This guide is for full agents and team leads who route work to light agents: Ayin caregivers who work tickets in Zendesk but cannot reply to external customers. It covers how to assign a ticket to a light agent, how to see what they are working, and what to do when a light agent flags a ticket as Needs a full agent. The light agent's side is in Zendesk Light Agent Training.
The two Light Agent menus
Light agents work through two entries in the Apply macro menu: Light Agent - Assign (hand a ticket to someone) and Light Agent - Update (take it, unassign, change the status, flag it for a full agent). As a full agent you use Light Agent - Assign to route work to a light agent, and Light Agent - Update > Action done to answer a flag; leave the rest of Light Agent - Update to light agents (see the end of this article).
Light Agent is a field, not the Assignee
A light agent cannot be the ticket Assignee. Instead, the ticket's Light Agent field (in the ticket sidebar) records which light agent is working it. The Assignee field is not changed by assigning to a light agent; a ticket can carry both a full-agent Assignee and a Light Agent. This one field is used by every department; the former CIM Light Agent and PR/MAP Agent fields no longer exist (their values on old tickets are kept).
The Light Agent field is set by macros, never typed. That is also how light agents set it for themselves.
Assign a ticket to a light agent
- Open the ticket and click Apply macro at the bottom of the reply area.
- Choose Light Agent - Assign, then the group, then the person.
- Submit the ticket (any submit option).
On submission, Zendesk:
- moves the ticket into the chosen group,
- sets the Light Agent field to that person,
- emails them (Zendesk ticket #<number> assigned to you: <subject>, from Ayin Support),
- adds them as a follower, so they receive later updates.
The macro inserts an internal note: a human-readable line with a small (learn more) link, then the indented code lines. Leave the code lines as they are; you can add your own note above or below them. You can assign into any group that appears in the menu, including groups you are not a member of.
Each group's submenu lists every member of the group:
| Entry under Light Agent - Assign > Group | What happens | Same as |
|---|---|---|
| (<Group> group) (first in the list) | The ticket moves into the group with nobody named; the Light Agent field is cleared. | Picking the group with no person in the Assignee box. |
| Name (light agent) | The ticket moves into the group and that light agent becomes its Light Agent, with the email and follow above. | (nothing; only the macro can do this) |
| Name (no mark) | A full agent: the ticket moves into the group and they become the Assignee; the Light Agent field is cleared. | Picking that person in the Assignee box. |
The group-only and full-agent entries exist mainly for light agents, who have no Assignee box; as a full agent you can use either. The menu is rebuilt automatically overnight from group membership, so a new person appears the next morning and a departed one disappears. To add or remove someone, change their Zendesk role or group through the normal IT request; do not ask for the menu to be edited by hand.
Reassign, or take it back
| You want to | Apply | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Move the work to a different light agent | Light Agent - Assign again, with the new name | The field changes, the new person is notified, and the previous person stays a follower. |
| Clear the Light Agent | Light Agent - Update > Unassign | The ticket leaves the light-agent queue views; the Assignee and group are unchanged. |
Apply one Light Agent macro per submit.
See what light agents are working
Two shared views exist for every group that has light agents, under the Light Agent heading in the Views list:
| View | What it lists | Use it to |
|---|---|---|
| <Group> - Light agent queue | Every open ticket in the group with a Light Agent set, grouped by person, most recently updated first. Tickets with no Light Agent are not in it; they are in the group's usual views. | Balance work and spot stale tickets. |
| <Group> - Needs a full agent | Tickets a light agent has flagged for a full agent, oldest first. | Work the requests, below. |
Both views are visible to the group's members. The Light Agent field can also be used as a condition or column in any view, and in ticket search; see Zendesk - Light Agent Reporting and Analytics.
Managers have the Light Agent Operations dashboard in Explore for assignments, solves, backlog and time-to-reply on flagged tickets by person and by department.
Needs a full agent: doing what a light agent cannot
Light agents cannot send public replies, merge tickets, change the requester or edit ticket fields. When a ticket needs one of those, the light agent applies Light Agent - Update > Needs a full agent and writes what is needed in the same internal note. The ticket is flagged and listed in <Group> - Needs a full agent, oldest first.
Someone on your team watches that view. For each ticket:
- Open it and read the most recent internal note; it says what is needed and, for a reply, contains the drafted text.
- Do it. For a reply, send the draft as a public reply, editing as needed, and set the status as you normally would.
- If what you did was not a public reply and did not solve the ticket, apply Light Agent - Update > Action done and submit, so the ticket leaves the view.
| The flag clears when | The flag does not clear when |
|---|---|
|
|
Each department decides who watches its Needs a full agent view and how often.
Do not use the Light Agent status macros yourself
Light Agent - Update > Solved / Pending / On-hold exist so that light agents can change status. As a full agent, set the status with the submit button as usual. The macros also tag the ticket as light-agent work, which would miscount it in the dashboard.
Light agents hear about it themselves
A light agent who is assigned a ticket receives the assignment email and follows the ticket, and has a personal My tickets - Light Agent view, so you do not need to tell them a ticket is theirs. Department macros such as CIM Category work alongside the Light Agent macros and are unaffected by them.