How do you export Zendesk tickets for an AI data license?
A support desk records how a company answers people. Each ticket is a question, the replies and, if it went well, a resolution. Zendesk makes the list of tickets easy to export, and it is more work to get the full conversation with its internal notes. Customers’ details are throughout, so cleaning is part of the plan from the start.
What a Zendesk account usually holds
| Tickets with their subject and status | The question, who asked, how it was categorized and where it ended. |
| The conversation | Customer messages and agent replies in order, which is the most useful layer. |
| Internal notes | What agents wrote to each other, which shows the reasoning behind a reply. |
| Macros and help center articles | The standard answers the team uses and the guides it publishes. |
| Satisfaction ratings | The customer’s own verdict on how a ticket was handled. |
How tickets leave Zendesk, route by route
| Tool | What an export gives you | What is missing or needs an admin |
|---|---|---|
| A data export by an account owner | Tickets, users and organizations in common file formats, where your plan allows it. | Comments and attachments may be limited, and the formats are built for backup. |
| Report and view exports | A spreadsheet of tickets chosen by a view. | Usually fields only, without the full conversation. |
| The programming interface | Tickets with every comment, internal note and event, pulled in full by a developer. | Requires a developer to build the pull, and request limits set how quickly it runs. |
| Attachment download | The files customers sent. | It is separate from the ticket text, and it is the riskiest for private information. |
Tool names belong to their owners and are used only to say where records usually live. Export features change by plan and version, so check the current rules for your account.
Why a support desk is a good source
A ticket has a clear start, a middle and, when it works, an end. The reply that settled a question in one exchange teaches more than a hundred unanswered ones. Internal notes add the reasoning that a customer never sees.
Tickets also show what customers are confused by, in their own words. That makes the set useful for a reason beyond the answers.
Cleaning, consent and who runs it
Tickets include names, email addresses, order numbers and sometimes health or payment details typed by a customer. Each has to be removed, and stand-ins keep a customer’s tickets linked without identifying them.
An account owner or administrator runs the export. Check your terms and privacy notice for what customers were told about the use of their messages, and ask counsel before anything is prepared.
What a ticket set leaves out
| Customer names, emails and order numbers | Replaced with stand-ins that keep one customer’s tickets together. |
| Payment, health and account details typed in a ticket | Removed. A ticket that cannot be cleaned reliably is left out. |
| Attachments | Screened carefully, and left out unless they can be cleaned. |
An example, invented for illustration
A subscription company has used Zendesk for several years and keeps internal notes on most tickets. A developer pulls tickets with every comment and note through the interface, and an account owner exports macros and help articles. A set replaces customer details with stand-ins, removes payment detail typed into tickets and leaves out attachments that cannot be cleaned. The owner reads a sample of the cleaned tickets before the set is shared.
Questions owners ask about this
Is the export from the admin screen enough?
It gives you tickets and users and is a good start. The full comment threads and internal notes often need the programming interface.
Our agents wrote very short replies. Does that matter?
It lowers the value of the conversation layer, though macros and internal notes may still carry the reasoning.
Were customers told their tickets might be used this way?
That depends on your privacy notice and local rules, so ask your counsel before anything is prepared and keep the answer on file.
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Keep reading
Related kinds of records
- Support tickets: The whole thread, wrong guesses included, with customers replaced by stand-ins.
- Team chat: Slack and Teams threads, where one person must stay one person and direct messages stay out.
- CRM history: Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive and Zoho notes and timelines; fields alone say little.