Overview
Miko, an innovative leader in AI-powered robotics for children, has revolutionized the childhood learning experience with interactive robots like the Miko Mini, combining education, entertainment, and emotional engagement for kids. Founded in 2015, Miko has grown to become a key player in the robotics and STEM education space, with offices in Silicon Valley and Mumbai. The company’s AI-driven products have gained popularity, but they’ve also introduced new customer experience (CX) challenges, especially during peak periods like the holiday season. This case study explores how Miko leveraged Zendesk’s customer service solutions, particularly AI, to manage its rapid growth, improve self-service options, and scale customer support efficiently.
Challenge: Managing Seasonal Support Surge
Although Miko’s applications and programs are designed for kids, it is parents who contact customer support for assistance. These parents often need fast responses, especially when issues arise with their products. Miko’s robots are especially popular during the holiday season, leading to a significant surge in support tickets. This increase in sales during this period generates a large wave of support tickets and adds pressure to deliver great customer service, because a negative support experience for parents could lead to a negative holiday experience for their children.
Sandeep Jindal, Senior Vice President of Customer Experience at Miko, explains, “Every year, we see our growth projections increase four to five times. While we’ve made significant progress and are solving over 90% of queries via self-support, the other 10% of manual support volume will just keep multiplying year after year.” Jindal and his team were tasked with addressing this growing volume while ensuring quality customer service, particularly in resolving customer issues quickly and effectively during peak seasons.
Solution: Implementing Zendesk AI and Scaling Self-Service
Miko had previous experience with Zendesk, so when faced with the challenge of scaling its CX operations, Jindal and his team decided to transition from Salesforce Service Cloud to Zendesk to better manage the increasing demand. By adopting Zendesk Suite for customer service, Miko unified workflows across departments, improving communication and visibility between agents and teams. The company moved away from the cumbersome process of using Google Chat and email to track support tickets, which was inefficient and challenging to monitor.
Zendesk’s suite provided Miko with a more seamless approach, allowing various teams such as logistics, repairs, and product development to collaborate effectively on support tickets. This not only streamlined workflows but also helped improve Miko’s ability to capture customer feedback during the support process, which was incorporated into product development.
Results: Efficient Support Handling with AI Integration
One of Miko’s key priorities was enhancing its self-service capabilities. In past years, voice support had been the most popular channel for parents seeking help. However, the influx of holiday support tickets made this channel unsustainable. By directing more customers to Miko’s Help Center and removing inbound phone support (while still offering callback options), Miko optimized its CX processes.
Zendesk’s AI-powered solutions played a pivotal role in Miko’s success. The introduction of Zendesk AI, powered by Amazon Bedrock, allowed Miko to automate support tasks and improve response times. With Zendesk AI, Miko was able to create a custom support experience based on customer intent. “Zendesk AI exceeded my expectations and the capabilities offered were much better than what I’d seen with other products on the market,” said Jindal. This flexibility allowed Miko to implement AI solutions that best fit its needs and customer expectations.
Zendesk’s Miko Chatbot, powered by generative AI, was a key feature that enhanced the company’s self-service strategy. With the chatbot in place, Miko saw a dramatic increase in the self-service rate, from 75% to over 90%. This improvement meant that the company could handle more customer inquiries without relying heavily on human agents, especially during high-volume times like the holidays.
Impact: Major Efficiency Gains
The results of Miko’s new support system were significant. During the peak of the holiday season, without the AI-powered support structure, Miko would have faced an overwhelming 7,500 tickets daily. However, with Zendesk AI in place, the company was able to reduce this volume to just 1,250 tickets per day—a massive 83% reduction in ticket volume. This deflection not only led to smoother operations but also resulted in substantial cost savings for the company.
In addition to handling a higher volume of tickets, the use of intelligent triage and intent detection further optimized workflows. AI-powered responses allowed for more personalized replies to customers, tailoring the tone and content to match the context of the support inquiry. This flexibility in agent responses helped improve both customer satisfaction and agent efficiency.
Improving Agent Experience with AI Assistance
For Miko’s CX team, Zendesk AI didn’t just improve customer interactions—it also enhanced the agent experience. The AI-powered quality management system (Zendesk QA) helped ensure that agents provided consistent and high-quality responses. With Zendesk’s workforce management solutions, Miko could also better manage agent schedules and performance, leading to more efficient support handling.
Looking forward, Jindal expects Zendesk AI to continue evolving and enhancing Miko’s CX strategy. With AI becoming more human-like, Jindal believes that the company will be able to further streamline its support processes, improve self-service capabilities, and continue to deliver superior customer experiences.
Conclusion
Miko’s adoption of Zendesk AI and the Zendesk Suite has been a game changer for the company’s customer service operations. By transitioning from outdated systems and embracing cutting-edge AI technology, Miko has been able to scale its support efforts efficiently, manage peak demand, and provide customers with faster, more personalized responses. The successful integration of AI has not only improved self-service capabilities but also helped Miko reduce ticket volume, streamline workflows, and improve agent productivity. Moving forward, Miko plans to expand its use of Zendesk’s offerings to further enhance its customer service operations and ensure continued growth in the future.
Key Takeaways:
- Zendesk AI helped Miko scale its customer service to meet seasonal demand.
- AI-powered self-service tools and the Miko Chatbot increased the self-service rate from 75% to over 90%.
- Improved ticket triage and agent assist features enhanced customer and agent satisfaction.
- Miko reduced ticket volume by 83%, achieving major efficiency and cost savings during peak periods.