Contractor Foreman achieved excellence in customer communication with Zoho Desk

Overview

Contractor Foreman enhanced their overall customer experience and achieved their goal of keeping customers better informed throughout the support process with Zoho Desk.  

The company

Contractor Foreman is an easy-to-use software solution that helps construction companies manage their projects. The company serves customers in over 75 countries, catering to all types of construction contractors—from small residential projects to large-scale projects like highways.  

Their software allows users to create lead forms for their websites, generate estimates and invoices, receive payments online, and manage work schedules. It also helps construction firms track bills, purchase orders, change orders, job schedules, crew schedules, and time cards. Based in North Carolina, USA, the company has team members working from 15 different countries.  

The challenge

Contractor Foreman was using direct emails to manage their support tickets. It was challenging because they didn't have an easy way to categorize items based on their status—whether they were open, closed, or required follow-up. Additionally, they needed a solution that allowed multiple team members to collaborate on tickets without the hassle of sharing an inbox.  

The evaluation

The management team also considered HubSpot and used it for a while. However, as the team grew, they were worried about the costs associated with the platform. They evaluated several products in the market and eventually chose Zoho for its affordability and diverse set of value-adding features. The team started using Zoho Desk around 2018.  

The implementation

The setup process for Zoho Desk was quite straightforward and intuitive, which helped the team adopt the platform rapidly, according to Steven. Within a week, the team was able to implement Desk, set up email routing and chat routing properly, configure the system, and customize the response messages that users would receive. The team has also benefitted when onboarding new team members at Contractor Foreman because it takes very little time for them to learn the process.  

The Solution

Transparency in the ticket resolution process

When a customer raises a ticket, they're given a ticket number for reference. Instead of relying on general emails as they did before, customers could now easily reference a specific ticket. This system keeps the customer informed at every stage of a ticket's lifecycle and has significantly improved the experience for both the company and its customers.  

Zoho Desk noticeably improved the customers' follow-up experience. Now, if a customer needs an update on a particular issue, they can simply refer to their ticket or respond directly to it. This has increased flexibility by allowing customers to easily communicate and provide additional information as needed.  

On-the-go ticket access to address urgent inquiries

The team primarily uses the browser version of Zoho Desk because agents are typically at their desks. However, there are times when they need to use the Zoho Desk mobile app to respond to something urgently or check a ticket.  

When they first implemented Zoho Desk, there were many support responses to handle. Steven relied on the Zoho Desk mobile app to respond to customer needs when away from the computer. This allowed him to stay on top of things, and from an efficiency standpoint, the app proved helpful and easy to use.  

Desk's mobile app provided all the necessary functionality for the team to manage a ticket from start to finish directly from the app, which was highly beneficial.  

Integration with Zoho SalesIQ for quick resolution

Customers have the option to either initiate a live chat through the website or send an email to the support address. When an email is sent, it generates a ticket, which is typically responded to within one to two hours during business hours. Most tickets are resolved within the same workday.  

For live chats, the team maintains a 95% chat acceptance rate, with most chats being answered within ten seconds, all managed from within the Zoho Desk interface. These chats are generally resolved in a single conversation, without the need for follow-up, resulting in an efficient customer support process.  

Reliable communication for an enhanced customer experience

The team makes extensive use of the Notify feature in Zoho Desk to ensure that agents are immediately aware of new assignments and reduce the chance of tickets slipping through the cracks. Desk makes it easy to assign tickets to the appropriate team members, allows agents to view their assigned tickets, and provides email notifications informing them when a ticket has been assigned.  

The support team at Contractor Foreman also relies heavily on the ability to quickly pull in relevant information from knowledge base articles and use canned responses to handle common queries efficiently.  

Zia powered by ChatGPT to bring AI into customer support

Integration with Slack to deliver real-time notifications

Zoho Desk's integration with Slack sends real-time notifications to agents when a ticket is created or a new response is received. Delivering live notifications through Slack helps the team stay on top of tickets without wasting time monitoring their inbox.  

Dashboard analytics to maintain visibility

Dashboard reports provide a clear overview of the number of open tickets, their priorities, which tickets need responses, and which agents are assigned to each ticket. This type of insight offers greater clarity to the management team.  

The company has implemented an incentive plan for support team members based on their ability to close tickets within a specified timeframe, and the analytics on the Dashboard help them to make these decisions in an informed manner. They are also able to assess the status of tickets quickly and identify areas that need attention as they progress through the month.  

A single window to view customer records and support tickets

Steven says that the greatest advantage of using Zoho Desk is its strong integration with Zoho CRM. Team members log into a single system where they can access everything at once. When a ticket comes in, it is automatically linked to the associated customer record, providing a holistic view of the customer, including their past queries and interactions.  

Benefits & ROI

Easier collaboration—with accountability

The agents can create their own filters to view items assigned to them, check priority levels, see the timing of the last response, and close tickets. This provides a much cleaner view of the actions they need to take individually.  

Reduced labor costs

By using Zoho Desk, the team was able to strategically reallocate some of the people who were previously working on support tickets. These team members could focus on providing live chat support through SalesIQ and jump in to help follow up on tickets in Desk when necessary.