Case Study: Spartan Race cuts response times with Zendesk Guide

Spartan Race - Customer Case Study

Spartan Race grew from a single race in Vermont into a global lifestyle brand running events in more than 30 countries, and its support team quickly outgrew a basic ticketing system. By 2016, Customer Service Director Aja Varney was managing 15 agents and as many as 270,000 emails a year, along with regional teams around the world. Spartan Race needed a more scalable support system, and Zendesk Support stood out for its global scalability and reporting capabilities.

With Zendesk Support, Spartan Race set SLAs, added triggers, and used native reporting to manage staffing and track customer satisfaction. The team also used Zendesk Chat to shift traffic away from email, and over the last two years email volume flatlined instead of growing 10-15% annually. In the U.S. alone, Spartan Race handled 230,000 tickets in 2016, with 93% positive customer satisfaction ratings; chat response times dropped to 20 minutes or less, Shopify integration increased efficiency by 15%, and adding live chat to the online store drove a 27% increase in retail sales.

Spartan Race

Aja Varney

Director of Customer Service