Zendesk Expands Sunshine CRM Platform to Deliver Complete View of the Customer

New functionality and integrations with Amazon Web Services and Workato enable companies to build differentiated experiences

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Zendesk, Inc. (NYSE: ZEN) today announced new functionality for its open and flexible CRM platform Zendesk Sunshine that lets companies connect and understand all their customer data. These capabilities built on Amazon Web Services (AWS) help companies boost agent productivity and personalize customer experiences with a complete view of their customers’ activity across systems.

“Modern enterprises need to move fast and need not be slowed down by the anchor of cumbersome, legacy technology. We built Sunshine with AWS because it’s modern, agile, and it’s what our customers want,” said Adrian McDermott, President of Products, Zendesk. “We are impressed by how our customers are integrating other developer tools and building on Sunshine to break down data silos and deliver better customer experiences.”

According to CCW Digital, 74 percent of customers feel agents do not have enough context to solve their problems. In addition to Custom Objects, starting this month, companies can leverage powerful Sunshine features such as Custom Events, Unified Profiles and the AWS Events Connector to power differentiated experiences across Zendesk and their own applications. With these capabilities, agents can:

• View every interaction with their customers, regardless of the system.
• Tie all of their accounts into one comprehensive picture of their customer.
• Harness the power of AWS with a real-time streaming events connector.

Zendesk also announced a new e-commerce integration that processes events, such as billing, which allows businesses to provide real-time help to their customers. For example, an agent can see when a customer’s credit card is rejected and provide support in order for the customer to successfully complete their purchase.

“With Sunshine, organizations using both Qualtrics and Zendesk can now have a more complete view of their customers directly inside the support agent workspace,” said R.J. Filipski, Global Director of Business Development, Qualtrics. “With customer experience data on one platform, leaders can spend more time focusing on the actions that will drive the most impactful business outcomes."

Additionally, as part of their Early Access Program (EAP), Zendesk launched new workflow tools and integrations with partners such as Workato, Qualtrics and Narvar that help companies automate and scale experiences by leveraging an end-to-end view of the customer. With these capabilities, companies can:

• Easily automate manual tasks so agents can speed up work and make employees more productive.
• Leverage the data within Zendesk or third-party systems to trigger actions and enhance processes.
• Create powerful flows that can be reused across processes so companies don't waste valuable development resources.

"With Sunshine, hundreds of integrations are simple for companies to select and configure,” said Markus Zirn, VP Business Development at automation platform Workato. “We're looking forward to furthering our partnership with automations that trigger activity in Zendesk and external systems to ensure a seamless customer experience.”

Customers are already benefiting from using Sunshine features such as Custom Events and Unified Profiles to give agents a complete view of the customer and leverage data to personalize the experience.

"At Indochino, we developed the shopping experience of the future where customers design suits and shirts that are made just for them,” said Jesse Marion, Manager, Customer Experience at menswear retailer Indochino. “We're excited to leverage Zendesk Sunshine's new capabilities to integrate our customer data so agents have a complete view of what makes each person unique, from their fit and style to their personal preferences."

“Before Zendesk Sunshine, our customer support agents struggled with complicated CX systems,” said Sean Benedict, Customer Experience Operations Manager at full-service storage company MakeSpace. “Now our agents have a more holistic customer view in one place, seeing every customer event and the full history. Our team has everything they need to deliver a seamless and stress-free storage experience to our customers.”

Sunshine Custom Events, Unified Profiles and the AWS Events Connector will be available later this month. More information on Sunshine can be found on the Zendesk website.

About Zendesk

Zendesk is a service-first CRM company that builds support, sales, and customer engagement software designed to foster better customer relationships. From large enterprises to startups, we believe that powerful, innovative customer experiences should be within reach for every company, no matter the size, industry or ambition. Zendesk serves more than 150,000 customers across hundreds of industries in over 30 languages. Zendesk is headquartered in San Francisco, and operates offices worldwide. Learn more at www.zendesk.com.