Zendesk Suite

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.

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.

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.

I have been using Zendesk for 12 years.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.