Case Study: Republic Wireless achieves 90% improvement in time to first contact with Zendesk

Republic Wireless saw a 90% improvement in time to first contact

Republic Wireless, a Raleigh-based mobile carrier that launched in 2011 with WiFi-first, low-cost smartphones, grew quickly by appealing to both millennials and first-time smartphone users. That broad customer base created a wide range of technical inquiries and a rising ticket backlog, and their previous system treated each interaction as isolated—leading to lost tickets, long resolution times and poor visibility into ongoing conversations.

In March 2013 Republic implemented Zendesk Support, integrating it with Salesforce, Insights, TymeShift and custom APIs, and using triggers and automations to prioritize and route up to 600–1,000 daily tickets. The change delivered a 90% improvement in time to first contact (response time dropped from ~35–40 hours to 1–2 hours), lifted CSAT from the mid-60s to around 90%, reduced backlog, and empowered agents to manage queues and make customer-focused decisions.

Republic Wireless

Sean Rivers

Director of Operations Technology