CUSTOMER STORIES | Retail & Wholesale
Zappos Insights
Zappos Insights is a subscription video service that lets companies learn from the way
popular online shoe retailer Zappos does business. Launched in 2008, Zappos Insights
is designed to give companies all the tools they need to develop the culture they want.
Customers can use the service to get answers from actual Zappos employees about
the Zappos approach.
“Zendesk has turned customer support into a true
teamwork activity. Any agent at any time can jump in to
solve a problem and keep a customer happy.”
AT A GLANCE
www.zapposinsights.com
Industry: Retail & Wholesale
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Customer Since: April, 2010
Use Case: Customer support
email-based support proves frustrating for
popular new business
Zappos.com shoes are in great demand – to the tune of more than $1 billion in annual
sales. But there’s also a growing demand for information about the retailer’s famous
corporate culture. That’s why Zappos.com launched the Zappos Insights membership
service in 2008.
“Our membership site has customers in 34 countries, and we mailed out 1,400 Culture
Books last month,” explains Donavon Roberson, Culture Evangelist, Zappos Insights.
“But where there are customers, there are customer support requests to handle.”
Because Zappos.com’s support solution wouldn’t have fit the Zappos Insights
business model, Roberson and his team initially set out to manage customer support
by email – but soon became frustrated.
Why Zendesk:
• Web-based help desk software
has SSO plug-in into Wordpress
sites
• Out-of-the-box email
functionality for flexibility and
centralized control
• Intuitive interface makes it easy
to add new agents
• Visibility into tickets enables
proactive solutions
“The trouble with email-based support is that too many messages end up in the
spam folder,” says Roberson. “We couldn’t afford to have customer messages falling
through the cracks.”
www.zendesk.com | support@zendesk.com | 1.888.670.4887
Zappos Insights | 1
CUSTOMER STORIES | Retail & Wholesale
Tracking support emails centrally
keeps conversations moving forward
Hoping to keep all customer correspondence in one online
support system, Roberson began his search with Zendesk help
desk software – and looked no further.
“The first thing we noticed about Zendesk was its ease of use,”
Roberson recalls. “When it creates a ticket, it automatically
emails us. Even employees who aren’t on Zendesk can then
continue the conversation over email, but it will all be tracked
in the system.”
Zappos Insights’ team of 11 support agents uses Zendesk’s
help desk software to field questions submitted on the
company’s website or sent directly by email.
“We clear out 150 to 200 tickets per week,” says Roberson.
“Zendesk not only makes it easy to respond with support
information, but also to start conversations that can lead to
additional sales.”
visbility into support tickets
lets company address problems
proactively
Zendesk’s macros enable Zappos Insights to send automated
responses to frequently asked questions. Meanwhile, Roberson
and his staff can easily begin to spot patterns that point to
urgent issues.
“When we see five or six customers ask for a delivery status on
their Culture Book in the same day, we can proactively address
a shipping problem before it really disrupts our business,”
says Roberson. “Zendesk has given us the visibility to reduce
shipping complaints from as many as 30 per day to an average
of just two.”
Even when key employees are out of the office, Roberson and
his team no longer worry about dropping the ball. Support
agents can log onto Zendesk from any browser. Some even
access Zendesk through Android or BlackBerry devices.
“How can we preach good corporate culture if we’re not even
taking care of our own customers?” says Roberson. “Zendesk
has turned customer support into a true teamwork activity. Any
agent at any time can jump in to solve a problem and keep a
customer happy.”
With Zendesk, Zappos Insights has the visibility to make sure
tickets are moving forward to resolution – not falling off
the radar.
“Zendesk has enhanced our follow-through,” says Roberson.
“I can easily see if a ticket hasn’t been responded to, and
then send the customer a quick email to let them know we’re
working on the issue. That kind of communication goes a long
way with customers.”
www.zendesk.com | support@zendesk.com | 1.888.670.4887
Zappos Insights | 2