Routing and automation options for incoming tickets

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<p id="docs-ai-summary-content">Improve your ticket workflows by using routing and automation options. Choose between push and pull models to assign tickets to agents or let them self-assign. Utilize business rules like triggers, automations, and macros to automate actions and keep tickets moving. Explore omnichannel routing for consistent logic across channels, and consider skills-based routing for specialized handling.</p>
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<p class="p" dir="ltr">One of the best ways to increase agent efficiency and streamline your support tasks is
to use routing options to manage your ticket workflows.</p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr"> Zendesk provides a number of business rules and routing options to make sure
your tickets get to the right agent as quickly as possible. You can either configure a
"push" routing model, which assigns tickets to agents, or a "pull" model, where agents
assign work to themselves. This article explains these options and how they can be
combined to meet your unique needs.</p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">This article contains the following topics: </p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_dwt_ddp_plb__ul_m2g_2dp_plb">
<li class="li" dir="ltr"><a class="xref" href="#topic_wl4_cwk_wxb">About the standard Zendesk ticket routing framework</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_fxc_1zk_wxb">Understanding the routing models</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_pd3_d4n_cyb">Using business rules and configuration options to automate ticket workflows and routing</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title2" class="topic nested1" id="topic_wl4_cwk_wxb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title2">About the standard Zendesk ticket routing framework</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p" dir="ltr">When you create an account, you can start receiving support requests right
away using the default support email address created during the registration
process. All support requests sent to your account, via email or another channel,
automatically become tickets in your system. Zendesk provides standard <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408829483930#topic_gnx_2tm_vt" target="_blank">views</a> and <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408828984346" target="_blank">triggers</a> that work together to create a basic routing
framework for tickets. </p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">Without any configuration beyond the initial registration process, the
standard triggers and views work together so that every new and updated ticket
appears in at least one view and triggers at least one notification. </p>
<div class="p" dir="ltr">When a new ticket is submitted to your support address, it appears in the
following standard views and could appear in others depending on your plan type and
other agents on your account.<ul class="ul" id="topic_wl4_cwk_wxb__ul_jch_ydl_wxb">
<li class="li">Your unsolved tickets</li>
<li class="li">All unsolved tickets</li>
<li class="li">Recently updated tickets</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="p">When a ticket is created or updated, the following standard triggers fire:<ul class="ul" id="topic_wl4_cwk_wxb__ul_lqr_4gl_wxb">
<li class="li">Notify requester and CCs of received request</li>
<li class="li">Notify all agents of received request</li>
</ul>
</div>
<p class="p">In this basic framework, agents can use the trigger notifications and views to assign
tickets to themselves or tickets can be assigned to them manually.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title3" class="topic nested1" id="topic_fxc_1zk_wxb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title3">Understanding the routing models</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">In the simplest workflows, fine-tuning the standard views and triggers might provide
sufficient routing. However, even simple workflows can benefit from more advanced
routing logic. There are two types of routing models you can configure: "push"
models, which assign tickets to agents, or a "pull" models, where agents assign work
to themselves.</p>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title4" class="topic nested2" id="topic_z55_b4n_cyb">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title4">Routing models</h3>
<div class="body">
<div class="p">You can configure the following routing models:<ul class="ul" id="topic_z55_b4n_cyb__ul_r1v_f4s_wxb">
<li class="li">Push routing models:<ul class="ul" id="topic_z55_b4n_cyb__ul_swp_c1z_wxb">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Omnichannel routing</strong>: Route tickets from <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4409149119514#topic_psx_hxk_3yb" target="_blank">email (including web form,
side conversations, and API)</a>, calls, and messaging
conversations based on agent status and capacity. On
Professional and Enterprise plans, you can also route tickets
based on priority and skills. On all plans, you can run triggers
against new tickets from all channels, and you can use triggers
to set and manage skills on tickets. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4409149119514" target="_blank">About omnichannel routing
with unified agent status</a> and <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5833468891674#topic_d2l_bnx_txb" target="_blank">Using skills with omnichannel
routing</a>.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Round robin</strong>: A way to assign tickets by rotating through
your agents. Round robin ticket management ensures tickets are
distributed evenly among agents, but doesn't consider ticket
complexity or expertise requirements. You can configure
omnichannel routing to assign based on round robin rather than
spare capacity. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/7990049158554" target="_blank">Using round robin routing for
email, messaging conversations, and call
tickets</a>.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Manual ticket assignment</strong>: Manually triage tickets and
assign them to your agents. This works best for small teams with
low-volume ticket queues. This routing model is best used in
conjunction with <a class="xref" href="#topic_pd3_d4n_cyb">other business rules and configuration options</a>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="li">Pull routing models<ul class="ul" id="topic_z55_b4n_cyb__ul_xks_21z_wxb">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Play mode</strong>: Play mode allows agents to click through a
view using the play button and be assigned to the next available
ticket automatically. Play mode can be restricted to only
display tickets from a specific view and, on Enterprise plans,
admins can configure <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408825479066" target="_blank">Guided mode</a> so agents
are only allowed to access tickets using the Play button.
See<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/9186492658714" target="_blank"> Using the Play button</a>
and <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/209299228" target="_blank">Using a Play button-centered
workflow</a>.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Standalone skills-based routing</strong>: Skills are agent
attributes that determine an agent's suitability to work a ticket
that requires them. Skills can be used as a standalone routing
method, where agents use filtered views to assign tickets with
matching skills to themselves, or as part of omnichannel routing
(push method). <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5833468891674" target="_blank">See About using skills to
route tickets</a>.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Manually self-assigning tickets from views</strong>: Allow agents
to assign tickets directly to themselves from views. Letting
agents choose their own work at their own pace can work well for
some small teams, but can quickly become unmanageable.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title5" class="topic nested2" id="topic_tpk_bq5_xxb">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title5">Deciding whether to use omnichannel routing</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Omnichannel routing is Zendesk's most sophisticated and complete routing
solution. It provides consistent routing logic across the email (including web
form, side conversations, and API), messaging, and voice channels. Tickets are
assigned to agents based on their <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5133523363226" target="_blank">availability</a> and <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4776409839770" target="_blank">capacity</a>. On Professional plans and
above, tickets can also be routed based on priority and <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408838892826" target="_blank">skills</a>. Using omnichannel routing also
means agents can set a single unified status for all channels rather than
setting statuses for each channel separately. </p>
<p class="p">When using omnichannel routing, tickets are created as soon as a request is
received from any channel. This means triggers can be run on all channels,
including the voice channel. Additionally, omnichannel routing enables you to
use triggers to assign skills to tickets. This means skills can be automatically
updated when tickets are created or updated, not just upon creation.</p>
<p class="p">With omnichannel routing, you can also organize your tickets into <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6712096584090" target="_blank">multiple queues</a>. Creating additional
queues allows you to use all of the omnichannel routing logic but
route tickets to different groups of agents and even specify secondary (also
known as fallback) groups for each queue.</p>
<div class="p">So, is omnichannel routing the right routing solution for you? Consider the
following:<ul class="ul" id="topic_tpk_bq5_xxb__ul_bxk_c55_xxb">
<li class="li">Omnichannel routing has some <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4409149119514" target="_blank">requirements and limitations</a>
to be aware of before choosing this routing solution.</li>
<li class="li">What Zendesk account plan do you have? See the <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4409149119514#topic_r5j_c3p_m5b" target="_blank">Summary of features by plan</a> to
ensure you'd have access to the functionality you want to use.</li>
<li class="li">The size of your organization. Omnichannel routing will provide
increased efficiency at any scale, but especially for larger and more
complex organizations.</li>
<li class="li">The <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408824097050" target="_blank">channels</a> through which you
receive tickets. Even if you only use one of the channels supported by
omnichannel routing, it can still be a great fit as your routing
solution. However, it also means simpler routing solutions could also
work well for you.</li>
<li class="li">The business rules you already have in place to help route tickets.
Standard triggers and views provide a simple, but effective routing
framework. You may have added new ones or modified the originals. Are
those business rules accomplishing what you want? What, specifically,
are you looking to address by considering alternative routing solutions?
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<p class="p">After considering all of this, if you've decided to use omnichannel routing, see
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4409149119514" target="_blank">About omnichannel routing</a>, <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5866925319962" target="_blank">Turning on omnichannel routing</a>, and
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4828787357210" target="_blank">Managing your omnichannel routing
configuration</a>.</p>
<p class="p">If, on the other hand, you want to use routing solutions such as standalone
skills-based routing, play mode, or some custom solution, revisit the list of
<a class="xref" href="#topic_fxc_1zk_wxb">tools and configuration
options</a> you can use.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title6" class="topic nested1" id="topic_pd3_d4n_cyb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title6">Using business rules and configuration options to automate ticket workflows and routing</h2>
<div class="body">
<div class="p">The following business rules and configuration options can also be used to define and
automate ticket routing behavior within Zendesk's routing solutions or in a custom
configuration. Different tools are most helpful at different points in the ticket
workflow, so they're organized accordingly:<ul class="ul" id="topic_pd3_d4n_cyb__ul_hzf_xzh_qbc">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_dcd_pvh_qbc">Kicking off the ticket workflow</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_h5j_dwh_qbc">Performing automated actions to keep things moving</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_azx_wyh_qbc">Monitoring your ticket workflows</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<p class="p">Additionally, you can refer to <a class="xref" href="#topic_ym1_p13_qbc">Recipes
for automated ticket workflows</a> to see some examples of how these business
rules and configurations can be used together.</p>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title7" class="topic nested2" id="topic_dcd_pvh_qbc">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title7">Kicking off the ticket workflow</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">The following business rules and configuration options are commonly used early in
the ticket workflow because they can be leveraged by other business rules later
in the workflow.</p>
<div class="p">
<ul class="ul" id="topic_dcd_pvh_qbc__ul_ytd_vvh_qbc">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Support addresses</strong>: By default, you have one email address for
users to submit tickets to. Using multiple Support email addresses
provides a way to route tickets based on the email address the customer
used to contact support. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408888639258" target="_blank">A complete guide to understanding
email in Zendesk: How the email channel works</a> and <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408842868506" target="_blank">Adding support addresses for users to
submit tickets</a>.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Ticket forms</strong>: A predefined set of ticket fields for support
requests. Using multiple ticket forms provides a way to collect more
specialized information from customers. This helps ensure agents have
the information they need to assist the customer, but also makes it
possible to route tickets based on the ticket form that the customer
used. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408846520858" target="_blank">Creating multiple ticket
forms</a>, <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408842873498" target="_blank">Presenting ticket forms to end
users</a>, and <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408883152794" target="_blank">Adding custom fields to your tickets
and support requests forms</a>. (Suite Growth and above or
Support Enterprise) </li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Tags</strong>: A word or phrase you can use to add more context to ticket
and incorporate into business rule logic. You can also search for
tickets by tags and use tags when configuring views. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408888664474" target="_blank">About tags</a> and <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408835059482" target="_blank">Working with ticket tags</a>.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Channels</strong>: The way you communicate with your customers and can be
used as a condition in triggers to route tickets based on the channel
through which it was received. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408824097050" target="_blank">About Zendesk channels</a>.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Service Level Agreements (SLAs)</strong>: An agreed upon measure of the
response and resolution times that your support team delivers to your
customer. SLAs are great stand-alone tools to help you attain your
service goals. However, they can also be used as conditions in views and
automations to reroute and prioritize tickets based on service promises
made to customers. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5600997516058" target="_blank">About SLA policies and how they
work</a> and <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408829459866" target="_blank">Defining SLA policies</a>.
(Professional and Enterprise)</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Custom ticket fields</strong>: You can customize your ticket forms and web
forms to require certain information from customers before a ticket is
accepted into the queue or you can add custom ticket fields to the
tickets themselves. Then you can use that information as conditions in
business rules to route tickets. Information stored in custom ticket
fields can also help agents have necessary context for tickets. Examples
of how you can use custom ticket fields include: a <em class="ph i">Language</em> field
to automate routing to an agent who speaks that language or asset
management fields such as <em class="ph i">order number</em> or <em class="ph i">product type</em> to
help surface key information.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Intelligent triage</strong> (Copilot add-on): If you <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4550640560538" target="_blank">use intelligent triage</a>, you
can automatically route email and messaging tickets to the right teams
based on what the ticket is about (its intent), the language it's
written in, whether the customer's message is positive or negative (its
sentiment), or a combination of all three. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4973607684506" target="_blank">Choosing a routing method for
automatically triaged tickets</a>.</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title8" class="topic nested2" id="topic_h5j_dwh_qbc">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title8">Performing automated actions to keep things moving</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">The following business rules are used to actually perform automated actions when
tickets meet certain criteria. You can define ticket criteria based on the
business rules and configuration options listed under <a class="xref" href="#topic_dcd_pvh_qbc">Kicking off the ticket
workflow</a>.</p>
<div class="p">
<ul class="ul" id="topic_h5j_dwh_qbc__ul_e2w_lwh_qbc">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Triggers</strong>: Event-based business rules that perform actions any
time a ticket is created or updated. They can send notifications and
modify ticket properties. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408822236058" target="_blank">About Zendesk triggers and how they
work</a>, <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408828984346" target="_blank">About the standard ticket
triggers</a>, and Creating ticket triggers.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Automations</strong>: Time-based business rules that perform actions based
on time elapsed. Similar to triggers, they can send notifications and
modify ticket properties. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408832701850" target="_blank">About automations and how they
work</a> and <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408835051546" target="_blank">About the standard Support
automations</a>.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Macros</strong>: Predefined set of actions that agents apply to a ticket
with one click. Macros can be used to automatically fill in ticket
fields and provide consistent responses, saving your agents time and
effort for common questions and scenarios.</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title9" class="topic nested2" id="topic_azx_wyh_qbc">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title9">Monitoring your ticket workflows</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">The following business rules and configuration options can help you monitor the
ticket workflow and ensure tickets keep moving through it.</p>
<div class="p">
<ul class="ul" id="topic_azx_wyh_qbc__ul_m3r_hzh_qbc">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Views</strong>: A way to organize tickets based on certain criteria. You
can think of them as containers for your tickets. A single ticket can
appear in multiple views or no views at all. When you begin using
Support, every ticket appears in at least one <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408829483930#topic_gnx_2tm_vt" target="_blank">standard view</a>. You can also
define targeted views, which allows agents to self-assign tickets from a
pre-filtered set of tickets in their view. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408888828570" target="_blank">Creating views to build customized lists of tickets</a>.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Explore reporting</strong>: <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408831710618" target="_blank">Explore</a> data sets now include
a lot of information about channel, routing, and agent capacity and
availability. 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>.</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title10" class="topic nested2" id="topic_ym1_p13_qbc">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title10">Recipes for automated ticket workflows and routing</h3>
<div class="body">
<div class="p">These articles provide some examples of how you can use these Zendesk business
rules and configuration options together to automate ticket workflows and
routing:<ul class="ul" id="topic_ym1_p13_qbc__ul_xt1_v13_qbc">
<li class="li" dir="ltr"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408889268378" target="_blank">Streamlining your Support
workflow</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6865919184282" target="_blank">Workflow: Using omnichannel routing
to achieve first reply time SLAs</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5897949816730" target="_blank">Workflow: Using skills to route calls
to specific agents with omnichannel routing</a></li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408834732954" target="_blank">Workflow recipe: Manage outages using
SLA policies</a></li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408842979994" target="_blank">Workflow recipe: Using triggers to
manage requests from important customers</a></li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408882427418" target="_blank">Workflow recipe: Funneling orders
through Zendesk Support</a></li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408832737818" target="_blank">Workflow recipe: Creating an approval
process</a></li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408832749210-Sending-automated-ticket-reminders-to-customers" target="_blank">Workflow recipe: Sending automated
ticket reminders to customers</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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