Case Study: The Smith Family boosts donor conversions and support efficiency with Zendesk Messaging

The Smith Family + Zendesk Side-by-side innovation with impact

The Smith Family is a long-standing Australian education charity that supports disadvantaged children. Faced with rapidly rising supporter contact volumes (emails grew from ~18,000 in 2017 to over 54,000 in 2021 and 6,000+ monthly tickets) and the need to stay continuously available during COVID-19, the organization needed to scale service, improve reporting, and reduce repetitive admin work without a large increase in staff.

By adopting Zendesk (Support, Chat, Talk, Guide, Explore and Agent Workspace), The Smith Family automated workflows, centralized channels, simplified eForms with live chat, and used empathy mapping to refine journeys. The result: a 3× jump in online donation conversion (10% to 30% in 2020), +26.5% ticket-handling efficiency since 2019, sustained 91% donor retention, doubled contact capacity with only a 28% headcount increase, lower cost per contact, and higher supporter and staff satisfaction.

The Smith Family

Dylan Rose

National Manager, Customer Experience (CX) and Supporter Operations