A leading financial services firm streamlined customer support operations with Zoho Desk
The company
The organization is a leading global financial services infrastructure provider that plays a critical role in the securities market by enabling the electronic holding and settlement of financial instruments. It offers a wide range of services including transaction settlement, corporate actions processing, and regulatory compliance solutions. Given the high volume and sensitive nature of transactions it manages, an efficient and well-structured customer support system is essential.
The customer support process is designed to handle large volumes of complex, time-sensitive inquiries from multiple institutional stakeholders. Tickets are typically initiated via various channels and are categorized based on the nature of the request—such as settlement discrepancies, corporate actions, or compliance queries. Internal teams may also raise tickets for operational or system-related issues to ensure smooth functioning.
The requirement
The company had multiple business teams that used different systems, which led to data silos. The data syncing time across multiple in-house systems was not real time, which meant teams didn't have accurate visibility into current business data. The lack of an integrated platform made it difficult to track client interactions, leading to disconnected systems and processes across functional teams.
To address these challenges, the company chose to implement Zoho CRM Plus. This gave them access to get a bundle of applications—including Zoho Desk—to support their business operations.
Reliance on manual processes had been contributing to inefficiencies in customer support by increasing the risk of missed follow-ups. There were three main challenges in providing enhanced customer support experience:
The firm’s in-house applications and processes lacked sufficient automation before implementing Zoho Desk.
Different departments within the firm had limited access to shared views of tickets. This created difficulties in managing and tracking tickets across multiple processes and teams.
Reporting and analytics were limited because email was the primary communication channel for ticket submission before Zoho Desk, which made it difficult to extract valuable insights from interactions with customers. As a result, the firm struggled to plot and analyze trends, which hindered their ability to make data-driven decisions.
These limitations adversely impacted the quality of client engagement and customer experience.
The solution
Zoho Desk automates key operations of the firm such as task management, ticket allocation and SLA tracking, and integrates seamlessly with their in-house system. The organization uses multiple features, such as the customer portal, automated emails, and analytical dashboards, to optimize customer engagement, boost operational efficiency, and enable performance improvements.
Department-specific customization to meet business requirements
During implementation, each of the five departments set up within the Zoho Desk platform—investor grievances, IT helpdesk, implementation, operations, and settlement—had unique requirements for ticket categorization, creation, and assignment. The solution was customized to meet these needs in a structured way.
Each department required a specific method for categorizing tickets. For example, tickets related to investor inquiries needed to be identified with specific ticket numbering rules in compliance with industry rules. This allowed the firm to easily differentiate between different types of inquiries. Now, when a customer (such as an investor) sends an email to a department-specific address, the system automatically creates a new ticket in Zoho Desk based on the categorization rules set by the department.
Ticket assignment rules to handle responses efficiently
Once Zoho Desk generates a ticket, it is automatically routed based on a set of rules specific to each department, such as user availability, shift schedules, or a round-robin assignment system. This ensures that tickets are evenly and efficiently assigned to agents. After a ticket is assigned to an agent, the customer receives an auto-acknowledgement email confirming that their question or complaint is being processed. Additionally, tickets belonging to a specific department are automatically routed to that department without any manual intervention. Read how to assign tickets using workflows and assignment rules
Help center and knowledge base to empower customers
The firm requested the implementation of a help center portal, which currently serves as the front-end system for end users. This portal allows customers to view their tickets, access knowledge base articles, and resolve issues independently. Additionally, the portal supports user sign-up and sign-in functionalities.
The knowledge base is mainly used by two departments at the firm. Whenever a customer enters a query, such as typing specific keywords related to an issue, the portal automatically suggests relevant knowledge base articles. This makes it easier for customers to find answers to their questions and improves response times by avoiding the need to wait for agent assistance.
The organization's support agents also refer to the knowledge base articles whenever they need more information to respond to tickets. If an agent types specific keywords related to an ongoing task, the relevant knowledge base articles are automatically suggested to streamline the process and ensure agents have quick access to internal resources. Read how to manage moderation settings in the Knowledge Base module.
Zoho Desk APIs to exchange data with in-house applications
Certain operations-related queries require the use of an in-house application for interacting with third-party users. When a ticket is generated that requires third-party involvement, the ticket is transferred to their in-house application for review using API integration. The third-party users can then add their comments or remarks via a front-end interface. Once the updates are made, the ticket is automatically updated in Zoho Desk via the API to ensure seamless synchronization across all systems. Here is Zoho Desk's API documentation.
Extensions to build custom validations for a ticket
The Zoho Desk Team built extensions to meet the company's specific requirements. One important extension involved handling customer replies. For instance, if the ticket had been replied to by their customer, the system was set up to prevent further replies until there was a response from the company's agent.
Now, when a user or a customer clicks the reply button, the system uses an extension to check who the last person to reply was—whether it was the customer or the company's agent. If the customer was the last to reply, the system prevents further replies and displays a message to notify the customer.
Another validation checks whether a ticket has been closed for more than seven days if a customer tries to reopen it. After this period, they would see a message that they must create a new ticket because tickets cannot be reopened beyond a seven-day closure period.
Optimizing support with Zia in Zoho Desk
The financial services company manages thousands of support tickets daily from brokers, custodians, and internal teams regarding settlement issues and compliance queries. By integrating Zia in Zoho Desk, the company automates ticket categorization and prioritization, which allows urgent settlement discrepancies to be flagged and routed immediately to specialized agents.
Zia’s sentiment analysis helps identify frustrated customers early, enabling proactive follow-up. Additionally, Zia suggests relevant knowledge base articles and solutions to agents in real-time, speeding up response times and improving resolution rates. As a result, the company reduces ticket backlog, enhances customer satisfaction, and ensures compliance deadlines are consistently met.
Business results
Advanced reports to make informed decisions
Implementing Zoho Desk gave the financial services firm a significantly stronger ability to generate insightful reports and conduct detailed analysis. These reports are now extensively used in top management meetings, where decision-makers rely on the data to drive discussions and strategy. Multiple rounds of discussion were held with the Zoho Desk team to refine the logic and ensure that the analytics met the specific needs of the business.
Seamless integration across multiple applications
Another major benefit was the easy integration of Zoho Desk with the firm's in-house applications. This integration centralized everything into one unified platform to connect multiple applications. Agents and management can now access all the tools they need with a single login, which reduces the time spent switching between different systems.
Other benefits
The firm enhanced their customer experience through omni-channel engagement. The integration between Zoho CRM and Zoho Desk helped them to get more contextual information when serving their customers from within Zoho Desk. Now, the agents have better visibility into their tickets, which allows smoother collaboration across teams. With Zia, the firm is able to accomplish much more, particularly by improving the team's productivity and saving a lot of manual effort.
- Key FeaturesAssignment rules, Help center, Knowledge base, Zoho Desk APIs, Analytics, Extensions, Zia