Overview
EMU Australia is a premium footwear brand renowned for handcrafted sheepskin boots, slippers and accessories. Born in Australia and loved globally, the brand serves customers across Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and North America, all from a single Zendesk instance shared by three distinct regional teams.
Each regional team operates independently, with its own customers, languages, time zones, and market expectations. Making one Zendesk instance work seamlessly for all three without conflict or manual workarounds demanded a complete operational rebuild.
At a glance
79%
Faster EU First Reply
+70%
Trustpilot rating lift
30
days delivery
The Challenge
EMU Australia was running a single Zendesk instance to support three very different markets. Over time, the configuration had drifted: views were cluttered, macros were not organised by region, triggers were misaligned, and the messaging experience wasn’t built to deflect the high-volume, repeat queries the team faced every day.
The result was predictable. Agents spent too much time on manual triage. Tickets bounced between regions. First reply and resolution times stretched well beyond customer expectations, and the brand’s public reputation began to reflect it. With Q4 peak season approaching and North America carrying the heaviest load, EMU needed a partner who could rebuild the foundations and prepare every team to scale with confidence.
Key pain points
- Inconsistent configuration across views, macros, and triggers, with no clear regional ownership.
- Manual triage and routing are consuming agent capacity that should have been spent resolving tickets.
- Slow response times in EU and AU chat; EU-first replies averaged nearly a full business day.
- Limited self-serve deflection in messaging, pushing avoidable volume into the agent queue.
- A 2.7 Trustpilot rating reflecting customer frustration and putting brand equity at risk heading into peak.
“We knew something wasn’t right with our setup, but we couldn’t pinpoint exactly where the issues were. Gravity CX diagnosed and fixed everything quickly, including problems we didn’t even know about.”
— Alex Stepins, Customer Experience · EMU Australia
Our Approach
Gravity CX began with a structured discovery across all three regions; mapping the existing instance, observing how each team actually worked, and isolating where the configuration was creating friction rather than removing it. Rather than layering fixes on top of a broken foundation, we proposed a complete rebuild of EMU’s Zendesk environment, designed to serve three teams from a single instance without compromise.
We worked side-by-side with EMU’s CX leadership to align on regional workflows, prioritise quick wins, and stage the rollout so live support was never interrupted. The engagement was scoped as Optimisation, followed by ongoing help, giving EMU not just a clean rebuild, but a long-term operating partner.
Principles we worked to
- One instance, three teams. Region-aware structure for AU/NZ, EU, and NA.
- Automation before headcount. Routing, triage, and self-serve deflection do the heavy lifting so agents focus on resolution.
- Peak-season ready. Every change was pressure-tested against Q4 volume so EMU could enter peak with confidence.
- Built to monitor. Visibility baked in from day one, so issues surface early, not after customers complain.
The Solution
Gravity CX rebuilt EMU Australia’s Zendesk environment in 30 days, a fully optimised single instance that now serves all three regional teams without friction.
What we delivered
- Full views, macros, and triggers rebuild — reorganised end-to-end for AU/NZ, EU, and NA, with timezone-, language-, and customer-type awareness baked in. Tickets now route automatically to the correct regional team.
- 30-day delivery — the full operational rebuild across three markets was shipped in 30 days, with zero disruption to live support.
- Zendesk Copilot deployment — AI-assisted suggested replies live across all three teams, reducing time-to-reply and lifting agent productivity.
- Messaging and self-serve enhancement — a rebuilt bot-first experience that guides customers to answers before reaching a live agent, lifting deflection.
- Monitoring view — an operational lens that catches anomalies early so the team can act before they show up in CSAT.
- Peak-season readiness — a stable, scalable foundation heading into Q4, EMU’s highest-pressure period.
Results & Impact
The impact was measurable across every region. First-reply and resolution times dropped sharply, deflection improved, and EMU’s public reputation followed. Trustpilot rating climbed from 2.7 to 4.6 across 700+ verified reviews.
| METRIC | BEFORE | AFTER | CHANGE |
|---|---|---|---|
| First reply time — EU chat | 22.8 hrs | 4.7 hrs | ↓ 79% |
| First reply time — AU chat | 12.6 hrs | 4.3 hrs | ↓ 66% |
| First resolution — EU | 31.4 hrs | 16.0 hrs | ↓ 49% |
| First resolution — AU | 22.7 hrs | 15.3 hrs | ↓ 33% |
| First resolution — NA | 32.8 hrs | 27.4 hrs | ↓ 17% |
| Trustpilot rating | 2.7 / 5 | 4.6 / 5 | ↑ 70% |
| EU ticket volume (Q4) | 3,131 | 2,974 | ↓ 5% |
| NA ticket volume (Q4) | 2,979 | 3,900 | ↑ 31% |
What changed for EMU Australia
- Three market teams, one clean Zendesk instance. AU/NZ, EU, and NA now operate independently inside a single, well-structured environment.
- Faster first contact across every region. Europe saw the biggest chat improvement, from nearly a full day to under 5 hours.
- Trustpilot transformed. A 4.6 average across 700+ verified reviews, up from 2.7 at the start of the year.
- AI Copilot live. Agents now resolve common queries faster and more consistently with AI-assisted suggestions.
- Deflection improved. The rebuilt messaging experience means more customers self-serve before reaching an agent.
- Peak handled with headroom. NA absorbed a 31% increase in Q4 ticket volume while resolution times still improved.
In Their Words
“We knew something wasn’t right with our setup, but we couldn’t pinpoint exactly where the issues were. Gravity CX diagnosed and fixed everything quickly, including problems we didn’t even know about. The monitoring view they set up means we’ll catch anything like this much earlier next time.”
— Alex Stepins, Customer Experience · EMU Australia
Why It Matters
EMU Australia’s story is a clear example of what changes when Zendesk is treated as a strategic operating system rather than a ticketing tool. By rebuilding the foundations rather than just patching the symptoms, Gravity CX gave EMU a platform that scales across three markets, absorbs peak-season pressure, and lifts the customer experience in ways every team can feel.
More than a project, this engagement reflects how Gravity CX partners with CX leaders: diagnosing what others miss, delivering quickly, and staying in the operating seat through Zendesk-as-a-Service so the gains compound over time.
