Zendesk Light Agent Training

Light agents are Ayin caregivers who use Zendesk to work tickets but do not reply to external customers. You can read tickets in your groups, add internal notes, and use the Light Agent macros to take, assign, hand off, and update tickets. The macros do the work that your role cannot do directly, so everything below is "apply a macro, then submit".

How the macros work

Every Light Agent macro inserts a short internal note into the ticket. The first line is for people, for example Light Agent - Assign -> Test User (Test), and ends with a small (learn more) link back to this article. The indented lines under it are codes that Zendesk reads when you submit. Zendesk then makes the change for you: it sets the field, moves the group, changes the status, or sends the email.

Three rules:

1. Submit the ticket. Nothing happens until you press Submit in the bottom right. The change is applied immediately after submission.
2. Do not edit the inserted lines. You can type your own note above or below them, but if the code lines are changed or deleted, nothing happens.
3. One Light Agent macro per submit. Apply one Light Agent macro, submit, then apply the next if you need another. (Department macros such as CIM Category can be combined with a Light Agent macro in the same submit.)

To apply a macro, open the ticket, click Apply macro at the bottom of the reply area, and pick from the menu. The Light Agent macros sit under two entries there: Light Agent - Assign (who should work the ticket) and Light Agent - Update (everything else: take it, unassign, change the status, flag it for a full agent). You can also type part of a name to search, for example take, solved, or a colleague's first name.

The macros at a glance

Two entries in the Apply macro menu hold everything: Light Agent - Assign to hand a ticket to someone, and Light Agent - Update for everything else.

The sections below go through each in turn.

Take a ticket

Use this when you are going to work a ticket yourself.

1. Apply Light Agent - Update > Take it.
2. Submit.

The ticket's Light Agent field is set to you, you receive an assignment email, you become a follower of the ticket, and it appears in your My tickets - Light Agent view. The ticket stays in its current group.

Assign a ticket to another light agent

Use this to hand a ticket to a colleague, or to hand off one of yours.

1. Apply Light Agent - Assign, choose the group, then the person.
2. Submit.

The ticket moves into that group, the Light Agent field is set to that person, and they get the assignment email and become a follower. If the ticket was yours, you stay a follower and keep receiving updates on it.

Each group's submenu lists everyone in the group. Light agents are marked (light agent); names without the mark are full agents. The menu is maintained automatically overnight, so a new colleague appears the next morning.

Assign a ticket to a full agent

Use this when a ticket should belong to a full agent from now on, for example because it needs work you cannot do and it is theirs to finish.

1. Apply Light Agent - Assign, choose the group, then a name without the (light agent) mark.
2. Submit.

The ticket moves into that group, the full agent becomes its Assignee and gets Zendesk's usual assignment email, and the Light Agent field is cleared: the ticket is theirs now and leaves your views. You stay a follower. If you only need a full agent to do one thing and then hand the ticket back, use Needs a full agent (below) instead.

Send a ticket to a group, with no light agent

The first entry under each group is the group itself, for example (Claims group). Use it when a ticket belongs to another team and you do not know who should work it:

1. Apply Light Agent - Assign, choose the group, then (<Group> group).
2. Submit.

The ticket moves into that group and the Light Agent field is cleared, so it shows in that group's usual views rather than in anyone's light-agent queue. That is what the Assignee box does for full agents when they pick a group and nobody in it.

Unassign a ticket

If a ticket should go back to the group's general queue:

1. Apply Light Agent - Update > Unassign.
2. Submit.

The Light Agent field is cleared and the ticket leaves the light-agent queue views. You stay a follower.

Solve, pend, or hold a ticket

1. Apply Light Agent - Update > Solved, Light Agent - Update > Pending, or Light Agent - Update > On-hold.
2. Submit.

The status changes immediately after submission. The macro also records you as the ticket's Light Agent, so the last person to work a ticket is the one credited with it. Use the normal meanings:

Ask a full agent to do something

Some things only a full agent can do: send a public reply to the customer, merge tickets, change the requester, edit ticket fields. When your ticket needs one of those:

1. Apply Light Agent - Update > Needs a full agent.
2. In the same note, write what you need, for example Please send the reply below or Please merge into #12345. If it is a reply, write it out exactly as it should go to the customer.
3. Submit.

The ticket is flagged and appears in your group's Needs a full agent view. A full agent in your group does what you asked. The flag clears by itself when they send a public reply or solve the ticket, or when they apply Light Agent - Update > Action done for anything else. Keep the ticket's status as it is; the full agent will set it if the action changes it. Flag a ticket before you solve it, not after: a flag on a Solved ticket is not cleared until it is reopened.

Find your tickets

To keep an eye on a ticket you are not working, use the CC Myself (Retain Visibility) macro; see Retain Ticket Visibility.

The assignment email

When a ticket is taken by you or assigned to you, Ayin Support sends an email titled Zendesk ticket #<number> assigned to you: <subject> with a link to the ticket. It means the ticket is now yours to work. You also follow the ticket from that point, so later updates reach you by email as well.

Everything else about Zendesk

This article is the starting point for light agents. Every Light Agent macro links back here, and everything else about Zendesk in the IT Help Center is one click away below.

Light agent capability matrix