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How to Setup Zendesk Macros?

Apology Email to Angry Customers

Last Updated: March 2024

Do you know, 90% of customers rate immediate response as a must while interacting with customer support? Using a chatbot and canned responses can ensure that your customers have a swift response.

If you are looking for steps to set up Zendesk macros then you are at the right place. We have curated easy steps on ‘how to set up macros’ for Zendesk along with a few examples you can implement..

Benefits of Canned Responses

  • Better Response

Using canned responses will make your team more responsive, especially on those questions that do not require much effort. These responses will automatically help your customers by giving solutions as per the way you have saved them. This helps in providing more personalized service to your customer.

  • Saves Time

Canned responses save a lot of time for both your agent and customers. Your agents don’t have to manually type long responses whereas the client gets a quick reply, improving customer satisfaction.

  • No Grammatical Mistakes

Imagine responding to your customers with a grammatical error. It can degrade your brand image. Thus with the help of saved replies, you can frame your sentence beforehand and can eliminate any typing error. 

  • Helps in Managing Multiple Customers

Canned responses leave no customer unattended no matter how busy the ticketing portal is. This also helps in scaling up your customer service. 

How to Setup Zendesk Macros?

Activate macros within your Zendesk account. 

To reach all your macros, click on the Admin button, navigate to Manage, and then Macros. Depending on your user role (admin or regular user), you will observe the following:

Below is an example of the ‘Admin View’

Agent View

Utilize the search function to find a particular macro, and disable an active macro by clicking on the square next to its name and checking it off. Refer to:

You also have the option to filter Macros, displaying only Shared ones (accessible to everyone) or Personal ones (visible exclusively to you).

To generate a new macro, just click “Add Macro” or select existing ones to make edits.

 

How to create macros in Zendesk?

Now let’s go through the steps for ‘how to create a macro in Zendesk’.

When you open a new Macro, this is what you’ll see.

Components:

  • Name
  1. Description: Indicating its contents and use case, for instance, the title might be “Feature request,” and the description could be “for customer feedback.” Note that this is optional.
  2. Available for: All Agents, Agents in Group (e.g., a Sales group where the macro applies specifically to their tasks), or Personal Only.
  3. Actions: This is the crucial part. Here, you can input your text and include automation related to the query. For example:

Creating a Macro for “Thank you” replies, which are sent after a customer expresses gratitude for assistance or issue resolution.

The Macro should include:

  1. Comment/Description: The support text.
  2. Automate setting the status to “Solved” to close the ticket completely. 

It will look like this:

The first name of the ticket requester is a Zendesk code that automatically includes the customer’s name from the contact information in their email address. It’s crucial to verify to ensure accuracy!

 

If the name is unknown, using a simple “Hi there” is also an option.

 

Additional action functions include setting priority (e.g., Urgent or Low), assigning, automatically adding or removing tags, and adding a CC.

Include a macro in your initial Zendesk ticket. 

To incorporate a macro into a ticket, just open the ticket you are working on and go to the bottom left, opposite the Close tab and “Submit as:” button. You’ll find a dropdown menu labeled “Apply macro.”

All the saved macros will be available for your selection, and you can also use the search bar to find a specific one. After clicking it, the macro will be applied immediately, allowing you to edit the text to meet the customer’s requirements.

 

How to use Zendesk Macros efficiently: Practical Tips

Macros serve to convey specific information and should not be employed as complete responses. While incorporating macros into your replies, it’s essential to customize each response for individual customers.

Here are key considerations when using macros:

1) Personalized Lead-in:

  • Macro: ‘Hi Andy, thanks for taking the time to get in touch. We are often contacted by customers wanting to showcase our products on their sites. Please send me a link to your blog or website so that I can gauge whether it’s suitable…’
  • Personalized: ‘Hi Andy, great to hear from you! I’m really happy that you’re interested in promoting our products on your blog. So that we can better understand your audience, could you please [insert macro]’

2) Careful Review:

Read through the macro meticulously, eliminating redundant or unnecessary information Furthermore, ensure that the information is relevant, current, and presented in the simplest manner possible.

3) Provide Context:

Before employing a macro, introduce it with context for the customer. For instance, say, ‘here’s some details on how to troubleshoot connectivity,’ rather than directly providing troubleshooting instructions.

4) Personalized Ending:

  • Macro: ‘We hope this has solved your troubleshooting problem, and thanks again for getting in touch with the team.’
  • Personalized: ‘I understand how difficult troubleshooting can be. If the above steps aren’t clear, please reach out to me, and I’ll provide you with additional information and support.’

 

Macro examples: Where to Begin?

There are no strict rules on essential macros; it depends on your business and the nature of incoming queries. However, drawing from years of customer support experience, here are some general and specific e-commerce and SaaS macro examples.

1) Acknowledging/ Escalating Queries

Example 1:

“Hi there, I’m sorry you’re having this trouble. Let me send this through to my manager, and she will get back to you during Australian Business Hours. If you have other questions in the meantime, please let me know, and I’ll be happy to help as much as possible.”

Example 2:

“I’m sorry I haven’t been able to solve this immediately, but I wanted to let you know I haven’t forgotten about you! To ensure a satisfactory resolution, I’ve escalated your ticket to our Support Captain, who will be able to assist you. We appreciate your patience – feel free to reply to this email for any further questions.”

2) Support Delays (Incomplete team/volume hike/holidays)

Example 1:

“There’s been a public holiday in Australia, so the team will be unavailable. As they handle refunds and account-related queries, it may take an extra day to get back to you. I apologize for any inconvenience this causes.”

Example 2:

“Hi there! We’re experiencing a high volume of tickets this week, and as a result, our reply time is a little slower than we’d like. Just to let you know, we have received your request and will have an answer for you in the next 24 hours. Thanks for your patience.”

3) Feedback or Feature/Product Request

“Thank you for your suggestion! We’ve sent that on to the team for consideration.”

4) Website Down/Known Bug

“Sorry! We are having a technical issue right now. We’re working on fixing it and will let you know when it’s sorted out.”

5) Customer Not Responding

“Hi there, Our agent Mikey has tried to contact you about this request, but we haven’t heard back from you yet. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance. Thank you.”

Limitations of Zendesk

Zendesk has some drawbacks that can hamper your business operations. Some of the limitations of Zendesk are-

Adding macros to your Zendesk account is not easy and requires you to be careful while enabling it. This consumes a lot of time and makes it hard for you to edit them.

Zendesk keeps on adding new features that require you to update the software frequently. With every new update, Zendesk has new glitches or bugs that can hamper your business operation and you can even lose some important contacts. 

The reporting option in Zendesk is hard to configure and even the options are limited, you need to create custom reports to gain more valuable metrics. 

Complicated technical setup

Zendesk requires some technical knowledge to set it up. You would require the help of your IT team to run it smoothly. Even the guidebook provided by them is a bit confusing and a non-it person can not understand the steps written in it.

Too many limitations? How about software that allows you to add canned responses with ease? Meet Saufter that easily allows you to add, edit, or remove canned responses.

Saufter

  • Saufter is software that allows you to easily add canned responses. It even provides metrics related to canned messages that allow you to manage them more effectively. 
  • Saufter also provides omnichannel automated customer support with the help of its AI chatbot. This feature allows you to easily attend to all your customers present on different platforms and solve their queries. 
  • It can even automate your social media handle. Saufter collects good reviews, and videos from platforms like Yelp!, Facebook, Google reviews, etc. and posts them on your social media. This helps in creating awareness about your product. 
  • Saufter provides call center services where you can avail yourself of services like after-hour call service, overflow call service, live chat outsourcing service, and many more. 
  • If you are looking to expand your team, then too Saufter can help you. We hire experienced and trained staff on your behalf, that provides the best customer support service. 

Conclusion

Now, in the end, we hope that this post has helped you in setting up macros on your Zendesk. Although, the configuration of Zendesk macros is a bit confusing and requires some technical knowledge to edit them.

However, switching to software that provides an easy canned response setup can help you manage your business operations with ease. Software like Saufter provides an easy canned response setup that saves your agents’ time. It can even assist you to automate your customer support and social media handle with the help of an AI bot.

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