Plan requirement
| Subscription | Suite Growth or higher |
| Access | Admin |
A service catalog turns your help centre into a place people request things, not only read about them.
What it is
A list of services somebody can request: a laptop, access to a system, a new starter set up, a piece of software. Each has its own form asking exactly what is needed.
Requesting one creates a ticket, routed to whoever handles it.
Who it is for
Internal service desks, above all. If your Zendesk serves colleagues rather than customers, this is the difference between a ticket saying "I need a laptop" and one that already knows which model, for whom, and by when.
What it changes
- Requests arrive complete. The form asked what the team needs.
- People can see what is available. Half the questions an internal desk gets are about what can be asked for.
- Routing is automatic, because the service says who handles it.
- It is countable. How many of each, how long each takes.
Start with three
The three things people ask for most. A catalog with forty services nobody browses is a list; one with three that are genuinely used teaches you how the fourth should work.
Two things to check before you plan around it
It is off until an admin switches it on, so nobody will find it by accident. And your help centre theme has to support it: the standard theme does, and so do themes customised after 31 July 2025. An older custom theme has to be updated first, which is a development job rather than a setting.
Check the theme before you design a catalog. That is the constraint that turns a good afternoon into a project.
Where it does not fit
Customer-facing support. Customers have problems rather than requests from a menu, and a catalog asks them to categorise before they have described anything.
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