How to use Zendesk Explore report templates: A complete guide for 2026

Getting meaningful insights from your support data shouldn't require a data science degree. Yet many teams struggle to move beyond basic ticket counts and response times. They know the data is there, but turning it into actionable reports feels like a hurdle.

That's where Zendesk Explore comes in. It's Zendesk's native analytics platform, designed to help teams analyze, understand, and share customer service data without leaving the ecosystem. Whether you need quick insights from prebuilt dashboards or want to build custom reports tailored to your business, Explore provides the tools to make it happen.

Let's break down how to get the most from Zendesk Explore report templates, from the ready-to-use options to creating your own custom analytics.

Prebuilt Zendesk Explore templates you can use today

Zendesk includes several prebuilt dashboards that give you immediate visibility into your support operations. These work on all plans that include Explore access.

Support dashboard template

The Support dashboard is the default starting point for most teams. It surfaces key metrics including:

• Tickets created, solved, and backlog over time
• First reply time and full resolution time averages
• Agent performance metrics
• Ticket channel breakdown (email, chat, web, etc.)
• Customer satisfaction scores

This dashboard refreshes hourly on Professional plans and in real-time on Enterprise. It's designed to give managers a quick health check on support operations without any configuration required.

Chat and Talk dashboard templates

If you're using Zendesk's live channels, the Chat and Talk dashboards provide real-time visibility:

• Chat dashboard shows active conversations, agent availability, queue lengths, and chat volume trends
• Talk dashboard displays call volume, wait times, agent status, and call resolution metrics

These are particularly useful for workforce management. You can see which agents are online, how many conversations they're handling, and whether you need to adjust staffing to meet demand.

Guide dashboard template

For teams with a help center, the Guide dashboard tracks content performance:

• Article views and search terms
• Most and least popular content
• User feedback on articles
• Deflection rates (tickets avoided through self-service)

This helps content managers identify gaps in documentation and prioritize which articles need updating.

Sample reports in the report library

Beyond dashboards, Explore includes sample reports in the report library. These are labeled with [sample] and showcase what's possible with each dataset. You can clone them and modify to suit your needs, which is often faster than building from scratch.

The limitation? These prebuilt options only go so far. Every business has unique metrics that matter to them. Ticket volume tells part of the story, but what about escalation rates by product category? Or resolution time for VIP customers versus standard? That's where custom reports become essential.

How to create custom report templates in Zendesk Explore

Building custom reports in Explore follows a logical workflow. Here's how to create reports that answer your specific business questions.

Step 1: Choose your dataset

Every report starts with selecting the right dataset. Zendesk Explore datasets correspond to different products:

• Support: Tickets, agents, SLAs, CSAT, organizations
• Talk: Voice calls, agent status, call metrics
• Chat: Live chat conversations, agent availability
• Guide: Help center articles, searches, article feedback
• Sell: Deals, contacts, leads (if using Zendesk Sell)

Choose the dataset that contains the data you need. Most support reporting uses the Support dataset, but cross-channel analysis might require combining data from multiple sources.

Step 2: Add metrics and attributes

Once you've selected a dataset, you'll use the report builder to construct your query. The interface uses a drag-and-drop model:

• Drag metrics to the Metrics panel (what you want to measure)
• Drag attributes to Rows, Columns, or Filters (how you want to break down the data)

For example, to see tickets solved by agent this month:

• Metric: Tickets solved
• Row attribute: Assignee name
• Filter: Ticket solved date (this month)

Step 3: Apply filters

Filters narrow your results to focus on specific data. Common filters include:

• Date ranges (today, this week, last 30 days, custom range)
• Ticket status (open, pending, solved)
• Priority levels (urgent, high, normal, low)
• Agent groups or specific agents
• Channels (email, chat, web form, API)

Pro tip: Always add a date filter first. Without one, your report will try to calculate results for all time, which can be slow if you have years of ticket history.

Step 4: Choose visualization type

Explore offers multiple ways to display your data:

• Tables show raw numbers and are best for detailed analysis or when you need to see exact values
• Bar charts work well for comparing categories (agents, priorities, channels)
• Line charts are ideal for trends over time
• Pie charts show proportions but use sparingly (they're harder to read than bars)

Start with a table to verify your data looks correct, then switch to a chart for presentation. If a chart doesn't look right, switch back to table view to troubleshoot.

Step 5: Save and add to dashboards

Once your report is working:

1. Click Save to add it to your report library
2. Give it a clear, descriptive name
3. Add it to a dashboard by clicking Add to dashboard or create a new dashboard
4. Set permissions to control who can view or edit

On Professional and Enterprise plans, you can schedule dashboard deliveries via email. This is useful for sending weekly reports to stakeholders who don't log into Zendesk regularly.

5 essential report templates every support team needs

While every team has unique needs, these five report types form the foundation of effective support analytics:

Ticket volume and trend analysis

Track incoming tickets over time to identify patterns. Look for:

• Daily/weekly volume trends
• Seasonal spikes (holidays, product launches)
• Channel distribution (is chat growing while email declines?)
• Time-of-day patterns (do tickets cluster in certain hours?)

This helps with capacity planning and identifying when you need additional staffing.

Agent performance dashboard

Go beyond simple "tickets solved" counts. A fair performance dashboard includes:

• Tickets solved per agent
• Average resolution time
• First reply time
• CSAT scores by agent
• Ticket updates (internal vs. public comments)

The key is balancing efficiency metrics with quality. An agent who solves fewer tickets but maintains higher CSAT and handles complex issues is still performing well.

SLA compliance report

If you have service level agreements, you need visibility into performance against them:

• First reply time SLA achievement rate
• Resolution time SLA by priority
• Breach analysis (which tickets missed SLA and why)
• SLA performance by channel or agent group

This report directly impacts customer commitments and helps identify process bottlenecks.

Customer satisfaction analysis

CSAT data tells you if your support is actually helping customers:

• Overall CSAT trends over time
• CSAT by agent, ticket category, or channel
• Feedback comment analysis (what are customers actually saying?)
• Correlation between resolution time and satisfaction

Low CSAT on certain ticket types might indicate product issues or training gaps.

Backlog and queue health

Monitor the state of your queue to prevent tickets from slipping through cracks:

• Open tickets by age (how many are 1 day old? 1 week? 1 month?)
• Tickets by priority and status
• Unassigned tickets count
• Pending tickets awaiting customer response vs. internal action

This gives managers a quick view of workload distribution and aging tickets that need attention.

Tips for better Zendesk Explore reports

After working with dozens of support teams on their analytics, here are practical tips that make a real difference:

• Start with a clear question. Before building, know exactly what decision this report will inform. "How are we doing?" is too vague. "Which agents need coaching on first reply time?" is actionable.

• Use date filters from the start. Reports without date filters try to load all historical data, which slows performance and creates noise.

• Test with tables first, then visualize. Tables show you the raw data structure. Once you verify the numbers look right, switch to charts for presentation.

• Keep reports focused. One report should answer one question. Don't try to cram every metric into a single dashboard.

• Schedule regular deliveries. Set up weekly or monthly dashboard emails to stakeholders so insights reach them without requiring them to log in.

If you're spending more time building reports than acting on insights, consider whether your current approach is sustainable. Our AI Agent integrates directly with Zendesk and provides automatic insights on resolution patterns, common issues, and team performance without manual report building.

When to consider alternatives to Zendesk Explore

Zendesk Explore works well for teams already invested in the Zendesk ecosystem who need standard support analytics. But it's not the right fit for everyone.

Here are signs you might need something different:

You're on a lower-tier plan. Custom reporting requires Professional ($115/agent/month) or Enterprise ($169/agent/month). If you're on Suite Team ($55/agent/month), you're limited to prebuilt dashboards.

You need real-time data on custom reports. Only Enterprise plans get real-time refreshes on custom dashboards. Professional plans refresh hourly, which isn't sufficient for live operations monitoring.

Your reporting spans multiple tools. Explore only reports on Zendesk data. If you need to combine support tickets with sales data, product usage, or external systems, you'll need a BI tool like Power BI or Tableau.

You want insights without building reports. Explore requires you to know what questions to ask and how to build reports to answer them. If you prefer automatic insights that surface trends and recommendations, an AI-powered approach might fit better.

We built our platform for teams who want analytics to happen automatically. Instead of manually building reports, our AI analyzes your conversations, identifies patterns, and surfaces insights about what's working and what needs attention. You can see how it works with our pricing or explore our Zendesk integration to learn more.