Automating repeated chores saves time and energy. Manually performing the same tasks day after day depletes productivity and morale. Businesses, fortunately, can program technology to perform repetitive tasks. This enables agents and managers to concentrate on high-impact work.
With Zendesk’s powerful automation tools, any team can streamline their processes. Automation routes tickets, follow up on messages, and generates reports without human effort. This frees agents to prioritize personalized customer support. For managers aiming to maximize their team’s effectiveness and work satisfaction, utilizing Zendesk automation is key. It allows to focus on quality support instead of repetitive tasks. Overall, automation boosts efficiency, engagement, and quality of service through automated processes.
The problem of repetitive tasks in customer support
Repetitive tasks are mundane chores that customer support agents frequently have to undertake, such as data entry, responding to common FAQs, and updating customer records. These repetitive tasks are tedious, and inefficient, and reduce productivity. According to statistics, in about 60 percent of occupations, at least one-third of the constituent activities could be automated
There are several significant problems with repetitive tasks in customer support:
- They are time-consuming and reduce agent availability. Agents have to spend hours on repetitive tasks, limiting the time available to assist customers with more complex issues.
- They lead to agent frustration and boredom. Continuously performing mundane tasks can significantly impact agent motivation and satisfaction. Agents may become disengaged and less productive.
- They increase the risk of human error. Repetitive data entry and manually updating customer records over long periods often result in mistakes that affect data accuracy and the customer experience.
- They do not utilize agents’ skills and expertise. Highly trained agents should focus on assisting customers, not spending most of their time on basic repetitive tasks that do not require their competencies.
In summary, repetitive tasks pose various problems for customer support teams and should be mitigated through automation to optimize productivity, enhance data quality, and improve agent and customer satisfaction. Automating repetitive tasks in Zendesk is essential to overcoming these challenges.
Top repetitive tasks in Zendesk to automate now
Automating repetitive tasks in Zendesk should be a top priority for companies looking to optimize their customer service workflows. Some of the key repetitive tasks in Zendesk that are prime candidates for automation include:
Ticket tagging:
Tagging tickets with the appropriate tags and categories is essential for effective ticket routing and reporting in Zendesk. However, manually tagging each ticket can become tedious for agents, reducing productivity. Automating ticket tagging using triggers and automation rules can help automatically apply the correct tags based on ticket content, channel, and other attributes.
Ticket assignment:
When new tickets arrive in the support inbox, agents have to manually review each ticket and assign it to the appropriate agent or team. An automated ticket assignment process can review the ticket attributes and content to determine the best-suited agent or team to handle the ticket. It can then automatically assign the ticket, saving agents valuable time.
Ticket status updates:
As tickets progress through the resolution lifecycle, agents have to manually update the ticket status (i.e., open, pending, on hold, solved, or closed). Automation rules can be set up to automatically change ticket statuses based on triggers like no recent updates from the customer, agent comments indicating the issue has been resolved, etc. This helps keep ticket statuses up to date without requiring manual agent intervention for every status change.
Canned responses:
Canned responses are short, templated responses to frequently asked client questions. Instead of writing an individual answer from scratch, Zendesk offers a variety of options for automation:
- Setting up auto-responses to the most common inquiries with triggers that play out when a new ticket is created and contain certain phrases, such as “forgot password,” is one option.
- Alternatively, email notifications can be sent automatically in response to customer assistance requests. The reply will provide suggestions for help center articles relevant to the topic to assist the consumer in resolving their issue on their own.
- Finally, Zendesk users can construct macros, which are action sequences that can be carried out with a single click. They are useful for automating tedious, multi-step processes and giving agents standardized answers to frequent consumer questions.
In summary, automating repetitive and routine tasks like ticket tagging, assignment, status updates, and canned responses can significantly boost agent productivity and efficiency.
Using apps to automate repetitive tasks in Zendesk
Optimizing flow and automating operations in Zendesk, though necessary, may be intimidating, especially for large instances. As the complexity of your instance increases, keeping track of all triggers, various automations, and macros can become increasingly difficult. This is where the Zendesk Marketplace Apps come in. These are third-party apps that can handle repetitive and mundane tasks, freeing up agents to focus on high-priority customer issues.
There are numerous apps for almost every possible situation, from chatbots that automatically handle FAQs and common questions to CRM integrations such as Salesforce, Hubspot, or Shopify that save time by syncing information between the systems and enabling a seamless experience for the agents who will not have to switch between the tools anymore. Learn more about why Knots has the best Zendesk apps for 2024.
Already using Shopify? Learn more about how integrating Shopify and Zendesk can supercharge your customer support.
Identifying and implementing the right app combination to automate repetitive tasks allows you to improve the customer support experience in Zendesk. With Knots Zendesk Apps and middleware, you automate Zendesk like a pro. Knots is unlike anything else on the market in its ability to automate Zendesk procedures, allowing agents to focus on high-value support and developing client connections. Start with the tasks that are best suited for automation and use our apps with seamless Zendesk integration to get the most out of these time-saving solutions.
Conclusion
In summary, automating repetitive tasks can help Zendesk users streamline their workflows and scale their customer service operations. By identifying time-intensive processes and implementing tools to handle them, support agents can focus on high-value work that requires human interaction and judgment.
While Zendesk offers powerful automation features, users should start with small wins, evaluate the impact, and make incremental improvements over time. With the right strategy and optimization, Zendesk’s automation capabilities can reduce costs, boost productivity, and transform support organizations. The future of customer service is automated and personalized. Check out our ROI calculator to see how much time and money you can save with Zendesk apps.
