Sealy of Australia scales CX with Zendesk AI

For more than 100 years, Sealy of Australia has built a reputation for luxury mattresses backed by the latest in orthopedic research. Each Sealy Posturepedic mattress is made in Australia using locally sourced materials—including patented coils produced from South Australian iron ore.

“That kind of craftsmanship is something we’re very proud of,” says Michael Chen, Head of Digital and CX, Sealy of Australia. “We’re the number one selling premium mattress brand in Australia—and my goal is to create the most beautiful customer experience through digital channels.”

AI that supports agents, not replaces them

Chen was brought on board in 2020 to overhaul Sealy of Australia’s customer experience—and Sealy made a strong investment in AI in CX.

“We’re very focused on innovation, especially for customer-facing inquiries and workflows,” he says. “And we quickly saw the potential for AI-powered support.”

"Once we started using Copilot, our agents were able to handle up to 30 per cent more tickets."Michael Chen, Head of Digital and CX at Sealy of AustraliaSealy was one of the first companies in Australia to adopt Copilot, Zendesk’s AI assistant. It helps agents quickly resolve customer issues by suggesting replies, surfacing relevant knowledge, and automating workflows.

“It’s amazing,” Chen says. “It integrated seamlessly with our existing agent workspace—and it was very easy for our team to get started with minimal training.”

The impact was immediate. Phone call summaries save agents minutes of wrap-up time on every call. Tone Shift helps maintain a consistent brand voice. Ticket summaries give managers instant visibility into complex cases.

“Once we started using Copilot, our agents were able to handle up to 30 per cent more tickets,” Chen says. “They’re spending less time copying and pasting.”

And Chen found an unexpected benefit.

“Before, agents would occasionally be accused of sounding robotic with their answers,” he says. “But because Copilot’s tone shift feature is so dynamic—it comes up with a slightly different response every time—we haven’t been called robots anymore.”

While the results were clear, Chen knew the initial rollout required careful communication with his team.

“Early on, I explained to our team that AI is here to help you—it’s not here to replace you,” Chen says. “To paraphrase Lady Gaga, ‘Being a human being isn’t going to go out of style anytime soon.’”

A heritage brand meets a modern CX problem

When Chen first arrived at Sealy, he discovered a CX operation still anchored to an in-house ERP system designed in the ‘90s.

“Customer care was quite different back then,” he says. “It was mostly phone calls and barely any emails. And our system just wasn’t built to support today’s workflows.”

In his newly created role, Chen set out to help customers engage more deeply with the brand online.
“I knew that creating a beautiful digital experience was essential to driving longer, more sustainable growth,” Chen says. “There’s so much data showing how important digital touchpoints are in the customer buying journey.”

Then, the pandemic hit—and everything changed.

“People were stuck at home,” Chen says. “And demand surged significantly across the category.”
During the first year of the pandemic, Sealy saw their sales and support inquiries rise by more than 200 per cent.

“Our inquiry volume absolutely skyrocketed,” Chen says. “And our systems couldn’t accommodate that level of demand. That was the trigger point for us to start thinking about a different technology solution altogether.”

Choosing a partner—not just a platform

Chen spent nearly a year mapping workflows and building a business case for change.

“Our old system was very manual,” he says. “We needed to integrate all of our channels—our phone system, social media, chat functions, and text messages.”

After evaluating both internal builds and external vendors, he chose Zendesk.

“Zendesk stood out,” Chen says. “Not just because of what it can do—which is brilliant—but because the team was willing to customise our instance and make it work for us.”

That flexibility was critical. Sealy operates a complex model—selling through retail partners while also supporting a high volume of direct consumer inquiries, especially after purchase.

“Our model is a bit unique,” Chen says. “We’re B2B, but we have a lot of consumer-direct interactions as well. More than half of our inquiries come directly from consumers.”

At the same time, those direct interactions were becoming more important than ever.

“It’s not just about price and quality anymore,” he says. “The experience customers have with the brand has become their number one decision-making point.”

Faster results, stronger outcomes

Since implementing Zendesk, Sealy has centralised its knowledge base with more than 600 internal articles. Managers, account executives and agents have clearer visibility without digging through long case histories. The platform’s flexibility has improved speed and consistency across the team.

As a result, the company now maintains a CSAT score of around 90 per cent.

“That’s almost 20 per cent above the industry benchmark, which I’m very proud of,” Chen says. “Quality is very, very important to us. If anything, our CSAT score takes priority over the number of tickets we’re able to handle.”

Zendesk also enabled a shift to a hybrid work environment—something the previous system couldn’t support—bringing greater flexibility for agents.

“In 2020, our turnover rate was over 100 per cent,” Chen says. “Now, our turnover rate has almost disappeared.”

The investment paid off quickly.

“Looking back, the cost was quite scary at the time,” Chen says. “But we were able to see a return on investment in under four months.”

Always-on support, anchored in humanity

For Chen, the future of customer experience will depend on striking the right balance between automation and human connection.

“Sometimes, people just need to hear something that’s not based on a spreadsheet,” Chen says. “And I think that’s what can really drive strong customer engagement in the future.”

With Zendesk, Sealy is using AI to handle straightforward questions faster—so agents can focus on the conversations that require empathy, judgment, and a human touch.

“We’re already able to answer simple questions for our customers 24/7,” Chen says. “Ultimately, the goal is to fully automate complex requests with AI agents—all while driving as much emotional engagement as we can.”