Zendesk, as a comprehensive Customer Relationship Management software, aids many businesses in managing and improving their relationship with other companies and clients. The software offers a wide variety of features that help do that, such as live chat, social messaging, a ticketing system for handling customer requests, and many other handy features. One of them is also the time-tracking functionality. Zendesk's native time-tracking feature also allows for time-tracking reporting. Let us examine closely Zendesk functionality and investigate whether there are other options worth exploring.
What is Zendesk?
The question in the heading needs no answer for more than 170 thousand users in 160 countries all over the world, who use Zendesk daily. This customer relationship management software is an all-in-one solution for all your customer-related needs. Thanks to various applications that help you at every stage of the process you can excel at customer relationship management.
What exactly can you expect using Zendesk? If you are new to the software, or only just considering getting it, below are a few basic features of this solution:
organisations can incorporate live chat into their customer service
software helps in building a customer knowledge base
companies can create a ticketing system for their customer requests
chat support is offered for all major social media platforms
An important part of Zendesk is not only enhanced customer relationship management but also the improvement of the performance of the customer support staff members. This can happen thanks to accurate time tracking and generated time-tracking reports.
Does Zendesk have native time tracking?
Any measurable improvements need measurable data on which we can base our actions. The same goes for your staff's productivity and efficiency. To improve it you need to first measure what the initial state of things is. For that you will need, for example, data on how long it takes to resolve tickets, what tickets take longer to resolve, and which ones are quicker to resolve. You can also see how individual staff members deal with the same types of tasks, whether training is needed or perhaps more staff members to deal with the workload. These and many more data can be delivered by effective time tracking.
Zendesk introduced a native time-tracking to their software. Once starting a ticket, an employee can switch on the timer by hitting the 'start timer' button. Zendesk can then track the time devoted to the work on that ticket.
It is not about running an investigation and being too controlling towards your staff members. It is simply about getting insight into how you can take their productivity to the next level.
Since native time tracking does not get added to your Zendesk automatically at the start, you will have to get it installed. Firstly, switch on your Zendesk and log into it. Then, hit the Admin button, go to Apps, and then Marketplace. You can then search for the Time Tracking app and install it.
Once you have the add-on installed, you can then tailor it to your specific needs. Head to Apps, then Manage, and finally Time Tracking. You may not quite know how to customize time tracking so that it works best for you. Therefore, below we compiled some ideas on what you might want to change:
Limiting the visibility of the app to include just admins
Giving the tracker your chosen title
Deciding if agents should view the time logs on the tickets
Adding a refresh button that restarts time tracking
Adding various custom fields to tickets
Pausing time tracking option, which can be used when switching to a different tab
One of the best advantages of this native feature is the ability to generate time-tracking reports. Detailed reports give you a great deal of information on the performance of your team or its members. Some workers will perform well, some may need more assistance. Knowing the difference gives you an idea of how and where to act.
However great the functionality of time-tracking is, it also has its flaws. It is only fair to make you aware of them. Only when having a full picture you can decide whether native time tracking is something for you or not.
Limitations to Zendesk Time Tracking
Time tracking in Zendesk takes the form of a basic, simple time tracker. You might think it is all a time tracker should do, however, in reality, there are other modern trackers with plenty more advanced features. Some might find Zendesk native tracking sufficient, while others will need more functionalities.
It is those advanced features that often help you see the bigger picture and draw accurate conclusions that form the basis for the actions you are planning to take. One such thing is tracking time for multiple projects or clients. Handling such a scenario with multiple accounts and teams will be nearly impossible without the help of professional software.
When we are on the topic of productivity, there is nothing that can ruin it more than distractions. However, good time-tracking software has remedies for that. Special features are implemented to keep you focused on work. Unfortunately, Zendesk does not offer such features.
It also often happens that your team members stay inactive for various reasons, not necessarily connected to distractions. Your time-tracking software should measure such time and include it in time-tracking reporting. Again, Zendesk is not the software that can do that for you.
To sum up, the Zendesk Time Tracker cons come down to the lack of ability to keep the team working hard. This directly influences the inability to help you boost your staff members' performance. Luckily, there is a way out. You can still track time effectively and use the advanced features a tracking software provides.
Zendesk time-tracking integration
You have probably heard about the possibility of integrating Zendesk with third-party apps to enhance it with missing features. What you might not have known is that you can get an add-on with the better-developed function you already have within Zendesk. It is exactly what you can do to get all the advanced time-tracking features your business needs within Zendesk. A tracker that gives you a seamless integration with Zendesk is TimeCamp. It is an advanced piece of software with an intuitive and easy-to-use interface. It is a great solution for small businesses as well as large enterprises.
How TimeCamp time tracking works
TimeCamp is the best time-tracking app you can get for Zendesk. You can not only easily integrate it with Zendesk but also enhance the productivity of your team and accurately track billable hours.
All you have to do to integrate TimeCamp with Zendesk is go to Zendest marketplace and add a TimeCamp plugin to your account. From now on, you can track time spent on every ticket with a one-click switch of the TimeCamp timer.
Ticket time-tracking has many features that TimeCamp can offer:
Tracking time on desktop: thanks to the desktop plugin you can monitor time, using the TimeCamp Chrome extension or within other apps;
Generating timesheets: TimeCamp also allows to prepare timesheets based on the billable hours spent working on Zendesk tickets;
Sharing data: the Zendesk time tracking app reporting can be shared as PDF, or Excel files, through email, or by providing a link to the relevant person.
Budgeting: Zendesk integration with TimeCamp helps to prepare accurate budgets for every one of your clients. It will also show how much time you have left to devote to the respective budgets.
Invoicing: TimeCamp lets you choose different price rates for your clients and invoice them for the billable hours through the integration.
Benefits of Zendesk and TimeCamp integration
Since we know now what features TimeCamp offers, let us look at what you can gain thanks to such time-tracking integration.
Getting things done faster
If you have time measured on a certain Zendesk ticket it creates a sense of urgency. Elapsing seconds make individual agents feel like there is no time to waste when dealing with this specific ticket. It will automatically shorten the time agents spend on completing tasks.
Sharing is caring... about accurate billing
Thanks to the timesheets accessible via different mediums and the ability to grant such access, you can use Zendesk to share time-tracking reports with clients and simplify your billing.
Productivity tracking
We all know that sometimes we just need that extra push to get something done. With TimeCamp, you can supervise time spent working on every ticket and take screenshots if something looks irregular. You will boost your staff performance, and therefore productivity, in no time by adjusting your actions to the discovered patterns.
Setting time limits on tickets
Certain tickets are easy to deal with and straightforward. There is no need to sit on them for longer than you need to. Therefore, setting a time limit on them lets your team know what the standard is as well as what is expected of them. Additionally, your customers will be happier when their tickets get resolved quicker.
How to integrate TimeCamp and Zendesk?
Now you know everything, you have probably concluded that getting TimeCamp integration is not a bad idea. All we have left to do then, is to explain how to do so.
Enabling the TimeCamp integration starts by setting up your account in TimeCamp (if you have not got one yet). Go to the TimeCamp main website and follow the instructions to register. Once you do that, you can easily integrate Zendesk with TimeCamp in just a few steps:
Step 1. Enable the integration
Log in to your TimeCamp account and hit 'Integrations'. Then, select 'Enable' next to the Zendesk time tracking integration.
Step 2. Get Zendesk plugin
Go to the Zendesk marketplace, search for the Time Tracker by TimeCamp, and hit 'Install'.
Step 3. Start tracking time
Now, you can switch on both apps simultaneously and track the time spent on every ticket.
Takeaway
Zendesk offers its clients native time tracking with basic functions. Unfortunately, these functions are not sufficient for most of the enterprises. That is why, getting a third-party time-tracking integration is crucial to getting in-depth and accurate time-tracking reports. Among many available on the market apps, TimeCamp is one of those that offer a vast variety of useful functions, which not only allow tracking time but also save it as well as boost productivity and efficiency.
Time management
