
Scaling and sustaining your customer service organization
Our advocates have shared a few lessons and solutions that they’ve learned about structuring, scaling, and sustaining your customer service organization

Let customers choose your business hours
So how do you pull off delivering 24/7 business hours? By being smart humans and using technology wisely

First contact resolution: beacon of good support?
First Contact Resolution is a metric that, when used judiciously, can help drive improvements in customer experience. But it’s not without its pitfalls

6 Reasons why every call center should use an integrated ticketing system
Despite major improvements in other realms of customer service, many companies are using outdated technology and methods for providing customer service over the phone

Taking the long view: agent life cycle
No matter the type of business, customer service agents are very often the first people customers and prospects speak with

You don’t always need call center scripts
Customer service reps are less engaged in their work when they use call center scripts that don’t have the flexibility they need to interact with customers

Excellent customer service, excellent ROI
“Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it” can be good advice in some situations, like when you’re wary of trying a new ice cream flavor. When deciding whether to overhaul your current customer service support system—not so much

Tiers for fears: Is tiered support for you?
If you’re a business with consistently growing customer base and ticket volume, it might be time to consider tiered support

5 Things to do before you switch solutions
Adopting new software can be complex, time-consuming, and if you’re not careful, a total nightmare. So why switch solutions? Because according to a recent study by Forrester, if the switch is to Zendesk, it’s worth it

Improve remote support with a follow the sun model
The sun never sets for businesses that rely on remote support, and global support, for customer service. The traditional “follow the sun” model is a type of global workflow in which issues can be handled by and passed between offices in different time zones

How to get new software approved
Switching to a new customer support software solution requires involvement from various teams within your organization, even the ones who won’t use it everyday. But if you take the time to make your case and work with your organization, you can illustrate the benefits and get new software approved

Why live chat is better for everyone
Customers today can be a bit challenging. They want to find answers online…until they want to talk to a human. They expect not only the right answer, but, increasingly, a lightning-fast answer. Enter live chat

How to never make a VIP customer wait
For most companies, providing 24/7 support just isn’t an option. So what happens when a VIP customer has a question during off-hours and you need to contact your engineer who’s out of the office?

4 KPIs you should be measuring and why
It’s an old cliché: “What gets measured gets done.” Unfortunately, many organizations make the mistake of relying too few metrics

The easiest way to improve customer satisfaction
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, if you want to improve customer satisfaction, you need to measure customer satisfaction (CSAT)

Improved agent experience leads to improved retention and ROI
As companies look to compete in today’s highly competitive and dynamic business climate, the pressure on customer service teams is enormous. Customer service best practices today look very different than they did even five years ago. Yet, one truth remains the same: Customer service agents want to help. They care about the customers and want […]

How to build ideal workflows in Zendesk Support
Join our latest Fine Tuning discussion to learn more about the remaining “building blocks” of an ideal workflow

Building your Zendesk workflow brick-by-brick
Building your Zendesk is a lot like building with LEGOs. Each component of Zendesk is made to work in harmony with the others so that you can create the strongest spaceship—or ticketing system—you can imagine. In today’s Fine Tuning discussion, I’ll walk through some key features, or building blocks

Scaling HR operations with a help desk
Implementing a Human Resources Information System (HRIS) is one of the primary investments any HR operations team can make. Yet much of the day-to-day support that HR provides still happens over email

Customer service starter pack: five resources for managing a stellar support team
Managing a customer service team isn’t easy. Get a head start with these five resources from customer service leaders.

5 times virtual digital assistants should take the lead with customers
Siri, Cortana, and other personal assistants have permeated our lives; every day we depend on them to help us with directions or to dictate text messages. But digital assistance transcends consumer devices and can range from

Shadowing: A day in the life of a Tier 1 advocate
Meet Rodney, our Tier 1 team lead at Zendesk’s headquarters in San Francisco. After earning his degree in Resort & Hotel Management in college, Rodney planned on a career in business and hotel management. Instead, he

Dominoes in motion: how to create time-saving trigger actions with Zapier
Figuring out how to be more efficient—how to ‘do more with less’—is a top priority for pretty much every team. When it comes to support, each team manages its queue differently and frequently uses a host of

5 ways to reduce customer care costs without compromising quality
According to research, over 70% of all customers who leave a company for its competition have no problem with the product. Their main issue is with the customer care offered. This means that customer churn can hypothetically be reduced by 70% with world class customer care