The Zendesk Support plugin allows you to easily visualize data from Zendesk to see how agents and support teams are performing, find bottlenecks in your process and get a handle on KPIs.
To add a data source click on the + next to Data Sources on the left-hand menu in SquaredUp. Search for the data source and click on it to open the Configure data source page.
SquaredUp can be configured to access Zendesk by either clicking the Sign-in button to log in using your Zendesk login credentials or by supplying a Zendesk username and API key.
If you want to authenticate using a username and API key, you will need to generate both of these before getting started. API keys can only be generated by a Zendesk admin, so make sure you login to Zendesk with Admin credentials.
Once generated, they can be used in conjunction with a specific user account, and it is the role of the user account that sets the permissions granted.
Generating API keys and adding users (called Team Members by Zendesk) are performed in the Admin center. To access the Admin center, log in to Zendesk with an account that has the Admin role, then click the apps icon in the top-right corner and select Admin Center.
The API key generated earlier can be used with any user account, the permission level that is granted is dependent on the user account specified.
The Zendesk data source requires a permissions level of Agent or higher. To use the Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) data stream the user must be an Admin user.
To create a user account for this purpose, Zendesk provides generic documentation here, or follow the below steps:
From the Zendesk Admin Center navigate to People > Team > Team Members.
Click Create Team Member in the top corner of the window.
Enter the Name and Email address of the user.
In the Assign role section, select a role of Agent or higher.
Click Save.
Navigate to the inbox of the created user and verify their email address as valid before attempting to use it.
Display Name: Enter a name for your data source. This helps you to identify this data source in the list of your data sources.
Organization name: Enter the organization name found in your Zendesk URL <organization>.zendesk.com. Don't enter the .zendesk.com part, just the organization name in lower case.
Authentication: Select how you want to authenticate the plugin's connection to Zendesk. Choose from the following:
Sign-in button: Click the Sign in with Zendesk button to authenticate using OAuth 2.0. You are redirected to the Zendesk sign-in page, where you are required to log in using your Zendesk credentials. You must then click Allow when the Allow SquaredUp to access your Zendesk account? prompt displays. Once authenticated, you are returned to the SquaredUp plugin configuration page.
Username: Zendesk calls its users Team members. Enter the team member’s email address that you would like the data source to use the permissions of. If you want to use the Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) data stream then this user must be an Admin level user.
API Token: Enter the API Token. This is used in place of a password and can only be generated by a Zendesk admin. An API token can be used by any user regardless of which account generated it.
Import Organizations: Select to import your Zendesk organizations as objects. Zendesk organizations are typically collections of your end users, but they can also include team members.
Import Organizations with Personal Email Addresses: Select to import your Zendesk organizations not linked to specific domains as objects. Typically these are organizations based around a single email address and can exist in great numbers.
Import Specific Tags: By default, SquaredUp only automatically imports tags that have been used in the last 60 days. If you would like to always import particular tags (even if they have not been used recently), then select this checkbox and specify those tags in the dropdown.
Restrict access to this data source: You can enable this option if you only want certain users or groups to have access to the data source, or the permission to link it to new workspaces. See data source access control for more information.
Install Sample Dashboards: Select whether you would like to install sample dashboards with the data source. By default, this is set to on.
Click Test and add to validate the data source configuration. SquaredUp will now attempt to connect to SquaredUp using the provided authentication method. If this process fails, see Testing and troubleshooting for assistance with the corresponding errors.
The following errors or warnings may be displayed while using the data source. If you encounter an error, refer to the guidance below or contact [email protected] for assistance.
Test
Error if failed
Troubleshooting
Check Zendesk URL is valid
Failed to create a valid url using <the URL created from your organization name>. Please check your organization name.
Check the organization name is correct, see below for more
Check username and token are valid
Your credentials could not be verified. Please check your username and token.
Check username is valid email address and has Agent or higher role and that the API token is correct and valid.
A failure was thrown by Zendesk that doesn’t match any other test
An error occurred. Please contact support.
Try the test again, if you still see the issue, take note of the support code and contact [email protected].
Check organization name is valid
Your organization could not be verified. Please check your organization name.
Check your organization name is correct. This is the part of your Zendesk URL before .zendesk.com when you are logged into Zendesk.
Once you have successfully connected to the Zendesk data source, we will setup the data source by configuring data streams, the method we use to pull real time data back from Zendesk, install sample dashboards (if you chose to do so) and index objects which are used by data streams for scoping.
You must allow this process to complete before you use the data source. Closing the popup and then creating dashboards means there is a high chance that indexing will not have completed, resulting in errors and blank dashboards.
To check whether indexing has completed, click on the data source name and look at the data source status in the top left corner. If it says connected then indexing has completed.
There are several states that all data sources can be in:
Connected: The last data source index was successful. Indexing happens automatically every 12 hours
Running: Indexing is in progress, if this is the first time the data source has connected to the source platform you should wait for this to complete to ensure all dashboards work without issues
Warning: When something went wrong but that wasn’t terminal for the data source, meaning indexing was successful for some of the objects the data source and some data sources should work. If you hover over Move info you will be shown the reason for the warning
Failed: The last graph index failed. If you hover over Move info you will be shown why. Note that each time a data source runs object indexing.
SquaredUp provides a high-level list of the data streams and object types for each data source, but once you have the data source connected then the data source overview page shows you more. You will then see each object type within your environment, in addition to the data streams available to the plugin.Click an object to see the applicable data streams - for example, you can click the drilldown for a Zendesk user Adam to see the relational data:Alternatively, you can click a data stream to see where it can be scoped to and the sorts of data it returns (which can then be saved to a dashboard if you so choose).
Ticket forms contain a pre-configured set of fields users should fill in to submit a ticket in Zendesk. Read more.
New Tickets
Active Tickets
On-Hold Tickets
Custom Ticket Search
Open Tickets
Pending Tickets
Solved Tickets
Tickets by Created Date
Tickets by Updated Date
Used by :: Brand
Type
Description
Data streams that can scope to this object
Relationships
User
Represents a Zendesk user account, called a Team Member or Agent in Zendesk itself. Read more.
New Tickets
Active Tickets
On-Hold Tickets
Custom Ticket Search
Open Tickets
Pending Tickets
Solved Tickets
Tickets by Created Date
Tickets by Updated Date
Member of :: Group
Users
Users and people are essentially equivalent terms; it's the broadest definition for all people who use your Zendesk.
New Tickets
Active Tickets
On-Hold Tickets
Custom Ticket Search
Open Tickets
Pending Tickets
Solved Tickets
Tickets by Created Date
Tickets by Updated Date
View
Views are a way to organize your tickets by grouping them into lists based on certain criteria.
For example, you can create a view for unsolved tickets that are assigned to you, a view for new tickets that need to be triaged, or a view for pending tickets that are awaiting response.
Using views can help you determine what tickets need attention from you or your team and plan accordingly.
Data streams standardize data from all the different shapes and formats your tools use into a straightforward tabular format. While creating a tile you can tweak data streams by grouping or aggregating specific columns. Depending on the kind of data, SquaredUp will automatically suggest how to visualize the result, for example as a table or line graph.
Data streams can be either global or scoped:
Global data streams are unscoped and return information of a general nature (e.g. Get the current number of unused hosts).
A scoped data stream gets information relevant to the specific set objects supplied in the tile scope (e.g. Get the current session count for these hosts).
Scoped data streams
Data stream
Description
Objects scoped to
Active Tickets
Shows all tickets except those with a status of On-Hold or Solved.
User
Tag
Brand
Ticket form
Group
All Tickets
Gets all your Zendesk tickets. Use the following Parameters to build a query that returns specific tickets:
Use the following fields to filter which tickets are returned:
Type: Select the type of the tickets to return.
Priority: Select the priority level of the tickets.
Status: Select the status of the tickets.
Channel: Select the channel the tickets were created in.
Use Timeframe: Select this check box to filter results by applying the dashboard timeframe to a selected field. Use the the Apply timeframe to field dropdown that displays to do so.
Filter by Requester: Select this checkbox if you want to select specific requesters to filter by. Use the Requester dropdown that displays to do so.
Show Count Only: Select this check box to return a simple count of the number of tickets returned by the filter for the specified collection.
Include: Select additional field details to include.
Include Custom Fields: Optionally, select this check box if you want to select additional custom fields in the returned data. Use the Custom Fields dropdown that displays to do so.
Brand
Group
Organization
Tag
Ticket Form
User
Custom Ticket Search
Allows you to type a Zendesk search query. Any objects you scope can be inserted into your query using mustache syntax {{}}
As an example, if you scope to all users and want to search for tickets in state greater than new you would type:
Type:ticket status>new assignee:{{sourceId}}
sourceId is replaced by the objects you scoped.
User
Tag
Brand
Ticket form
Group
New Tickets
Shows all tickets with a status of New.
User
Tag
Brand
Ticket form
Group
On-Hold Tickets
Shows all tickets with a status of On-Hold.
User
Tag
Brand
Ticket form
Group
Open Tickets
Shows all tickets with a status of Open.
User
Tag
Brand
Ticket form
Group
Pending Tickets
Shows all tickets with a status of Pending.
User
Tag
Brand
Ticket form
Group
Solved Tickets
Shows all tickets with a status of Solved.
User
Tag
Brand
Ticket form
Group
Talk Agent Availability
Shows the availability of agents to take calls via the Talk product.
User
Group
Phone Number (when routing is managed via groups)
Talk Agent Statistics
Gets call statistics from individual agents since midnight. This includes calls missed, average talk time and away time since midnight (no greater).
Data Source
Phone Number
Groups
Users
Talk Queues
Gets the current queue state from a Phone Number.
Phone Number
Talk Statistics
Gets the current call statistics for a Phone Number since midnight.
Phone Number
Ticket Comment History
Returns comment analytics for tickets assigned to a user.
User
Ticket Comments by User
Returns comment analytics for tickets assigned to a user.
User
Ticket Metrics by User
Returns key metrics for all tickets assigned to a user.
User
Tickets by Created Date
All tickets regardless of state, sorted by created date.
User
Tag
Brand
Ticket form
Group
Tickets by Updated Date
All tickets regardless of state, sorted by updated date.
User
Tag
Brand
Ticket form
Group
Tickets by View
Return tickets that are present in a view.
View
Global data streams
Unlike with scoped data streams, no objects are required for data to be returned.
Data stream
Description
All Tickets
Gets all your Zendesk tickets. Use the following Parameters to build a query that returns specific tickets:
Use the following fields to filter which tickets are returned:
Type: Select the type of the tickets to return.
Priority: Select the priority level of the tickets.
Status: Select the status of the tickets.
Channel: Select the channel the tickets were created in.
Use Timeframe: Select this check box to filter results by applying the dashboard timeframe to a selected field. Use the the Apply timeframe to field dropdown that displays to do so.
Filter by Requester: Select this checkbox if you want to select specific requesters to filter by. Use the Requester dropdown that displays to do so.
Show Count Only: Select this check box to return a simple count of the number of tickets returned by the filter for the specified collection.
Include: Select additional field details to include.
Include Custom Fields: Optionally, select this check box if you want to select additional custom fields in the returned data. Use the Custom Fields dropdown that displays to do so.
Customer Satisfaction
Returns customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores for all tickets in your organization.
This data stream will only work if the Zendesk data source is configured with a user that is a Zendesk Admin.
When configuring the tile you can optionally choose Parameters > Filter at Source to filter on the property Score.
The property Score is converted to a RAG color and displayed as State.
Organization Status
Gets active Zendesk incidents that may be impacting your Organization.
Organization Status History
Gets Zendesk incidents that may have impacted your Organization.
Ticket Metrics
Returns key metrics on all tickets created within a 7 day timeframe, including:
Reply time
First resolution time
Full resolution time
Agent wait time
Requester wait time
On-hold time
This data stream doesn’t allow for timeframes other than 7 days due to underlying Zendesk API limitations.
Ticket Metrics by Created date
Returns all tickets in your organization created within the configured timeframe.
Ticket Metrics by Solved date
Returns all tickets in your organization solved within the configured timeframe.
