5 ways to improve your Zendesk ticket form

Your Zendesk ticket form is often the gateway to customer service in your company. A poorly designed ticket form not only leaves a bad impression but can actually increase the number of support enquiries you receive.

In our experience -- having worked with hundreds of organizations to implement Zendesk ticket forms -- the best ticket forms are intuitive, simple, and almost built with the intent to get more people to submit the form. The end result, however, is less (not more) people submitting the forms, hence generating less support tickets.

Our intent goes beyond generating less support tickets. We also want to give our customers a form that can help categorize their request better, which would in turn help the customer support agents.

So, how do you make a good support ticket form?

Use a category selector field

The first field in your support ticket form should allow customers to categorize their request, and it helps if this field has images (or icons). You can even hide all other fields until a selection has been made for this field.

This is best illustrated by our customer Easyship's support ticket form:

This is actually a form, rather than a custom application!

What makes this form good?

• Consistent design
• Form compliments the brand
• Issue type is easy to select
• Excellent use of space

Once a user makes a selection (say Claims) the form can show some text or ticket fields.

Contrast this form with a more standard Zendesk ticket form:

The form is lacking something. What?

• Generic appearance
• Design doesn't match the brand image
• Issue type selection isn't straightforward (requires more user interactions, since the customer has to click the dropdown to see the options and then scroll down to find the correct one)

Make use of conditional logic

This builds upon the previous point. Conditional fields are the bedrock of intuitive forms. You can create complex forms that adapt to customer inputs, while still being nimble. Conditional logic goes beyond hiding and showing fields. You can use conditional logic to:

1. Send emails to certain people
   If Department is Sales send email to sales@example.com
2. Show a certain form page
   If Additional info is Yes show page Add More Info
3. Redirect to a URL
   If Issue type is Technical redirect to example.com/developer
4. Set value of other fields
   If Have you been here before is Yes set value of field32 to Thank you for being a loyal customer
5. Trigger integrations
   If Feedback rating is less than 2 then trigger Zendesk ticket

Here is an example of how powerful conditional logic can be in a simple form:

This form can accept a wide variety of customer issue types - booking requests, complaints, feedback, and miscellaneous.

Here is an example flow:

1. Since the customer selected Feedback we will email feedback@lodge.com with the form response data.
2. The customer gave us over 3 stars - we could treat them by offering a discount coupon code in the "thank you" message, and also redirecting them to a page thanking them for the high rating.
3. Lastly, the customer wants to join our newsletter so we would add them to our Mailchimp list.

Amazing, isn't it? Most form builders support conditional logic to some extent. Learn more about FormCrafts' conditional logic.

Use rich text within the form

A good form is a source of information as much as it is a medium of collecting information. Your form should contain instructions in text form, lists, images, some emojis, and maybe even a video if necessary.

Here is a simple example:

If the customer wants to create a ticket about order tracking we would try and point them in the right direction so they may not need to create a ticket at all.

Maybe the customer needs technical help fixing their bike. Instead of showing the ticket fields we could show a DIY video, and if the issue isn't resolved the customer can still fill out the ticket form.

Use searchable dropdowns

Dropdowns (or picklists) are an excellent and versatile field type. A good dropdown field should be able to:

1. Hold a large number of options
2. Group options under categories
3. Be searchable
4. Associate images with each option (bonus!)

Example: you want the customer to be able to select a service location while creating a ticket. You have multiple locations in every state. What is the best way to put this in a field?

This field would be just as intuitive if your company had over 1000 service locations. The customer could simply type in "To" and find Toronto on the list.

A good dropdown field might allow you to add images to each option, and maybe even allow you to select more than one option. How would that look? See here.

Embed on your website

A good Zendesk ticket form should be easily accessible. You can have a copy of the form on your help center. You might also need a simply form on your Contact us page. Maybe even a small form on your app's dashboard. If listening to your customers is important to you as a brand, you need to take the form to them.

Here is an example of our customer Camilla using a embedded form on their Contact us page:

The form looks deceptively simple but uses dozens of conditional logic steps that aid the customer along the way. The form's appearance is seamless and matches the brand styling very well.

The form automatically adapts in appearance and shows the correct fields as the customer enters more information.

So here are 5 ways you can supercharge your ticket forms. Unfortunately, a lot of these features aren't available in the default Zendesk ticket forms.