Zendesk Backlog by Customer Report

Your total backlog tells you how much open work exists. Backlog by customer tells you which accounts are actually holding that work open.

That distinction changes how you operate. A queue of 600 open tickets means one thing when it is spread across hundreds of customers and something very different when a handful of accounts create most of the aged work. This guide shows how to build a Zendesk backlog by customer report, how to interpret concentrated backlog, and how to separate normal high-touch support from customer-specific drag.

What this report should answer

A strong backlog-by-customer report should answer:

Which customers or organizations hold the most open tickets right now?
Which accounts have the oldest unresolved work?
Is queue pressure concentrated in a small number of customers?
Are those same accounts also slow to resolve, high-risk on SLA, or likely to reopen?

For the metric definition, see backlog. For age context, also review backlog aging and tickets per customer.

Why customer-level backlog matters

Company-wide backlog is useful for staffing and leadership updates, but it hides concentration.

When a few accounts create most of the open work, several risks can appear at once:

specialist time gets trapped in the same relationships
the queue feels heavier than top-line volume suggests
account risk rises even though total ticket volume looks manageable
support teams misread the issue as a broad capacity problem instead of concentrated friction

For B2B teams, this is one of the most practical ways to connect support operations to customer health. A customer with large, aging open work is often not just “busy.” They are frequently experiencing a broken workflow, slow handoff chain, or unresolved implementation pain.

How to build the report in Zendesk

Use the Support: Tickets dataset in Zendesk Explore and filter to currently open or unsolved tickets.

1. Choose whether to group by organization or requester

For most account-based teams, organization is the better starting point because it reflects the real relationship and avoids over-indexing on one very active contact.

2. Count open tickets by customer

This gives you the core backlog concentration view. A descending table or bar chart works well because it surfaces the few accounts creating the most queue weight.

3. Add aging context

Open ticket count alone is not enough. Pair it with age buckets or oldest-ticket age so you can tell the difference between:

a healthy high-volume account with fresh work
an unhealthy account with stale unresolved work

For the setup details, see Zendesk Backlog Aging Report.

4. Add supporting dimensions

The most helpful context cuts are:

top tags or issue categories
priority mix
assigned group
channel mix
plan tier or segment

These fields turn “this customer has a lot of backlog” into “this customer has a lot of old billing escalations in one group.”

5. Trend concentration over time

The strongest version of the report shows whether the share of total backlog held by your top customers is rising or falling. That tells you whether risk is spreading across the queue or becoming more concentrated.

The most useful report layouts

Open tickets by organization

This is the basic concentration view. It shows where backlog is sitting right now.

Open tickets by organization with aging

This is the operating view. It shows not just who holds the most work, but whose work is actually getting stale.

Backlog by customer and tag

This helps you identify whether the account’s backlog is driven by one recurring workflow or broad support friction.

Backlog by customer with resolution time

This pairing shows whether large open queues are just noisy or whether those accounts truly stay open longer than expected.

How to interpret the patterns

A few customers hold most of the backlog

That often means your queue problem is more concentrated than your team realizes. The next step is to understand whether those customers are large and healthy, or whether they are stuck in one broken workflow.

One account has a lot of open tickets but little aging

That can be normal, especially for active or enterprise customers. High volume alone is not the same as unhealthy backlog.

One account has moderate volume but very old tickets

This is usually the more urgent pattern. A relatively small account can still create outsized operational and relationship risk if their work stays open too long.

Backlog concentration rises while total volume stays flat

This is one of the easiest ways hidden customer risk builds. The global queue looks stable, but a few relationships are becoming much more expensive and fragile.

Common mistakes

Treating every high-volume account as a backlog problem. Fresh work and stale work are different.
Skipping aging. Backlog without age turns into a misleading workload count.
Ignoring issue-level context. You need tags, channel, or group to understand cause.
Looking only at requester-level activity in B2B environments. That can exaggerate one vocal contact and miss account-wide reality.
Using the report without action owners. If no team owns follow-up, the report becomes a curiosity.

What to do when an account stands out

If one customer or organization repeatedly holds the most aging backlog:

Check whether the work is concentrated in one tag, form, or support group.
Compare it with Zendesk Resolution Time by Customer Report and Zendesk SLA Risk by Customer Report.
Decide whether the fix belongs in routing, product escalation, onboarding, or account management.
Review whether the account’s backlog is fresh demand or stale unresolved work.
Recheck concentration weekly until the aged backlog normalizes.

The goal is not to shame large accounts for needing help. It is to identify which relationships are quietly trapping queue capacity and creating risk.

Where this report fits in your dashboard

This report works best beside:

Together, those views tell you which customers create open work, which of that work is getting old, and whether the backlog is becoming an account-health issue rather than just a staffing question.

FAQ

Should I group by organization or requester?
Organization is usually the better default for B2B teams because it reflects the real customer relationship. Requester-level views are useful when one contact pattern matters operationally.

Is high backlog by customer always bad?
No. Large or high-touch accounts often create more open work. The warning sign is backlog paired with aging, slow resolution, or concentrated SLA pressure.

How often should I review this report?
Weekly works well for operations. Monthly is useful for customer-health reviews, escalation follow-up, and leadership discussion about concentrated support load.

See which Zendesk accounts are quietly trapping the most aging backlog - start free