Zendesk Workforce Management (WFM)
– efficient personnel deployment planning
Workforce management rethought
Companies today are under great pressure to deliver outstanding customer service, yet 66% of service managers struggle to manage their team effectively and 61% lack the tools they need for strategic workforce planning*.
This is where Zendesk Workforce Management (WFM) (formerly Tymeshift) comes in: An AI-powered solution that
- Automates shift planning,
- makes productivity measurable in real time and
- ensures optimal resource utilization.
Find out why optimized workforce management is crucial and what measurable added value Zendesk WFM offers your customer support.
* All information from Zendesk.
Zendesk WFM: Real added value for your team
Sophisticated workforce management is the key to moving from a reactive “firefighting” approach to support to a proactive, strategic operating model. Optimized workforce scheduling means always deploying the right number of agents at the right time for the relevant tasks and in the appropriate channels.
- Increased service quality and customer satisfaction: waiting times are reduced, queries are resolved more quickly
- Manage teams with data support: Get out of the blind flight – with the right tools, from AI forecasts to live dashboards
- Optimized resources: avoid staff shortages or surpluses
Cost control: increase efficiency and reduce costs at the same time
In short, modern WFM has become a key success factor for customer service and employee retention.
Challenges
Without a high-quality WFM tool, many companies struggle with inefficient planning, high costs and low productivity in support:
Non-transparent planning
- Personnel planning is often based on gut feeling rather than reliable forecasts.
- Overstaffing/understaffing leads to long waiting times during peak periods and idle times during quieter periods.
High manual effort
- Planning is carried out using Excel lists or individual solutions, often without a central overview.
- Time-consuming processes tie up managers and increase the risk of planning errors.
Rising costs & overtime
- A lack of flexibility and imprecise planning increase support costs.
- Overtime is piling up, while at the same time potential remains unused - putting a strain on the budget and the team.
Lack of real-time insights
- The team's activities and workload are only visible with a time delay, if at all.
- Managers are unable to take countermeasures in good time - this is particularly problematic in the event of growth or peak loads.
These challenges show: An integrated workforce management solution is essential for all companies that cannot afford or do not want inefficiency in support. How can these pain points be specifically addressed with Zendesk WFM?
Advantages & core functions
Zendesk WFM, like Zendesk Quality Assurance (QA), is part of Zendesk’s WEM initiative, Workforce Engagement Management. Zendesk WFM has evolved from Tymeshift and was developed to solve those very problems – enabling support teams to work both more efficiently and smarter.
AI-supported forecasting & planning
Well-founded workforce planning starts with an accurate forecast of the workload. Zendesk WFM uses AI to analyze historical Zendesk data to determine future demand – on a daily, weekly or campaign basis. This means you know exactly how many agents you need, when, where and with which skills.
Typical application scenarios:
- Daily and seasonal fluctuations
- Short-term ticket peaks
- Product launches or marketing campaigns
The result: you avoid overstaffing and understaffing, reduce operating costs and no longer make personnel decisions based on assumptions, but on data.
Real-time tracking & performance monitoring
Zendesk WFM makes your team’s activities and performance visible at all times. Managers can see live what individual agents are working on and how busy they are – including all relevant KPIs:
- Average processing time
- Attendance rate
- Break adherence and much more.
This live data helps to counteract bottlenecks quickly and shows potential for coaching or redistribution. This turns gut feeling management into a transparent, controllable process – and productivity increases measurably, by up to 18%*.
Automatic shift planning & optimization
Zendesk WFM automatically creates complete, optimized shift plans – based on the forecast workload and taking your operational requirements into account. The plans include, for example:
- Breaks and training times
- Allocation to channels
- Fair distribution of workload
With just one click, you receive a ready-made, customizable plan. Changes – for example due to downtime – can be flexibly taken into account without any planning chaos. The result: significantly less effort and planning errors, satisfied employees who can rely on clearer and fairer planning, and more time for strategic tasks.
How companies benefit from Employee Service
Save costs & time
An operational and financial gain: With Zendesk WFM you can achieve noticeable savings in effort and costs. Company reports* from:
80 %
less overtime costs
70 %
less planning effort
18 %
increase in productivity
7 %
less total costs
Success stories
Tembici - Support times drastically reduced
- 80% faster resolution time for customer inquiries
- Support operating costs reduced by 30%
“Implementing Zendesk WFM strategically reduced operational costs and maximized efficiency. By measuring performance accurately, we optimized resource allocation and aligned our team with company needs, resulting in a 30% reduction in customer service costs and an 80% improvement in average resolution time.”
Sendle: More efficient planning and better response times
- +450 % faster first response time
- 2x faster complete solution time
- Planning of duty rosters reduced from 3 hours to 30 minutes
“I went from spending 3 hours on schedule to 30 minutes with Zendesk WFM.”
Workrise: Rationalization of work processes minimizes manual work
- 10-fold business growth
- 98 % better First Call Resolution
- Significantly more stable processes & more efficient shift planning
“We’re going to continue to chase technology and integrate AI into our customer support program. As long as Zendesk continues to be an innovator, we will continue to choose Zendesk.”
Simple implementation & Zendesk integration
Zendesk WFM is a native part of the Zendesk Suite – originally developed as Tymeshift exclusively for Zendesk. The solution integrates fully into your existing environment, with no breaks in processes or data flows.
- Your support data from Zendesk flows directly into workforce scheduling, without separate interfaces or manual data transfers.
- Agents and managers work in the familiar Zendesk interface and WFM is fully integrated.
- Real-time dashboards and reports provide an overview of key figures, utilization and performance in Zendesk.
No switching back and forth between different systems; planning, monitoring and analysis are centralized in one place. Existing Zendesk customers can activate the module quickly and use it directly. Leafworks and Zendesk will support you with suitable implementation and consulting services.
* Based on internal documents and benchmarks from the Zendesk Partner Program.
We are here to help!
Efficient shift planning is more than just good organization – it is a real lever for better service quality, satisfied teams and measurable cost benefits. With Zendesk WFM, you not only automate shift planning, but also gain real-time transparency and a reliable basis for your personnel decisions.
Leafworks helps you to use workforce management strategically – in line with your organization, your tools and your support model. From needs analysis to going live, we are at your side.
Can you already see the benefits of Zendesk WFM right in front of you? Can’t you? Then take the opportunity to take part in a personal demo!
Maik Isernhinke
Zendesk expert
- Zendesk Workforce-Management
- Zendesk Quality Assurance
- Zendesk Employee Service
- Integrations (CRM, ERP)
- Automations
- Digital Transformation
- Custom MVPs
Some of Our Customers
We serve a variety of customers (300+) in the customer service environment.
Our customers include startups with 3 agents to large organizations operating in 30 countries with 999+ employees.
‘Thanks to Leafworks, we had a CSM ready for use in a short space of time. Even after the launch, Leafworks supported us quickly and easily, both with ad hoc solutions and best-practice recommendations. The speed and simplicity of the support, the knowledge of our setup and the creative solutions are impressive.’
“With the help of Leafworks, we managed to complete a mammoth project without a negative impact on users and customers. On the contrary – we were able to standardize customer satisfaction across the entire Staffbase group at a high level and can now offer efficient multi-product support.”
“The cooperation with Leafworks was very pleasant and professional. The transition to a new support system was a big step for us. Leafworks understood our needs very well, communicated opportunities and obstacles clearly, and provided us with excellent advice during the transformation process.”
“The collaboration with Zendesk and Leafworks was characterized by utmost professionalism and reliability from start to finish! […] We were able to start 2 months after the go-live decision and had hardly any teething problems, which is amazing for such a big project.”
Other Customers
Leafworks Blog
Get more from Zendesk: 4 new features to activate now
Zendesk can do more – these 4 features could change the way you work When we talk to new customers about their Zendesk use for the first time, it often turns out that, on the one hand, the existing configuration could be significantly improved with a good review, but on
AI in customer service: automation, chatbots and the future of support
“Will my team soon be replaced by AI?”“Is AI really worth it for our customer service?”“Aren’t chatbots just frustrating?”“What are the legal requirements for using AI in customer service?” If you’re asking these questions, you’re not alone. AI is the hottest topic in customer service – and also one of
EU AI Act: New rules for AI in customer service
EU AI Act: What does the new AI legislation mean for customer service? With the EU AI Act, the European Union has adopted the world’s first comprehensive regulation for artificial intelligence (AI). But what does this mean for companies that use AI in customer service? Do existing systems need to
