What it does: Customer service technology provider
Mission: Our mission at Zendesk is to help you deliver exceptional customer service.
Size and presence: Around 6800 globally in 8 locations.
Best known for: Zendesk is a popular all-in-one customer service platform. A broad range of businesses from massive organizations to small startups uses this robust cloud-based help desk software.
The good bits: Fast growth company with lots of opportunities with great culture
The not so good bits: Growing pains of transition from startup to enterprise company
Zendesk was founded in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2007 by three friends: Morten Primdahl, Alexander Aghassipour, and Mikkel Svane. The founders started developing the Zendesk software in Svane's loft. Initially, Zendesk was funded by the cofounders with each doing consulting jobs to support their families. Within a couple months of the Zendesk software-as-a-service product being released in the Fall of 2007, it had about 1,000 trial customers. Initially, interest in the software spread slowly through word-of-mouth predominantly among other startups. Adoption accelerated in 2008, due to an increased interest in responding to customer complaints on social media and after Twitter started using Zendesk.
Venture capital investors were willing to invest in Zendesk only if the company moved to the United States, where most of their customers were. In 2009 Zendesk moved to Boston, Massachusetts. About six months later, they made a second move, this time to San Francisco, California. The company raised $500,000 in seed funding, which was followed by a series A funding round for an undisclosed amount and a series B round for $6 million. Zendesk raised $19 million in a series C funding round in December 2010, followed by $60 million in a series D funding round in 2012. This brought total venture capital funding to about $86 million.
In 2017, Zendesk added an AI bot that has conversations with customers and attempts to direct the customer to the answer they're looking for. The bot initially had limited functionality, but was expanded in 2019. In 2018, the company introduced Zendesk Suite, which combines social media, live-chat, email, and other communications into a single ticket system. An enterprise version of the software-as-a-service product was released in 2018. By that time, 40 percent of Zendesk's revenue was coming from larger companies. In 2019, Zendesk first released its "Sunshine" tool, which is focused on direct-messaging customers on social media sites.
Zendesk eventually expanded from just customer service to also managing other customer interactions, such as sales. The company first moved into sales software with its September 2018 acquisition of competitor Base. Base was later renamed Sell and a Sell Marketplace was created for corresponding third-party apps. Part of the social media software acquired from Smooch was rebranded as Sunshine Conversations, a tool that competes with Salesforce.com. Zendesk's sales automation software was later revamped with Zendesk Sell in 2020, which improved integration with Zendesk's customer support software. Since then, Zendesk marketplace has integrated several third parties technologies to provide more services to the end customers. In 2021 for example, several companies joined Zendesk marketplace, such as Crowlingo for multilingual data collection, Verse for lead conversion and ViiBE for remote visual support.
By 2018, Zendesk had annual revenues of $500 million. In October 2019, Zendesk disclosed that it was hacked in 2016, resulting in a potential leak of information about customer service agents using Zendesk. In May 2019, Zendesk acquired Montreal-based Smooch, for an undisclosed amount. Smooch provided messaging services on websites for live-chat customer support. In 2020, Zendesk announced more tools for messaging customers on social media and enhancements to its customer relationship management features. Zendesk headquarters in San Francisco
In October 2021, Zendesk announced that it was acquiring Momentive Global Inc., formerly SurveyMonkey, for $4.13 billion. Zendesk's investors rejected the deal on February 25, 2022 and terminated the agreement due to risk.
We commit to host open, inclusive and global empathy circles for employees to come together, share their unique experiences and challenges, learn, grieve and heal together. This means that 100% of our executive leadership commits to joining these empathy circles to listen, learn and be an ally.
Our people managers have to be able to engage in meaningful and at times uncomfortable conversations with the people who rely on them for leadership and support. We commit to equip them with the skills to have allyship conversations and provide the time and space needed for employees, particularly BIPOC, to grieve and heal.
We commit to publishing our Global Equity policy: highlighting our commitment to racial and socioeconomic diversity, talent hiring and representation, and a 100% non-negotiable stand against acts of racism and discrimination.
We commit to investing—both financially and with our time—in our global DEI efforts, specifically in education on racism, privilege and allyship for all our leaders and employees globally. Such education will be mandatory for all Zendesk managers, from our executive team down.
Moving money matters. We have already made donations to the Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). We are researching other organizations and working on an employee-match plan, among other steps for the future.
The selection process typically begins with the preliminary interview; next, candidates complete the application for employment.
They progress through a series of selection tests, the employment interview, and reference and background checks. The successful applicant receives a company physical examination and is employed if the results are satisfactory.
Several external and internal factors impact the selection process, and the manager must take them into account in making selection decisions.
Typically selection process consists of the following steps but it is not necessary that all these steps depending on the requirement of the organization some steps can be skipped while performing the selection process.
Zendesk believes in making other people’s lives better—both through our products and in our everyday interactions. If you’re looking for an opportunity to grow at a company that values inclusion, human connection, and great work—you should come work with us.
The future of “office life” has changed—which means now more than ever, flexibility to live life outside of your job is important. That’s why we offer competitive salaries and an excellent benefits package for full-time employees, including time off, referral bonuses, patent bonuses, and educational opportunities for career development.
We know that great work comes from our people, not a place. That’s why we’ve adapted new ways to work together—even when we’re apart. And with our home-office stipend, we cover the costs to bring the office equipment to you.
Work should have perks. That’s why we offer plenty of PTO for full-time employees. And with generous retirement and stock options, at least 16 weeks of maternity/paternity leave, disability, and life insurance, we’ve got you covered for whatever else life throws your way.
Nurture your skills or take on a new challenge—we’re happy to reimburse full-time employees who attend professional conferences or take courses to develop skills within their careers. You learn. We pay. Nice.
We’ve worked hard to build a culture where everyone belongs. Through employee resource groups, learning labs, mentorship, and more, see how we’re working to break the biases in tech to make diversity and inclusion more than just a buzzword.
We know that in order to create great work, we need to live balanced lives. That’s why we believe in keeping sane work hours and carving out time for whatever else is important to our people. We also believe in giving back. Zendesk employees volunteer regularly—both in-person and virtually—and are proud to help those in need.
The average Zendesk salary ranges from approximately $37,546 per year for a Business Development Representative (BDR) to $226,317 per year for a Director. The average Zendesk hourly pay ranges from approximately $24 per hour for a Customer Advocate to $24 per hour for a Customer Advocate.
Work should have perks. That’s why we offer plenty of PTO for full-time employees. And with generous retirement and stock options, at least 16 weeks of maternity/paternity leave, disability, and life insurance, we’ve got you covered for whatever else life throws your way.
We believe in service
Zendesk continues to strive to be an empathetic, active and responsible corporate citizen. As a company that builds software to improve customer relationships, we take a service-first approach when it comes to all our stakeholders: our customers, our employees, our partners and our communities.
Our Global Impact Report shares how we’re doing against our Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) commitments, like improving our employees’ health and well-being, addressing systemic racism and using our technology to help solve complex social challenges.
Our products make it simple for companies to be helpful to their customers. Social Impact at Zendesk has a similar goal — to make sure our company is helpful to individuals, to communities and to the planet. By harnessing our people, products, and resources, we commit to being a force for good in the places where we live and work.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Zendesk employees pivoted from in-person to virtual volunteering, responding in real time to the needs of community partners around the world and giving more than 370 hours toward COVID-19-related aid.
Globally, employees mobilized to translate essential COVID-19 news into the languages spoken in their regions. Organizing via a new #volunteer-translate Slack channel, 127 employees in London, Manila, Montpellier, San Francisco, Dublin, Krakow, and Madison translated critical information for nonprofits, healthcare facilities and homebound senior citizens. The Zendesk team in Manila even helped the Philippines Department of Health disseminate pandemic guidelines throughout the entire country.
Through giving away Zendesk products — and skilled employees to help implement them — Tech for Good allows nonprofits to maximise their helpfulness. Using our software, community organizations are better able to track volunteers and donations, release emergency response resources and give clients personalised help.
We made a series of short films about our non-profits and the work they do. These non-profits use Zendesk for good causes. We think they are pretty great.
St. Kilda Mums, a Melbourne, Australia, nonprofit that collects gently used baby gear to donate to families in need, used a $45,000 donation from the Zendesk Neighbor Foundation to build a new warehouse that tripled the nonprofit’s impact.
Previously, St. Kilda Mums placed families on a waitlist for essential childcare items given its limited office space to fit donations and volunteers. Now, St. Kilda Mums helps three times as many families — with room to spare.
In 2010, many customers threatened to leave Zendesk in response to a substantial price increase after new features were introduced. Zendesk apologized, abandoned the pricing, and promised never to change pricing on pre-existing customers for features they already have. That same year, Zendesk created its first sales team. Zendesk moved to larger offices in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco in 2011. The city and county of San Francisco provided Zendesk with a six-year payroll tax incentive to move to the area in exchange for doing community service.