Zendesk support is an incredibly configurable tool. Administering your Zendesk instance, while not deeply technical, requires a lot of attention to detail. Something as small as a rule in a trigger being in the "All" section versus the "Any" section can have a significant impact on the entire instance.

It's also true that change in a Zendesk instance is inevitable. 

As you take on new types of tickets, new features, new products, and require new metrics or automations, the configuration itself needs to change. And without proper maintenance, your configuration can become even more confusing and tangled over time. So how do you ensure your Zendesk configuration remains properly maintained and easy to navigate? Let's explore some best practices.

User and Role Management

One of the biggest flaws in maintaining Zendesk is in allowing too many privileges to too many people. 

Zendesk comes with a set of predefined roles which work for simple use cases, but often are less useful as you scale. To manage your Zendesk instance, it’s essential that you limit the number of Zendesk administrators and people who can create various objects such as dashboards and reports. You also need to regularly do things like assess who needs to see different ticket types.

Custom roles can help differentiate responsibilities more granularly and will reduce the likelihood of errors and mistakes. Doing so also eliminates duplicate work and clutter as people have to go through specific domain expert contacts to make changes.

Security and Compliance

Along the same lines as above, it’s imperative to focus on security and compliance as your organization scales and evolves. Zendesk's security settings aren’t always obvious or accessible, so take time to understand things like:

• Zendesk security settings and how to configure them
• Setting up and managing two-factor authentication and SSO
• Managing data privacy and GDPR compliance inside Zendesk

Note that by default, Zendesk's authentication policies for agents and end users are very open. It’s rare that you should actually use the default policies provided. Customize these authentication settings so they meet your security standards and the standards of your customers.

Workflow and Automation

Workflows and automations may be the single hardest thing to maintain in your Zendesk configuration. For many customer support teams, these are the areas that will most frequently change. As you scale, the number of workflows and automations your team uses increase, and overlap between them becomes more common. 

To help avoid headaches when maintaining your Zendesk workflows and automations, follow these best practices:

• Practice clear workflow documentation to make it clear what your existing workflows do.
• Minimize the number of people who can make changes outside of an established process
• Proactively let stakeholders know about upcoming changes and potential impact
• Ensure your Triggers, Automations, Fields, and Forms all note which workflows they support and give hints as to the impact of change or relevant people to contact in case a change is required.
• Implement a strong Zendesk change management process

Integration and API Management

The two biggest issues when it comes to integrations maintenance are:

1. Old and unused apps that clutter your interface, are out of date, or are not configured properly anymore
2. API Tokens that aren't clear if and how they are used

Zendesk apps are a very useful way to simplify actions, integrate tools, and solve business problems without building something yourself. The problem is that many companies add apps as a trial or no longer need apps after a certain period of time. It’s also possible to install an app and completely forget about it. 

Maintaining your Zendesk configuration should include quarterly reviews of these installed apps, including who is using them, security and compliance, cost, and more. A regular process of maintenance helps ensure that you are not wasting money or exposing your team to unnecessary risk.

If you aren’t using API tokens for your integrations or custom scripts, start now.  They are far more secure and less likely to change than a password, and they can be controlled at the individual integration level (versus the user level).

The downside to API tokens, as seen in the screenshot below, is that if they aren’t labeled clearly, they can quickly become difficult to manage. Always label your Zendesk API tokens clearly: who is using it, for what projects, any timelines where it will be out of use, and whom to contact for questions about its use.

Another best practice is to leverage the timeframes next to your API tokens as opportunities to take action.

For instance, if you see "never used" next to an API token, it should probably be deleted immediately. There is no way to tell who has or had access to that token, and it is therefore a security risk.  Similarly, "last used about 1 year ago" warnings might indicate that a token was used for a one-off project and is no longer necessary. That might not seem concerning, but if the token remains valid and a bad actor finds it, it can be exploited. 

Reporting

How often do you go into Zendesk Explore and see hundreds of reports with names like "Sally's report July" or "Testing AHT by priority?" 

Cluttered reporting is a real problem. And while it doesn't impact performance, it often causes duplicate work because it’s hard to tell when a report has already been created, meaning leaders are forced to recreate existing reports from scratch 

You’ll be hard pressed to convince support leaders they shouldn't be allowed to create their own reports, but it should be fairly easy to ensure and enforce reporting guidelines and sharing of reports and dashboards. With a little planning and forethought, you can set up a robust dashboard in Zendesk. With good filtering and data visualization, one dashboard per team, region or brand, might be all you need to maintain.

Monitoring Data and Performance

Zendesk recently started adding more constraints around data storage, so it’s now more important than ever to watch your data usage. 

Beyond that, it isn't uncommon as teams scale to require regular maintenance of unused objects in your configuration. For example, you can use the trigger usage metadata to determine if triggers have been run in the past week or month. If they have not, this could cause issues in the future, such as notifications being sent incorrectly or fields changing unexpectedly. \

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Other best practices and areas you should consider:

• Unused licenses. Zendesk shows you the last login times of each user. If they haven't accessed it in a long time, should they have a license or access at all? Reducing licenses can become an easy way to save money.
• Automations/Triggers with outdated fields. This happens when a field changes, or is deleted altogether and is still referenced by the rules. This can stop important business rules from running and should be corrected‍
• Macro usage. Similar to triggers, unused macros create unnecessary clutter for agents to sift through. Cleaning up your macro list can make your whole team more efficient and productive.

Tools like Salto can help you with this monitoring effort by making it easy for you to manage and track changes, improve your testing, and automating manual Zendesk administration tasks. Reducing needless data and objects in your instance will have a long term impact of reducing errors, shrinking troubleshooting, and even saving you time and money.

Backup and Recovery

It’s vital to backup your workflows and other configuration elements to ensure that documentation, ownership and impact are clear.

Good Zendesk maintenance practices include good disaster recovery techniques. You should test your backup and recovery methodology at least once per year to ensure no components of the process have changed, your process documentation hasn’t become outdated, and your backups are not corrupted.

Zendesk maintenance isn’t optional

Zendesk configurations are complex. While they aren’t always highly technical (although they can be!), the Zendesk instance of a growing customer support team always contains a large number of moving parts. 

It’s also true that Zendesk’s user interface can be confusing and the notifications or troubleshooting of changes can be difficult. Implementing these best practices for your Zendesk instance helps to ensure a smooth experience for your customers and agents. It can also save you money by uncovering inefficiencies and helping you get more out of your investment in Zendesk as a product. 

If you’re struggling with maintaining your Zendesk instance and you want to make the entire process more painless and efficient, sign up for a demo of Salto today.