Challenge
In 2016, Zendesk decided it was time to seek a new LMS vendor. Initially, they considered moving to a newer version of their previous platform, but felt it lacked an appealing interface and didn’t offer a great admin experience overall. Also, they were experiencing issues with integrating some of their internal systems, such as their payment processor, MerchantE.
The people behind Skilljar are fantastic – very collaborative, engaged, and invested in the growth and success of Zendesk’s Customer Education program. – Emily Bastian, Program Manager, Customer Training, Zendesk
Solution
Zendesk Training offers 70 on-demand, role-based courses and learning paths for Zendesk Agents, Admins, Developers, Sales Reps, and CX Analysts. They also have a robust certification program with five exams available to Zendesk Admins and one for Zendesk Developers.
Zendesk chose Skilljar as its new LMS vendor because the company was proving its leadership in the market, had a modern look and feel, and was able to easily integrate with other tools they were already using.
In addition to free courses across levels of experience and products, Zendesk offers customized training tailored to their customers’ use cases through private training course options. Learners can purchase private training sessions through the Zendesk Training site or their team of Zendesk Trainers, or opt in for one of their live training events (“Zendesk Training Days”), which bring together groups of customers to learn from each other.
Skilljar stands out because it’s a dynamic platform, very user friendly and tailored very well to fit our particular use cases as a Saas company. – Emily Bastian, Program Manager, Customer Training, Zendesk
Advice to LMS Seekers or Switchers
Emily Bastian joined Zendesk in February 2021 as the Online Program Manager for Customer Training. She oversees their online learner experience including all of the content hosted on their training platform, powered by the Skilljar LMS. She works alongside a team to provide Zendesk Admins, Agents, and Developers an optimal learning experience at all stages of their journey.
Here is her advice to learning professionals who are looking for or want to switch to another LMS vendor:
- Examine your entire Customer Education program goals and create a prioritized list of LMS “must haves” that tie back to your goals.
- Consider other key internal systems you use and how the LMS will integrate with those systems and processes.
- Think about where you want your program to be in 2-5 years and whether or not your LMS can grow with you.
The Skilljar team was very collaborative throughout the process of switching platforms and helped us achieve all of our implementation goals.– Emily Bastian, Program Manager, Customer Training, Zendesk
Results
In its first six months, Zendesk’s Customer Education team has launched eight new foundational learning paths, two new courses for Zendesk Developers, and is in the process of launching a brand new certification exam for Zendesk Agents. They have also localized 20 of their on-demand courses to reach customers around the world in five languages: Spanish, French, German, Japanese, and Portuguese.
Skilljar helped Zendesk realize the following gains in 2021 versus 2020:
- 40.4k Active Students (↑58% vs. 2020)
- 146k Course Registrations (↑69% vs. 2020)
- 75.5k Course Completions (↑68% vs. 2020)
- 68.6k Total Session Hours (↑30% vs. 2020)
Zendesk offers six certifications as part of the Zendesk Training experience. Skilljar enables their platform to integrate seamlessly with Examity for proctoring, Caveon for testing, and Credly for badging so users can start and finish their exam experience within one place, through one user profile. Since implementing Skilljar they have granted more than 850 certifications and issued 743 badges in their certification program.
The Skilljar team was instrumental in helping us set up the entire certification experience, from the system integrations to data migration – they helped us keep the project on track and navigate anything that came up. – Emily Bastian, Program Manager, Customer Training, Zendesk