ClassPass levels up 24/7 global support with Zendesk Premier Support

Fitness and wellness trailblazer ClassPass makes it easier than ever to stay active and develop healthy habits on the go. The innovative ClassPass app seamlessly connects members to the world’s best fitness classes and wellness experiences in 30 countries around the globe. From HIIT training to rock climbing, massage to virtual yoga classes, users can choose from thousands of workouts led by professionally trained instructors to customize a routine that fits their fitness goals and schedule.

Providing external support to B2C and B2B clients, as well as internal IT support to employees, is a huge task. The company relies on Zendesk to deliver best-in-class service and meet users wherever they are–email, chat, social media, or the ClassPass app. Integrating Salesforce with Zendesk has also helped streamline support to B2B customers.

“We use Zendesk to help our customers get support in whatever digital channel or way that is best and most convenient for them,” explains Sarah Vanden Broek, senior manager of CX at ClassPass. Her team is also responsible for building out content on the internal and external help centers.

Investing in powerful CX builds resiliency and agility

A year after launching in 2013, ClassPass adopted Zendesk Support, beginning a long-term partnership marked by growth and collaboration. Along the way, ClassPass tried using Help Scout for six short months, but the team grew increasingly concerned about the lack of depth in reporting tools, prompting a swift return to Zendesk in 2015.

Since then, ClassPass has trusted Zendesk to grow with the business and meet the company’s changing needs. Over the years, the team has transitioned from an a la carte usage of Zendesk solutions, to the Agent Workspace, and finally to Suite Enterprise in 2021. The investment in enterprise-level CX helped prepare ClassPass to tackle the new business challenges and limited technical resources brought on by the pandemic, creating newfound confidence and agility across the company.

Proactive, expert support for CX is “a true game changer”

From 2020 onward, a top priority for ClassPass was to improve response times by optimizing Zendesk for its specific use cases. The team had also set aggressive goals for delivering customer-centric support to members around the world. Both objectives required going beyond out-of-the-box functionality, so ClassPass turned to Zendesk experts, adding Premier Essentials in 2020 and then upgrading to Premier Support in 2022.

“Our Premier Support Lead has done an incredible job of not only looking at any issues we have, but also being proactive and telling us things he notices,” Vanden Broek says. “Having a partner like that has truly changed the way we view our entire Zendesk relationship.”

The small but mighty ClassPass team was able to undertake several notable initiatives with help from a Zendesk Premier Support Engineer, which include: adding conversational channels to provide a unified experience, restoring balance in API usage, and uncovering issues across integrations.

ClassPass now has more than 160 dedicated chat agents and has achieved a 60-second first response time on chat. Using Zendesk’s omnichannel platform enables ClassPass to provide real-time, global customer support, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week–while meeting its response time SLA.

Since ClassPass offers multilingual support, the team sees a high volume of requests coming in and out of the language translation APIs, with Zendesk functioning as the main hub for CX data. Thanks to its centralized data management and proactive guidance from Premier Support, ClassPass was able to identify the platform putting a strain on its API call requests and troubleshoot a solution using its Zendesk ecosystem.

“Premier Support has been a true game changer for us, when issues come up that need to be fixed quickly or we need more real-time support,” adds Vanden Broek.

Innovating and optimizing with custom integrations

Zendesk’s highly flexible and customizable platform has also enabled the team to seamlessly connect homegrown and third party integrations, according to Tessa Loftus, senior technical program manager at ClassPass. “The most important integrations ClassPass has are the custom-built ones that handle reservations and bookings and make sure that agents can easily operate within the Agent Workspace and Context Panel,” shares Loftus.

Getting expert guidance on integrations from Zendesk has allowed ClassPass to innovate and optimize even faster. “The Premier Support team has been really beneficial because they’re very knowledgeable on all these integrations and custom-built apps,” says Loftus.

By partnering with Zendesk, ClassPass not only gets personalized support for its current tech stack, but also recommendations for future configurations and integrations. That’s a great bonus considering ClassPass relies on a language translation service and the Assembled workforce management tool, along with Asana and Slack, to deliver global support.

Slower spending growth and faster ROI with Zendesk

The powerful combination of the Zendesk Suite and Premier Support has enabled ClassPass to maximize the support team’s potential and quickly realize ROI from its CX investments. Vanden Broek notes, “We’ve been able to really slow our spending growth because we don’t need to take away internal resources that could be driving revenue.”

Using Zendesk has allowed the lean CX team to improve its agility and continue working cross-functionally, without relying on engineers. Loftus recalls, “We saw the ROI right off the bat, specifically in time saved on our roadmap, as well as precious ClassPass engineering resources.”

Upgrading to the Zendesk Suite made it easy to adopt new support channels, from the upcoming launch of conversational messaging to internal and external help centers, and customize quickly with help from their Premier Support Engineer. The ability to scale support with fewer resources has given ClassPass a huge advantage, by allowing the company to stay resilient and save money during the pandemic and economic downturn.

Next up? ClassPass has identified two major opportunities on its CX roadmap. The first is deflecting tickets by giving customers the opportunity to self-serve before connecting with an agent. The second key goal for the team is implementing skills-based routing.

From optimizing its help center, to adopting a new messaging channel, to customizing integrations, Zendesk has played a pivotal role in ClassPass’s growth and helped future-proof the business with innovative customer service solutions.