Initial Setup and Onboarding with Zendesk
Setup starts with configuring your support channels (email address, chat widget, phone number if using Talk), ticket fields relevant to your product/service, and basic triggers/automations for routing and SLA notifications -- Zendesk's setup wizard walks through the core channel configuration, but the trigger/automation logic still needs deliberate design based on your actual support workflow.
Practical Details
Zendesk Guide (the knowledge base/help center product) is worth setting up alongside ticketing from the start if self-service deflection is a goal, since retrofitting a knowledge base after agents are already fielding the same repetitive questions is slower than building it in from day one. Views (saved ticket filters, like "unassigned tickets" or "my open tickets") should be configured early to give agents a workable queue structure rather than one undifferentiated ticket list.
Actionable Considerations
- Design triggers and automations around your actual support workflow deliberately, rather than relying only on the setup wizard's basic defaults
- Build out a Zendesk Guide knowledge base from the start if self-service deflection is a goal, rather than adding it after repetitive tickets have already piled up
- Set up Views for common ticket queues (unassigned, by priority, by team) before agents start working tickets, so they're not scrolling one undifferentiated list