“The Zendesk teams are highly integrated into our service and in many ways are part of our teams. They challenge us and make us aware of new issues and technologies, which is hugely motivating.”
Rodolphe Linard
Director of Hypervision at Up Coop
“Zendesk stands out because it’s both easier to use and more flexible than other tools. Our teams love its efficiency and quality, which have been recognised in ISO 9001 audits. We see it as a real strength within our organisation. During tenders, we even mention the power, reliability and security of our solution as reasons why customers should choose us.”
Rodolphe Linard
Director of Hypervision at Up Coop
Established
1964
Up solution beneficiaries
22 million
Revenue
566 million euros
Capital held by employee members
100%
20%
NPS increase in 1 year
1 million
queries handled each year
8%
CSAT increase in 1 year
25%
reduction in first reply time in 1 year
Pushing up purchasing power and social solutions
The Up Group and its parent company, Up Coop, aim to increase the purchasing power of employees and civil servants, making it easier for them to eat out, enjoy cultural activities, play sport, travel, go on holiday and get home services.
A pioneer of ‘lunch vouchers’ in the 1960s, the group has evolved to offer corporate HR departments, works councils, local authorities and public authorities new social solutions, like gift vouchers, employment services, culture vouchers, etc. A powerful way to build loyalty with employees and agents – not to mention strengthen their employer’s brand.
The company also expanded internationally and now has more than 3,200 employees in 22 countries. As a cooperative company owned by its employees, the group now serves 22 million beneficiaries around the world.
A new era with Zendesk
In 2018, as new players entered an already highly competitive market in France, Up Coop saw the need to take the next step in its transformation by focusing on customer service and digitalisation. So, the cooperative turned to Zendesk: “We wanted to modernise and improve how we monitor customer service. Until then, we had been using our own on-site CRM, which wasn’t suited to the job because it didn’t allow us to interact with our customers effectively,” explains Didier Bourdais, Director of Client Experience at Up Group. “We wanted to increase interaction with a ticketing tool that would not only allow 360-degree communication between internal and external teams but also ensure consistent communication between agents. We were also looking for a scalable solution that we could expand over time. After evaluating several options, Zendesk stood out thanks to its performance and affordability. What’s more, the fact that we also had people in-house familiar with the solution made us confident that it was the right choice.”
For six years, internal and external users within Up Coop’s customer service departments have been leveraging all kinds of different Zendesk features, including Support, Guide (Help Centre), Chat and Explore (omnichannel analytics) to help them handle around one million requests every year. These queries come from three main groups: funders (private and public employers, and public bodies), beneficiaries (employees or administered agents) and retailers who accept vouchers in shops.
The solution was implemented gradually, department by department. “We rolled out the solution in stages up to 2020 so that we could make sure we’re providing a consistent and improved experience with a single tool for both tracking and monitoring. But we started leveraging new features as soon as the core of the solution was in place. For example, we’ve implemented Guide, Chat, Answerbot and more recently the Flow Builder feature, which allows us to create personalised journeys for messaging channels and gives customers the option to resolve their issues themselves before getting in touch with an agent,” adds Rodolphe Linard, Director of Hypervision at Up Group.
Up Group has a ‘test and learn’ culture that’s part of the company’s DNA. “We started by implementing new solutions in just a few places before rolling them out across the board. That’s what we did with Flow Builder, for example, deploying it for our beneficiaries first. This year, we’re planning to standardise the journey and relationship by rolling out this feature for our other audiences,” stresses Didier Bourdais.
Top-class support with Premier Enterprise
When Up Coop renewed its contract for the first time in 2021, it decided to move up to Zendesk’s Premier Enterprise support. This option gave the cooperative dedicated support, sales and technical contacts, which not only accelerated the company’s roadmap but also allowed it to optimise its solution faster. “The Zendesk teams are highly integrated into our services and in many ways are part of our teams. They challenge us and make us aware of new issues and technologies, which is hugely motivating,” emphasises Rodolphe Linard. “From our side, we also challenge Zendesk, which is incredibly positive because our conversations often lead to bespoke developments. Having this kind of support from a company like Zendesk allows us to develop our own customer experience skills.”
The Premier Enterprise support from Zendesk has proved vital in both connecting Zendesk with the company’s CRM on the sales side and creating customer data on the experience side. Another major project was developing omnichannel capabilities by implementing Chat and self-service options (Zendesk Guide, Answer Bot): “This was an area where we clearly had some catching up to do. Chat is now a standard channel we provide for our stakeholders. Zendesk has helped us structure ourselves correctly and also set up self-service options for our three audiences,” adds Didier Bourdais.
Up Coop has also added around 60 partner applications from the Zendesk Marketplace, including Diduenjoy (for post-contact surveys and NPS), SnapCall (screen-sharing solution with AI), Diabolocom (telephony solution) and Zendesk WFM (formerly Tymeshift – agent activity monitoring, now integrated into Zendesk): “This year, we’re working on integrating the JIRA change request management tool in line with our DevOps approach,” explains Rodolphe Linard. “The flexibility of Zendesk also allows us to develop tailor-made internal applications for users and organisational management and even customer satisfaction in collaboration with Diduenjoy. When we need something, we either ask Zendesk or develop the application ourselves in-house. We’ve actually developed about a third of the applications we use ourselves.”
Positive results…
Up Coop is satisfied with Zendesk on every level, as evidenced by the fact that they’ve renewed their contract twice – in 2021 and 2023. And this is especially true for end clients: “NPS, which we measure right after every interaction, has increased by a whopping 20%, as has CSAT, which has gone up 8%. Our time to resolution has also improved year-on-year and we’re currently averaging about six hours. First response time, which is now three hours, has also gone down 25 % s over the year,” reveals Didier Bourdais.
Feedback from Zendesk’s 800 internal and external users has also been very positive. “Zendesk stands out because it’s both easier to use and more flexible than other tools. Our teams love its efficiency and quality, which have been recognised in ISO 9001 audits. We see it as a real strength within our organisation. During tenders, we even mention the power, reliability and security of our solution as reasons why customers should choose us,” adds Rodolphe Linard.
The introduction of Zendesk also led Up Group to create a dedicated team for the solution. “It’s an internal team of six people who all work exclusively on the tool. It’s been certified by Zendesk for the work it carries out and supports the whole company, including our subsidiaries in France. In the future, it will likely also support our international teams as they implement the solution in other countries. We also have an integrated training team, which supports all our employees who use the tool as part of their customer service jobs,” points out Didier Bourdais.
… and new projects with Zendesk
Up Group intends to build the future of its customer service with Zendesk. “We want to have a 360-degree view of customer service. Right now, we have a CRM for sales and a different solution for customer service. We want to have a complete view of all interactions – from customer support to sales and marketing. Another challenge will be integrating our back offices with Zendesk to give our agents an even better experience. We’re also planning to implement WhatsApp and are keeping a close eye on how AI develops. The support provided by Zendesk Premier Enterprise will be key in meeting these challenges. It’s an incredible accelerator because we can get the support we need – when we need it – from a highly skilled team. Zendesk offers enormous potential,” concludes Rodolphe Linard.