Automated Quality Assurance with Zendesk QA
Zendesk QA automatically scores eligible support conversations and flags interactions for your reviewers. Your team can identify recurring issues and use specific conversation examples to prepare coaching.
Reported results*:
- 20% shorter handling times
- 70% less time spent on QA
- Automatic analysis of eligible support conversations
*All data from Zendesk
Why quality assurance matters
Manual reviews provide detailed feedback on individual conversations. According to Zendesk, 76% of surveyed organizations agree that conversation reviews help improve customer satisfaction. At high ticket volumes, review teams face practical limits:
- Teams manually review an average of 2–5% of conversations
- Reviewers need shared criteria and regular calibration
- Recurring issues can remain outside the sample
AutoQA can extend review coverage and highlight conversations for a closer look.
Review more conversations with Zendesk QA
Zendesk QA supports quality reviews across email, chat, phone and supported AI bots. AutoQA scores eligible, imported conversations once tickets are solved or closed. Coverage depends on your channel setup and active scoring categories. Zendesk QA helps your team
- find conversations with escalation requests and signs of churn risk
- uncover recurring issues and weak points
- prepare coaching with specific conversation examples
Your reviewers interpret the scores and decide which findings to address.
Customer satisfaction and QA effort
Figures reported by Zendesk*:
+10%
customer satisfaction
-20%
processing time
-70%
time spent on QA analyses
Zendesk QA is built directly into Zendesk. Once configured, AutoQA scores eligible conversations automatically after tickets are solved or closed and synced with QA. No manual exports are needed.
*All data from Zendesk
| Feature | Manual QA | Zendesk QA |
|---|---|---|
| Coverage | 2–5% of conversations on average | Up to 100% of eligible, imported conversations |
| Analysis pace | Minutes per ticket | Seconds per ticket |
| Evaluation | Reviewers apply a shared scorecard | Automatic scores for active criteria |
| Scalability | More reviews require reviewer time | Scores eligible conversations automatically |
| Resources | Reviewer time for each assessment | $35 per user/month, billed annually; $0.01/minute for pre-recorded call transcription |
Core features of Zendesk QA*
AutoQA scoring
Automatically scores eligible conversations against active quality criteria. The category scores show recurring issues and training needs.
Spotlight filter
Flags conversations with escalation requests, signs of churn risk or selected phrases for closer review.
Voice QA
Transcribes recorded calls and evaluates supported criteria, such as greeting, comprehension and the solution offered.
AI Agent QA
Reviews supported AI agent conversations. Your team can use the results to update bot responses and workflows.
Your reviewers use the automatic scores and flagged conversations to select cases for manual assessment.
What your QA reviews can reveal
According to Zendesk, support teams manually review an average of just 2–5% of their conversations. With AutoQA, you can automatically score up to 100% of eligible, imported conversations. This extends quality assurance far beyond sampling and gives you more opportunities for targeted coaching. Actual coverage depends on your setup and scoring criteria.
Escalation requests
- Reported detection accuracy*: more than 90%. Spotlight flags conversations containing escalation requests so reviewers can assess the case and identify coaching needs.
Churn signals
- Spotlight highlights signs of churn risk, such as cancellation requests or mentions of switching provider. Reported detection figure*: up to 42% of potential churn risks.
Response quality
- For eligible conversations, active categories assess configured aspects of response quality, such as clarity and tone. This supports better communication habits and helps agents improve continuously.
Resolution times
- Use QA reports alongside resolution-time data to investigate recurring delays and choose cases for review.
Service standards
- Eligible conversations can be reviewed against configured compliance criteria. Human reviewers check the findings and assess any potential deviations.
Use category scores and reviewed conversations to set coaching priorities and track changes over time.
Success stories: QA in practice
Reported examples from QA practice:
- An e-commerce retailer increased customer satisfaction by 12% and reduced handling times by 20%.
- A technology support team cut QA time by 70%, freeing resources for coaching and agent development.
Source: Zendesk customer stories
Industry-specific QA insights
Teams can configure QA criteria around the service standards they need to review. The examples below show possible review priorities by industry:
E-Commerce
Challenges
High volumes, short response times
Review focus
Review answers about orders, delivery and returns
Financial services
Challenges
Regulatory requirements
Review focus
Review adherence to configured service standards
Software & IT
Challenges
Complex technical questions
Review focus
Review how clearly the problem and solution are explained
Healthcare
Challenges
Data protection & empathy
Review focus
Review empathy, clarity and handling of sensitive information
Travel & Hospitality
Challenges
Personalization & speed
Review focus
Review booking changes, cancellations and follow-up
Results at Kahoot! with Zendesk QA:
- 150% more ticket reviews, from 200 to 500
- CSAT increased by more than 5 percentage points year over year
Quality reviews and workforce planning
Zendesk QA helps you identify recurring quality issues and plan coaching. Zendesk WFM helps you forecast demand and schedule staff. The Workforce Engagement Bundle combines both products.
Setting up Zendesk QA with Leafworks
Leafworks supports your team from reviewing your QA process to configuring scorecards and training reviewers:
Analysis of current processes
Definition of QA rules
Setup in Zendesk
Monitoring & optimization
- Review current QA processes: We assess your review coverage, criteria and workflow with your team.
- Define QA criteria: We agree which service standards and conversation topics your reviews should cover.
- Configure Zendesk QA: Your Leafworks team sets up the connection, scorecards and relevant channel settings.
- Training and monitoring: Your reviewers learn to interpret scores, assess conversations and give feedback. Leafworks supports ongoing calibration and training.
* All data from Zendesk
Discuss your QA setup with Leafworks
Book a QA consultation with Leafworks to assess how the module fits your support team. We discuss your ticket volume, channels and current review process, then identify useful quality criteria and the next setup steps. As a Zendesk Premier Partner, we support configuration and reviewer training.
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
FAQ Zendesk Quality Assurance
Zendesk QA is a paid add-on that is already integrated into Zendesk and can be used without additional software.
Yes, the criteria are flexibly customizable and can be defined according to your specific requirements.
No, Zendesk QA supplements manual quality assurance. It significantly reduces manual effort and allows you to concentrate on the most important cases.
Zendesk QA is integrated into Zendesk. Setup time depends on your channels, scorecards and review workflows. Leafworks helps you plan configuration and reviewer training.
Zendesk QA supports email, chat, phone and supported AI bots. Phone reviews require imported recordings and enabled transcription. Bots must be enabled for reviews. The conversations and criteria that can be evaluated automatically depend on your setup. See Zendesk’s documentation for details on Voice QA and AI Agent QA.
By automatically identifying recurring problems and potential for improvement, companies can work on targeted solutions that reduce the number of repeated inquiries in the long term.
