Key takeaways
- Build groups, roles and ticket rules first, then add agents, and turn on email forwarding last.
- Add people from Admin Center, People, Team, Team members. Check the Seats remaining figure first.
- Zendesk says manual forwarding results in suspended tickets, so set up automatic forwarding in your own email provider.
- Zendesk bills AI agents per automated resolution, with a small number included on Suite plans.
By the end of this walkthrough your team will have Zendesk set up so customer emails become tickets that agents share. You will have groups, agents with ticket access, a support address, and a first macro and view. Zendesk’s own launch guide says to build the structure first and add people and email last.
Before you start
Pick one admin. Zendesk suggests keeping admins to about 1 to 5 people. List your agents and decide how to group them, for example Sales questions and Billing. Know which support address customers use today.
The pricing page lists these plans per agent.
| Plan | What it adds for a team | Price as listed |
|---|---|---|
| Support Team | Email and ticketing, routing, automations and triggers | $19 per agent a month billed yearly, $25 monthly |
| Suite Team | Adds AI agents, messaging and live chat, omnichannel routing | $55 billed yearly, $69 monthly |
| Suite Professional | Adds Admin Copilot, skills-based routing, AI writing tools | $115 billed yearly, $149 monthly |
| Suite Enterprise + Copilot | Adds approval workflows, sandbox and custom agent roles | Contact sales |
The page lists a 14-day trial with Suite Professional features. AI agents are billed per automated resolution, at $1.50 on committed volume or $2.00 pay-as-you-go. Suite Team includes 5 per agent each month and Suite Professional includes 10.
Create the account and workspace
Zendesk’s launch guide gives the order of work. It does not list menu paths, so use Admin Center search for each item.
- Create groups with clear names. Groups control ticket assignment and access to views and macros.
- Confirm the user roles you need. Each user can have only one role. Do not assign them yet.
- Add support addresses for submitting tickets. Do not set up email forwarding yet.
- Create tags using underscores instead of spaces.
- Review the default triggers. Deactivate or change any you do not want before going live.
Invite your team
Only admins can add most team members. These steps come from Zendesk’s help article on adding agents.
- In Admin Center, click People, then select Team > Team members.
- Check the Seats remaining section. If none are left, you cannot add the person.
- Click Create team member.
- Enter the name and email, then click Next.
- Select a Support role and click Save.
Agents must belong to at least one group. Choose one ticket access level: all tickets, tickets in the agent’s groups, tickets in the agent’s organization, or assigned tickets only. On Enterprise plans, a custom role sets this instead. Zendesk says to add agents before you import end users.
Set the admin and data settings
The launch guide lists security settings, user settings and single sign-on as part of setup. Open them in Admin Center and review each. Set business schedules if you are on Professional or Enterprise, and SLA policies if your plan includes them.
On AI data, Zendesk’s AI trust page says customer data is never used to train third-party language models. It says Zendesk’s own models may be trained on customer data to the extent the customer instructs. It also says customers decide whether their data is used for product improvement. The page does not say where to change these settings, so ask Zendesk support.
Connect your other apps
The launch guide lists three kinds of connections. Add Marketplace apps and third-party integrations for tools you already use. Create webhooks if an outside system needs to be notified. Install the web widget code on your website or help center.
For email, connect your external support address to Zendesk. Then set up automatic forwarding in your own email provider, not in Zendesk. The guide warns against activating it until you are ready for all email to become tickets. Manual forwarding results in suspended tickets.
Tasks to try first
The launch guide says to create shared views to organize tickets and macros for standard replies. Use these settings as a starting point and change the wording to match your business.
A macro for a booking request
Use this when agents type the same reply again and again.
Macro name: Booking request received
Reply text:
Hi [customer first name],
Thanks for your request. We will confirm a time within one business day. Please reply with two days that suit you.
Thanks,
[agent name]A shared view for unanswered tickets
Use this when new tickets sit untouched.
View name: New and unassigned
Show: tickets that are new and have no assignee
Sort: oldest first
Share with: your support groupA group for billing questions
Use this when one person should own invoices.
Group name: Billing
Members: the person who handles invoices
Ticket access for members: Tickets in the agent's groups
Tag to add to billing tickets: billing_questionCommon problems
If tickets arrive as suspended, check how forwarding was set up. Zendesk’s launch guide says manual forwarding causes this, and automatic forwarding in your email provider avoids it.
Frequently asked questions
How do I add an agent in Zendesk Support?
Zendesk's help center says to open Admin Center, click People, choose Team, then Team members, and click Create team member. Enter the name and email, pick a Support role and click Save.
Why are my Zendesk tickets suspended when I forward email?
Zendesk's launch guide says manual forwarding results in suspended tickets. Set up automatic forwarding in your own email provider, and wait until your account is ready for tickets before you turn it on.
What ticket access options can I give a Zendesk agent?
Zendesk's help center lists all tickets, tickets in the agent's groups, tickets in the agent's organization, and assigned tickets only. On Enterprise plans, a custom role sets this instead.
Sources
About the author
Andy Kang, AI Partner Team. Andy Kang writes the AI directory for AI Partner Team, which sets up and builds AI tools for small businesses alongside managed IT. Each page is written from the vendor’s own pricing, help and trust pages, and shows the day those pages were checked.
- Facts come from the vendor’s own website and help docs, linked on every page.
- Each page shows the date we last read those sources.
- We do not score or rank tools. We say who each one suits and who it does not.
- If a vendor does not publish a price, we say so instead of guessing.