Views - Operational dashboards

In Zendesk, Views are more than just lists; they act as operational dashboards and are central to day-to-day work. For agents and team leads, Views are a primary tool for navigating, prioritising and handling the ongoing flow of customer enquiries. By translating a large volume of tickets into structured, action-oriented overviews, Views support more efficient work, faster reply times and high service quality.

What are Views, and why are they crucial?

A View is a dynamic, filtered list of tickets, displayed based on a set of predefined criteria. The criteria can include ticket status and priority, assigned agent, customer type, specific tags or whether an SLA (Service Level Agreement) is at risk of being breached.

The strength of Views is the ability to create focus. Instead of being faced with all the tickets in the system, an agent can start with a View that only shows "My open tickets". A team lead can quickly get an overview of "Unassigned high-priority tickets" or "Tickets at risk of an SLA breach". By building targeted dashboards, it is ensured that the right task is presented to the right role at the right time.

Personal vs. Shared Views: The right balance

Zendesk supports two types of Views, each with its own purpose and strengths. An appropriate combination of both types is central to a well-functioning support organisation.

Personal Views: Tailored to individual efficiency

Personal Views are only visible to the agent who created them. They can be used to optimise the individual's workflow.

• Only visible to the agent: A personal workspace where filters and layouts can be tried out without affecting others.
• Personal workflows: The ability to work in a preferred order or to focus on certain types of tasks at certain times.
• Custom filters: The ability to gather tickets from a specific customer or tickets with a particular tag into one consolidated view.

Shared Views: The foundation for team synchronisation

Shared Views are visible to all agents in a particular group or to the whole organisation. They support standardised processes and a shared overview.

• Visible to the team: Everyone with access sees the same overview, which is important for collaboration and backup.
• Standard workflows: Shared Views define common ways of working; for example, an "Unassigned Tickets" View ensures that new enquiries are picked up.
• Consistent experience: New agents can be onboarded more quickly by using the same standardised Views as the rest of the team, which reduces confusion and ensures consistent ticket handling.

The building blocks: Conditions and Filters

Each View is built from conditions, which act as rules for which tickets are included. Conditions can be combined with logic:

• AND / ALL: All conditions must be met. Example: Status is Open AND Priority is High. Shows only tickets that are both open and high priority.
• OR / ANY: At least one condition must be met. Example: Status is New OR Status is Open. Shows tickets that are either new or open.

Mastering this logic makes it possible to build precise and effective Views.

Essential View patterns for effective work

Below is a collection of common and valuable View patterns that can be implemented to optimise the workflow.

1. My Tickets

The agent's primary inbox. This View shows everything that requires the agent's attention.

Why is it important? The View acts as the starting point for the day and ensures an overview of the next task.

Conditions:
  Assignee is Me
  AND
  Status is not "Closed"

2. Unassigned Tickets

The team's triage queue. This is where new enquiries land before they are distributed.

Why is it important? Ensures that no customer enquiries are overlooked, and reduces the risk of tickets falling through the cracks.

Conditions:
  Assignee is Nobody
  AND
  Status is "New" or "Open"

3. The Group's Tickets

An overview of work within a specific team.

Why is it important? Relevant for team leads to monitor the overall workload and for agents to see what colleagues are working on.

Conditions:
  Group is "Technical Support"
  AND
  Status is not "Closed"

4. High Priority

A View dedicated to the most pressing cases.

Why is it important? Supports the prioritisation of resources for cases of the greatest business or customer significance.

Conditions:
  Priority is "Urgent" or "High"
  AND
  Status is not "Closed"

5. Risk of SLA Breach

Proactive monitoring of tickets approaching the deadline for the first reply.

Why is it important? Makes it possible to act before an SLA is breached and can improve performance and customer satisfaction.

Conditions:
  Status is "Open"
  AND
  First Reply Time is Less than 1 hour remaining

6. Awaiting Customer

Shows tickets where a reply has been given and a reply from the customer is awaited.

Why is it important? Supports following up on customers who have not replied, and prevents cases from stalling.

Conditions:
  Status is "Pending"
  AND
  Pending Type is "Waiting for Customer"

7. Solved Today

An overview of the day's solved cases and can be used for quality assurance.

Why is it important? Relevant for daily follow-ups, team meetings and recognition of work done.

Conditions:
  Status is "Solved"
  AND
  Solved date is Today

8. Overdue

A critical View that shows tickets where an SLA has already been breached.

Why is it important? Tickets in this View require immediate escalation or attention from a team lead to limit the consequences.

Conditions:
  Status is "Open"
  AND
  First Reply Time SLA is Breached

Advanced Views: When standard is not enough

Once the basics are in place, more sophisticated Views can be built by combining several logical layers. This is particularly useful for identifying complex scenarios.

Example: High-priority tickets from VIP customers awaiting support

This View identifies important customers where there is a delay in the reply.

Conditions:
  Priority is "High" or "Urgent"
  AND
  (Organisation is "VIP customers" OR Requester is "vip_kunde_tag")
  AND
  Status is "Pending"
  AND
  Pending Type is "Waiting for Support"

The example shows how AND/OR logic can be combined, and how fields such as Organisation and Tags can be used to create a specific and action-oriented overview.

Strategic organisation of your Views

A long list of Views can quickly become unmanageable, which is why logical organisation is important. Views can be grouped in the sidebar to create an intuitive navigation structure.

For Agents

An agent's sidebar should be action-oriented.

• My Inbox
  • My Open Tickets
  • My Pending Tickets
  • Follow-up Today
• The Team's Work
  • Unassigned Tickets (Support)
  • The Group's Tickets (Support)
• Prioritisation
  • Risk of SLA Breach
  • High Priority

For Team Leads

A team lead's sidebar should support a strategic overview.

• Team Performance
  • All Open Tickets (Team)
  • Overdue Tickets
  • Solved Today
• Triage & Distribution
  • Unassigned Tickets (all groups)
  • New Tickets requiring escalation
• Quality & Follow-up
  • Recently Solved (for review)
  • Awaiting Customer (> 3 days)

The art of Choosing Columns

The choice of columns in a View has a significant impact on its usability. Too many columns create noise, while too few can provide insufficient context.

Core columns (Essential for most Views)

• ID: A unique ticket number, easy to refer to.
• Subject: Quick identification of the ticket's content.
• Requester: Who is the customer?
• Assignee: Who owns the task?
• Status: Where is the case in the process?
• Priority: How important is it?
• Updated: When did activity last occur? (critical for sorting).

Strategic columns (Add based on purpose)

• Group: Relevant in Views that cover multiple teams.
• Tags: Well suited to identifying projects, customer types or problem areas.
• SLA: Shows the remaining time or status for an SLA; central in performance-oriented Views.
• Created: Useful for seeing how long a case has been open.
• Custom Fields: Fields such as "Account number" or "Product type" can be relevant in specific Views.

Sorting: Prioritise the most important first

The default sorting is often by "Updated", but sorting should be tailored to the purpose of the individual View.

• Sort by Priority (Descending): Ensures that the most critical tickets are at the top. Often combined with sorting by "Created" (Ascending) to handle the oldest high-priority cases first.
• Sort by SLA (Ascending): In Views such as "Risk of SLA Breach", this is the most relevant sorting, so tickets close to the deadline are shown first.
• Sort by Created (Ascending): In a "New Tickets" View, this supports "First In, First Out" (FIFO), unless priority dictates otherwise.

Best Practices: Ensure maximum value

To ensure that Views remain an asset and not a burden, the following principles can be applied.

1. Keep Views focused

A View should have one clear purpose. A View that is too broad is rarely action-oriented.

• ✅ "My Open Tickets"
• ✅ "Unassigned High Priority"
• ❌ "All Tickets" (creates overwhelm and is not action-oriented)

2. Use descriptive names

The name of a View should clearly communicate its content and purpose.

• ✅ "SLA Risk - Support Team"
• ✅ "Awaiting Customer - Billing"
• ❌ "View 1"
• ❌ "Tickets"

3. Limit the number of results

A View with several hundred open tickets can be demotivating and hard to navigate. If a View consistently shows over 100 tickets, it can be split further, e.g. into "High Priority" and "Normal Priority". An often-appropriate level is 20–50 tickets in order to maintain an overview.

4. Review and update regularly

Business and processes change, and Views should keep up.

• Are all Views still relevant?
• Do the filters work correctly after the latest changes to the setup?
• Are there new workflows that require a dedicated View?

5. Standardise and share

Identify 5–7 critical Views for a team and create them as shared standard Views. This supports consistency, makes onboarding easier and creates a shared understanding of workflows.

Troubleshooting: Common challenges and solutions

Challenges can arise, even with good planning.

Problem: A View does not show the tickets that are expected.

• Solution: Review the conditions one by one. Is there an AND that should be an OR? Is a value misspelled? Also check the ticket's status (e.g. whether it is "Solved" instead of "Open").

Problem: A View is slow to load.

• Solution: Many or complex conditions can strain the system. Simplification can help: Can a condition be removed? Is OR logic being used across many fields, which can be heavy?

Problem: A ticket disappears from a View without being solved.

• Solution: This is typically due to a condition in the View. Example: If there is Status is not "Pending", and the ticket is set to "Pending" by an automation, it falls outside the filter. Check the ticket's details to see which field triggered the change.

Problem: The team sees different results in a shared View.

• Solution: This is unusual, but can be due to different permissions. Check that the relevant agents are members of the group the View is shared with. Also check whether personal filters are enabled in the user's interface.

Getting started: Your next steps

Implementing effective Views is an ongoing process, but the following steps can be used as a starting point:

1. Map the workflow: Involve agents and team leads. What steps does a ticket typically go through? Where do bottlenecks arise? What information is needed at each step?
2. Start with the essential Views: Implement the 5–7 most critical Views first, e.g. "My Tickets", "Unassigned" and "SLA Breach Risk", and get them working stably.
3. Organise the sidebar: Structure Views logically for both agents and leads, so that the right View is easy to find.
4. Train the team: Ensure an understanding of why Views are structured the way they are, and how they are used effectively.
5. Iterate and improve: Agree on a fixed interval (e.g. each quarter) for reviewing Views: Are they still relevant, and what can be improved?

By using Views as a strategic tool, the support operation can be supported in a more proactive, organised and efficient direction.