How to use the Zendesk Explore ticket type attribute

The ticket type attribute in Zendesk Explore is one of those features that's easy to overlook until you realize how much insight it can unlock. While most support teams track ticket volume and resolution times, fewer dig into the types of tickets they're handling. That's a missed opportunity.

When you understand your ticket type distribution, you can spot patterns. Are 60% of your tickets actually simple Questions that could be deflected with better documentation? Are Incidents spiking during certain periods? Are Problem tickets sitting unresolved while linked Incidents pile up?

This guide walks you through three practical ways to use the Zendesk Explore attribute ticket type in your reporting. You'll learn how to build a basic overview, track trends over time, and create filtered reports for specific ticket types. We'll also look at how you can take this further with automation.

What you'll need

Before you start building reports, make sure you have the basics in place:

• Zendesk Explore Professional or Enterprise the Lite plan doesn't support custom reporting with attributes
• Editor or Admin permissions in Explore viewers can't create or modify reports
• Tickets with different types already created you'll need a mix of Question, Incident, Problem, and Task tickets to make the reports meaningful

One quick clarification: the "Ticket type" attribute we're discussing here is a standard Zendesk field with four fixed values. This is different from custom ticket fields you might have created (like "Product Category" or "Issue Type"). Custom fields have their own reporting approach, which we've covered in our Zendesk Explore recipe for custom ticket fields guide. For more details on Zendesk's standard fields, see the official Zendesk documentation on ticket attributes.

Understanding the four ticket types

Zendesk gives you four ticket types to work with. Each serves a different purpose in your support workflow.

Question is the default type for most tickets. Use it for general inquiries, how-to requests, and anything that doesn't fit the other categories. These are typically resolved with a single answer or a brief back-and-forth.

Incident is for issues that need immediate attention. Think system outages, critical bugs, or anything affecting multiple users. Incidents can be linked to Problem tickets, which helps you track both the individual user impact and the underlying cause.

Problem represents the root cause behind multiple Incidents. When you identify a Problem ticket, you can link Incidents to it. This lets you communicate updates to all affected users at once and track resolution progress across the entire issue.

Task is for actionable items with due dates. Use these for follow-ups, scheduled work, or anything that needs to happen by a specific time. Tasks appear in your views with their due dates highlighted.

Getting your team to use these types consistently is the hard part. Most tickets default to Question, and agents often don't take the time to reclassify them. But if you can build the habit, your reporting becomes significantly more useful. You can route Incidents to your urgent queue automatically, track how long Problems take to resolve, and measure whether your self-service efforts are actually reducing Questions.

Recipe 1: Creating a basic Zendesk Explore attribute ticket type report

Let's start with the foundation. This recipe creates a simple table showing how many tickets you have of each type.

Step 1: In Zendesk Explore, click the Reports icon, then New report.

Step 2: Select Support > Support - Tickets, then click Start report. The Tickets dataset contains general ticket information and is the right choice for this type of overview.

Step 3: In the Metrics panel, click Add, select Tickets > Tickets, then click Apply. This gives you a count of all tickets.

Step 4: In the Filters panel, click Add, select Time created - Date, and set a time range. Start with something small like the last 30 days to prevent timeouts while you're building. You can always expand the range later.

Step 5: In the Rows panel, click Add, find Ticket type in the attribute list, and click Apply. The attribute is located under the Tickets folder, not in a custom fields section.

Step 6: Set the Visualization type to Table if it isn't already. You should now see a simple breakdown: Question, Incident, Problem, and Task with their respective ticket counts.

Step 7: Give your report a descriptive name like "Ticket type breakdown" and click Save.

This basic report answers questions like: "What percentage of our tickets are Incidents?" or "Are we using Problem tickets at all?" If you see 95% Questions and almost no other types, that's a signal your team isn't classifying tickets consistently.

Recipe 2: Analyzing ticket type trends over time

Now let's look at how your ticket types change month over month. This helps you spot patterns and measure the impact of process changes.

Step 1: Create a new report using the Support - Tickets dataset.

Step 2: Add the Tickets metric to your report.

Step 3: In the Columns panel, click Add and select Ticket created - Month. This creates a column for each month in your date range.

Step 4: In the Rows panel, add Ticket type. Now you have a matrix: ticket types as rows, months as columns.

Step 5: Set the Visualization type to Column or Line depending on your preference. Columns work well for comparing volumes, while lines make trends easier to spot.

Step 6: Adjust your date filter to cover at least 3-6 months. Anything shorter makes it hard to identify real trends versus random variation.

Step 7: Save your report with a name like "Ticket type trends by month".

Use this report to answer questions like: Are Incidents increasing after that last product release? Did our knowledge base update actually reduce Questions? Are Problem tickets taking longer to resolve over time? The visual format makes these patterns jump out in a way raw numbers don't. Learn more about trend analysis in Zendesk Explore.

Recipe 3: Filtering reports by specific ticket types

Sometimes you want to isolate a specific ticket type for deeper analysis. Calculated metrics let you do this.

Step 1: Create a new report with the Support - Tickets dataset.

Step 2: Click the Calculations menu (calculator icon) and select Standard calculated metric.

Step 3: Give your metric a name like "Incident tickets only".

Step 4: In the formula field, enter:

IF ([Ticket type]="Incident") THEN [Ticket ID] ENDIF

This formula tells Explore: only count tickets where the type is Incident. For more examples of calculated metrics using IF statements, see Zendesk's calculated metrics guide.

Step 5: Click Save. Your new metric appears in the Calculated metrics folder.

Step 6: Add your calculated metric to the report. You can create similar metrics for Problem and Task tickets using the same formula pattern.

Step 7: Combine these metrics with other filters. For example, add Ticket group to the Rows panel to see which teams handle the most Incidents. Or add Ticket channel to see if Incidents come primarily through email versus chat.

This approach is useful when you want to build dashboards focused on specific workflows. Your Incident dashboard might show resolution times, agent workload, and escalation rates, all filtered to just Incident tickets. Your Problem ticket dashboard might track linked Incidents and time-to-resolution for root cause fixes.

Common issues and troubleshooting

Even with clear steps, things sometimes go wrong. Here's how to fix the most common problems.

Ticket type doesn't appear in the attribute list Double-check you're using a dataset that includes ticket attributes. The Support - Tickets dataset definitely has it. If you're using a custom dataset or a different data source, the attribute might not be available. Also verify you have the right permissions viewers can't always see all attributes.

Empty results when you know data exists Check your date filter first. Tickets "created" last month are different from tickets "solved" last month or "updated" last month. Make sure you're filtering on the right date field for your question. Also verify that your tickets actually have types other than Question assigned if every ticket is Question, filtering for Incident will return nothing.

Historical data shows different types than expected Ticket type can be changed retroactively. If an agent updates a ticket from Question to Incident, Explore reflects that change even in historical reports. This is usually what you want (accurate current classification), but it can be confusing if you're trying to track what type a ticket was at creation.

Incident tickets not showing their linked Problem tickets The link between Incidents and Problems is stored differently than the ticket type itself. To report on linked tickets, you need to use the Ticket problem ID attribute, not just the Ticket type. This attribute shows which Problem ticket an Incident is linked to, if any.

Report timeouts or "Network error" Your dataset is too large. Add a smaller time filter (try last 7 days instead of last 30) or add more filters to narrow the results. The Tickets dataset can get very large if you have high ticket volume and a long date range.

Going further: Automating ticket classification with eesel AI

Manual ticket type classification creates a bottleneck. Agents are busy, and taking time to categorize every ticket slows down response times. Yet without consistent classification, your reporting suffers.

This is where automation helps. At eesel AI, we build AI agents that read ticket content and classify it automatically. Instead of asking agents to select a ticket type, the AI analyzes the subject line and description to predict whether something is a Question, Incident, Problem, or Task. Our AI Triage product handles this classification at scale.

Here's how it works in practice:

• A ticket comes in with the subject "System down can't access dashboard"
• The AI reads the content, identifies urgency indicators and impact scope
• It classifies the ticket as an Incident and routes it to your urgent queue
• It also suggests a priority level and flags it for immediate attention

The AI learns from your existing tickets. You train it on your historical data, and it gets better over time as you correct any misclassifications. Most teams see 80%+ accuracy after a few weeks of training.

You can connect this to your existing Zendesk workflows through our Zendesk integration. The AI can update ticket fields, add tags, route to specific groups, and even draft initial responses based on the ticket type and content.

If you're spending significant time building and maintaining ticket type reports, consider whether an AI agent could help. Our platform reads ticket content automatically and can generate insights or take actions based on that data without manual classification. For teams looking to go further, explore our AI for customer service solution.

Start analyzing your ticket types in Zendesk Explore

The ticket type attribute is a simple tool that can unlock significant insights. Start with Recipe 1 to understand your current distribution. Once you have that baseline, move to Recipe 2 to track trends over time. When you need focused analysis, Recipe 3's calculated metrics give you the precision to dig into specific ticket types.

Consistent ticket type usage is the foundation. If your team isn't classifying tickets today, start there. Even rough classification is better than none. You can refine the process over time as you see which reports actually drive decisions.

Once you have clean data, the reporting becomes powerful. You'll spot patterns you couldn't see before, measure the impact of process changes, and make more informed decisions about staffing and priorities.

If you're ready to take the next step and automate ticket classification, try eesel AI and see how it works with your existing Zendesk setup.