Vendor:
Founded:
Headquarters:
Zendesk
2007
San Francisco, CA
Customers:
Deployment Model:
Free Trial:
160,000+
Cloud
Yes
Zendesk Support At A Glance
Product Overview
Zendesk Support is a cloud-based help desk solution that empowers customer service agents to assist customers quickly and efficiently by prioritizing tickets. The software gives agents the relevant details needed to provide customers with a more personalized experience, and it has custom features to fit a company’s unique needs.
The software has numerous benefits, including:
- Automated features that improve agent productivity
- A mobile app for agents to access tickets on the go
- Multilanguage capability
- Scalable pricing plans
There’s a Zendesk Suite platform that includes live chat, voice and a help center for full omnichannel and self-service functionality. It includes features such as customer context, business routing, analytics and more. The Zendesk Suite has four pricing plans that start at $49 per agent, per month.
Features
Here are some of the key features of Zendesk Support.
Customization – Companies can customize their help desk portals by adding their logo, colors and other designs to reflect their brands. If a company has multiple brands, they can set up and manage each portal from a single account. The software supports up to 28 languages, so agents can access their account in their preferred language.
Help desk management – Agents can communicate with customers by email, Twitter or Facebook without leaving Zendesk Support. A support widget can also be embedded on the company’s website so that customers can access the knowledge base or submit a ticket.
In the software, agents can see a list of tickets based on status or other criteria. To prevent picking tickets at random, the guided mode feature gives agents a sequence of tickets to work on. With the ticket forms feature, agents can create multiple support request forms using their unique ticket fields. They can also monitor Service Level Agreements (SLA) via a dashboard that shows the deadline for the ticket response, ensuring it doesn’t fall through the cracks.
Agent productivity tools – There are several features of Zendesk Support that help agents become more productive. For example, managers can set up predefined macros to provide standardized responses to frequent requests and create business rules that automate workflows (e.g., skill-based routing).
In addition, the customer context feature lets agents see a customer’s relevant details (e.g., purchase information or interaction history) so that they can provide a personalized response. And the dynamic content feature inserts the detail of the ticket in the customer’s preferred language so the agent doesn’t need to translate anything.
Insights – Zendesk Support provides analytical tools for measuring agent performance, customer satisfaction and other metrics. The performance dashboard can show ticket volume, agent responses and other details. Managers can measure customer satisfaction using two types of surveys: CSAT Ratings and Net Promoter Score (NPS). In addition, the Satisfaction Prediction score can use machine learning to predict a customer’s satisfaction during the experience. It generates a score between 0 and 100 based on the customer’s comments to alert the agent on immediate attention.
Collaboration – This optional functionality allows agents to reach out to their team members for help without leaving a ticket. Agents can contact their colleagues via email or Slack using the side conversation feature, which stores responses within the ticket. Also, internal team members act as light agents, meaning they can read and leave internal comments on a ticket without having to fully access Zendesk Support.
Target Market
Zendesk Support targets companies of all sizes in many industries, such as health care, education, retail and telecommunications. We’ve listed 10 of its clients below.
- Homebridge
- Ingersoll Rand
- Instacart
- Mailchimp
- OpenTable
- Slack
- Stanley Black & Decker
- Tesco
- Uber
- Wrike
Implementation/Integration
Clients can sign up for a free trial via the Zendesk Support website and begin using the software quickly. At the end of the trial, they can add their credit card information to their account and select a subscription plan. Companies that have complex business needs can partner with the Zendesk Professional Services team to develop an implementation plan based on the company’s requirements.
The software integrates with over 1,000 third-party systems (e.g., marketing automation software, content management systems, telephony providers, project management solutions) through the Zendesk Marketplace.
Customer Service & Support
Users can browse the knowledge base for answers, engage with other users in a community forum and submit support tickets. In addition, they can contact the support team by phone, email or live chat. Zendesk has add-on Premier support plans that include one-hour response time guarantees, designated support team oversight, tailored proactive monitoring and a technical account manager for strategic needs.
Zendesk also offers free and paid online training courses on its software and customer support best practices for admins, developers and agents.
Pricing
There are three pricing plans (billed annually), which are:
- Team – The Team plan costs $19 per agent, per month and includes communication with customers by email, Facebook and Twitter, predefined business rules, customer context (i.e., relevant details about customers), performance dashboards and prebuilt apps and integration.
- Professional – The Professional plan costs $49 per agent, per month and includes all the features of the Team plan, plus custom apps and integration, the ability to set business hours, multilingual content, customer satisfaction surveys, automatic redaction and Service Level Agreement (SLA) management.
- Enterprise – The Enterprise plan costs $99 per agent, per month and includes all the features of the Professional plan, plus skills-based routing, custom team roles and permissions, contextual workspaces, third-party data storage and a sandbox test environment.
Shortcomings
Some users have reported that the interface looks dated and can be hard to navigate. Also, the process to set up automated workflows can be tedious.
Screenshots
About
Founded in 2007, Zendesk is a service-first CRM software provider whose software is designed to help businesses improve their customer relationships. It aims to offer an easy-to-use and accessible platform that’s scalable and can be implemented quickly. In addition to the Zendesk Support Suite, the vendor’s portfolio includes the Zendesk Sales Suite for sales professionals and Zendesk Sunshine, an open source CRM platform.
Zendesk received widespread recognition, including a spot in Gartner’s 2017 Magic Quadrant for CRM Customer Engagement Center. It’s headquartered in San Francisco, and has over 4,130 employees in 17 locations, including Mexico, Canada, France, Japan and Australia.
