Provides fast setup and useful dashboards but needs better customization and formatting options
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Zendesk is providing support for customers. I use Zendesk to support my customers when they open tickets because they are having issues with the applications we support. For example, if something on the application isn't working well, then they open tickets through Zendesk.
I sometimes use Zendesk for extracting a few reports and some statistics from it, but that is the only different use case that I have for Zendesk.
What is most valuable?
One of the best features Zendesk offers is the dashboards. What I appreciate most about the dashboards in Zendesk is that the tables come in a data frame format, which is visually easy to understand. The dashboards generate data from the tickets automatically, and they are easy to configure as well.
The positive impact of Zendesk on my organization is the cost. Zendesk is way cheaper than other ITSM platforms such as ServiceNow, providing a good platform at a lower price so we could offer good support with a low budget for the license.
Zendesk has an API feature which you can use for extracting data from it, but I don't use it too much, so there isn't much I can say about the API.
What needs improvement?
Zendesk could actually support HTML on the tickets so we could format our text better than the current options such as size, bold, italic, or underscored, because the text processing is too simple. Zendesk could allow us to personalize our text with way more features, such as different text fonts or using HTML tags for creating tables.
I chose a rating of seven out of ten because, as I mentioned, it doesn't support HTML on the text formatting, and the windows are not well customized. Sometimes a few windows take more space than is necessary, and it doesn't let us customize our home page and a few other things, which makes me believe Zendesk is missing out on a few things compared to ServiceNow.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Zendesk for a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Zendesk is stable and performs quite reliably.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Regarding Zendesk's scalability, we haven't had to scale up or down because we don't have many tickets that need scaling. For now, Zendesk is handling our payload quite well.
How are customer service and support?
I have never had to interact with Zendesk's support team.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have previously used ServiceNow, Co-Common, and GLPI.
How was the initial setup?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that it is easy to understand and straightforward. It was easy to buy and to license.
What was our ROI?
I have a sense of the return on investment. To be honest, I don't have the data, but I feel that Zendesk helped us set up our platform for providing support way faster than other platforms due to its easy configuration.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing Zendesk, we actually evaluated ServiceNow as an option, as we do have ServiceNow for a few teams. However, Zendesk is cheaper, so we couldn't license ServiceNow for all agents. For a few of them, we used Zendesk.
What other advice do I have?
I cannot estimate how much we have saved due to the lower cost and good support from Zendesk since I don't have direct access to the data, but I know that we saved a lot.
My advice to others looking into using Zendesk is that if you are looking for a tool that is cheaper than others but provides a good solution, I would let them know that Zendesk is the best option. You will save costs and provide good support with easy configuration and many features for a lower price.
I was offered a gift card for this review.
I don't have any additional thoughts about Zendesk before we wrap up. However, they could change the layout of Zendesk a bit to look more like ServiceNow, as ServiceNow actually has a good-looking layout. If Zendesk changed to look more like ServiceNow and allowed users to customize their layout, I believe Zendesk could be better, but it's good already for the price. I gave this review a rating of seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Automated Replies Are Great, But Some Drawbacks
What do you like best about the product?
The automated reply capability exceeds the capability of other tools
What do you dislike about the product?
The setup can be a little cumbersome to utilize all the features, but I admittedly haven't completed all the setup yet so if it's fully-automated once it's done, it might be justified
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Automating the replies has saved the need for customer support representative time
Great Support Community, But Frequent Issues Disrupt Workflow
What do you like best about the product?
I like most the fact that it has a wide support system in the software as well as in the user base, so oftentimes issues can be solved quickly. Several integrations across CRMs and other software like Monday, Gainsight, PowerBi are used at my company and I find most of them work well enough that record keeping and managing projects is made relatively easy.
What do you dislike about the product?
I get notified of issues daily. About 50% of them actually affect my usage, but it always means a slowdown and lots of refreshing will be needed that day.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Zendesk makes timelines of client communications easy to read and allows team queues to be created in a way that makes interdepartmental resolution handling easier than a constant stream of messaging in Teams. Anyone working on an issue can hop into one ticket and read to understand what's going on.
Robust Features, Steep Setup Curve
What do you like best about the product?
I find the Zendesk Support Suite incredible for maintaining an active, easy-to-update knowledge base that allows users to self-serve for their basic, 101-level questions. This significantly cuts down the number of support tickets, which is essential for our operations. Additionally, I appreciate the quick and easy routing capability for support tickets, allowing us to efficiently manage inquiries and direct them to appropriate departments like legal, technical, or product support. The internal linking of knowledge base articles within support tickets provides a seamless experience that expedites ticket responses and keeps our processes organized. The extensive compliance documentation and the mature, reputable history of Zendesk were crucial for gaining internal support and buy-in from our infosec team, showcasing its reliability and security. Despite initial setup challenges due to numerous features, I appreciate the complexity for its flexibility and growth potential this offers. The tools and functionalities that facilitate routing and managing complex tickets ensure our processes are clean and compliant, making it an indispensable tool for our customer support operations.
What do you dislike about the product?
{"I find setting up Zendesk Support Suite quite challenging due to the depth of options available. It can be daunting for small teams or those without previous Zendesk experience, as the platform is built to support potentially large-scale customer service operations and global compliance needs.","The knowledge base software feels outdated compared to modern standards. The editing suite does not match what I would expect from more current platforms like Google Docs, Notion, or Confluence. The process of structuring categories, articles, and topics is unintuitive and not visually dynamic, lacking features like drag-and-drop functionality."}
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Zendesk Support Suite helps us maintain an easy-to-update knowledge base, reducing support tickets by enabling self-service. It also allows efficient ticket routing, enhancing our response speed and organization by linking support tickets with knowledge articles.
Potential for Product
What do you like best about the product?
Zendesk is being proactive in it's integration with AI.
What do you dislike about the product?
The search in the knowledge base is horrendous. This is something that needs to greatly improve.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
So far, there has not been any solution that we have benefitted of yet. The knowledge base search is not good and we have wanted a resolution for this.
What we have to look forward to are the AI tools.
Good so far setting up company wide support flow
What do you like best about the product?
Easy to navigate and configure, linking up knowledge base to tickets is really easy
What do you dislike about the product?
Not being able to view images in tickets - no esay way to make them large
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Routing tasks across wider team
The solution we are been searching for. Let's see how it rolls out.
What do you like best about the product?
The implementing stage is currently underway, and we are quite expectant.
What do you dislike about the product?
Can't give a valid opinion yet. Will be back to give an update.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Customert service chat service
Great support but could be simpler
What do you like best about the product?
It does great job of pulling all conversations into one place. The automations and integrations like slack, are super useful once set them up
What do you dislike about the product?
Setup sometimes can be a bit headache. So many options are there it feels overwhelming
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
It keeps all customer request in one place so nothing gets lost
Not included latest technology and features with AI
What do you like best about the product?
I used Jira multiple time they have summary of the ticket and link it to related one and many AI feature for dashboard creation also which is missing here
What do you dislike about the product?
Not included colour of the ticket on bases on priority and some icon by which we can just have a idea about it without reading the text
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Manage my business and coordination
Helpful but sometimes confusing
What do you like best about the product?
I think it has given me professional contact with businesses that otherwise may have not been personalized to me.
What do you dislike about the product?
I think it is sometimes hard to determine how to log in and if I have a message or am being guided there for another reason.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
It is helping me have quicker communication with other people.
