Children’s toy manufacturer SmarTrike was using Salesforce to manage its customer and e-commerce support function—but a lack of cross-channel integration made life hard for their agents.
Working with Adelante to set up a custom Zendesk installation, they were able to cut ticket resolution times by almost 90%—and massively simplify agent workflows into the bargain.
We spoke with Halyna Komisarov, Customer Experience Manager for the brand, to find out more.
Halyna first heard about Adelante through an ex-manager who was acting as an advisor. Unhappy with the legacy solution in use in her department, she was looking for the right partner to help make the move to Zendesk.
“We had been using Salesforce for 2 years, and it was hard to work efficiently.” she recalls, “The overwhelming complexity of the settings, coupled with a lack of integration with our social, email, and review channels meant that everything was siloed. We weren’t working smart, and there were significant admin and management overheads.”
SmarTrike felt it was better to start from scratch with a new system that would meet the department’s specific needs. Zendesk was top of the list based on pricing, ease of use, and customer reviews, but they wanted a trusted partner to make sure the setup and implementation went smoothly, and provide on-demand support if needed.
“Doing all this on your own just isn’t realistic,” comments Halyna, “There’s so much conflicting info out there that in solving one problem, you might create another 5! Adelante makes it clear what path you should take to achieve your goal in the most efficient way.”
With Zendesk up and running, and the team fully onboarded and confident in their use of the platform, positive results were apparent almost immediately. Ticket resolution times previously measured in minutes became a matter of seconds—meaning greater customer satisfaction and fewer headaches for Halyna.
This was possible due to better integration with SmarTrike’s existing systems, from email to social media, to their Magento store—meaning that all the relevant customer data was available in one place, but using dynamic fields, staff aren’t overwhelmed when updating the system. The automated system prompts help to guide agents, and ensure that no critical data is missed out—a feature that also helped to streamline onboarding.
“For us, one of the standout advantages of working with Adelante was the speed in which we could get up to competence,” she remembers. “There’s more to learn for sure—but so far, I’ve spent maybe an hour or two a day for two weeks learning the ropes, and I’m already confident trying new things independently.
Halyna values the close working relationship she has with her Adelante account manager—but also enjoys the freedom to experiment and test new ideas and features herself. While she and the team found the introductory calls and video guides extremely helpful in getting started, it’s the responsive email support that has proved most helpful to her.
“It suits my working style—I’m able to play around with the system and try out new ways of working, without worrying that everything might break. And when I do need support, it’s there on demand, but without being intrusive.”
And it’s not just the “how-to” that has helped the team at SmarTrike level up—it’s the industry knowledge and proactive advice they regularly receive from their named contact at Adelante. As Halyna puts it, “They keep you up-to-date with new developments, new ways of doing things, new industry best practices.”
“Any manager who wants to improve their KPIs should be looking at Adelante.”
For Halyna, choosing Adelante has proven to be an excellent decision. “It’s a pleasure to work with such a professional brand and customer-oriented team,” she says, “If you know what you want in terms of results, functionality, or efficiency gains—Adelante can get you there. When I first saw the improvement stats they claimed on their website, I was naturally cautious, but they really do follow through!”
