Immunotec transforms CX with Premier Enterprise Support

What’s the secret to living better? According to a team of pioneering scientists, the answer is: a strong and healthy immune system.

In 1996, Doctors Gustavo Bounous and Patricia Kongshavn discovered a safe, natural, and drug-free way to effectively raise glutathione levels, which bolster the body’s defense against some of the largest threats facing human well being today.* That scientific breakthrough inspired the launch of Immunotec, and one of the first health tech startups was born.

Building on 20 years of success, the company developed the proprietary Immunotec Immune Strengthening Protocol ™(ISP) in 2017, based on a simple yet powerful philosophy. Rather than treating diseases and illnesses after the fact, Immunotec products are designed to provide the body with optimal nutrients that help promote and maintain a healthy immune response.

Today Immunotec is a multilevel organization that operates in more than a dozen countries with new markets opening each year. The company’s innovative products are distributed and sold in North, South, and Central America, as well as in Europe, through a network marketing system of consultants and in other countries under exclusive distributorship agreements.

Immunotec relies on Zendesk to ensure its global distribution network receives adequate support to handle ticket volume and maintain sales.

The evolution starts with omnichannel support

Previously, Immunotec delivered network support in a call-center fashion, where staff were responsible for answering consultant calls, listening to their concerns, and solving problems. The team handled both inbound and outbound phone conversations, with consultants ensuring that customers received help as soon as possible. Despite providing consultants with support, this model was difficult to scale while maintaining efficiencies as the business grew and expanded into new global markets.

In 2018, Immunotec’s CEO pushed for the review of cutting-edge customer service software because the company needed a better means of distribution management in order to meet new high growth targets. During this phase, Immunotec onboarded a new Director of Customer Service who had prior experience using Zendesk and championed the platform’s capabilities.

Zendesk became the obvious choice to replace Immunotec’s previous voice solution, which did not provide prioritized support, templated setups, or multiple lines of support across borders. For a multilevel company offering services in five different languages, having a user-friendly, omnichannel system was an absolute necessity.

Using VIP support to drive efficiency and self-service

As a dietary supplement, food, vitamin, personal care, and health product developer, Immunotec thrived as an immunity-boost retailer during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. To contend with the new volume, the organization focused on four key objectives: scaling customer service without increasing agent headcount, deflecting more tickets with self-service, boosting agent efficiency, and filling gaps in reporting.

Immunotec’s goals aligned perfectly with Zendesk’s Premier Enterprise support offering, which includes 24/7 prioritized support, a 99.9 percent product uptime guarantee, and one-hour response times for issues impacting business.

“Zendesk’s Premier Enterprise team is always looking for alternatives so they can provide many viable solutions when I have a problem,” says Alfredo Russ, global customer service director at Immunotec.

As Immunotec cultivated a relationship with Zendesk experts, the team came to appreciate the full range of VIP services in its Premier plan: personalized technical support, monthly health checks and proactive monitoring, developer support for APIs, an assigned technical advisor, and managed service hours.

Premier Enterprise leads a CX transformation

Since Immunotec made the switch to Zendesk, Premier Enterprise experts and the company’s assigned team members have served as a catalyst for the organization’s digital transformation. Establishing open lines of communication and transparency between Immunotec and Zendesk has led to greater collaboration, as well.

“Our Technical Account Manager took time with the team to see our processes and how we were working with the Zendesk platform. Through this shadowing, we made discoveries which led to agent process improvements and technical recommendations,” recalls Russ.

Implementing AI-powered features and time-saving workflows recommended by the Premier Enterprise team has inspired monumental efficiencies and cost savings at Immunotec, while improving the user experience.

Russ admits, “I didn’t expect the Zendesk bot builder to have a positive impact with the consultants. Then we implemented the tool and I changed my mind one hundred percent, because it’s very simple to use and the consultants now love that feature.”

Zendesk tools for creating AI agent flows have become popular at Immunotec with good reason. Since deploying the Zendesk AI agent and self-service features, the organization has successfully reduced call time by 20 percent and decreased call volume by 15 percent.

”Last year we were spending more money than we are spending now, because we’ve reduced the duration of call times and we’re pushing for more optimization with the consultants,” shares Russ.

The strategic operational management model implemented by Immunotec’s Customer Service director, aligned with the global strategy of the company, have been a great match with the additional benefits, technological improvements, and customer experience alternatives that Zendesk offers.

A few days ago, Immuotec listened to the voice of its field through global satisfaction surveys to understand the happiness of its consultants. The results were very positive. The Immunotec field responses showed appreciation and thanks for the technological evolution of its platform and recommended creating a value proposition sharing the vision of the company: “We do not want to be the biggest but the best!”

Given that motivation, Immunotec will undoubtedly continue to strive for innovation in its products, business practices, and consultant support. With Zendesk and the Premier Enterprise team as true partners, the company looks forward to continuing its transformation journey and pushing boundaries in the years to come.

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease.