Zendesk Singapore’s full-stack strategy to meet Asia Pacific’s needs

Mention customer relationship management (CRM), and Zendesk easily comes to mind. This fast-growing technology company brought in US$1 billion (S$1.3 billion) in revenue last year. Today, it serves more than 170,000 customers across 160 countries.

Amongst its suite of well-known products is Zendesk messaging—the company’s complete messaging solution that enables businesses to deliver rich conversational experiences across web, mobile and social apps. One lesser known fact is that the company’s first foray into live chat began right here in Singapore, Zendesk’s Asia Pacific headquarters.

What is the story behind Zendesk’s live chat development, and how is Zendesk growing its presence in Asia through Singapore? We speak to three diverse team members from Zendesk Singapore to get the inside scoop.

The Singapore origins of Zendesk live chat

Mr Lo Sheng is Director of Engineering at Zendesk. The 50-year-old Singaporean joined the team in 2014, a pivotal year in Zendesk’s growth. Apart from launching its initial public offering, the company signed its first business acquisition valued at US$30 million (S$40.2 million) that year. 

The target company was a Singapore startup, Zopim Technologies, whose live chat technologies had strong development potential. Mr Lo brought the entire Zopim team on board, and integrated Zopim’s chat agent into Zendesk’s solutions.

Executing this wasn’t easy, Mr Lo quips. From streamlining operational processes to reconciling product features, Mr Lo faced uphill battles from day one. “Like any acquisition, the initial phase is always a little rough when marrying two different cultures together, although I definitely didn’t anticipate just how difficult it would be to integrate the two entities,” he reminisces.

Tapping on his 20 years of tech experience, Mr Lo won the trust of his teammates and led Zendesk Singapore’s growth in product development and organisational transformation. Since 2014, Zendesk has expanded its team of 16 to over 140 today.

Back-end strategy #1: Create a global engineering network with unique strengths in different locations

Zendesk’s globally distributed engineering model features a network of research and development (R&D) hubs that work together, with each node bringing unique strengths.

Zendesk Singapore, for instance, designs, builds and maintains messaging and live chat systems that are rolled out across the world. “Our expertise in conversational experiences brings very unique value to Zendesk. What we do complements the work being done out of our other hubs in San Francisco, Copenhagen, Dublin, Melbourne, and Montreal,” Mr Lo says.

Another core responsibility of the Singapore team is Zendesk’s Agent Workspace, which was built with agents in mind. Real-time customer support is moving where consumers spend most of their time—on messaging and social messaging channels WhatsApp, WeChat, Facebook, Instagram Direct, and more. Customer satisfaction on these platforms directly impacts brand development, especially since consumers have the power to share user experiences publicly.

No matter which channel customers make requests through—email, live chat or social messaging—Agent Workspace enables service agents to respond seamlessly in real-time without having to switch dashboards, even if the customer hops between channels for the same request.

Back-end strategy #2: Recruit quality tech talent through a myriad of channels

One factor in Zendesk’s growth is finding quality engineering talent. Ms Hong Peng joined Zendesk’s team last year as Senior Lead Product Designer, bringing over 12 years of experience in product development at Autodesk and Dell.

Ms Hong moved to Singapore 20 years ago to study engineering, and stayed on ever since. “The government here is very pro-tech and pro-design,” she says, referring to Singapore’s conducive tech ecosystem that offers diverse developmental pathways for individuals. “I’ve had many opportunities to develop cutting-edge products,” she adds.

To sustain growth amidst the global shortage of tech talent, Zendesk taps on Singapore’s initiatives such as the SGUnited Traineeship programme, a Workforce Singapore initiative that provides recent graduates traineeship opportunities with host companies during COVID-19.

This was how trainee software developer Ms Hu Yang got her tech head start. “I moved here from China eight years ago for my undergraduate studies in biomedical engineering. After a stint in laboratory research, I made a career switch and completed the NUS Graduate Diploma in Systems Analysis.”

SGUnited Trainees at Zendesk like Ms Hu work on actual products, collaborating closely with colleagues from the Singapore and San Francisco teams. In turn, Ms Hu gains on-the-job skills while contributing real value to Zendesk customers and their end consumers. Her experience speaks of Singapore’s efforts to proactively groom tech talent from all angles.

On Zendesk’s talent outlook, Mr Lo is optimistic: “Tech is a young industry, and it’s not easy to find senior engineers with 10 to 15 years of experience, but the situation is improving. Fresh graduates we hired five to six years ago are now mid-level engineers, and we are progressively closing the gap.”

There is also the regional pool that companies based in Singapore can easily tap into. When hiring from abroad, companies like Zendesk find it easy to convince talent to move to Singapore. Mr Lo notes: “For talent with families and children, the safe environment and good education system here are real draws.”

Zendesk also believes in playing an active role in the communities it is in. That includes supporting and nurturing the local tech community through internship opportunities that help inspire students to pursue future careers in tech, as well as local tech event sponsorships and meet-up hosting to help the community exchange ideas and collaborate. Engineering managers also participate in forums with peers from other companies to learn from each other. “A bigger talent pool benefits everybody, and we want to be an active participant,” Mr Lo adds.

Front-end strategy #3: Focus on user experiences and customer relationships

Apart from talent, another success factor is Zendesk’s product development process. Zendesk integrates the full-stack expertise of product designers and engineers to meet customers’ needs.

In an ongoing automation and chat bot project, for example, Ms Hong works closely with design, product and engineering teams across Zendesk’s global offices. “I identify and understand user problems, design workflows, and continuously refine products. What motivates me is seeing our products make our customers’ lives easier,” she shares.

Zendesk also cultivates customer relationships by developing products collaboratively. “There are emerging customers that are also expanding across the region, and this gives us an opportunity to grow with them,” shares Mr Lo. As Singapore houses nearly half of the Asian headquarters of global companies and over 3,000 startups, there are plenty of opportunities here for Zendesk to work closely with them.

One such company is Carousell, a Singapore unicorn that offers a smartphone and web-based marketplace operating across Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Hong Kong and Australia. With the help of Zendesk, Carousell’s 45-person support team solves 30,000 support tickets a month on average, 24 per cent of which are intercepted by Zendesk’s Answer Bot across six languages.

Full stack and full steam ahead

From developing products, to talent, to customer relationships, Zendesk Singapore is a full stack in every sense, playing a key role in the company’s R&D network.

Customer experience will continue to become increasingly important to business success, and Zendesk Singapore looks set to ride the wave of regional growth, boosted by Singapore’s tech talent and business opportunities.

For Mr Lo and his team, the story of their growth has just begun: “Messaging will continue to gain momentum as the channel of choice for today’s consumers. We are well-positioned to help businesses deliver rich experiences for their customers in today’s conversational era.”