Case Study: Tango achieves 70% support-cost savings and 67% faster first-response times with Zendesk Support

By combining Zendesk Support and Upwork, Tango saved as much as 70% on support costs and reduced FRT by 67%

Tango, the video-messaging app founded by Eric Setton and Uri Raz, exploded to millions of users after its 2010 launch but faced a major support challenge: deliver fast, high-quality customer service on a tiny budget without the overhead of Silicon Valley salaries. Early hires burned out and crowdsourced solutions lacked quality, so Tango needed a scalable, cost-effective support model that could handle global, emotionally sensitive issues like account access and lost messages.

Tango combined Zendesk Support with Upwork freelancers to create a manager-led team that trains and specializes agents; today two in-house staff plus 10 Upwork agents handle ~1,000 tickets per day using Zendesk features like internal notes and merged tickets. The result: same-day responses, a 67% drop in first-response time, about 70% lower support costs, higher morale, and the ability to scale support across 200 countries and multiple languages.

Tango

Eric Setton

CEO