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August 24, 2015

15 of the Best Zendesk Guides and Tutorials for Developers

Following the recent launch of our Calendar Connector for Zendesk, we thought it would be helpful to provide some more Zendesk-themed resources for developers in the form of a blog post.We've collated a range of tips and tricks across the board, so whether you're using Zendesk as standard or developing with it, there's sure to be something useful here.Enjoy!

Following the recent launch of our Calendar Connector for Zendesk, we thought it would be helpful to provide some more Zendesk-themed resources for developers in the form of a blog post.We've collated a range of tips and tricks across the board, so whether you're using Zendesk as standard or developing with it, there's sure to be something useful here.Enjoy!

Building a Zendesk app

As well as excellent documentation, Zendesk has published a five part tutorial for creating an app. It's divided into handy sections, so you can jump easily to where you're comfortable, and the attention to detail in the formatting makes it very user-friendly. Alternatively, you can skip to Zendesk's App Building Tools to get started straightaway.

Zendesk app development

Learning from sample apps

Zendesk has a great collection of sample apps available on GitHub so you can get hands on with the framework and API straightaway. It's a practical insight into everything you need to know about hooks, modals, secure requests, and much more.

Tracking assisted support tickets

If you have people contributing towards support tickets that they don't actually own (managers, system administrators, developers and other non-customer-facing roles), then you can ensure that they're kept in the loop with assisted tracking. Make it happen with this tutorial: How to track support tickets you assist but do not own.

Setting the default reply email address

When users create tickets from web interfaces, there's not much flexibility for the standard email address they reply to. However, if you're on a Zendesk plan that allows you to create custom business rules, you can change that by setting up a trigger. Learn more in this Zendesk community post.

Migrating data

This slide deck from Import2 takes you through the different migration options and the steps you need to complete to successfully move your data.

Making triggers and automations more user-friendly for agents

In environments with complex triggers and automations, it can sometimes be difficult for agents to understand what's just happened, regardless of how descriptive your naming is. This is especially true for situations that rarely occur. Happily, Mat Cropper has come up with a simple way to resolve this issue - internal comments. They can be applied to the specific triggers and automations you choose, and allow you to explain events in a way that makes sense to your agent or notify them of any actions they need to take. Get started here: Using targets to make triggers and automations more understandable for agents.

Creating an 'inbox zero' view

Give users something to be happy about by creating an '0 unsolved tickets' view. It eliminates pending tickets from the list so agents don't feel like they have a never-ending amount of work - ideal for boosting motivation and getting a better idea of actual workload. Check out the guide to Zendesk Inbox Zero from Screensteps.

Round robin ticket assignment

Using a simple script and a trigger, you can automate a 'round robin' assignment process to ensure fair, even distribution of tickets automatically. The full tutorial can be found here: Round robin ticket assignment.

Customising auto-response triggers

In some situations you won't want a customer to receive an auto-response email notifying them of a ticket's creation (for example if a ticket has been created from a phone call or live chat). You can make sure an auto-response is sent in some situations but not others by following this quick guide on customising auto-response triggers.

Translating Zendesk content

A more specialist tutorial, this translation guide from OneSky covers all the areas you need to know about when offering different translations of the same text within Zendesk.

Project management functionality

Create parent and child tickets (minus the usual Problem-Incident setting) to separate problems and queries from 'to do's. This is especially useful for smaller companies who want a cost-effective but practical integrated project management system. If you're a freelance developer, this is a great way to add additional functionality for clients within the same Zendesk system, meaning a smaller learning curve and less hassle. Read more about implementing project management for Zendesk.

Insights reporting tips

This round-up article on Insights reporting covers everything you need to know for Zendesk-related analytics tracking and reports. It features a whole range of statistics goodies, including tips for implementing the percentage of tickets solved for each agent, rates of repeat submitters, average time to first response ratings, hourly agent updates, and even guides on what stats to track.

Automatically email ticket information to non-agents

Allow agents to pass ticket information to non-agents quickly and easily with the short guide: How to email ticket info automatically to non-agents.

It's great for bigger or more technically split companies where other departments may not have access to the Zendesk system. It's also ideal for agency use, where you may want to pass information across companies without giving additional/unnecessary access.

Adding @mentions functionality

This How to add @mentions guide does exactly what it says on the tin, allowing agents to notify each other with @name, just like on Twitter, Slack, and other services.

Syncing tasks to calendars

We couldn't finish this post without a shameless plug for our very own Zendesk Calendar Connector. Turn tasks into events, and keep them synced automatically if you make any changes. Simply connect your calendar, add your Zendesk subdomain, choose your settings, and you're ready to go. Best of all, it's completely free.

How have you customised Zendesk? Send us a tweet (@cronofy) and let us know!

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