Zendesk is a SaaS (Software as a Service) based help desk support company that contracts its services to any small, medium or enterprise businesses, freelancers, service providers and anybody who is in need of a help desk for efficient customer support, whether they have only one agent handling problems or a large staff. It helps agents answer questions, track issues and streamline interactions. Zendesk’s simplicity of operation, its extensibility and potential for customization and the variety of tools it offers to manage the customer relationship makes it one uniquely proportioned help desk offering in the cloud.

Answering customer questions and resolving issues is a complicated process, prone to glitches that lets customers slip through the cracks. Help desk support provides resources to keep track of contacts, making sure each customer gets the attention required to make sure their experience, and thus their image of the company and its customer service operation remains as positive as possible. It helps customer service agents remain organized and productive by prioritizing their activities and making sure nothing gets forgotten. The best such systems allow queries to reach agents through a variety of communications channels and help the agent leverage resources within his own company to assist the customer.

Now we’ll see all the features Zendesk offers in detail.

Support Ticket Management

Zendesk employs tickets, or records of all the interactions related to a specific customer and a specific problem, to manage the quality of customer experience. A ticket can be initiated by a phone call, a tweet or Facebook update, by email or face to face. However a client chooses to ask for help, whether for further training or resolution of a problem, the result is a ticket. When a it first appears, a ticket is New. After an agent accesses it, it becomes Open. If it needs a response from the customer or someone else like a regulator, it becomes Pending, and then Open again when it comes back. When the issue is resolved, the ticket is designated Solved. It then ages for a designated period to allow the client to follow up if necessary before being closed.

Multi-channel support

Zendesk allows clients to track all customer interactions in a single consolidated environment. Whether a customer contact occurs through email or chat, through a mobile app or social media, it is visible from within Zendesk. Not only can any email become a support ticket with a single click, but tweets can also be converted from a public interchange on twitter into a ticket enabling private interaction with the customer. Clients can allow their customers to chat on line with a representative, search a knowledge base or interact with one another on community forums.

Business analytics and reporting

Gooddata for Zendesk provides analytics and reporting of the operation of a Zendesk operation. Its dashboards give customers access to data on any aspects of Zendesk function. Data can be manipulated and recombined in different ways to meet the specific need of the customer. It is possible to track and analyze new and active prospects, touches and other metrics appropriate to a given business and to perform what-if analysis.

Forums and Community Support

Zendesk implements message board functions that allow users to set up forums as part of their support effort. Community support operations can be peer to peer forums in which users share their own experiences, or they can be managed by moderators employed by the company. Variations on the same functionality allow the construction of a knowledge base which the company’s clients can access on a self-service basis. If the need arises a forum topic can be promoted to ticket status.

Custom branding

Customization of a customer service portal allows an organization to brand it so that the portal looks just like the rest of the operation’s web presence. Control of Zendesk pages through Cascading Style Sheets allows customers to tailor their colors, fonts, menus and layouts. Logos can be added and any language employed within the portal. Zendesk’s standard offering allows the use of HTML templates and the specification of customized email addresses and domain names, and the Enterprise addition can handle multiple branding of a single centralized help desk.

Zendesk Enabled Applications

Integration with other applications is a Zendesk specialty. Almost any device or software a company uses can be configured to work with Zendesk to complement help desk operations.

* Android/iPhone integration unchains help desk personnel from the office, permitting them to handle tickets on the go.

* Basecamp project management software can access new feature requests submitted through a Zendesk operation for evaluation and possible inclusion in new versions of software.

* Beanstalk revision control software can be integrated with Zendesk to allow tickets to be linked with the software changes that resolved the situation.

* Campfire chat rooms are a natural adjunct of Zendesk. They allow customers to enter a chat room and interact with customer service personnel.

* Clickatell can be configured to let Zendesk operators send text messages from within Zendesk

* Twitter integration allows Zendesk users to turn tweets from customers with problems into customer service tickets, called Twickets, and address them through the Zendesk system.

* Facebook users can sign into the social network with Zendesk’s single sign in capability to monitor their company’s page and address customer service issues that may be voiced there.

* FreshBooks lets users of Zendesk track the time they dedicate to customer services and, if necessary, produce invoices based on those figures.

* Google Analytics integration allows Zendesk users to track the way customers navigate their pages

* MailChimp mailing list software can be configured to provide help desk customers with informative newsletters.

* OpenID can be set up to allow users to log into Zendesk with its identity verification.

* WordPress integration allows a company to make its blog an actual part of its customer service effort. A blog question can be assigned a support ticket directly from WordPress.

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and Help-desk support goes hand-in-hand. For any organization both the applications are backbone of their customer experience enrichment. And Zendesk has done fantastic job of integrating with two of the best CRM solutions – Highrise and Salesforce. Let’s see the integration in detail.

Zendesk and Highrise

Highrise and Zendesk can be integrated to form a unified record of customer interactions, making both sales staff and support personnel appear prepared and customer focused. Integrating Zendesk and Highrise makes it possible to view CRM data and to add notes back into Highrise directly from Zendesk. When a support request comes in the agent can populate the ticket with data from Highrise and can see all the customer’s data as well as the support ticket. Any notes the agent makes within the ticket go back into Highrise so that salespeople and managers are aware of them when interacting with the customer.

Zendesk and Salesforce

Salesforce and Zendesk work together to give clients a complete picture of their interactions with customers so that the customers perceive sales and support as part of a unified relationship. Two way integration of the Zendesk and Salesforce allows users of one access to data stored in the other. With one click on “user profile” in Zendesk agents can view CRM data stored in Salesforce. Sales account managers can view support tickets and those with Zendesk agent status can take actions like priority updates or just leave notes for support staff. Zendesk can push data into Salesforce, where advanced analytic capabilities can facilitate managerial decisions.

Zendesk Enterprise

Zendesk’s Enterprise version provides expanded functionality for larger businesses, for parent companies with more than one brand or for multinational organizations. Full-featured support for businesses utilizing large teams or those working in a geographically distributed workplace simplifies more complex help desk requirements. Enterprise security features includes restricting logins to designated IP addresses to prevent unauthorized access. The new single sign-on functionality logs agents into all the services their job requires, from the local desk to Facebook and Twitter.

Integrated scalability of both ticket volumes and communications channels and integration with other applications makes Zendesk a seamless fit for a growing organization’s support needs. World class analytics and easy-to-use dashboards make tracking performance simple. A system of permissions facilitates security by restricting the access of specific agents to specific features, and a new category of “light” agents makes it possible to assign one specific person who does not handle customer service tickets to deal with the customer service department’s social media operations or with their message boards.

Support Better With Zendesk iPad App

In addition to desktop systems, Zendesk offers a native iPad application that allows agents to offer customer support away from the office. In addition to traditional functionality, the iPad app offers proactive features that allow agents to check social media for negative comments about their company’s product. The agent can then message the customer and initiate a help desk ticket to resolve the situation in a positive manner. Real time lists of assigned tickets enable agents to efficiently manage their workload.

Conclusion

Zendesk is a great help desk offering for businesses of any size ranging from single person to enterprise. Around the globe 10,000+ businesses are using Zendesk to support customers and resolve issues quickly. You can try it for free and if you like it, you can buy any of the plans offered from $9 Per agent/month to $99 Per agent/month pricing. Better support ticket management, multi channel support, forums, custom branding and awesome integrations with other applications put Zendesk forefront competitors in help-desk solutions.

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