While there are many customer service software solutions on the market, many companies, both big and small, use Zendesk as the foundation for their customer support platform. Another reason many companies choose Zendesk is the way it centralizes the influx of support requests and lets teams collaborate and track data with ease. Tracking and analyzing customer data will not only tell you critical things about your business that can be beneficial to better shaping your brand, it can also tell you a lot about the strengths and weaknesses in your customer support operation itself. Identifying and shoring up any weak areas is a key step to take while you’re in the early phases of scaling your support operation. It’s better to start now and get organized than to wait until you’re in the middle of a rapid growth phase to try to get a handle on things. In Zendesk, triggers are powerful behind-the-scenes tools that let you create rule sets for your support tickets that can automate some of the more tedious tasks in your workflow without making it feel automated to your customers. Or you can create your own triggers and stack them in more complex configurations, like routing a specific type of ticket that comes in from a certain channel to the specific team member who’s best suited to handle that type of request. Between using macros and a self-service knowledge base—which the team dubs its two “secret weapons” for scaling beyond 100,000 users—Rafflecopter’s core support team of two is able to handle over a thousand emails a month while maintaining a one-hour average response time for close to half of the emails coming in and a 24-hour response time for almost 90 percent of emails. Smart scaling through channel choice When scaling your support channels, it’s important to double down on the core channels that your customers gravitate toward rather than trying to master every channel at once. By taking the time to plan and prepare, gather and analyze data, master the tools, create self-service and automated options, and then focus your efforts on the most effective channels, you’ll be better equipped to minimize the challenges that come with scaling your company’s customer service in a fast-paced business world.
If you’re doing right by your customers, it’s only a matter of time before your company eventually experiences a period of rapid growth. That’s a great thing, but it can create bottlenecks if you’re not well-prepared. A big boost in your business means you’ll be serving many more customers, which in turn, almost always translates into a higher volume of assistance requests coming through your customer support pipeline.
Scaling your customer support plan alongside the growth of your business is important in order to meet increasing demand and keep the rising tide of emails, support tickets, and customer inquiries from piling up and overwhelming your team.
While there are many customer service software solutions on the market, many companies, both big and small, use Zendesk as the foundation for their customer support platform. In 2014, Zendesk reached a major milestone, with over 40,000 companies using its software, providing service to more than 300 million people globally. That number has since grown to more than 60,000 companies.
One reason Zendesk is so popular among brands is due to its ability to scale with you as your business grows. Daily deal website Groupon started using Zendesk from its early days and now has customers in more than 40 countries and 150 agents handling 15,000 tickets a day.
Another reason many companies choose Zendesk is the way it centralizes the influx of support requests and lets teams collaborate and track data with ease. That’s doubly critical when you’re in the middle of scaling up your support, but you’ll also need proper planning and foresight to avoid the possible growing pains ahead.
That’s why it’s best to strategically lay a solid foundation to support future growth while easing into expansion at a smooth and steady pace.
Knowledge is power
Getting a bird’s-eye view of your support team’s workflow, incoming volume, and overall efficiency will prove invaluable in planning how to best juggle expansion and future changes in your business. Every bit of data you can glean from your operation early on can help you tailor your specific approach to scaling in powerful ways.
Zendesk’s built-in reporting and analytics tools automatically track a wide range of information about your customer satisfaction ratings, your support ticket volume, your tickets by channel, and much more. Additional plug-ins can be applied, too, like the time tracking app, which collects data on how long each agent spends on every ticket.
From there, the Insights tab also lets you create more specialized reports that give a deeper dive into the data so you can analyze and determine the “why” behind the numbers and trends in the information you’ve gathered.
Tracking and analyzing customer data will not only tell you critical things about your business that can be beneficial to better shaping your brand, it can also tell you a lot about the strengths and weaknesses in your customer support operation itself. Identifying and shoring up any weak areas is a key step to take while you’re in the early phases of scaling your support operation.
It’s better to start now and get organized than to wait until you’re in the middle of a rapid growth phase to try to get a handle on things.
Mastering the tools
Beyond the power of harnessing the data and analytics, understanding and mastering the platform tools before you need them in a pinch is equally valuable. As such, it’s worth taking time to audit the way you use Zendesk to get the most out of it for your team.
Here are some ideas to help you get started:
- Determine the core features your team uses the most and identify any other functions that you could be using more efficiently to enhance the effectiveness of your support operation.
- Take time to gain a master understanding of what these key elements do, how they’re used, and where they fit into your workflow.
- Ensure everyone on your team is up to speed on how to use all of the important functions effectively, and make sure everyone is aware of any helpful shortcuts you uncover that can boost their effectiveness.
Providing team-wide Zendesk training can be important, but if you’re at the stage where you’re ready to expand the size…
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