Creating a Custom Zendesk IVR Integration for a Multinational Communications Corporation: A Case Study

by Blue Ocean in Blue Ocean News, Case Studies, Contact Center Outsourcing, Contact Center Technology

By developing a custom Zendesk IVR integration for a global communications leader, Blue Ocean eliminated manual data entry, reducing average handle time by 53 seconds and boosting customer satisfaction ratings by 34%. This seamless connection between phone and ticketing systems demonstrates how strategic contact center technology can simultaneously improve operational efficiency and customer experience.

The Client

A Multinational Communications, Electronics, & IT Corporation

This company has a health solutions arm delivering connected devices for which Blue Ocean provides both sales support and customer service support.

The Challenge

An Inefficient Disconnect Between IVR & Ticketing Systems

For both types of customer calls – sales and support – the client was using an IVR system which directed calls, by type, to an appropriate contact center agent. However, the IVR was not integrated with the client’s off-the-shelf, cloud-based help desk ticketing system, Zendesk. As such, once customers were connected to a live agent, the agent would need to verify account information and manually enter other details. These steps and manual entry resulted in longer Average Handle Times, lower quality customer experience, and, sometimes, inaccuracies or errors in customer information. Streamlining this process would improve all of these areas.

In today’s landscape of omnichannel customer support, efficient help desk optimization is crucial. The disconnect between systems was creating friction in the customer service workflow, impacting both agent productivity and digital customer experience.

The Tactics

Building a Custom Zendesk IVR Integration

Collaborating with our information services experts and the operations team that supports this client, Blue Ocean’s technology team designed a custom Zendesk and IVR integration that connects the automated phone and ticketing systems, creating a comprehensive cloud-based customer service solution.

The contact center technology integration ensures that all questions answered through the IVR, including customer or product ID, language, category of call, and more, are automatically recorded in a web-based app that integrates directly with Zendesk. With this seamless integration in place, when the customer is connected to a live agent, their information automatically pops up on the agent screen. Instead of spending valuable call time on verification and manual entry processes, agents are able to jump immediately in to resolving the customer’s issue.

With development and testing from both a back-end and front-end perspective completed, Blue Ocean launched live demos with the client to ensure all objectives were met. From there, agents underwent one-on-one training to get up to speed quickly.

The Results

Improved Efficiency & Customer Satisfaction

In an industry where contact center optimization typically yields incremental improvements, our results were significant. Beyond the improved call center performance metrics, we saw substantial gains in our customer experience benchmarks. The custom integration between the client’s ticketing system and IVR was immediately successful.

The data reveals that after the Zendesk IVR integration, AHT per call was lowered by 53 seconds reducing cost per call. Efficiency is a core component of a good customer experience – with the streamlined process in place and average handle time successfully lowered, our quality assurance results improved as well. We measure “How would the customer rate the service experience?” as part of our QA process. After integration of the systems, the customer rating increased by 34%.

Ready to reduce your call handle times and boost customer satisfaction? Schedule a call to discuss your custom IVR integration needs.

 

 

 

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