Zendesk announces integrated call center service for the UK and 10 other European countries

Zendesk, the cloud-based help desk platform has announced the launch of Zendesk Voice in the UK and Europe. The company creates an affordable way for businesses to set up an integrated call center quickly, with no extra hardware all while synchronising call information.

“With voice integration, Zendesk allows customers to set up a call centre for less than the cost of a mobile phone and with much less hassle,” says Matt Price, Vice President and General Manager, Zendesk EMEA. “With the new voice capabilities, we’re seeing the next generation of help-desk. As an industry we’ve moved from on-premise call centres, to cloud-based help-desks and now we have a convergence with cloud voice.”

Zendesk has seen steady growth. Last year we reported on the establishment of their European HQ in London, in December it pushed for its international service by providing multi-lingual language features.

How it works

The service is available for all subscription plans and it is a VoIP system, so no hardware or IT support is needed. It costs only a few pence per minute to use and is part of a suite of options available to clients, including email, web forms, online chat, Facebook, and Twitter.

A particularly nice feature is the ability to track calls, both for customers and businesses. Conversations are recorded, converted into transcripts and embedded into Zendesk tickets. Customers are also able to listen to their previous phone conversations through the system, which makes a change from “this call may be recorded for training purposes” being a one-sided deal.

Zendesk was the first major European customer for Twilio which also powers the voice service. Twilio is used to build web and mobile applications that can make and receive telephone calls, allowing businesses to use their existing software engineering resources and skills.

“At Twilio, our mission is to revolutionise the way in which companies see telecoms, opening it up to developers across the globe. Zendesk Voice is a brilliant example of what companies can do to build their business further, allowing them, in turn, to revolutionise the fields they are in,” said Twilio CEO and co-founder Jeff Lawson.

For those who are unsure whether to include a phone number on sites, Zendesk has done some homework via Forrester. According to their white paper “consumers prefer phone calls to other channels because they feel acknowledged and receive faster resolution.”

Zendesk Voice is now available in the following European countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and the United Kingdom. It’s a good solution for companies looking for a price conscious method of providing satisfaction.

➤ Zendesk Voice