Tip of the Week: Turn Tickets into Prewritten Responses with Macros

This blog post is a little old. For the most up to date info, read our article Creating Macros from existing tickets to learn more

One of the ways in which Zendesk can speed up your support time is through Macros. Macros are rewritten responses, enabling you to quickly respond to common requests with a standard reply. You can add, edit, and remove macros by selecting Macros in the Manage tab in your Zendesk. Macros have the benefits of customer support scripts (quick, on-brand responses) while leaving the agent open to providing personalized support.

But what's the best way to create macros? While you may know what some of your common customer requests are off the top of your head, it's usually the case that you recognize an often-asked question when you're typing up the same response for the hundredth time. That's why Zendesk allows you to turn the ticket on which you're working into a macro at the same time you're solving it. Once you realize that any ticket you solve could turn into a prepared response for later, you'll start using this feature more and more.

To turn a ticket you're working on into a Macro, all you need to do is select the option in the drop-down next to the submit button on an open ticket. For instance, one of the common questions customers ask us is how to configure Zendesk to an email-only help desk. After answering that same question a number of times, one of our support agents turned a ticket about it into a macro.

Hitting submit takes you to the Macro edit screen where you can tweak your answer -- make it more general, for instance, or, as here, add dynamic placeholders that will change your greeting to automatically address the ticket requester by his first name. Macros can also set tags and change the ticket attributes.

Read our article Creating Macros from existing tickets to learn more