Finupp is an Israeli startup that helps citizens to reclaim overpaid taxes from the government, automating what was once a long and complex manual process.
The company started out using Gmail to manage inbound inquiries from their growing user base, but as this system quickly became overwhelmed, they sought out a more purpose-designed solution. Having settled on Zendesk, they approached Adelante to act as their implementation partner.
We spoke with Finupp CEO Asaf Cohen to get an insight into how Adelante helped his company get to grips with Zendesk.
“At the beginning, we would handle our hundreds of requests through the Gmail platform,” Asaf recalls. “Obviously, it’s not a dedicated ticketing system, it’s not a ‘smart’ system at all, and it didn’t provide any customized functionality.”
The company made the decision to implement Zendesk in its customer service division to overcome these issues — a decision that he describes as very significant to its operations in retrospect. “We receive hundreds of requests each day and need to address every one of them quickly and efficiently,” Asaf continues. “When we reply, it is crucial that the customer understands the nature of the answer and receives a solution to their problem — but it’s equally important that the handling time is reasonable.”
Asaf and his team partnered with Adelante to implement Zendesk, and very quickly their ability to track requests and the quality of their responses improved. “When a customer reaches out to us,” he comments, “we see their entire activity history, we can track the service they’ve received over time, and understand where we made mistakes and how to improve our processes and responses.”
According to Asaf, implementing Zendesk at Finupp brought with it two complementary improvements. “It shortened the handling time for customers requests — and at the same time, it lowered the total number of inbound requests drastically. More of our customers could successfully find solutions to their issues without us needing to contact them.”
That had a significant effect on Finupp’s key customer service metrics, as Asaf explains, “Our response time was two to four days before the platform was implemented. Using Zendesk shortened our response times to 24 hours on average. Over half of our requests are answered within several hours, and only 3% take longer than one day for a first response.”
Part of the reason for these improvements lies in the feature set available through Zendesk. Asaf rates both the chat app and help buttons as crucial to improving the customer experience, saying, “Using the chat, we catch the user at their most critical points and enable them to ask questions and get human responses in real time. The help button empowers customers looking for answers to simple or repetitive issues to find the solution on their own — without having to speak to one of our agents.”
That year, Finupp experienced growth of 110% in its client base. However, Asaf emphasizes, the amount of inbound communication they received from customers actually dropped by 45%. “The explanation is that more people managed to find solutions to their problems using the automatic tools embedded in our website rather than needing to contact us via email or telephone.”
Looking back, Asaf understands precisely how much moving to Zendesk benefited Finupp in the long run, and he advises other companies to do the same. He explains, “The system is highly customizable to our needs. Yes, we have a development team at the company — but developing a support system inhouse would be very expensive and time-consuming. It’s more beneficial to use third-party systems – especially if they are offered at an affordable price.”
Asaf also recognizes the value of working with the right implementation partner, describing the relationship between Finupp and Adelante as a good match, “I believe that professionals who understand the work processes they deal with and possess experience from similar companies are the correct people for embedding this complex and unique tool.”
“There are many things that we acknowledge we don’t know – I was surprised to see things that surfaced during our work, which I personally did not anticipate. I was also surprised by the breadth of solutions Adelante offered us – and their full support with the implementation.”
Asaf continues, “If I were to do it on my own, it would have probably consumed a lot more time and money, with inferior results. I feel that companies should focus on their core activities rather than investing time and energy on executing things they don’t understand. That’s where Adelante adds value.”
