A practical guide to the top Zendesk metrics that matter in 2025

Running a support team on Zendesk means you're swimming in data. But what do you do with it all? It's easy to get stuck in a loop of watching numbers go up and down without actually knowing how to make things better. You’re rich in data but poor in actual insights.

The reality is, only a handful of Zendesk metrics really tell you how your customer support is doing. By zeroing in on these key numbers, you can spot problems early, give your team the coaching they need, and build a customer experience that people remember for the right reasons.

This guide is here to help you cut through the noise. We’ll walk through the essential metrics covering everything from agent performance to overall operational health, and more importantly, show you how to turn those numbers into real improvements.

What are Zendesk metrics?

Think of Zendesk metrics as the vital signs for your support team. They're the numbers that tell you if you're healthy, struggling, or somewhere in between. They track everything from how quickly your agents get back to customers to how happy those customers are with the help they received.

These numbers usually live inside Zendesk Explore, the platform's own analytics tool. They matter for a few simple reasons. First, they give you a clear picture of what’s going on; you can’t fix what you can’t see. They also help you make smarter decisions. Wondering if you need to hire another agent or invest in more training? Your metrics have the answers. Finally, when your whole team is focused on the same goals, like improving customer satisfaction, everyone pulls in the same direction.

While Zendesk gives you the tools to see the numbers, figuring out what they mean and how to make them better is the real work.

Key Zendesk metrics for agent performance and productivity

Let's start with your team. Their performance is the bedrock of your entire support operation. But tracking them isn't just about pushing for speed; it's about understanding their efficiency and the quality of their work. Here are the core metrics you should be watching.

First Reply Time (FRT)

First Reply Time (FRT) is exactly what it sounds like: how long does a customer have to wait for an actual human to reply to their ticket? According to Zendesk's own research, a quick first reply is a huge part of a good first impression. It tells customers, "We see you, we're on it." But as you probably know, keeping that time low when ticket volumes are all over the place can be a real challenge.

Average Handle Time (AHT)

This one measures the average time an agent spends on a ticket, from opening it to closing it for good. While a low AHT can look great on a report, be careful with this one. Pushing agents to rush can lead to sloppy, incomplete answers, which just means the customer will be back, and the ticket gets reopened. It's a balancing act between speed and quality.

Tickets solved

This is a pretty straightforward count of how many tickets an agent or the whole team resolves over a certain period. It’s a decent, high-level look at productivity. But it doesn't tell the full story. A high number of solved tickets is fantastic, but not if the solutions are temporary and customers come back frustrated, reopening old issues.

Essential Zendesk metrics for customer experience

Productivity stats tell you how fast your team is moving, but customer experience metrics tell you how well they're doing their job. These numbers are all about your customers' perception of your service and are a good sign of whether they'll stick around.

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

CSAT is your most direct line into customer happiness. After you solve a ticket, Zendesk can send a quick survey asking the customer to rate their experience, usually with a simple "Good" or "Bad." As Zendesk points out, keeping an eye on CSAT helps you catch trends and gives you a solid performance indicator for your agents.

Ticket Reopen Rate

This metric shows you how often a customer replies to a ticket after it’s been marked "Solved." A high reopen rate is a big red flag. It usually means the first answer wasn't quite right, forcing the customer to follow up. That creates extra work for everyone and a pretty annoying experience for the customer.

One-touch tickets

A one-touch ticket is one that gets solved in a single agent reply. This is a fantastic metric because it bundles efficiency and quality together. A high rate of one-touch tickets means your agents are giving clear, complete answers the first time around. This saves everyone time and makes for a smooth customer experience. The tricky part is that it’s often a lagging indicator, so it can be tough to influence without the right tools.

Metric	What it Measures	Typical Question
CSAT	Short-term happiness with a specific interaction.	"How would you rate the support you received?"
NPS	Long-term loyalty and likelihood to recommend.	"How likely are you to recommend us to a friend?"
CES	The ease of a customer's experience.	"How easy was it to resolve your issue?"

Core Zendesk metrics for operational health

Beyond how individual agents are doing, you need a handle on the overall health of your support operation. These metrics help you figure out staffing needs and spot deeper problems before they spiral.

Ticket backlog

Your backlog is the pile of all your unsolved tickets (anything with a "New", "Open", "Pending", or "On-hold" status). It’s a direct reflection of your team's workload versus its capacity. If that backlog is constantly creeping up, it’s a warning sign that your team is getting swamped. Soon, wait times will start to climb, and customer satisfaction will take a hit.

Full Resolution Time

Unlike FRT, which just looks at the first response, Full Resolution Time tracks the entire lifecycle of a ticket, from the moment it’s created to when it’s finally solved. This metric gives you a sense of the whole journey for a customer with a single problem. If resolution times are long, especially for what should be simple questions, it could point to gaps in your team's knowledge or clunky internal processes.

The limitations of Zendesk's native reporting

Look, Zendesk Explore is a solid tool. But let's be honest, it has its quirks that can keep you stuck looking at past problems instead of actively preventing new ones.

For one, it can be pretty complicated. If you've ever tried to build a custom report that goes beyond the default dashboards, you know it's not exactly a walk in the park. As Zendesk's own documentation shows, it requires some serious know-how with metrics and formulas. It's hardly a "plug-and-play" experience for a busy manager.

The data is also reactive. A dashboard can tell you that your FRT shot up last week, but it won't tell you why. The detective work of digging through tickets to find the root cause is all on you.

Finally, Zendesk metrics don't tell the whole story. Your agents are probably pulling information from all over the place, like Confluence, Google Docs, or Notion. Explore can't see any of that, so you never really know which pieces of knowledge are actually solving problems. To really improve these metrics, teams need something that helps them in the moment, not just reports on what already happened.

How eesel AI actively improves your Zendesk metrics

So what if you could stop looking in the rearview mirror at last week's data and start improving performance as it happens? That's the idea behind eesel AI. It plugs right into your helpdesk and starts making a difference from day one, without needing a six-month implementation project.

Here’s how it helps:

• Slash your FRT and backlog: The AI Agent from eesel AI connects to your Zendesk account and all your scattered knowledge sources. It can provide instant, 24/7 answers to common customer questions, freeing up your human agents for the tricky stuff and keeping that backlog from piling up.

• Bring down AHT and Reopen Rate: For tickets that need a person to look at them, the AI Copilot drafts accurate replies right in the ticket. It learns from your best past tickets, so the answers are high-quality and solve the problem the first time around, which means fewer reopened tickets.

• Improve CSAT and one-touch resolutions: By handling repetitive questions automatically and giving agents ready-to-go drafts, customers get the right answer, faster. A smooth experience like that is a surefire way to get higher CSAT scores and more one-touch resolutions.

• Get insights you can actually use: Instead of just another dashboard, eesel AI gives you analytics that point out gaps in your knowledge base and show you what customers are asking about that you can't yet answer. It’s a clear roadmap for what to improve next.

eesel AI's analytics dashboard showing actionable insights, such as knowledge gaps, to help improve Zendesk metrics.

When a customer submits a ticket, eesel AI's agent checks if it can be solved automatically. If yes, it sends an instant answer and closes the ticket. If not, it gets routed to a human agent, where the AI Copilot is already waiting with a drafted reply.

A workflow diagram illustrating how eesel AI automates customer support, from ticket creation to resolution, to improve Zendesk metrics.

Zendesk pricing for reporting features

It’s worth noting that getting your hands on the more powerful reporting features in Zendesk depends on which plan you have. While you get some basic metrics on the lower-tier plans, the really flexible tool, Zendesk Explore, is mostly for folks on the Suite plans.

Based on their pricing page, here's a quick rundown of the plans with good reporting features:

Plan	Price (per agent/month, billed annually)	Key Reporting Features
Suite Team	$55	Prebuilt analytics dashboards
Suite Professional	$115	Customizable reporting, real-time insights
Suite Enterprise	$169	Advanced features like audit logs & business rules analysis

Even with these plans, the job of analyzing the data and figuring out what to do next is still on you. To really move the needle, you need something that can automate and assist your team in real time.

Go beyond tracking and start improving your Zendesk metrics

Keeping track of your Zendesk metrics is a great start, but it's only half the job. The real win is improving them. Trying to do that with manual analysis and old-school reports is a slow, reactive game that just can't keep up with what customers expect today.

AI offers a more proactive way forward. It can automate resolutions, empower your agents, and turn your data into a clear plan of action. By adding an AI layer to your workflow, you can stop just watching your metrics and start actively making them better.

Ready to see how fast you can improve your most important support numbers? Get started with eesel AI for free and connect your helpdesk in a few minutes.