ClassPass levels up 24/7 global support with Zendesk Messaging

Fitness and wellness trailblazer ClassPass makes it easier than ever to stay active and to develop healthy habits on the go. The innovative ClassPass app seamlessly connects members to the world’s best fitness classes and wellness experiences in 31 countries around the globe. From HIIT training to rock climbing, massage to virtual yoga classes, users can choose from thousands of workouts, spa, and salon options to customize a routine that fits their fitness goals and schedule.

To date, ClassPass members have booked over 248 million reservations, totaling more than 100 million hours of activity. Providing external support to B2C is a huge task. The company relies on Zendesk to deliver best-in-class service and meet users wherever they are–email, messaging (asynchronously or live), or social media.

“We use Zendesk to help our customers get support in whatever digital channel or way that is most convenient for them,” explains Sarah Vanden Broek, Director of CX Operations Strategy and AI at ClassPass.

Investing in powerful CX builds resiliency and agility

A year after launching in 2013, ClassPass adopted Zendesk’s customer service solution, beginning a long-term partnership marked by growth and collaboration.

Since then, ClassPass has trusted Zendesk to grow with its business and meet the company’s changing needs. Over the years, the team has transitioned from an a la carte usage of Zendesk solutions, to the Agent Workspace, and finally to Suite Enterprise in 2021. The investment in enterprise-level CX helped prepare ClassPass to tackle unexpected business challenges brought on by global events, creating greater confidence and agility across the company.

Migration to messaging

ClassPass, an early advocate for asynchronous communication, embraced Zendesk Messaging as soon as it became available, replacing live chat and retiring third-party tools to unify customer support on a single platform. “When Zendesk launched messaging, we were all in,” says Vanden Broek.

In just six weeks, the team launched messaging in production, using real-world feedback to fine-tune the experience. “We told our team: your job is to try to break this before customers do,” Vanden Broek explains. With Zendesk resources, ClassPass trained agents, engaged internal champions, and partnered with its BPO teams to ensure a smooth rollout across regions. Zendesk’s Premier Support professional services provided hands-on help with setup, workflow monitoring, and real-time troubleshooting.

Thanks to a seamless rollout, customers experienced no disruption–messaging launched with a familiar chat-like feel, while paving the way for future async capabilities. “Anytime there’s change, you expect some friction. But we were able to reset expectations and get creative,” adds Vanden Broek.

Now, automation and business rules help manage session closure and streamline workflows, empowering agents to deliver faster, more human support.

Proactive, expert support for CX is “a true game changer”

From 2020 onward, a top priority for ClassPass was to decrease response times by optimizing Zendesk for its specific use cases. The team had also set aggressive goals for delivering customer-centric support to members around the world. Both objectives required going beyond out-of-the-box functionality, so ClassPass turned to Zendesk experts, adding Premier Essentials in 2020 and then upgrading to Premier Support in 2022.

“Our Premier Support lead has done an incredible job of not only looking at any issues we have, but also being proactive and telling us things he notices,” Vanden Broek says. “Having a partner like that has truly changed the way we view our entire Zendesk relationship.”

The small but mighty ClassPass team was able to undertake several notable initiatives with help from a Zendesk Premier Support Engineer, which include: adding conversational channels to provide a unified experience, restoring balance in API usage, and uncovering issues across integrations. Using Zendesk’s omnichannel platform enables ClassPass to provide real-time, global customer support, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week–while meeting its response time SLA.

Since ClassPass offers multilingual support, the team sees a high volume of requests coming in and out of the language translation APIs, with Zendesk functioning as the main hub for CX data. Thanks to its centralized data management and proactive guidance from Premier Support, ClassPass was able to identify the platform putting a strain on its API call requests and troubleshoot a solution using its Zendesk ecosystem.

“Premier Support has been a true game changer for us, when issues come up that need to be fixed quickly or we need more real-time support,” adds Vanden Broek.

Innovating and optimizing with custom integrations

Zendesk’s highly flexible and customizable platform has also enabled the team to seamlessly connect homegrown and third party integrations, according to Vanden Broek. “ClassPass’s most critical integrations are custom-built so its critical CX Associates can move seamlessly within the Agent Workspace and Context Panel,” shares Vanden Broek.

Getting expert guidance on integrations from Zendesk has allowed ClassPass to innovate and optimize even faster. “The Premier Support team has been incredibly helpful thanks to their deep expertise in integrations and custom-built applications” says Vanden Broek.

By partnering with Zendesk, ClassPass not only gets personalized support for its current tech stack, but also recommendations for future configurations and integrations. That’s a great bonus considering ClassPass relies on a language translation service and a workforce management tool, along with Asana and Slack, to deliver global support.

Slower spending growth and faster ROI with Zendesk

The powerful combination of the Zendesk Suite and Premier Support has enabled ClassPass to maximize the support team’s potential and quickly realize ROI from its CX investments. Vanden Broek notes, “We’ve been able to really slow our spending growth because we don’t need to take away internal resources that could be driving revenue.”

Using Zendesk has allowed the lean CX team to improve its agility and continue working cross-functionally, without relying on engineers. Vanden Broek recalls, “We saw immediate ROI, particularly in the time saved on our roadmap and the valuable engineering resources we were able to preserve.”

Upgrading to the Zendesk Suite made it easy to adopt new support channels, from conversational messaging to internal and external help centers, and quickly customize with help from their Premier Support Engineer. The ability to scale support with fewer resources has given ClassPass a huge advantage, by allowing the company to stay resilient and save money despite ever-changing business environments.

Next up? ClassPass has identified two major opportunities on its CX roadmap. The first is deflecting tickets by giving customers the opportunity to self-serve before connecting with an agent. The second key goal for the team is implementing skills-based routing.

From optimizing its help center, to adopting a new messaging channel, as well as customizing integrations, Zendesk has played a pivotal role in ClassPass’s growth and helped future-proof the business with innovative customer service solutions.