Two years of research into what makes customer service operations tick and the best ways to improve. This is a random assortment of analyses done across two years of research around the Zendesk benchmark. You can see more research at www.zendeskbenchmark.com.

1. Thanks for the analyses!
Two years of Zendesk Benchmark research

2. A SIMPLE SURVEY

3. CUSTOMERS
29 thousand
AGENTS
80 thousand
USERS
337 million
COUNTRIES
140
PARTICIPATION
INDUSTRIES
18
INTERACTIONS
18 billion

4. THE ZENDESK BENCHMARK

5. TRADITIONAL SURVEYS
SOURCE: Dimensional Research

6. THE FIRST STUDY… HOW DOES FIRST REPLY TIME ACTUALLY IMPACT SATISFACTION?
DESIRED OUTCOME
Increase return visits
during Days 2-3 of a trial
and use insights from this
experiment to build a
better getting started
experience
THE DATA
We found a strong
relationship between
customer satisfaction and first
reply time and thought…
What else should we
measure?

7. ARE THERE PATTERNS IN UNEXPECTED PLACES?
THE DATA
Linguistic analysis shows
that word choice and
frequency play a
surprising role in
customer satisfaction.

8. ARE THERE RIDICULOUS THINGS WE CAN STUDY?
THE DATA
Customer satisfaction for
users that used polite
language in the
interactions was 3%
higher than those who
didn’t.

9. WHAT INDUSTRIES GO MOBILE FOR SUPPORT?

10. WHEN IS THE BEST TIME OF DAY TO SEND A SURVEY?

11. ARE THERE SEASONAL TRENDS IN CERTAIN INDUSTRIES?

12. “Every call is also about learning why they’re reaching out and gathering feedback on how we can improve
our products and the overall customer experience.”
Mike Osby, Senior Director of Operations, NatureBox
NatureBox categorizes every customer interaction down to granular details like customer dietary
preferences and type of shipping issue in a custom ticket field, which allows them to measure
where they want to improve.
WHO ARE THE CUSTOMERS LEADING THE WAY?

13. IS BEING A DATA DRIVEN CUSTOMER SERVICE OPERATION IMPORTANT?
THE DATA
Companies that use regularly reference Zendesk analytics to run their business
have better operational performance than companies that do not.

14. THE MOST DATA DRIVEN INDUSTRIES
THE DATA
Only 17% of customers
that have had a bad
support interaction are
promoters, compared to
64% for those that have
had a good interaction.
THE DATA
Entertainment and
gaming had the highest
number of customers
that viewed 20+ analytics
reports per month.

15. “We need complete visibility into each ticket’s lifecycle, because every interaction is an opportunity to
improve the customer’s experience”
Doc Shufelt, Vice President of Operations, Republic Wireless
WHO IS DATA DRIVEN?

16. WHY IS SCALING CUSTOMER SERVICE OPERATIONS IS HARD?

17. IS EMPLOYEE RETENTION IMPORTANT FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE?

18. WHAT INDUSTRIES HAVE THE HARDEST TIME WITH RETENTION?

19. MEASURING THE OVERALL CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

20. CUSTOMERS WANT TO GIVE YOU FEEDBACK… LET THEM
THE DATA
We found this really
strong relationship
between customer
satisfaction and first
reply time and
thought…
What else should
we measure?
THE DATA
53% of NPS responses include
open feedback that provide
more insight than predefined
multiple-choice surveys.

21. DOES CUSTOMER SERVICE HAVE AN IMPACT ON BRAND VIRALITY?
THE DATA
Only 17% of customers
that have had a bad
support interaction are
promoters, compared to
64% for those that have
had a good interaction.

22. babbel.zendesk is here
NOT ALL ZENDESKS ARE CREATED EQUAL
THE DATA
Babbel self-selected into
the education industry,
but they operate much
more like a massive
freemium chat product
Eg. WhatsApp

23. MEASURING SUPPORT SCALE

24. MEASURING SUPPORT WORKFORCE RESOURCES

25. MEASURING BUSINESS PROCESS MATURITY

26. SEGMENTING CUSTOMERS BASED ON 7 OPERATIONAL METRICS

27. TWELVE OPERATIONAL TYPES

28. BUILDING A BETTER BENCHMARK

29. WE’RE SHOWING YOU WHERE TO START

30. INSIGHTS THAT HELP YOU IMPROVE

31. zendeskbenchmark.com