MessageMedia enjoys quick ROI by switching to Zendesk Suite

Text messaging has transformed how we live, work, and communicate. It has also offered companies a fast, reliable, and personalised way to deliver real-time support. For over 20 years, MessageMedia has been helping businesses harness the power of two-way conversational messaging and optimise customer engagement through SMS, MMS, web portal, omnichannel, and API connections. MessageMedia has over 65,000 customers worldwide and is part of Sinch, global leader in cloud communications.

Customer-first solutions drive loyalty and satisfaction

MessageMedia strives to provide messaging solutions that add value to the customer experience. “The thing that differentiates us is our customer focus – how we apply best practices and support them throughout the journey,” says Mitchell Schierhuber, Systems Analyst and Project Lead for the Zendesk implementation. That commitment to quality service is reflected in the team’s 90 percent CSAT and 95 percent SLA results.

Building a robust tech stack is also key to building customer relationships. MessageMedia relies on the Zendesk Suite to deliver an excellent omnichannel customer experience across phone, email, chat, and web forms. Schierhuber has been instrumental in leading the company’s CX transformation across a number of customer-facing tools: Salesforce, Jira, Confluence, homegrown proprietary backend systems, RingCentral, and Chatlayer to interface with Zendesk chat.

Removing CX roadblocks to power transformation

After using Salesforce Service Cloud, MessageMedia realised that building capabilities at scale would require significantly more time, developer resources, and overhead costs. Without the proper tools to drive agility, the team’s siloed systems started causing delays. That led to a negative experience for agents and customers.

The same CX challenges intensified as MessageMedia started scaling rapidly, acquiring and integrating multiple brands. “We were looking to consolidate all 10 brands into one platform,” explains Schierhuber. “With so much transformation happening, we wanted to create the best experience for our agents and drive more efficiency and productivity. And we needed to do it quickly.”

When support volume rose and overwhelmed MessageMedia’s legacy system, they reached the tipping point. Schierhuber explains, “We needed a solution that could better support us and our customers to resolve a spike in caseload, through self-service deflection and more effective routing.”

Agile onboarding and ease of use

Following a rigorous procurement process, the team found three of the four solutions lacking. “Freshdesk didn’t suit our needs, Intercom did not suit our multi-brand business, and Salesforce was too developer reliant and complex for the customer teams to manage long term.

“At all stages through the procurement and vendor selection process, Zendesk was extremely invested in the process and in constant contact, which gave us comfort that we’d found the right vendor,” shares Rochelle Halpin, Head of Operations at MessageMedia. Having an onshore implementation team was also important to the success.

Ultimately, Zendesk offered a robust platform that would be easier to configure, maintain, and enhance over time as the business scaled. “From an admin perspective, Zendesk is great for people to jump in, easily learn, and do ongoing maintenance,” says Schierhuber. “Zendesk is a breeze compared to other systems.”

Zendesk’s flexibility and scalability would prove crucial as MessageMedia grew from a few agents in Australia, the U.S., and the U.K. to nearly 20 agents in Australia, and a new team of 18 in the Philippines. “It was a lot easier to scale out those teams in Zendesk,” recalls Schierhuber. “We didn’t need a suite of admins to get started or complete the configuration.”

A seamless transition with immediate ROI

In early 2022, MessageMedia implemented the Zendesk Suite in just a few weeks and seamlessly transitioned more than 70 people to the new platform with help from Zendesk professional services. “The Zendesk team was very attentive, informative, and quick to respond. That’s why we could get things set up, start training, and get everything done in a very timely manner,” says Schierhuber.

Once the team was up and running, Zendesk macros, automation, and other time-saving functionalities allowed MessageMedia agents to adjust their workflows easily. “We can remain agile to the requirements that come in, add a template, or quickly update tickets,” notes Schierhuber. “It’s a lot easier to onboard new people in Zendesk by linking up emails and live chats rather than doing it in Salesforce.”

A simple, smooth migration paved the way for quick ROI. “We were able to save significantly on implementation costs, as we did the bulk of it ourselves,” shares Halpin. “The implementation team kept us on track and provided prompt best practices and support when required.”

360° view of the customer in a single pane of glass

With more than 70 employees using Zendesk across 10 different brands, transparency is crucial. “One of the big benefits we’ve seen is that customer interaction history is a lot more accessible and visible in Zendesk, so it’s easier for agents to provide efficient support,” says Schierhuber.

The Zendesk workspace provides a single pane for agents to see all the customer information they need. Schierhuber adds, “It’s nice to have everything in one product because that made us more effective, and we were seeing efficiency gains pretty quickly.”

Escalating tickets to Jira used to require agents to monitor tickets in two separate systems, which led to errors, inconsistencies, and delays. The Zendesk integration with Jira solves that problem by automatically syncing ticket information. Thanks to seamless Zendesk integrations, agents also have a streamlined way to pull in customer information from Salesforce and Zuora.

A better product & ops experience with deep data insights

With access to deep data insights, MessageMedia can create even better experiences for agents and customers. “Zendesk makes it easier to dig into data and see some of the key drivers behind CSAT, ticket volumes, resolution times, and reply times,” comments Schierhuber.

Identifying product gaps and reducing knowledge gaps benefits employees at all levels. “The out of the box reporting available in Zendesk (particularly around case handling) is miles ahead of anything in Salesforce,” Schierhuber says. “It helped us build a better picture, so we could start making data-driven decisions around training opportunities, ticketing, and knowledge base enhancements.” Agents have already leveraged Zendesk data to build automated escalations for prepaid customers whose credit expires in two weeks.
The future of AI in the CX conversation.

MessageMedia has increased its license count by around 25 percent since starting, and the team looks forward to adding more functionality and self-service. “Unlike other vendors, the team at Zendesk has stayed very close to us since procurement,” says Halpin. “We have regular meetings with our CSM as well as Executive Business Reviews to discuss our long-term strategic objectives and how Zendesk can support us.”

In light of the opportunities ahead, Halpin adds, “We are excited by the development around chat and the new AI elements, because those will be hugely beneficial when managing the bulk of our initial customer touches via an offshore team.” Promoting the help centre, pivoting to messaging, and introducing AI agents will all be part of the CX conversation, as MessageMedia works toward its ultimate goal: becoming the world’s leading mobile customer engagement platform for SMBs.