Five Mistakes Behind Misleading Ticket Statuses in Zendesk
Video
Custom ticket statuses in Zendesk behave according to the category they sit in, not the name on the label. Five common mistakes with statuses and categories, with the correction for each.
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4 min watch
Chapters
Ticket statuses and status categories in Zendesk
Once custom statuses are switched on, the six standard statuses become categories, and the category a status sits in decides how every rule, metric and automation treats the ticket.
This walkthrough works through five mistakes in a live Zendesk account. It starts with naming a status before choosing its category, a category that cannot be changed afterwards, and a status called Escalated to engineering that keeps reply clocks running because it sits under Open.
It then covers statuses used to record why instead of what, Explore reports that roll every custom status back into the six categories unless the status name attribute is added, and solved treated as the same state as closed. Each mistake is shown with its correction.
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3 min/Oct 2026
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