Zendesk Custom Objects Explained
Video
A custom object is the record type Zendesk does not ship: assets, contracts, subscriptions. How to define one, and the lookup field that puts it on a ticket.
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When a custom object is the answer
Zendesk ships tickets, users and organizations. A custom object is the record type you define for everything else: assets, contracts, subscriptions. The test is whether agents keep looking something up that is not a ticket, not a person and not a company. If the answer sits in a spreadsheet on a second monitor, that is the object.
The object is the container, and the fields are what it records. Name and External ID come as standard. This asset register adds Serial Number as text and Model Name as a drop-down. An object takes up to 100 fields, but only text fields are matched when agents search custom object data, so decide early which field people will search by.
The lookup field that makes it visible
Records are the data itself, and agents work with them in Support rather than the Admin Center, with their own navigation for it. Records can be created by hand or bulk imported from a spreadsheet.
You can build the object and load every record, and no agent will see it if nothing on a ticket points to it. A lookup relationship field on the ticket, pointed at the object, is what closes that gap. The agent types, picks the record, and reads its full details without leaving the conversation.
