MTData transforms customer support with Zendesk, achieving 97% CSAT peak

Since 2003, MTData, a subsidiary of Telstra, has been revolutionizing businesses with its cutting-edge vehicle telematics, GPS tracking, and fleet management solutions. They help clients in industries as varied as transport and logistics; mining, oil and gas; and forestry and agriculture (among others) to immediately access key performance indicators (KPIs), know vehicle conditions to reduce maintenance, and identify and control risk factors. MTData achieves this through leading-edge IoT devices, which power many of the large trucks crisscrossing Australia. “These devices capture various data points to provide insights to our customers, such as driver behavior, fuel efficiency, safety, and compliance,” explains Norman Arena, customer operations manager at MTData. “We pride ourselves on delivering premium tailored solutions for our customers based on their unique requirements, whether it’s hardware or software.”

But for MTData, technology is just one side of the coin. “Customer experience is the other,” says Arena. “We prioritize not just professionalism, but also experience. Our team is composed of individuals who truly understand our products and can support our customers effectively.”

It’s this dedication to excellence that drove MTData to reevaluate its support system. “Before Zendesk, we used a simpler email-to-ticket automated system to log customer support tickets and respond to customers,” recalls Christopher Pryde, customer support manager at MTData. “As we grew, it became apparent that we required a more robust and customer-centric system to better document and analyze our tickets, and enhance our customer service.”

Advantages of expert efficiency

On its journey to use the full capabilities of Zendesk, MTData partnered with Zendesk Assist, a team of dedicated experts who provide tactical help and hands-on assistance with Zendesk implementations. “Working with the Zendesk Assist team has been transformative,” says Arena. With its customer service expertise and deep product knowledge, the team helped MTData deliver the differentiated experience it sought to offer its customers. “While Zendesk offers a wide range of articles and guides, we were unsure how to best perform specific tasks. Having expert assistance from Zendesk Assist to guide us was a game-changer,” says Pryde.

Thanks to this collaboration, MTData built optimized workflows and used its systems and manpower to do more work in less time. “We wanted to get the most out of Zendesk and solve issues as quickly as possible. Working with the Assist team, we built customer dashboards, generated reports, and streamlined workflows. The team also helped us find swift solutions to any business challenges encountered along the way.”

Centralizing support operations

Given the diversity of their customers’ businesses and the criticality of the services they delivered—which included fleet management for emergency services—MTData wanted to capture more details about the issues they encountered and automate workflows to focus on a more personalized experience. “We were using Zendesk Suite two years ago, but hadn’t fully optimized it,” notes Arena. “Recognizing its potential, we wanted to harness Zendesk fully and design it to best serve MTData’s unique needs.”

MTData now has 61 agents using the Zendesk suite regularly and another 38 light agents. “Zendesk gives us more autonomy over our tasks and better visibility into our tickets, such as where we can use triggers and other functionalities,” explains Pryde. MTData moved away from relying heavily on emails to centralize functions within Zendesk, integrating it with The Service Manager (TSM), JIRA, and Slack. This synergy saw departments across the board—from support, sales, and account management to finance—turning to Zendesk for their daily tasks.

Ticket handling has transformed at MTData. With the integration of systems, the support team can draw on data and use macros (pre-written answers) easily to provide faster, more accurate, and more quality answers to customers. “That leads to job sheets completed and field technicians sent out when and where they’re needed,” says Pryde.

Other departments in MTData, such as the accounts team and IT team, leverage Zendesk as well. “Our accounts team uses Zendesk to pull ticket information for invoicing purposes. Once we invoice a customer, they can close the ticket,” shares Arena. “Another shift is in how we handle IT issues: instead of sending an email or talking to the IT manager directly, we now have a dedicated email group that logs issues within Zendesk. That gives them more visibility and better ticket management,” adds Pryde.

Elevating customer interactions

Optimizing Zendesk has enhanced both MTData’s operational efficiency and customer experience. To elevate it further, MTData overhauled the customer support model. “Now, everyone’s roles are clearly defined between customer calls, tickets, and technicians. We organize tickets based on priority and how long the customer has been waiting for a response. This Zendesk model has transformed our operations. Our customer satisfaction ratings skyrocketed, peaking at 97 percent,” shares Arena.

Starting their day by logging onto Zendesk and reviewing their queue, MTData’s agents are now able to prioritize tickets and respond faster. This shift also reduced MTData’s first-time response duration from days or weeks to just 2.5 hours. “We saw a four-fold reduction in ticket backlog. Before, a significant challenge with ticket management was maintaining focus. An agent could be deeply engrossed in a task for 20 to 30 minutes, only to be interrupted by a call. Returning to complex tickets after such interruptions could be tough,” explains Pryde. “By clearly defining roles, agents on calls can now handle simpler tickets during downtimes, while those dedicated to ticket management can work systematically, prioritizing based on ticket age and importance. As a result, the number of missed calls has been reduced by 90 percent.”

On the customer side, tickets can be more efficiently managed. “We use a ‘bump, bump, solve’ automation that prompts the customer for an update when a ticket is pending. If we don’t get a response, the ticket closes automatically. This has been very beneficial for managing tickets without human intervention,” shares Pryde.

Evolving support capabilities

Looking ahead, MTData plans to continue delving into Zendesk capabilities. “We intend to provide more comprehensive reports to our customers and encourage them to use Zendesk directly, which will further enhance their experience,” notes Pryde. MTData wants to offer customers in industries such as transport, logistics, energy, waste management, construction, and emergency services the ability to track their orders or ticket status, much like they would on platforms such as Amazon or eBay. MTData also plans to enrich its customer data to not only elevate its support efficiency but also minimize manual tasks, fostering even greater agent productivity.

The company envisions a holistic integration of Zendesk across departments—be it human resources, sales, or account management. “I’m excited for a time when all departments will use Zendesk. Right now, many still rely on emails. If everyone were on the same platform, it would provide clarity on status and progress across all departments. Being able to classify and quantify issues gives us a solid footing to address them with the broader business. If we can measure a problem, it commands attention. Then we can solve it and even make sure it doesn’t repeat. That’s the experience we aim to deliver to our customers,” concludes Arena.