Zendesk Macro Training

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On this page

• What this covers
• What are macros
• Creating a macro via Zendesk
• Editing a macro via Zendesk
• Deactivating a macro via Zendesk
• Positioning
• Macro standards
  • Naming standards
• Change management
  • Request stage
  • Testing stage
  • Repo stage
  • Review stage
  • Implementation stage
• Merge request reviewers
• Useful links

What this covers

This training material will cover the following topics:

• A broad overview of what a Zendesk macro is
• Creating/editing/deactivating Zendesk macros via the UI
• A quick note on macro positioning
• GitLab Support Ops macro standards
• GitLab Support Ops change management process for Zendesk macros

What are macros

As per Zendesk:

A macro is a prepared response or action that an agent can manually apply when they are creating or updating tickets. Macros contain actions that can update ticket properties.

Unlike triggers and automations, macros only contain actions, not conditions. Conditions aren't used because nothing is automatically evaluating tickets to determine if a macro should be applied. Agents evaluate tickets and apply macros manually as needed.

Creating a macro via Zendesk

Note: As of 2021-09-21, Zendesk has changed the location of the macros management pages. They are now located in the Admin Center, which you can locate by clicking the four squares in the top-right of the page and clicking the Admin Center link. After doing so, you can locate the macros management pages under Workspaces > Agent workspace > Macros. All videos are of the old location (i.e. in the admin panel). Once you access the management pages, the steps to create/edit/etc. are the same.

To create a macro in Zendesk, you first need to go to the Admin Center, which you can locate by clicking the four squares in the top-right of the page and clicking the Admin Center link. After doing so, you can locate the macros management pages under Workspaces > Agent workspace > Macros.

After doing so, you will then click the Add macro button on the top-right side of the page. This will then load up the new macro page.

From here, you will:

1. enter a name for the macro.
2. enter a description for the macro.
3. use the dropdown to determine who can apply this macro.
4. enter the actions for the macro to perform.

After doing this, you will then click the blue Create button.

Editing a macro via Zendesk

Note: As of 2021-09-21, Zendesk has changed the location of the macros management pages. They are now located in the Admin Center, which you can locate by clicking the four squares in the top-right of the page and clicking the Admin Center link. After doing so, you can locate the macros management pages under Workspaces > Agent workspace > Macros. All videos are of the old location (i.e. in the admin panel). Once you access the management pages, the steps to create/edit/etc. are the same.

Editing a Zendesk macro is very similar to creating one. You will follow the same steps to get the macros page. Instead of clicking the Add macro button, you will instead locate the macro to edit in the list and click on the name (if your macro is currently inactive, you will need to click the Inactive tab, located above the list of macro).

Doing so will bring up the macros editor page. From here, you can tweak the various aspects of the macro. Once you have the edits in place, click the blue Save button.

Deactivating a macro via Zendesk

Note: As of 2021-09-21, Zendesk has changed the location of the macros management pages. They are now located in the Admin Center, which you can locate by clicking the four squares in the top-right of the page and clicking the Admin Center link. After doing so, you can locate the macros management pages under Workspaces > Agent workspace > Macros. All videos are of the old location (i.e. in the admin panel). Once you access the management pages, the steps to create/edit/etc. are the same.

There are actually two ways to deactivate a macro in the Zendesk UI. The quicker way is to go to the macros page, locate the macro in question, hover over it, and click the three vertical dots on the right-hand side. This will bring up a sub-menu, which contains the option to Deactivate. Click that option and the macro will be deactivated.

The alternative way to deactivate a macro in the Zendesk UI is from within the macro editor page. On that page, click the three horizontal dots in the top-right of the page and select Deactivate from the menu.

Positioning

While macros do have positions, we often do not worry about this. This is because the menu used by agents is searchable and readily navigatable. We also have a lot of macros, so trying to micro-manage the positions would not be efficient.

Macro standards

To ensure all macros we utilize are both consistent in nature and transparent in their actions, we strive to meet some standards on all macros we work with.

Naming standards

Macros are a bit unique in Zendesk. They have categorization, but it is not obvious in the UI. Instead, the categorization is determined based on the name of the macro itself. Essentially, every group of words becomes a "folder" of sorts in the macros dropdown selector. The separator currently used by Zendesk is two colons (::).

This can get a bit confusing and hard to learn the ins and outs of, so when in doubt, reach out to your fellow Support Ops team members.

Change management

When it comes to making changes to Zendesk macros, we utilize the macros repos instead of doing this via the Zendesk UI. This allows us to easily revert a change and ensure what is running in our production instances is what we have approved. To ensure each runs smoothly, we do our changes in set stages.

Request stage

All Zendesk macro changes should start with a request issue or a merge request (henceforth called an issue).

All request issues should contain the following labels at creation:

• "Support-Ops-Category::Macros"
• A priority label, which is one of:
  • "Support-Ops-Priority::Urgent"
  • "Support-Ops-Priority::High"
  • "Support-Ops-Priority::Normal"
  • "Support-Ops-Priority::Low"
• "Zendesk::Global" if this is about the Zendesk Global instance
• "Zendesk::US-Federal" if this is about the Zendesk US Federal instance
• "SupportOps::To Do"

While we have scripting and templating in place to find when these are missing, you should strive to ensure those are present. If you find any of them missing, please add them.

Once the request is in good standing, you may assign it to yourself (if it is not already) and add the tag "SupportOps::Doing" to indicate you have started working on this.

Testing stage

Macros are relatively harmless since they have to be manually applied. As such, testing is only done when the Support Operations team member feels it is required. Should you decide testing is required, you will start the process in the Zendesk sandbox. In the Zendesk sandbox for the corresponding Zendesk instance this impacts, you will make the desired changes. Once this is done, update the original request issue with the following:

• An explanation for why you determined testing was required
• A link to the macro in the Zendesk sandbox
• However much time it took you to implement the changes in the sandbox
  • This can be down using the /spend X minutes, where X is the number of minutes you spent.
• What testing needs to be done.

You will then test these changes. This process should take no more than 1 day after making the changes. This is to ensure that not only is the change tested thoroughly, but others have time to review your tests and the results.

Often, you will need assistance testing out changes. Should this be required, consider reaching out to the following for assistance in testing the changes:

• The original requester
• A fellow Support Ops team member
• A Support Ops Manager

If testing provides failed results, this means we need to update the original request issue with what happened and why. If this is because of a flaw in the request, we should state as much and recommend the requester discuss this with their team. If it failed due to our implementation, we should detail what was wrong with the implementation and propose a new method to try.

Once the changes have been thoroughly tested (and are successful), make sure to add the time you spent doing the testing to the original request.

At that juncture, update the issue with a comment to state testing has completed and was successful. You should give the requester an opportunity to review the test(s) and result(s). Ask if they would like to review them. If they decline, you may move on. If they wish to do so, await their update after they have reviewed the results.

Repo stage

To prepare for the implementation, you will need to create a merge request (if the request was not made via a merge request) to the corresponding macros repo (see Useful links down below).

For an existing macro, this is a simpler approach, since the macro already has an ID in Zendesk. Make the edits to the file in the repo and submit the merge request in draft mode.

For new macros, this gets a bit trickier, as there is not an ID in Zendesk as of yet. To help with this, clone an existing macro and then deactivate the cloned copy. You can then use this new macros's ID value in the merge request.

After creating the merge request, make sure it is linked in the original request and you have added any additional time spent to the requester issue.

Note: All merge requests in the macros repo should contain the following labels (the same as with issues):

• "Support-Ops-Category::Macros"
• A priority label, which is one of:
  • "Support-Ops-Priority::Urgent"
  • "Support-Ops-Priority::High"
  • "Support-Ops-Priority::Normal"
  • "Support-Ops-Priority::Low"
• "Zendesk::Global" if this is about the Zendesk Global instance
• "Zendesk::US-Federal" if this is about the Zendesk US Federal instance
• "SupportOps::To Do"

Review stage

In this stage, whomever is marked as a reviewer for the merge request will review the changes being made. Often, this will be a Support Ops team member and a Support Manager. Once all parties have reviewed and approved the changes, you are good to move on to the next stage.

Implementation stage

This stage should be the simplest one to implement, as you already have a merge request ready to go! Simply mark the merge request as ready and merge it. If you encounter any issues here, reach out to your fellow Support Ops team members for assistance.

Any announcements needing to be made should be by the requester themselves.

Merge request reviewers

We utilize Code Owners in the macros repos for approvers who are not Support Ops team members. Should any changes need to be made to this, you would submit a merge request that makes the changes in the .gitlab/CODEOWNERS file.

Useful links

• Zendesk Global Macro documentation
• Zendesk US Federal Macro documentation
• Zendesk Global Macro repo
• Zendesk US Federal Macro repo
• Zendesk official documentation