Siddarth Shah, Director, India, Zendesk, on the Overlooked Engine of Business Success.
Ask any business leader in India’s digital economy about their priorities, and initiatives that directly impact customers almost always dominate the list. Delivering what the customer wants, faster and better, commands investment and attention. But there is a quieter engine behind this visible drive for customer excellence: employee service (ES).
This gap is underscored by recent data. A global Zendesk study with over 800 IT and HR leaders found that 71% believe the service they receive as customers actually surpasses what they receive as employees. This signals a persistent imbalance in how organisations allocate resources and innovation–focusing on the customer while overlooking the internal service infrastructure that enables employees to deliver on those very customer promises.
The case for change
It is well established that engaged employees deliver better results. Gallup reports that organisations with engaged teams achieve higher earnings per share, greater profitability, improved productivity, and stronger customer loyalty compared to those with lower engagement. Yet, what’s often overlooked is the foundational role modern employee service plays in driving that engagement.
When employees feel unsupported, it reflects in the quality of customer interactions and ultimately in business outcomes. A 2024 UKG Workforce Institute study found that 78% of employees in India experience some form of burnout, a clear sign of stress and disengagement. Gallup’s global research reiterates this sentiment, revealing that in 2024, employee disengagement cost the world economy US$438 billion in lost productivity.
AI-powered employee service
Recent advances in artificial intelligence and automation have redefined expectations around employee service. Leading organisations in India and around the world are moving beyond traditional help desk ticketing, adopting AI-driven platforms to transform internal support from a bottleneck into a business accelerator.
AI-powered employee service today goes well beyond automating routine tasks. Modern platforms deliver intelligent, always-on support across IT, HR, and operations, enabling employees to resolve issues the moment they arise–whether via email, chat, Slack, or Teams. Generative AI search capabilities surface the right answers instantly, learning from every interaction to continually improve guidance and recommendations. Requests are routed efficiently across departments, approvals and handoffs are coordinated automatically, and friction is minimised wherever possible.
The impact is clear. Tesco, a British multinational retailer, boosted its employee self-service rate from 30% to 73% by streamlining access to support and making answers easy to find. As a result, employee positive sentiment rose to 83%, highlighting that timely, accessible support directly shapes a better experience.
A similar approach has yielded impressive results at LATAM Airlines, a leading airline in Latin America. To serve a workforce of 30,000, LATAM Airlines built a robust help centre containing over 3,000 knowledge base articles in multiple languages. This comprehensive resource, combined with the rollout of AI agents, has enabled the organisation’s AI agents to achieve 80% accuracy in responses and deliver 90% employee satisfaction. By empowering staff to easily find answers and automating the resolution of routine HR requests, LATAM Airlines has driven greater productivity, improved service quality, and fostered a culture of efficiency across the company.
Furthermore, AI-driven analytics are now providing Indian business leaders with greater visibility into how employee service functions across the enterprise–spotting patterns, highlighting bottlenecks, and enabling proactive improvements before minor issues grow into major pain points.
Where to start
For any organisation looking to sharpen its competitive edge, reimagining employee service must be seen as a strategic priority, not just an operational upgrade. The first step is to understand where friction currently exists–whether it is a slow resolution of IT issues, fragmented HR support, or employees unable to access answers when and where they need them. Measuring and benchmarking the employee experience of internal service delivery is essential to reveal gaps and set ambitious targets for improvement.
Embracing AI-enabled, integrated platforms can help businesses evolve beyond piecemeal fixes. When evaluating such solutions, industry leaders are recognising the importance of platforms that are truly easy to implement and scale. Instead of investing in complex AI tools that require extensive configuration or specialised expertise, modern best practice favours solutions that deliver value from day one, ready out of the box and accessible to HR, IT, and business teams alike. This agility leads to a faster time to value and reduces total cost of ownership, empowering organisations to see measurable impact without the burden of heavy development work.
Flexibility is equally vital. Modern platforms must allow swift integration with existing systems and the adaptability to keep pace with the evolving workplace–without incurring significant costs or requiring large teams to maintain. By automating workflows, enabling user-friendly self-service, and surfacing actionable insights, these platforms can transform internal operations and free up support teams to focus on strategic initiatives.
Crucially, employee service should be explicitly connected to core business objectives, including workforce management and engagement, employee retention, and ultimately, customer satisfaction.
Building for sustainable growth
Prioritising both employee service and experience creates a self-reinforcing cycle of engagement, performance, and growth. Only by elevating the employee service agenda and treating it as a pillar of business performance can organisations fully realise its impact–creating the conditions for people to thrive, innovate, and deliver for customers at scale.