Repetition is the bane of efficiency. Having to manually complete the same mundane tasks day after day saps productivity and morale. Fortunately, automation provides an elegant solution. By programming technology to handle repetitive chores, businesses can free up valuable human time and energy.
For any company leveraging Zendesk as a customer service platform, automating repetitive tasks should be a top priority. With powerful automation features built right into Zendesk, any team can easily set up customized automation to handle repetitive and routine tasks.
Whether it is automatically routing tickets, sending follow-up messages, or generating reports, automation allows agents and managers to focus on high-value work. By doing so, you free your agents to do what they do best: provide personalized and empathetic customer support. Automation handles the repetitive work, so your team can focus on what really matters.
How Repetitive Tasks Influence Agent Productivity and Morale
Repeating the same mundane actions over and over reduces motivation and job satisfaction. Studies show that highly repetitive jobs can lead to boredom, fatigue, and burnout.
Efficiency
Manually completing repetitive tasks is time-consuming and tedious. According to statistics, employees spend up to 22 percent of their time on repetitive tasks. Automation eliminates this wasted time and mental energy, allowing agents to handle more complex, engaging work.
Accuracy
Humans are prone to making mistakes, especially when performing repetitive work. The more manual operations performed, the higher the risk of error. Automating repetitive tasks in Zendesk helps ensure consistency and accuracy. This results in higher-quality work and fewer errors.
Morale
Repeating the same tasks over and over again can leave the agents feeling unstimulated and disengaged from work and, in the worst case, cause “boreout”. “Boreout” at work is defined as prolonged boredom, and studies have shown that it can lead to depression, anxiety, stress, insomnia, and increased turnover.
Freeing agents from repetitive tasks gives them an opportunity to do more meaningful work. This helps combat boredom and improves job satisfaction, motivation, and morale. When agents feel engaged and empowered, they tend to be more productive and provide better customer experiences. Automating repetitive tasks is a win-win, benefiting both agents and customers.
In a nutshell, automating repetitive tasks in Zendesk should be a top priority because it boosts agent productivity, efficiency, accuracy, and morale. The benefits to both agents and customers are substantial. Automating repetitive work allows human agents to focus on high-value, engaging work. This results in a more motivated, effective team and an improved customer experience.
Identify repetitive tasks in Zendesk
Now, after understanding the necessity of automating repetitive tasks, the next step is identifying repetitive tasks to optimize the customer service workflow.
Some common repetitive tasks in Zendesk that are prime candidates for automation include:
- Ticket tagging: Automatically tagging tickets based on content, category, requester information, etc. This removes the need for agents to manually tag each ticket.
- Ticket assignment: Setting up rules to automatically assign tickets to the appropriate agent or group based on ticket tags, subject matter, requester, etc. This eliminates the manual process of an agent assigning the ticket to themselves or another agent.
- Template responses: Creating template responses for common questions and issues so that when a similar ticket comes in, the agents can select the appropriate template response. This reduces the time spent drafting responses from scratch.
- Auto-replies in email notifications: Sending an automated email notification in response to customer support requests. This reduces the number of tickets for the agents in your customer base and encourages self-service.
- Ticket status updates: Automating the process of updating ticket statuses (e.g., pending to solved) when certain conditions are met. For example, automatically marking a ticket as ‘solved’ when an agent adds a solution that contains specific keywords.
- Ticket closure: Automatically closing resolved tickets after a certain period of inactivity. This removes the need for agents to manually comb through open tickets to close those that have been resolved.
By identifying these types of repetitive and mundane tasks in Zendesk and implementing automation for them, companies can streamline their workflows and enable agents to provide more high-value support to customers. Automation is key to optimizing the customer service experience in today’s digital age. Check out the most common repetitive tasks in Zendesk that you can automate today.
3 Easy Ways to Automate Repetitive Tasks in Zendesk
The final step is automating repetitive tasks. By identifying and optimizing common workflows that recur frequently, companies can achieve higher efficiency and productivity.
There are three straightforward ways to automate repetitive tasks in Zendesk:
1. Use Triggers and Automations
Triggers and automations allow you to automatically apply tags, send notifications, update ticket fields, and more based on events or conditions. You can set up triggers and automations to handle repetitive events like ticket assignments, status changes, due date notifications, etc. This eliminates the need for agents to manually perform these repetitive tasks.
2. Create Macros
Macros are sequences of actions that can be executed with a single click. They are ideal for automating repetitive, multi-step processes and providing agents with standardized replies to common customer questions. For example, you can create a macro that updates a ticket, sends an email notification, and assigns an agent—all with one click. Macros save agents time and ensure consistency across similar tickets.
3. Use the API and Apps
For more complex automation in Zendesk, you can use the Zendesk API and third-party apps. The API allows you to build custom integrations and apps that automate various processes. There are also many pre-built apps on the Zendesk Marketplace that provide advanced automation capabilities. Leveraging the API and apps is a great way to eliminate repetitive and time-consuming tasks.
Improving productivity in Zendesk requires automating repetitive and monotonous processes. Monitoring and optimizing automated processes on a continuous basis will ensure optimal efficiency. Reviewing a sample of automated tickets and making changes as needed ensures that the necessary replies and actions are implemented. Additional automation and macros can be established over time as new issues or queries arise to further streamline the support process.
Conclusion
In conclusion, automating repetitive tasks in Zendesk should be at the top of every company’s priority list. The productivity gains, time savings, and financial benefits are simply too significant to ignore. While the initial investment in automation may seem daunting, the long-term rewards to both the company and the customer far outweigh any temporary costs or growing pains. For any organization looking to scale, achieve operational efficiency, reduce costs, and improve the customer experience, automation is the only way forward. The future is automated; make sure your company’s future is too. Learn more about why Knots has the best Zendesk apps for 2024.
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. Check out our ROI calculator to see how much time and money you can save with Zendesk apps.
