How to use Zendesk review requests: A complete guide for 2026

When someone searches for "Zendesk review requests," they might mean two very different things. Are they looking to set up internal approval workflows for their support team? Or trying to collect customer reviews after resolving tickets? Both are valid use cases, and both can transform how your team operates.

This guide covers both angles. Whether you need managers to sign off on refunds before they're processed, or you want to automatically request feedback from customers after a support interaction, we'll walk you through how Zendesk handles review requests and where it falls short. We'll also look at how eesel AI can take these workflows further for teams ready to automate beyond Zendesk's native capabilities.

Understanding Zendesk approval requests

What are approval requests?

Zendesk's approval request feature lets agents ask other agents or end users to review and decide on ticket-related issues directly within a ticket. Think of it as a built-in sign-off system: an agent needs authorization for a refund, so they create an approval request that routes to their manager. The manager reviews the details, approves or denies, and the agent gets notified to proceed.

The key distinction here is between tickets and requests in Zendesk terminology. A ticket is what agents see and work with internally. A request is the end user's perspective on that same ticket. End users can only see public comments and certain fields, while agents see everything. Approval requests bridge these perspectives by allowing authorized users (whether internal agents or external stakeholders) to make decisions that affect ticket resolution.

How approval requests work

The workflow is straightforward. An agent creates an approval request from the context panel within a ticket, designates an approver (another agent or an end user), and sends it. The approver gets an email notification, reviews the request, and responds. The requesting agent gets notified of the decision, and the ticket can move forward.

Behind the scenes, Zendesk tracks everything through an "Approval status" field that automatically reflects the state of any approval request associated with a ticket. This field can be used in Explore reporting, so you can track approval metrics, identify bottlenecks, and measure how often approvals are needed.

Here's the catch: approval requests are only available on specific plans. You need Customer Service Suite Professional, Enterprise, or Enterprise Plus, or Employee Service Suite Growth and above. If you're on a Team plan, this feature simply isn't available.

Common use cases

Approval requests shine in scenarios where someone needs to greenlight an action before it happens:

• Refund authorizations agents need manager approval for refunds above a certain threshold
• Software or hardware access IT tickets requiring approval from a department head
• Employee service requests HR processes like promotions, job changes, or leave requests
• Budget approvals finance sign-off on expenses or purchases
• Policy exceptions any situation where standard procedures need override approval

The feature essentially adds a checkpoint to your workflow without requiring agents to leave Zendesk or track approvals through email threads and spreadsheets.

Creating approval requests in Zendesk

Prerequisites

Before you can start using approval requests, you need to check a few boxes:

• Your Zendesk account must be on a supported plan (Professional or higher for Customer Service Suite, Growth or higher for Employee Service Suite)
• An admin needs to enable approval requests in your account settings
• Approvers need appropriate permissions (agents need agent seats, end users need access to your help center)
• Your help center theme may need updates if you want end users to respond to approvals

If you're on a Team plan, you'll need to upgrade before you can access this feature. The jump from Team ($55/agent/month annually) to Professional ($115/agent/month annually) is significant, so factor that into your decision.

Step 1: Access the approval request feature

Once approvals are enabled, using them is simple. Open any ticket in Zendesk Support, then look for the Approval request icon in the context panel on the right side of the screen. Click it to start creating a new request.

Step 2: Configure the approval request

The configuration form gives you space to define what you're asking for:

• Approver select an individual agent or a group. Note that groups with more than 30 agents can't be selected as approvers, and the approver can't be the ticket requester, assignee, or the person creating the approval request.
• Subject up to 500 characters (recently increased from 100 in February 2026) to summarize what needs approval
• Description up to 2,500 characters (increased from 500) to provide context, justification, and any details the approver needs

The recent character limit increases are significant. You can now provide substantially more context, including paragraph breaks and formatting, making it easier for approvers to understand complex situations without hunting through ticket history.

Step 3: Send and track the request

Click "Send approval request" and the notification goes out. The ticket associated with the approval request can't be closed until the approver responds or the request is withdrawn, which prevents premature resolution.

You can monitor the status directly in the context panel. Agents who created the request or are assigned to the ticket can also add comments to the approval request (up to 40 comments, 500 characters each), share direct links to the request for referencing in Slack or email, or withdraw the request if circumstances change.

Managing and responding to approval requests

For agents creating requests

Once an approval request is in flight, you have several options:

• Withdraw the request if the situation changes and approval is no longer needed, you can cancel it
• Add comments provide additional context or answer questions from the approver (40 comments max)
• Share direct links copy a link to the approval request for sharing in other systems
• Monitor status track whether the request is pending, approved, or denied

Direct linking is particularly useful for complex workflows. If you need to reference the approval in a Slack channel or include it in an email to stakeholders outside Zendesk, you can generate a shareable link that takes them directly to the approval request.

For approvers

How approvers respond depends on who they are:

Agent approvers handle everything within the Agent Workspace. They get an email notification with a link, but they respond directly in Zendesk where they can see full ticket context and add comments if they need clarification.

End user approvers respond through your help center. They receive an email notification with a link that takes them to a help center page where they can approve or deny. This is useful when you need approval from customers or external stakeholders who don't have agent seats.

One important limitation: if your account has multiple help centers, end users can't access approval requests. The feature only works with a single help center setup, so plan accordingly if you're using Zendesk's multibrand capabilities.

Reporting on approvals

Every approval request creates data you can analyze. The Approval status field automatically tracks the state of requests and can be leveraged in Zendesk Explore for reporting. You can build dashboards showing:

• How many approval requests are created per week or month
• Average time to approval
• Which agents or teams create the most approval requests
• Approval rates (approved vs. denied)

This data helps identify bottlenecks in your processes. If certain types of tickets consistently wait days for approval, that signals a need for process improvement or additional approver training.

Collecting customer reviews through Zendesk

Why collect customer reviews?

The second meaning of "Zendesk review requests" involves using Zendesk to collect external customer reviews after support interactions. This is fundamentally different from internal approvals, but equally important for many businesses.

Customer reviews matter because they influence purchasing decisions. According to BrightLocal's research, 75% of consumers regularly read reviews before buying, and 50% trust reviews as much as personal recommendations from friends and family. For support teams specifically, reviews provide:

• Trust signals for potential customers evaluating your business
• Feedback on what's working and what needs improvement
• Coaching opportunities for agents based on customer comments
• Revenue impact through improved conversion rates

Methods for review collection

Zendesk offers several ways to collect customer reviews:

CSAT surveys built into Professional and higher plans, these send a satisfaction survey after ticket resolution. While not public reviews, they give you internal feedback on support quality.

Automated triggers you can set up Zendesk triggers to send emails requesting reviews after tickets are marked solved. This requires some configuration but gives you full control over timing and messaging.

Third-party integrations platforms like Yotpo integrate directly with Zendesk to automate review collection with more sophisticated features than native Zendesk capabilities.

Zendesk and Yotpo integration

Yotpo's Zendesk integration is designed specifically for e-commerce businesses that want to collect service reviews after support interactions. Here's how it works:

Once connected, Yotpo automatically sends review requests to customers after their Zendesk tickets are marked solved. By default, these go out two days after resolution, giving customers time to confirm the issue is actually resolved before asking for feedback.

The integration supports Zendesk Multibrand, so if you run multiple brands or stores, you can link each Yotpo store to the relevant Zendesk subdomain. Email templates are customizable with variables like {user} for the reviewer's name and {company_name} for your business name.

Important caveat: the Zendesk integration is only available on Yotpo's Premium plan or higher, which requires a custom quote. The Starter ($89/month) and Pro ($169/month) plans don't include help desk integrations. You'll need to contact Yotpo for pricing on the Premium tier that unlocks this feature.

Best practices for customer review requests

If you're collecting reviews through Zendesk, follow these guidelines:

• Time it right the default 2-day delay exists for a reason. Give customers time to verify their issue is resolved before asking for feedback.
• Personalize the ask use customer names and reference the specific issue when possible. Generic review requests feel like spam.
• Make it easy one-click rating systems get more responses than surveys requiring written answers.
• Respond to everything thank customers for positive reviews and address negative ones promptly. This shows you value all feedback.
• Feature the best reviews with permission, use standout reviews in marketing materials or on your website.

Limitations and considerations

Approval request limits

Zendesk's approval feature has several constraints that may affect your workflow:

• One active approval per ticket you can't have multiple parallel approvals for different aspects of the same ticket
• 50 inactive approvals per ticket maximum once you hit this limit, no new approvals can be created for that ticket
• Group size limits groups with more than 30 agents can't be selected as approvers
• Help center requirements end users need your help center on the latest Copenhagen theme (or manual theme updates) to respond to approvals
• Multibrand restrictions approval requests can't be exposed to end users if you have multiple help centers

These limits work fine for simple approval workflows but can become frustrating if you need complex multi-stage approvals or have large approval groups.

Plan requirements

The approval feature's plan requirements are worth emphasizing because they represent a significant cost jump:

Source: Zendesk Pricing

If you're currently on a Team plan and considering upgrading just for approvals, calculate whether the feature justifies the $60-114 per agent monthly cost increase. For some teams, the answer is yes. For others, alternatives may make more financial sense.

When approvals aren't enough

Zendesk's native approval feature handles straightforward scenarios well, but it has gaps:

• Complex multi-stage workflows if you need three different approvals in sequence, Zendesk doesn't support this natively
• Conditional logic you can't set rules like "auto-approve refunds under $50"
• Cross-department approvals routing approvals to different teams based on ticket content requires manual work
• Automated decision-making there's no AI component to suggest approvals or handle routine cases

If these limitations are blockers for your workflow, you may need to look beyond Zendesk's native capabilities.

Streamlining review workflows with eesel AI

How we enhance approval workflows

At eesel AI, we approach approvals differently. Instead of treating them as manual checkpoints, we view them as opportunities for intelligent automation. Our AI teammate learns your approval patterns from historical tickets, then handles routine approvals autonomously while escalating edge cases to humans.

Here's what that looks like in practice:

• Natural language instructions tell eesel "approve refunds under $100 if the customer has no history of abuse" in plain English, without building complex workflows
• Progressive autonomy start with eesel drafting approvals for human review, then level up to full automation as confidence builds
• Pattern recognition eesel analyzes your past approval decisions to understand your business rules
• Integration with Zendesk works alongside your existing Zendesk setup, not as a replacement

You can connect eesel to Zendesk in minutes. We learn from your past tickets, help center articles, and approval history to understand your specific processes. Then you decide how much autonomy to grant: draft approvals for review, handle specific ticket types, or manage full frontline support including approvals.

eesel AI vs. Zendesk native approvals

The fundamental difference is manual versus intelligent:

For teams processing dozens or hundreds of approvals daily, the time savings add up quickly. An approval that takes a human 5 minutes to review and click can be handled by eesel in seconds, with humans only stepping in for exceptions.

Getting started with eesel AI

If Zendesk's native approvals feel limiting, our Zendesk integration offers a path forward. We don't require replacing your help desk. Instead, eesel works within Zendesk (and 100+ other tools) to augment your team's capabilities.

Our pricing is based on AI interactions rather than seats, which often works out more affordably for growing teams. You can start with a small scope, verify quality through simulations on past tickets, then expand as eesel proves itself.

Getting the most from Zendesk review requests

Whether you're using Zendesk for internal approvals, customer review collection, or both, a few principles will help you succeed:

Start with clear policies. Before enabling approvals, document what requires approval and who can grant it. Ambiguity creates bottlenecks.

Train agents on when to use approvals. The feature only helps if people actually use it consistently. Set clear thresholds (e.g., "all refunds over $200 need approval") so agents know when to create requests.

Monitor your metrics. Use Zendesk Explore to track approval volume, response times, and outcomes. Patterns in this data reveal process improvements.

Consider automation for repetitive approvals. If 80% of your approvals are routine rubber-stamps, that's a sign you could benefit from AI automation. Tools like eesel AI can handle the routine cases while escalating exceptions to humans.

Don't forget the customer experience. If you're collecting reviews, make the process painless. If you're requiring approvals, communicate clearly with customers about timelines. Every internal process ultimately affects the people you serve.

Zendesk's review request features, whether for internal approvals or external feedback, are solid foundations. But foundations are meant to be built upon. As your team scales, consider whether intelligent automation could take your workflows to the next level.