UNDERSTAND THE DATA

Context and Methodology

Zendesk Benchmark research

Zendesk Benchmark helps companies compare their customer service performance against their competitors. To better understand how startups leverage support, we analyzed key metrics around timing, tools, and results for 4,414 startups that use Zendesk Support from January 1, 2014 to March 14, 2020.

We filtered the data to only include startups that:

  • Have used Zendesk for more than six months
  • Have had a lifetime ticket volume of greater than or equal to 60 tickets
  • Signed up for Zendesk on or after 2014
  • Were founded by 1995 or later
  • Have raised funding

To be categorized as “fast-growing,” startups needed to satisfy the following two rules:

  • Agent seats have doubled in the first two years
  • Average time between two publicly disclosed funding rounds needed to be less than or equal to 18 months, based on data accessed via the Datafox API

More about the Datafox data

Fast vs. slower growth startups

Above: the breakdown of analyzed fast vs. slower-growing startups

based on company size

Startups by industry

Above: the breakdown of analized startups by industry segment

Startup buyer behavior survey

To better understand how startups currently use customer service or what they consider in making their buying decisions, we surveyed 625 founders and decision makers in May 2020. Over 60 percent of respondents were at the founder or executive level and over 85 percent were director or above.

The survey was administered in the United States and Europe (France, Germany, and the United Kingdom).

Survey responses by role

Above: count of survey responses by role

Survey responses by region

Above: percentage of survey responses by region

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