At its Relate event last month, Zendesk made its vision clear: resolution is the only outcome that matters.<\/p>\n
Indeed, facilitating resolutions has become its North Star.<\/p>\n
So, everything it does – in terms of software, data, workflows, and AI – is going to be in service of resolutions.<\/p>\n
Yet, that mission doesn’t start and end with customer resolutions; it includes employee resolutions, too.<\/p>\n
This idea preceded the announcement of the Zendesk Employee Service Suite.<\/p>\n
The announcement slipped under the radar amongst the myriad of announcements at Zendesk Relate<\/a>, but it’s significant.<\/p>\n After all, it does more than just bundle the employee-focused support tools already in Zendesk, like its Agent Copilot, Custom Objects, and Help Center.<\/p>\n Indeed, it introduces two significant new capabilities: Service Catalog and Tasks & Approvals. (More on these later!).<\/p>\n By bringing this all together, Zendesk provides a new place for service teams to receive “rapid resolutions” to their HR- and IT-related queries.<\/p>\n AI agents play a role here. Indeed, the Zendesk Employee Service Suite integrates with human capital management (HCM) and IT service management (ITSM) systems.<\/p>\n From there, the AI agents actively navigate these systems to provide answers to a wide range of employee inquiries.<\/p>\n That’s an impressive feature and one that Zendesk may strengthen over time by bringing its workforce management (WFM) technology into the fold.<\/p>\n Yet, for now, let’s take a closer look at the other two significant new capabilities teased earlier.<\/p>\n The Service Catalog allows employers to showcase a list of services internal teams offer to wider employees.<\/p>\n Take IT teams, for example. They could offer a range of services such as laptop replacements, licenses, and VPN access as services to employees.<\/p>\n As such, employees can explore available services via Zendesk, access related information, and submit requests directly through the Help Center when needed.<\/p>\n This functionality is enabled by a new Help Center interface for service creation, an updated UI for end-user browsing, and an integration with Agent Workspace using lookup fields for service requests.<\/p>\n When a live agent requests extra leave, a new device, or something similar, there’s often a multi-step approval process supervisors must follow.<\/p>\n The Tasks and Approvals feature will help define the steps that a human supervisor and\/or AI agent can follow to resolve the employee service ticket.<\/p>\n Businesses can fully automate such approvals or leave some of the steps for supervisors as part of an orchestrated workflow.<\/p>\n Live agents can make requests – giving additional context – via the new Approvals Context Panel.<\/p>\n The Help Center manages approvals through a dedicated Approval Requests tab in a user’s profile. This tab provides a clear overview of ticket details and the original agent\u2019s description.<\/p>\n Requests can be either approved or denied, with the option for the supervisor or AI agent to include a reason for the decision.<\/p>\nThe Service Catalog: An Integrated Way to Show Employee Services<\/h2>\n
The Tasks and Approvals Feature: Coming to a Workplace Near You<\/h2>\n
More Relate Highlights<\/h2>\n