Careful consideration has likely gone into choosing Zendesk as your customer support software. Now you cannot wait to benefit from all the advantages of the advanced CX platform. But how do you reap the full potential of a solution as adaptive, innovative, and complex as Zendesk? Where do you even begin? In this article, we will suggest that you get expert help from a Zendesk implementation partner. We will explain why this is a good idea and provide you with five requirements your implementation partner should meet.

Gone are the days when handling customer enquiries solely via Outlook was viable. Businesses serious about customer service and striving to provide exceptional customer experiences need a CRM system to fulfil their ambition. The earlier, the better, really – as the right system can help reduce the growing pains of scaling the business.

Easy for Your Customers, Easy for You

A CRM system offers structure for your customer service agents, making it easy for them to help customers and manage customer relations. Using an omnichannel solution like Zendesk means you only need one system for answering customer enquiries. And with everything in one place, your agents can work much smoother and faster, enabling them to respond quickly and help more customers every day.

With more than 1,000 supported integrations and endless automation options and ticket routing possibilities, Zendesk can be a real game changer for your customer support. The opportunities are numerous, and the potential is vast. So, how do you make the most of it?

German author and philosopher Goethe once said, “Everything is hard before it is easy”. Without becoming too philosophical, this can also be applied to Zendesk. Before you can enjoy the ease and all the other benefits of the platform, you must implement it. You may be able to carry out the implementation process yourself, but be prepared that it can be very complicated. Consider leaving all the technical complications, system tweaks and customisations to an expert implementation partner.

With an experienced Zendesk implementation partner, you can even prove Goethe wrong: It was never hard. Only easy!

Rely on Experience and Insight

Implementing Zendesk and setting up the system is crucial to the end result. The better the solution matches the needs and requirements of your support team, the sooner it can improve the workflow and make processes more efficient. Your agents will also enjoy using their new tool faster if it is customised to help them complete their tasks.

With the right implementation partner, you get to rely on valuable experience and insight – in terms of the system’s possibilities and what can be achieved with it as well as customer service trends and customer experience optimisation potential in general.

Every business is unique, and Zendesk implementation is not a one size fits all solution.

It is not a fixed solution either, as there should always be room for improvement, enhancement, and new functionality when your changing needs require it or new system innovations develop it.

Five Requirements your Zendesk Implementation Partner Should Meet

Great customer experiences make customers return. Bad customer experiences push them away. In other words, customer service is serious business. Investing in Zendesk is an investment in your customer service, and it shows you have ambitions. Choosing to use a Zendesk implementation partner underlines this.

You have already selected one of the world’s best and most popular CRM systems. Now it is time to find an implementation partner to help you make the most of your investment in every way possible. That is no easy task, so you should start by defining some requirements for your future partner.

Below are five essential requirements a Zendesk implementation partner should meet. Hopefully, they will inspire you to expect more of your implementation partner and help you define your own conditions.

1 – Should have a holistic approach

Customer service is more than just answering enquiries. It is the heart of your business, with vital connections to the rest of your company. Therefore, your Zendesk implementation partner should have a holistic approach and take a 360-degree view of your company.

That perspective will require an interdisciplinary team covering various functions and aspects of Zendesk.

Implementing the system may be the main task, but a thorough initial analysis is essential to set the stage for the implementation. Your partner should have the capability to carry out such an analysis.

Already in the implementation phase, some development skills may also be required to ensure the system operates smoothly with the existing company systems. To obtain this, you might need something special. Your implementation partner should have in-house developers to help with this effectively.

Developers are also needed in the long run for continuous optimisation and ongoing system enhancement. Therefore, you should choose an implementation partner with the competencies to become a long-term Zendesk partner.

2 – Should be proactive

As your business grows and times change, your needs will change too. Zendesk is a very scalable solution, and your partner should be able to help you scale so you can continue to provide your customers with excellent experiences as you grow.

With a close relationship with your partner, the need for changes should not come as a surprise. Therefore, you should choose a Zendesk partner that is proactive and maintains the dialogue.

3 – Should be adaptable

Best practices can be a good start, but they are often also an average of what has worked in other cases. Your business needs do not necessarily fit into a ready-made template where your logo is the only thing that is changed. Such a template will quickly become a restraint as your business grows and your needs change.

Your Zendesk partner should want to spend the time and effort to get to know you and your business in order to understand your needs better – also in the long run –and perhaps even identify needs you have not yet discovered yourselves. This requires personal involvement, and your partner should be willing to get involved.

4 – Should be a Zendesk Authorised App Developer

Apps can add specific functionality to your Zendesk solution and help connect it to almost any system or platform.

Zendesk Marketplace already offers almost 1,500 apps within categories such as productivity and time-tracking, marketing and lead generation, analytics and reporting, telephony and SMS, and email and social media. But you may need a customised solution that is not yet on the market.

Therefore, you should choose a partner who is certified by Zendesk. This is especially valuable when it comes to app development. With app development skills in-house, your partner can offer easy access to making Zendesk work even better for you.

5 – Should have a broad partner portfolio

Zendesk is built to make life easier for your customer service team while they make the customer experience even better. Part of Zendesk’s appeal is the flexibility of the system.

Want a chatbot to help your customers faster? Need a tool for workforce management directly in Zendesk? Looking to understand how productive your team is through customer data analytics and instant insights? Wish Zendesk could register phone conversations with customers too? Virtually anything is possible – it just requires the right connections.

Your Zendesk partner should be able to offer some of these connections. Take a good look at their partner network and consider if these partners provide solutions that could be useful to you. Through your Zendesk partner, you have easier access to their partners and their wide range of solutions. And because of their holistic approach (#1, remember?), your partner will help facilitate the implementation of new functionalities. Efficient and cost-effective.

Happy Zendesk Partner Hunting

Even before reading this, you may have realised you needed an implementation partner to get the most out of your Zendesk solution. Otherwise, you are probably convinced by now. Getting started with something new can be a hassle – even with an easy-to-use CRM system such as Zendesk. Perhaps the biggest struggle involves prioritising.

Because almost everything is possible, you must prioritise what to do and in which order.

Your Zendesk implementation partner can help with this.

Before you continue looking for the perfect partner match for your business, you may want to check out helphouse.io – a 360° CX Zendesk consultancy with clients all over the world. Being a certified Zendesk Premier Partner and Authorised Zendesk App developer, helphouse.io are experts in everything Zendesk and CX related.

They tick all the boxes on the five requirements listed above – not least the fifth requirement, as their partner portfolio includes Surveypal. We at Surveypal have worked with helphouse.io for several years, and these hard-working people know how to lead customers to Zendesk success. You too, perhaps.