Government Digital Service Selects Zendesk for Customer Support on GOV.UK

June 19, 2012

LONDON, UK – 19th June 2012 – Zendesk, the cloud-based help desk software provider, today announced that the UK Government Digital Service has selected Zendesk to provide the customer service platform for GOV.UK, the cloud-based evolution of the current Directgov government services portal.

Currently in beta, GOV.UK is the next phase of the UK government’s journey towards a single domain for central government. Zendesk’s help desk software, trusted by more than 15,000 organisations around the globe, will enable GOV.UK to deliver exceptional customer support. Its ticketing system will alert the GOV.UK team to any inbound customer enquiries allowing them to prioritise queries through an easy-to-use, yet powerful, helpdesk solution.

GOV.UK chose Zendesk to cover the remit as it felt it was very collaborative and had built a product specifically for the web. In addition, the fact that the company had a clear plan for helping customise its product, closely aligned it with the Government Digital Service vision for customer support. In particular, the team were impressed by the fact that Zendesk were not supplying a traditional corporate IT ticketing system, but were about providing an excellent standard of care to the customer.

“By empowering our customer team to identify and resolve service issues using a single platform, we’re putting the emphasis on the customer experience, regardless of the communication channel used,” said Mike Bracken, Executive Director, Government Digital Service. “We recognise that to support our mission to improve access and satisfaction for our customers, we need a solution designed specifically for the internet that can integrate with social media channels”.

Using the power of social media to resolve service issues is not an uncommon practice for today’s businesses and governments, however previous efforts at social-to-help-desk integrations have traditionally been one-directional. Social media opened up new avenues for users to escalate complaints, but it was then left to the customer service team to bring them to resolution. With Zendesk, GOV.UK can take an integrated approach to social media and customer service, leading to faster resolution of problems and an efficient and friendly experience for users.

“By implementing Zendesk for its customer support services, the Government Digital Service is able to give the personalised experience its customers want, over any communication channel they choose,” said Mikkel Svane, CEO, Zendesk. “Our collaborative approach to working and our open API allows us to deliver the service that will be of most use to GOV.UK users.”

Zendesk recently announced its 5,000th European customer, less than a year after opening its European headquarters. Globally, its customers include Adobe, Sony, Yammer and Groupon, with more than 70 million people in 140 countries now receiving their customer service through Zendesk. The company also recently announced a two-way integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 which will allow customer service agents to access Microsoft Dynamics CRM customer data seamlessly from Zendesk and vice versa.

About Zendesk

Zendesk is the leading provider of proven, cloud-based helpdesk software. For growing organizations, Zendesk is the fastest way to enable great customer service. More than 15,000 Zendesk customers, including Adobe, Sony, OpenTable and Groupon, trust Zendesk with their most valuable assets: their customers, partners, and employees. Founded in 2007, Zendesk is funded by Charles River Ventures, Benchmark Capital and Matrix Partners. Learn more at www.zendesk.com.

Learn more about Government Digital Service here: http://digital.cabinetoffice.gov.uk.