Configure Zendesk CSAT surveys — and their limitations

Prerequisites

Overview

Zendesk can send CSAT surveys automatically when tickets are solved. However, it cannot trigger automations or notifications when a customer responds to the survey. There is no "satisfaction rating changed" condition in Zendesk triggers or automations.

This approach covers configuring the CSAT survey itself — enabling it, customizing timing, and restricting which tickets receive surveys. For acting on responses (like sending Slack alerts when a customer rates "Bad"), use the n8n or Agent Skill approaches.

Step 1: Enable CSAT surveys

Navigate to Admin Center → People → Satisfaction and toggle satisfaction surveys to Enabled.

Configure which channels receive surveys:

• Email — survey is embedded in the solved notification email
• Messaging — survey appears in the messaging widget after the conversation ends

Step 2: Customize survey timing

By default, Zendesk sends the satisfaction survey 24 hours after a ticket is set to Solved. This is controlled by a built-in automation.

Navigate to Admin Center → Objects and rules → Business rules → Automations and find the automation named Request customer satisfaction rating.

The default conditions are:

• Hours since solved: is 24
• Ticket is not closed
• Satisfaction: is not offered

You can adjust the timing by changing the "Hours since solved" value. Shorter delays (4-8 hours) capture feedback while the interaction is fresh. Longer delays (24-48 hours) give customers time to verify a solution actually worked.

Step 3: Customize survey content

Navigate to Admin Center → People → Satisfaction to edit:

• Question text — the prompt shown to customers (default: "How would you rate the support you received?")
• Rating labels — the text on the Good/Bad buttons
• Reasons — optional follow-up reasons customers can select after rating Bad (e.g., "Issue not resolved", "Took too long", "Agent was unhelpful")

Enabling Bad rating reasons gives you structured data about why customers are unhappy, which helps identify patterns beyond individual tickets.

Step 4: Restrict which tickets get surveyed

Edit the Request customer satisfaction rating automation to add conditions that exclude certain tickets:

• Exclude specific groups: Add condition "Group is not [group name]" to skip tickets from groups where surveys don't make sense (e.g., internal IT)
• Exclude by tag: Add condition "Tags do not contain [tag]" to skip auto-closed tickets or spam
• Only survey specific forms: Add condition "Ticket form is [form name]" to limit surveys to customer-facing ticket types

Step 5: Monitor CSAT in Zendesk reporting

Zendesk includes built-in CSAT reporting in Explore:

1. Navigate to Explore → Dashboard → Zendesk Support → Satisfaction
2. Review overall satisfaction score, response rate, and trends over time
3. Filter by group, agent, or ticket form to find patterns

The Satisfaction dashboard shows aggregate metrics but does not provide real-time alerting. You'll see trends over days and weeks, but individual bad ratings won't surface until you look at the dashboard.

Cost

Satisfaction surveys are included with Zendesk Suite Professional plan and above at no additional cost. They are not available on the Team plan.