Zendesk People: Setting up agent roles, individual agents, and groups

In the world of customer service, Zendesk stands out as a dynamic platform known for its flexibility, efficiency, and user-friendly interface. A substantial part of its utility lies in the comprehensive setup of agent roles, individual agents, and groups.

In this post, I’ll walk you through the process of setting up Zendesk agent roles, individual agents, and groups. I’ll also shed some light on the different agent types – light agents and full agents – and underscore the importance of regularly auditing full agent seats for fiscal responsibility.

Setting Up Agent Roles

Before we dive into creating individual agents or groups, the first step is to set up agent roles. Roles are at the foundation of your Zendesk instance as they define what each agent can do. Follow the steps below to create roles, these can always be refined later:

1. Log in to your Zendesk account and navigate to the Admin Center.
2. In the left sidebar, click on “People” > “Roles”.
3. To set up agent roles, select “Create role”, where you can specify role names and permissions. Zendesk provides three built-in agent roles: Light Agent, Support Agent, and Admin. You can add to or customize these according to your needs.

Setting Up Individual Agents

Once you have defined the roles, you can proceed to set up individual agents:

1. Navigate to the Admin Center.
2. In the left sidebar, click on “People” > “Team members”.
3. To setup a new agent, select “Add a team member”.
4. Fill out the necessary information, including name, email, role (either light or full agent). Click “Save” to finalize.

Setting Up Groups

Now that you have your agents ready with their respective roles, the next step is to create groups:

1. Navigate to the Admin Center.
2. In the left sidebar, click on “People” > “Groups”>
3. To create a new group, select “Add group”. Here, you can input a unique group name and add agents to this group. Agents can be included in multiple groups.

Light Agents vs. Full Agents

Understanding the difference between light agents and full agents is critical for effective and cost-efficient Zendesk setup.

Light Agents have limited permissions. They can view tickets and reports, make private comments on tickets, but they cannot interact with customers or make significant ticket changes. Light agents are best suited for managers, supervisors, or any team members who need to monitor support activity but not engage directly with customers.

Full Agents, conversely, have unrestricted access to Zendesk Support. They can interact with customers, manage tickets, create views and reports, and, depending on the role permissions, administer Zendesk. Assign Full Agent roles to those who will be extensively involved in providing customer service, and Light Agent roles to those who need to track or audit support operations.

Managing Agent Seats

Effectively managing Zendesk agent seats is integral to fiscal responsibility. Zendesk charges based on the number of full agent seats, so it’s crucial to regularly audit your seat usage.

For auditing:

1. Navigate to the Admin Center.
2. In the left sidebar, click on “People” > “Team members”
3. Here, you can view the number of agent seats you’re currently using.

By analyzing usage patterns and considering factors such as ticket volume, service-level agreements, and operational hours, you can optimize the number of full agent seats. If some full agents are underutilized, consider changing their role to a light agent, saving costs without significantly impacting your support operation. If an agent leaves your organization, you can choose to suspend the agent’s account and change their role to end-user or just change their role to end user if they will need to continue as a customer. Suspending the account alone does not release the license.

Conclusion

Although the setup of Zendesk agent roles, individual agents, and groups might initially appear daunting, the process becomes a robust tool for optimizing customer service once understood. By regularly auditing and adjusting your

full agent seats, you can ensure excellent customer service while remaining financially responsible. Implementing these best practices leads to significant savings and a streamlined customer service operation.