| Configuration area | Best practice | Why it’s best practice | What happens if you don’t follow it |
|---|---|---|---|
| View count per agent | Keep agents to ~2–5 active “daily driver” views (plus optional personal views for edge cases). | Views are meant to act as focused work queues that guide agents to what needs attention. Too many views undermines that workflow guidance and creates cognitive overhead. [support.zendesk.com] | Agents waste time choosing where to work, develop inconsistent habits, and miss tickets because attention is split across too many queues. |
| Primary working queue | Use one primary “My / My Groups – Unsolved” type view as the default queue (then a small number of supporting views like “Recently solved”, “Recently rated”). | Zendesk positions views as the mechanism to organize tickets into lists that help agents determine what needs attention and plan their work. [support.zendesk.com] | Agents bounce between overlapping queues; tickets stall because “someone else will grab it from another view.” |
| Avoid grouped views | Avoid “Group by” in views where possible (especially high-volume queues). | Views are intended to be lists that prioritize and guide workflow; grouping adds navigation friction and can make scanning/triage slower. [support.zendesk.com] | Agents must “swim” through groups, miss items buried in collapsed/large groups, and triage speed drops—especially when the grouped field has many values. |
| Sorting / ordering | Sort by SLA / Group SLA (ascending) for operational queues, not by “updated time.” | Zendesk explicitly recommends ordering views by SLA or Group SLA ascending so tickets closest to breach get attention first. [support.zendesk.com] | Teams inadvertently work “most recently updated” tickets first; at-risk tickets breach while newer/noisier tickets float to the top. |
| SLA visibility in columns | Add SLA / Group SLA columns to the main operational views. | Zendesk notes agents can see SLA/Group SLA target status in views via SLA columns and use them to prioritize. [support.zendesk.com] | Agents can’t see urgency at a glance, so prioritization becomes subjective; leaders rely on escalations instead of proactive queue management. |
| Use reporting instead of “counting views” | For “how many tickets are in each group,” use Explore reporting / dashboards, not dozens of group-specific views. | Zendesk Explore supports reporting across groups (e.g., tracking ticket assignments across groups) and helps monitor workload patterns beyond what operational views are for. [support.zendesk.com] | You end up with view sprawl (lots of near-duplicate views), inconsistent usage, and a brittle setup that’s hard to maintain. |
| Dynamic vs group-specific views | Prefer dynamic views (based on group assignment/conditions) over static “Group A View / Group B View” duplication. | Zendesk supports creating views available to all agents or specific groups, and views are built on conditions—this is designed for scalable shared workflows. [support.zendesk.com], [support.zendesk.com] | Tickets get “orphaned” when conditions don’t match a specific static view; teams assume another group’s view covers it and it slips through cracks. |
| MECE design | Make views MECE (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive) at the operational layer. | MECE reduces overlap and confusion by ensuring tickets appear in the “right” queue, instead of multiple competing queues. [salto.io] | Duplicate tickets appear across views; agents double-handle or ignore tickets because “it’s already in another view.” |
| “All tickets” safety net | Maintain an “All Unsolved / All Tickets (Admin/Lead)” view for leaders/admins to detect edge cases. | Zendesk notes standard views include broad lists like “All unsolved tickets,” which help monitor the overall backlog. [support.zendesk.com] | You have no reliable catch-all to identify tickets that are misrouted, missing required fields, or stuck in unusual states. |
| Columns consistency | Standardize view columns across the main queues (same order + meaning), with only minimal variation per workflow. | View formatting supports adding/removing columns; consistent formatting improves scanning and reduces context switching. [support.zendesk.com], [support.zendesk.com] | Agents lose time re-orienting (“Where’s priority/SLA/requester?”), miss key signals, and complain the workspace is “messy.” |
| Column selection discipline | Use a small, purposeful set of columns for decisions (e.g., SLA, priority, requester, org, assignee, last update, channel). | Zendesk encourages selecting the ticket fields you want displayed so the view supports fast triage. [support.zendesk.com] | Views become noisy; agents either ignore columns entirely or fixate on the wrong ones (e.g., “updated time”) and miss real risk. |
| Cloning for scale | When creating multiple views, clone an existing “gold standard” view (with correct columns), then adjust conditions. | Zendesk supports cloning a view to create variations efficiently. [support.zendesk.com], [support.zendesk.com] | Inconsistent columns, formatting drift, and unnecessary rework. Small differences compound into a confusing experience over time. |
| Naming & navigation | Use clear naming conventions and optionally emoji prefixes to speed recognition (e.g., ✅, 🔥, ⏳). Also consider folders/categories. | Zendesk supports categorizing views into folders using Category::View name, improving navigation and monitoring across teams. [support.zendesk.com]
|
Agents scroll and hunt; wrong view selection increases; leaders struggle to roll up “where the work sits” across many views. |
| Availability / permissions | Restrict shared views to the right audiences (all agents vs specific groups), and keep “lead/admin” views separate. | Zendesk provides view availability controls (shared, group-limited, personal) to align with support structure. [support.zendesk.com], [support.zendesk.com] | People see views they don’t need, adding clutter and confusion; sensitive or “control” queues get used incorrectly. |
| Deactivate stale views | Deactivate/delete views that aren’t used; keep the list lean and current. | Zendesk supports editing, deactivating, and deleting views to keep configurations maintained. [support.zendesk.com] | Old views remain “just in case,” causing bloat; agents pick outdated queues; admins maintain duplicated logic unnecessarily. |