Why Zendesk’s mindful approach to customer service is a breath of fresh air

Let’s begin with a long, intentional six second inhale.In through the nose, hold it. Now, out through the mouth for the same amount of time. 6, 5, 4, 3, 2,1.

Welcome back. Finding a moment of clarity in today’s hectic world is rare. Another area where clarity is hard to come by? A customer service request. For both the inquiring customer responding agent, help desk requests are often a space of frustration.

Which is why Zendesk, the industry’s leading customer engagement platform, is a breath of fresh air in a year that has seen record-high ticket requests.

Zendesk consistently delivers an easy, seamless, and forward-thinking experience for both the customers reaching out for help and the agents who respond to their requests.

Making a mantra

Being intentional about creating a quality help desk experience in an industry that has historically been a virtual game of hot potato was no easy feat.

In scaling their platform, Zendesk focused on the core idea of creating a space where their customers could develop quality relationships with their own audience. To Senior Director of Product Neil Weldon, it’s this deliberate approach to multi-level customer relationship building that has guided the company to where it is today.

“We try to make sure we’re giving and creating a support system to our customers that enables them to be efficient in how they manage their own customers, by allowing them to provide an excellent experience across whatever channel their customers prefer,” said Weldon.

This meant not just evolving alongside customer’s needs, but also thinking ahead and layering on more and more capabilities before they even asked for them.

“We evolved from being just a pure ticketing system to being a service-first CRM with ticketing built in on top of it,” Weldon explained. “Our customers are looking for a way that they can build out their software very quickly, cleanly, and efficiently for processes and workflows in order to support their customers.”

And a platform built on quality, purposeful relationship building needed the communication technology to match. So, Zendesk turned to Twilio.

Developing form

Like many new platforms that wanted to harness communication technology to enhance customer experience, Zendesk found itself ahead of the curve in the beginning.

Despite knowing where to take their platform to get their customers what they needed, few potential partners offered the functionality Zendesk needed to enhance their platform. In fact, only one potential partner existed: Twilio.

“You know, there wasn’t anybody else who was doing what Twilio was doing in a SaaS environment,” said Weldon. “There were those who were opening up APIs and other various things but to be able to really do that in a SaaS environment was where Twilio was leading the way and essentially helped create our embryonic product—which was inbound voice.”

Finding a flow

As Zendesk began adding more and more communication functionality to their platform, they focused on scaling beyond singular standalone support channels. What their global customer base needed was the functionality to build several channels into one platform so when their customers reached out, regardless of medium, their experience provided quick and seamless clarity on the channel of their choice.

Enter the Zendesk Suite. Within it, Zendesk relies on Twilio Programmable Voice, along with SMS, email, chat, social messaging, and more, to provide the consistency customers expect and the information and empowerment agents need to deliver exceptional service.

The Zendesk Suite also gives ambidexterity to the agents using it and flexibility to their clients to contact them from wherever, whenever. When a call comes in, an agent automatically sees the full history of the customer and past interactions, adding context to the conversation and making the experience more efficient for the customer. The agent is also able to seamlessly move from one channel to another, or transfer a request to the right place with ease.

It’s this latest product offering that really showcases the innovative and intentional thinking that has led to Zendesk’s leadership in the SaaS industry—leadership that has been particularly important in the age of COVID-19.

“We’ve got most customers working from home, and as long as our agent has a half decent broadband connection, they are up and running and you wouldn’t know any different. That’s been really important as we’ve gone into this new normal as lots of companies try to figure out how their staff can work virtually and found Zendesk to be able to deliver that for them,” explained Weldon.

Reflecting on what's next

Zendesk has proven that an omnichannel approach to the customer service experience makes all the difference for their customers and their customer’s customers.

Meeting people where they are with the context they need to help solve problems and get the right answer has been integral in their relationship building success. And relationship building, whether with your customers or with your partners, means always working toward a better solution with the help of consistent communication.

“We’ve always had the ability to engage with Twilio. When new opportunities have come along, we’ve been given a heads up and the support for the things that we’re trying to achieve. When we look at where we want to go in the future much of it is focused on delivering worldwide telephony. And that’s why Twilio is a company that we continue to see as a very strong partner for us,” Weldon said.

With the forward thinking mentality of Zendesk, it will be exciting to see what’s next for the platform that’s revolutionized customer service by offering an organized, intentional space for both support agents and their customers to communicate, solve problems, and find the clarity they both need.