Talkdesk vs Zendesk

2022. Zendesk is acquired for $10.2B



Zendesk made a significant decision in February when it rejected a $17 billion acquisition offer, confident in its higher valuation. However, the circumstances have changed, and today the company has been acquired by a consortium of private equity firms for $10.2 billion, considerably lower than the initial proposal. The evolving landscape of the SaaS market in recent months has placed Zendesk amidst a whirlwind of investor drama. In a recent development, the company opted to remain independent, causing a sharp decline in its stock price.


2021. Zendesk acquires AI automation startup Cleverly to advance customer service



Zendesk has recently revealed its acquisition of Cleverly, an early-stage artificial intelligence startup. Cleverly offers an advanced product platform equipped with various AI-powered features. This includes a triage function that automatically assigns relevant tags to incoming service requests, facilitating efficient workflow categorization. Moreover, Cleverly provides AI-powered human augmentation through its agent assist capability, which assists customer service agents in delivering accurate responses to inquiries. Cleverly's technology seamlessly integrates with Zendesk and Salesforce, enabling enhanced customer support experiences for businesses leveraging these platforms.


2021. Talkdesk raises $230M for smart contact centers



Talkdesk, a leading provider of cloud-based contact center software, has recently announced securing $230 million in new Series D funding. Talkdesk leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance customer service for midmarket and enterprise businesses. With a customer base of over 1,800 companies, including IBM, Acxiom, Trivago, and Fujitsu, Talkdesk has established itself as a trusted solution in the industry. This year, the company introduced several new features, such as Talkdesk Workspace, a customizable interface for contact center teams, and Talkdesk Builder, a comprehensive set of tools for customization across workspaces, routing, reporting, and integrations. Additionally, Talkdesk launched specialized contact center tools tailored specifically for financial services and healthcare organizations. Notably, the company also introduced what it refers to as the "industry's first human-in-the-loop tool for contact centers," further facilitating the adoption of artificial intelligence solutions in the industry while ensuring a human touch in customer interactions.


2020. Zendesk’s latest tools designed to give fuller view of the customer



Two years ago, Zendesk, a well-known provider of help desk software, expanded into CRM with its acquisition of Base. Shortly after, the company introduced the Sunshine platform, enabling customers to develop applications on top of the Zendesk platform. Since then, Zendesk has been actively integrating the CRM tool into its platform, and today's announcement focuses on offering Zendesk users a more comprehensive understanding of their customers. With access to extensive data from customer interactions with the help desk, Zendesk can provide valuable insights into customer preferences and behaviors.


2018. Zendesk launched customer service app builder



Zendesk has introduced Zendesk Sunshine, a new platform designed for developing customer-centric applications utilizing Zendesk's toolset. This platform enables companies to create custom apps, primarily focused on customer experience and relationship management, which are hosted on AWS and have access to a wide range of AWS services. All applications built on the Sunshine platform rely on it for seamless information sharing. The primary goal of this approach is to empower Zendesk customers to leverage the data they collect within Zendesk as a natural outcome of their workflow. While initially targeted towards Zendesk customers, independent developers may also have the opportunity to work on the platform in the future. Zendesk Sunshine aims to enhance customer service capabilities by providing a flexible and scalable platform for building tailored applications and harnessing valuable data within the Zendesk ecosystem.


2018. Talkdesk nabs $100M for its smart call centers



Talkdesk, the provider of cloud-based contact center software, has secured $100 million in new funding, leading to a valuation of over $1 billion for the company. Employing artificial intelligence and machine learning, Talkdesk focuses on enhancing customer service and primarily caters to mid-market and enterprise businesses. Notable customers include IBM, Dropbox, Stitch Fix, and Farfetch. With Talkdesk, companies serving a large customer base can ensure that each customer can engage with the company through their preferred communication channel. When a customer contacts the customer service team, agents can access information about the customer's previous purchases, preferences, and past complaints, enabling personalized and efficient assistance.


2018. Zendesk launched enterprise content management platform



Zendesk has introduced Guide Enterprise, a new enterprise content management product specifically designed for large customer service organizations. This solution aims to provide these organizations with a knowledge base and a content management platform for effective editorial planning and review. The primary goal is to empower customer service representatives to document solutions to encountered problems, thus building a robust knowledge base as an integral part of their daily workflow. By accessing their colleagues' notes, representatives can avoid reinventing the wheel and contribute to the permanent knowledge base through editorial review. This way, when customers visit the website or app, they can access solutions to common issues without immediate human assistance. The platform also incorporates reminders to regularly review and update the content, ensuring the knowledge base remains up-to-date while eliminating outdated information.


2016. Zendesk expands beyond the help desk



Zendesk, a customer service app, has introduced a new product called Zendesk Explore, which offers comprehensive analytics for measuring and understanding the entire customer experience. With Zendesk Explore, you gain immediate access to valuable customer analytics, enabling a deeper understanding of both your customers and your business. This tool consolidates data from various sources, including Zendesk's range of tools and third-party systems such as Salesforce for customer data, Shopify for buying history, and Google Analytics for web analytics. By aggregating this information into a centralized location, Zendesk Explore provides a holistic view of the customer, surpassing the limitations of fragmented data trapped within application silos. This empowers users in any role to gain a more comprehensive understanding of their customers.


2016. Zendesk introduced Zendesk Message



The prominent customer support software, Zendesk, has introduced a new feature called "Message." This messaging product enables businesses to actively engage with customers on their preferred messaging platforms. Initially, Zendesk Message integrates with Facebook Messenger. With a user-friendly interface and a focus on messaging, Zendesk Message streamlines the process of handling customer interactions. Recognizing that messaging conversations often occur in brief bursts, we have designed the system to enable agents to swiftly transition from one conversation to another while maintaining the ease of assigning, taking ownership of, and resolving conversations. Additionally, agents will find it effortless to refer to significant events within lengthy conversation streams using features such as the timeline.


2015. Zendesk acquired Business Intelligence service BIME Analytics



Customer support giant Zendesk has completed the acquisition of BIME Analytics for a total of $45 million. BIME Analytics, a business intelligence startup, employs a software-as-a-service approach to transform data from diverse sources into valuable trends and insights. The startup offers a wide range of data connectors, including Bigquery, CSV, Excel, Intercom, Google Analytics, Salesforce, and more, enabling the aggregation of data from multiple sources. BIME Analytics supports a vast array of data points for business intelligence purposes, empowering users to generate interactive dashboards, advanced visualizations, and exploit the outcomes through SQL queries. Notably, the entire process is swift and distributed, eliminating the need for server management for these data manipulations.