PWCS lowers IT service request resolution times by 81%

Prince William County Schools (PWCS), the second-largest school district in Virginia, is based in northern Virginia, approximately 30 miles southwest of Washington, D.C.. Based in Manassas, Virginia, the school district serves over 90,000 students and 13,000 staff across 100 schools and learning centers.

PWCS is recognized for its commitment to academic excellence, offering a variety of specialty programs, and fostering a positive learning environment. The district is also known for its diversity, with students and parents speaking over 174 languages and representing 159 countries.

Outdated system drives frustration

As a public school system with a business-forward mindset, PWCS was facing the challenge of delivering efficient, consistent, and customer-focused services to a broad and diverse group of users—including teachers, administrators, students, parents, and community members.

When the new superintendent issued a mandate for greater organizational coherence, it set a powerful transformation in motion: eliminate service silos, improve transparency, and introduce a scalable platform capable of uniting departments under one seamless support experience. That solution was Zendesk.

Before Zendesk, PWCS’s IT department used a cumbersome and outdated Microsoft system. “It was very clunky, required a VPN, and there was no intuitive reporting,” recalls John Jenkins, Workstation Support Supervisor at PWCS. “We ended up monitoring email inboxes instead—it was that bad.”

Even simple tasks like closing a ticket could require a dozen clicks. “At one point, one of our engineers said it took 12 clicks just to close a one-touch ticket,” quips Jenkins.

Worse still, the system was so complex it was impossible to share beyond IT. “There’s no way we could have brought other departments into it. It just wasn’t usable.” This lack of a centralized platform led to fragmented support experiences, limited reporting, and almost no ability to track or improve customer satisfaction.

From service silos to customer-centricity

PWCS’s leadership chose Zendesk for its flexibility, scalability, and ease of use. “With more than 90,000 students and over 13,000 employees, we’d be a very large company if we were in the private sector,” Jenkins points out. “We needed a platform that could scale with us—and Zendesk fit the bill.”

The Zendesk rollout, led by Jenkins and Jason Stephens, PWCS’s Client Services Project Coordinator, began with strategic onboarding of early adopter departments. “We started with low-hanging fruit,” says Stephens. “Once teams got in, they saw the benefits of Zendesk and wanted to expand their use cases. That’s when the real buy-in happened.”

Implementations are tailored to each department’s needs. Stephens and Jenkins work directly with teams to build custom ticket forms, triggers, and macros, helping groups streamline their most common requests.

Thanks to Zendesk’s user-friendly interface, many departments now handle day-to-day admin tasks themselves—including knowledge base updates and SLA management—without needing IT intervention.

Analyzing trends with data

The IT team now handles a wide range of requests—from device troubleshooting and password resets to complex issues like substitute teacher rostering and software permissions.

The district’s knowledge base, collaboratively maintained by technical specialists at each school, drives self-service for routine inquiries. “We now have internal and public-facing articles,” says Stephens. “It helps people self-serve before a ticket even gets submitted.”

Zendesk’s robust analytics features have proven vital in identifying trends and managing spikes in demand. “If we see the same issue on both the east and west sides of the district, maybe it’s a system-wide problem,” offers Stephens. “Zendesk gives us that bird’s-eye view.”

Moreover, centralized tracking enables better resource allocation. “If a department is only getting two requests a month, maybe that staff member can be reassigned,” Stephens notes. “If another team is buried in tickets, maybe they need more support. Before Zendesk, this kind of data-driven decision-making just wasn’t possible.”

Asset management boosts visibility and efficiency

On the asset management front, Zendesk partner EZO’s EZOfficeInventory allows the IT team to assume governance of the process. Previously, the Supply Services team had to manually send a scanner to schools and scan IT equipment barcodes to track in Excel and upload to a system.

Now the PWCS team can easily manage IT assets across all 100 schools and central offices—a massive undertaking involving tens of thousands of laptops, interactive classroom panels, mobile phones, and more.

The EZOfficeInventory seamless integration with Zendesk boosts efficiency for the school district by consolidating assets and service tickets in a single space, while also providing an asset lifecycle management solution with complete visibility into assets and inventory.

Faster service and higher satisfaction

PWCS has seen numerous benefits since adopting Zendesk. Perhaps most impressive: their CSAT score sits at 99 percent. Additionally, the average first response time is now less than one hour, with a 70 percent one-touch resolution rate.

Full resolution times have also dropped significantly. In the past year, average resolution times have fallen a whopping 81 percent, from 31.4 hours to 6 hours.

“We want to be fast—but not just fast to close a ticket,” explains Stephens. “We aim to be fast in letting customers know we’ve received their request and that we’re working on it. Zendesk helps us do that.”

A cultural shift to better service

Beyond the quantitative gains, Zendesk has helped shift the culture of service at PWCS. “Zendesk has made customer service front and center,” says Stephens. “People are realizing: anyone you’re helping is your customer. It’s changed the way we think.”

Jenkins agrees. “We now hear from more customers—students, staff, even parents. Not everyone wants to email or use a portal. Some send text messages. Zendesk gives us the flexibility to meet them where they are.”

While some departments were initially hesitant to adopt the platform, the results speak for themselves. “A lot of folks didn’t want to change, but once they’re in, they get it and see real value from the functionality and visibility offered by Zendesk,” says Stephens.

Expansion and innovation on the way

The next frontier for PWCS? Expanding self-service and knowledge base adoption.

“Right now, IT is leading the way,” says Jenkins. “But we’re starting to see other groups come on board. The potential is huge.”