Integrated support workflows have reduced ticket resolution time and increased agent productivity
What is our primary use case?
My primary use case for Zendesk is for customer and product support. Users enter in a ticket, which then comes into the internal side for review and work, or escalation to full completion.
A typical scenario is a customer calls in or submits a ticket online. The ticket then comes into the product or customer support queue. From the queue, the agent or representative pulls the ticket and starts working on it depending on what the issue is. The ticket serves as the primary source of reference for all customer and issue-related information, as the customer's information, product information, and reference tools are all connected through the Zendesk ticket.
The ticket gets worked, then gets closed out, and an email is sent to the customer or to the area that opened the ticket to inform them of the resolution and the next steps needed to achieve full resolution.
What is most valuable?
I love how Zendesk is able to integrate with multiple platforms, and I think that is the best thing about it because we are not limited to just Zendesk's standalone functionality. Zendesk has the ability to integrate with a plethora of platforms, which allows for the capabilities of Zendesk to go beyond the general open a ticket and close a ticket functionality. It is able to bring in the integrations of our company and other platforms that we use into Zendesk and provide a one-stop-shop resource for us as a whole.
Zendesk has helped us to increase productivity and has reduced the time between when a ticket is opened and when it is completed. The turnaround time of ticket resolution has decreased, which has also helped productivity to increase. It has also helped our first call or first ticket resolution numbers to increase because due to Zendesk's integration abilities, the information is right there at the agent's fingertips. They are able to be more informed and able to educate the customer more effectively so that the customer and agent are able to work hand-in-hand to over-educate the customer so they are not having to come back with repeated exchanges where a ticket stays open longer. We are achieving more first call resolution or first ticket resolution, and the agent's increased productivity allows them to spend more time on the more severe tickets that may truly require more attention and time. With Zendesk's integration capabilities, the low-hanging fruit tickets are able to be answered via the resource tools as agents are able to click that dropdown, plug in the information, and send the reply. This has definitely enhanced productivity time, decreased the ticket open time, helped us achieve a faster response time for ticket completion, and increased our customer and consumer-based satisfaction scores.
Definitely time has been saved. Before Zendesk, the lifespan of a ticket would be approximately five business days. After Zendesk, the lifespan of a ticket from open to resolution is now about 27 hours, and for a complex ticket that does not have to be escalated. This is a huge improvement and is due to Zendesk being a one-stop shop and allowing for all the integrated tool options to be that one-stop resource that allows the representative to be informed and to further over-educate the customer. Productivity for the agent has gone from about 30% to about 82% on average for an everyday basis because they are more productive with their work as they are in the ticket doing the actual work itself.
What needs improvement?
As of right now, I have nothing that comes to mind as an improvement needed or a feature that could work differently or be enhanced. I think across the board, Zendesk is amazing, and because they are always working on a new upgrade or a new integration, they are very forward-thinking from an engineering perspective. There is always a new rollout taking place, so nothing gets old and it is always the latest and greatest from a product standpoint.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Zendesk for 12 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Zendesk is very stable outside of the normal outage that may happen here and there with any cloud-based software, but it happens very infrequently. When it does happen, they are on top of it. They are always informing us with a status update and an ETA, and the turnaround time is usually within the same day with no extended downtime that would cause a detriment to our company. It is a very stable product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Zendesk is absolutely scalable. Every time we grow, every time we pivot, Zendesk is able to be a part of that growth. We have not hit a peak or a turn yet that Zendesk has not been able to go with us or been able to grow with us in the process, change or pivot that the company is making. It is absolutely phenomenal when it comes to being able to keep up with the growth of our company and the needs of our company and the needs of our consumer base.
How are customer service and support?
Customer support with Zendesk has always been top-tier. The few times we have had to reach out, the customer service agent has always been very professional, very informative, and has always helped to do what they said they would do. If there was a callback, the callback did take place. If it was a follow-up email, it took place. Whatever it was, they were always on top of it. We have never had a bad experience with having to reach out to Zendesk, whether it be from the account representative side, the customer support side, or the billing side. There are no issues at all.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used Talkdesk, and Talkdesk was very generic, simple, basic, and straightforward. It was a little too simple and basic for what we needed as we were growing and for what we desired as far as integration and the ability to customize. This is what caused the switch to Zendesk.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
There were quite a few other options evaluated at the time. I do not recall all of them, but again, we left from Talkdesk and went to Zendesk. There were about two or three other cloud-based softwares that were also looked at prior to making the final determination, but I do not recall exactly which ones.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to others using Zendesk is to know what you need. Do not downplay the needs of the company or the needs of the customer. Definitely know what you need. You get the best use out of Zendesk when you understand the needs of your company and the needs of your customer, as Zendesk will be all that you need it to be, which requires you to know what you need it to be. I would rate my overall experience with Zendesk a 10 out of 10.
ZONE IN WITH ZENDESK
What do you like best about the product?
This is the best customer support system I have used so far.
What do you dislike about the product?
So far, I haven't encountered any problems with Zendesk.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Having all customer interactions consolidated into a single dashboard makes managing communication much more efficient.
Highly Customizable Ticketing Platform That Empowers Our Workflow
What do you like best about the product?
Powerful ticketing platform that allows for a lot of customization.
What do you dislike about the product?
Sometimes making changes on functionality without proper notification/documentation for its customers.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Ticketing system for communicating/interacting with consumers.
Exceptionally Organized and Fully Equipped
What do you like best about the product?
i love how its organized and got everything we need
What do you dislike about the product?
sometimes it gets me out of the system without ant reason.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
tracking the status of each agent and analyzing the ticketing system correctly.
Exceptionally Easy and Reliable—A Standout Experience
What do you like best about the product?
What I appreciate most are the ease of use and the reliability.
What do you dislike about the product?
There isn't anything about it that bothers me at all.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
This platform brings together all the tools we need for customer service in a single place.
All-in-One Solution That Boosts Agent Efficiency
What do you like best about the product?
Zendesk is useful because it's all in one. It has combined a couple of our systems together making it more efficient for our agents.
What do you dislike about the product?
There are a lot of customization options available and it can be overwheling to sift through whats useful or not. It does take some time to get used to using the system and tickets.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
This product addresses the issue of managing multiple separate systems by bringing them all together into a single solution. It effectively consolidates everything, making things much more streamlined.
Unified Issue Management with Excellent WhatsApp Integration
What do you like best about the product?
I can unify all types of issues related to my application into a single system for automation and team redirection, as well as have multichannel messaging options, especially WhatsApp, which is my main medium.
What do you dislike about the product?
It's quite complicated to set up all kinds of integrations with other platforms, especially my biggest problem is everything related to bug tracking, since I use Bugzilla and it was difficult to transfer those issues to Zendesk
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
It allows me to quickly assist people who contact me about problems with my application, since the time it takes me to provide the first interaction after the ticket is created is crucial for me, and Zendesk allows me to almost immediately know when a user of my app tries to report a problem.
Customization and Integration that Facilitate Daily Life
What do you like best about the product?
Ease of customization and integration.
What do you dislike about the product?
The fact of not having an integrated phone (0800) as a purchase option, just like CHAT.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Integrated service channels (all in the same tool), integrated chat, and uncomplicated workflow.
Quick responses and quality support
What do you like best about the product?
The responses are quick and relevant, which greatly facilitates understanding. I appreciate the clarity of the explanations as well as the quality of the support offered. Moreover, politeness and attentiveness are always present.
What do you dislike about the product?
I have nothing to complain about. Sometimes the advisor changes, but I understand that this can happen if the expertise is elsewhere.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Overall, all questions regarding our problems and needs are addressed.
Collaboration across global teams has become seamless and customer behavior is now easier to analyze
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Zendesk is to serve as a CSP, a customer support platform, and to take on a leadership role in the technical support area.
In my day-to-day work, I mainly receive tickets from Zendesk, solve these tickets, and send them back via email or chat to the customer. I also generate dashboards and analytics to further understand customer behavior, SLAs, and related metrics.
I have numerous integrations with HubSpot and Slack to keep informed of specific issues with customers, as well as integration with Jira for escalations with the engineering team. Additionally, I have used Zendesk to create analytics for the director of the customer support department.
What is most valuable?
The collaboration between agents is impressive, and I also use Zendesk Workspace, which provides a seamless experience when communicating through chat and email.
Our team is distributed across different parts of the world, so we maintain different SLAs. We can take this into account and send tickets to people who will be awake or on the job at that time, making it easier to offer a 24/7 experience for our clients. What I appreciate most about Workspace is that I do not have to change views; previously, switching from email to chat involved a context change, but with Workspace, this has improved significantly.
Zendesk is the main tool we use to organize and reach out to customers and to completely understand the main issues, bugs, and concerns of our customers. The analytics capabilities allow us to digest all the information and tickets into practical points that we can improve, which has been key to understanding customer behavior and complaints.
What needs improvement?
I believe Zendesk needs to align more with the current era; for example, there is not a real feature for seamless interaction through Slack or Google Meet. Zendesk is missing an AI aspect that could help provide quick answers based on the knowledge housed within the platform. It would be beneficial to gather all this information and use it through an AI that agents can utilize to better assist customers. Additionally, Zendesk displays data only in the default view, so more freedom in views, such as Kanban or specific customizable views, would align better with current trends.
I find Zendesk great with integrations, but it is missing the ability to offer Slack or Google Meet channels for high-end customers. This would allow key accounts to contact us directly without needing to go through the ticket creation process, which other platforms handle effectively.
The reasons I chose a rating of eight include the lack of excellent support and the rigidity of the platform. Sometimes when I have issues, their support does not offer the best response. Additionally, Zendesk needs to explore new options and provide more freedom in ticket views.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Zendesk for six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Zendesk is quite stable; we experience major outages only once or twice a year, making it very reliable. The problem arises in support when something goes down, as their responsiveness is not very effective.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Zendesk's scalability is excellent; all the data we collect has been invaluable for improving features and impacting various teams, including product, engineering, and marketing, as we gather information from clients and potential customers.
How are customer service and support?
My experience with Zendesk's customer support has not been positive. When I open a ticket for a bug, it often does not expedite the resolution process. The agents sometimes seem inexperienced, which reflects poorly on the overall support experience. There appears to be a lack of connection between the bot and the agents, making it feel scripted rather than helpful.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before Zendesk, we did not use a different solution. We started with Zendesk because we believed it was the best platform for our needs, but we are currently switching to another option.
What was our ROI?
I cannot share specific return on investment metrics because we have always used Zendesk, and we are now changing to Pylon. However, during the time we used Zendesk, we were able to offer a seamless 24/7 support experience and meet all our SLAs due to the robust nature of the platform.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing Zendesk, I only evaluated Intercom.
What other advice do I have?
I advise others looking to use Zendesk to start by setting up strong foundational elements. As you progress, it becomes increasingly difficult to remember to add specific filters or SLAs, so ensuring a solid basic setup from the beginning is crucial for effective reporting and evaluation of the support team.
I believe Zendesk is one of the best platforms available and the standard for customer support agents. However, I have noticed that they seem too large to change effectively. While I have seen improvements, my company has decided to switch to a competitor. Nonetheless, if someone is starting and lacks a clear structure for customer support, Zendesk should be the platform they begin with and use to measure other options. I provided this review with a rating of eight.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
