Zendesk open for acquisitions in India to add tech capabilities

The company expects an uptick in chat business in India

US-based customer service solutions firm Zendesk is open for acquisitions in various countries, including India, as part of its global strategy to add technology to its existing capabilities. The company, which expects chat services to be the way of customer interactions in the near future, has been working with Facebook on it's Messenger for Business offering, said Zendesk Head in India, K T Prasad.

"We will be open to look at those companies who complement our platform and gives business value to the customers. What incremental value we can give to the customer through the acquisition is important. We have got all our eyes and ears open in the market," said Prasad.

Recognising India as a maturing startup land, he said, Zendesk is considering the acquisition in the country among other countries. 

Zendesk's earlier acquisition in Singapore helped it to strengthen its operations in Chat Messaging. Another acquisition in France helped it to develop a product, Explore, which gives insight on customer's first response, customer satisfaction and the customer's most frequent channel of interaction, among others.

The company, which launched its operations in India almost six months ago, said that it see a huge uptick in chat business in India and according to a study, a majority of customers prefer to chat while communicating with businesses. This would also improve businesses' capabilities to address with customers six to eight times more.

Facebook messenger service is actually on beta and is only for restricted customers... its called early access programme for 30 customers including from India. With smart phone adoption in India increasing, the company expects to see a lot more users joining Facebook. It is currently working on Zendesk Message, a new messaging product that helps businesses engage customers on their favourite messaging platforms, to build it as a strong platform for businesses and the availability of the service is expected to be announced during this year.

Prasad said that while launching operations in India in September 2016, there were around 1,700 customers for Zendesk and since then, it had been growing at a very rapid pace. With a dedicated office in India, he said the company's growth would be higher in the country. The company is currently operating with sales and marketing teams in India, but India has more potential in terms of product development talent and the founders of the company has recognised it, said Prasad.