichannel routing configuration. When a skills timeout occurs,
omnichannel routing ignores optional skills in order of priority,
beginning with low priority skills, when looking for available
agents.</li>
</ul>
<div class="note note">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> Each skill that is dropped from consideration increases the
number of agents eligible to receive the ticket and, in turn, increases
the likelihood of it being assigned.</div>
</li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Save</strong>.</li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title4" class="topic nested2" id="topic_m2t_mrt_5xb">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title4">Using routing rules to add skills to tickets</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">If you choose not to use omnichannel routing and <a class="xref" href="#topic_bbs_lrt_5xb">triggers to assign skills to tickets</a>, you'll need to
define conditions for each skill that determine which tickets they're applied
to. These sets of conditions are called <em class="ph i">routing rules</em>. When a ticket is
created that meets the conditions defined in a skill's routing rule, that skill
is attached to the ticket. Routing rules are applied only upon ticket creation,
which means:</p>
<div class="p">
<ul class="ul" id="topic_m2t_mrt_5xb__ul_hpm_3jp_jdb">
<li class="li">If a ticket is created before a routing rule is set up, it won't have
that skill attached to it.</li>
<li class="li">If a ticket is updated so that it no longer meets a skill's conditions,
the ticket will still require that skill until you manually remove it
from the ticket.</li>
<li class="li">If a ticket is updated so that it meets the conditions for a new skill,
the ticket will not start to require that new skill until you manually
add it to the ticket.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">To create a routing rule</strong></p>
<div class="p">
<ol class="ol" id="topic_m2t_mrt_5xb__ol_vqd_jvf_3db">
<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" id="topic_m2t_mrt_5xb__d9e1806" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/ac_objects_rules_icon.png">
<strong class="ph b">Objects and rules</strong> in the sidebar, then select <strong class="ph b">Business rules &gt;
Skills</strong>.</span></li>
<li class="li">Click the skill you want to add a routing rule for.</li>
<li class="li">Under <strong class="ph b">Tickets</strong> &gt; <strong class="ph b">All of the following conditions</strong> or <strong class="ph b">Any
of the following conditions</strong>, click <strong class="ph b">Add condition</strong>. </li>
<li class="li">Select a condition, a field operator, and a value.<p class="p"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_m2t_mrt_5xb__image_pyr_dbg_3db" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/sbr_ticket_condition.png" width="350"></p>
</li>
<li class="li">(Optional) Repeat these steps until you've added all of the conditions
for the skill.</li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Save</strong>.</li>
</ol>
</div>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">To edit a routing rule</strong></p>
<div class="p">
<ol class="ol" id="topic_m2t_mrt_5xb__ol_uvb_tv1_vxb">
<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" id="topic_m2t_mrt_5xb__d9e1806" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/ac_objects_rules_icon.png">
<strong class="ph b">Objects and rules</strong> in the sidebar, then select <strong class="ph b">Business rules &gt;
Skills</strong>.</span></li>
<li class="li">Click the skill you want to modify the routing rules for.</li>
<li class="li">Under <strong class="ph b">Tickets</strong>, click the delete icon (<strong class="ph b">x</strong>) next to each
skill you want to remove.</li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Save</strong>.</li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title5" class="topic nested2" id="topic_ams_nrt_5xb">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title5">Manually adding skills to tickets</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">In addition to automatically adding skills to tickets using triggers and
routing rules, admins and agents with permission can also manually add or update
skills on tickets at any time.</p>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">To manually add skills to a ticket</strong></p>
<div class="p">
<ol class="ol">
<li class="li">In Support, <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408882039450-Working-with-tickets-#topic_xlz_zsm_pf:~:text=syntax%20(if%20applicable).-,To%20open%20a%20ticket,-Locate%20the%20ticket" target="_blank">open the ticket</a>.</li>
<li class="li"> Under the <strong class="ph b">Skills</strong> field, use the dropdown so select the skills
you want to add.</li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Submit</strong>.</li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title6" class="topic nested1" id="topic_obh_qrt_5xb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title6">Removing skills from a ticket</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">You can use triggers to remove skills from tickets when they are created or updated.
You can also remove skills from tickets manually at any time.</p>
<div class="p">
<strong class="ph b">To use triggers to remove a skill from a ticket</strong><ol class="ol" id="topic_obh_qrt_5xb__ol_hr3_xd1_vxb">
<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" id="topic_obh_qrt_5xb__d9e1714" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/ac_objects_rules_icon.png">
<strong class="ph b">Objects and rules</strong> in the sidebar, then select <strong class="ph b">Business rules &gt;
Triggers</strong>.</span></li>
<li class="li">
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408886797466" target="_blank">Create</a> or <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408882237722#topic_dwq_zoy_tb" target="_blank">edit</a> a trigger.</li>
<li class="li">Under <strong class="ph b">Conditions</strong>, <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408893545882#topic_i3y_fkz_1cb" target="_blank">specify the conditions</a> under which
you want the skill to be removed.</li>
<li class="li">Under <strong class="ph b">Actions</strong>, select <strong class="ph b">Remove skills</strong> and then select the
individual skills to be removed. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408893545882#topic_ncz_4kz_1cb" target="_blank">Building trigger action
statements</a>.</li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Save</strong>.</li>
</ol>
</div>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">To manually remove skills from a ticket</strong></p>
<div class="p">
<ol class="ol" id="topic_obh_qrt_5xb__ol_e4n_zbz_5xb">
<li class="li">In Support, <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408882039450-Working-with-tickets-#topic_xlz_zsm_pf:~:text=syntax%20(if%20applicable).-,To%20open%20a%20ticket,-Locate%20the%20ticket" target="_blank">open the ticket</a>.</li>
<li class="li"> Under the <strong class="ph b">Skills</strong> field, click the <strong class="ph b">x</strong> icon next to the name of
the skill you want to remove.</li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Submit</strong>.</li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title7" class="topic nested1" id="topic_vgq_xxv_3mb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title7">Understanding how skills are applied to follow-up tickets</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">When a follow-up ticket is created for a closed ticket, you may notice that skills on
the follow-up ticket don't always match the skills on the original ticket.
Generally, when a follow-up ticket is created, it inherits data from the original
ticket (see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408883882522-Creating-a-follow-up-for-a-closed-ticket" target="_blank">Creating a follow-up for a closed ticket</a>).
Skills are an exception to this rule.</p>
<p class="p">Follow-up tickets don't inherit skills. Instead, skills are applied to the follow-up
ticket based on your triggers or routing rules when the follow-up ticket is
created.</p>
</div>
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