On August 5, 2025, Zendesk announced a major upgrade to Relay, its bulk messaging app designed to help organisations proactively engage customers via SMS and WhatsApp. These enhancements are set to transform how customer experience (CX) teams communicate, drive engagement, and deliver support at scale.
What’s New in Relay?
- Connect Relay to Your Talk Text Phone Number: Seamlessly integrate Relay with your existing Zendesk Talk Text numbers, enabling unified communication workflows and easier management of outbound SMS campaigns.
- Saved Audiences: Build and save custom audience segments for reuse, making it simple to target the right customers with the right message, every time.
- Improved Audience Building: The new conditionality-based audience builder replaces complex search syntax, making it intuitive for CX teams to define recipient lists based on customer attributes and behaviors.
- Campaign Reporting: Gain visibility into campaign performance with delivered and opened rates, helping teams measure impact and optimize messaging strategies.
- Basic A/B Testing: Compare the performance of two campaigns to identify which messages resonate best with your audience.
- Contact-Level Delivery Status: Drill down to see delivery status for each contact, ensuring no customer is left behind.
Why These Upgrades Matter for Customer Experience Teams
Proactive messaging is a cornerstone of modern customer experience. With these upgrades, Relay empowers CX teams to:
- Drive Engagement: Reach customers on their preferred channels with timely, relevant updates, reminders, and offers.
- Reduce Support Volume: Preemptively address common questions or issues, reducing inbound ticket volume and improving satisfaction.
- Personalise Communication: Use saved audiences and improved segmentation to tailor messages to specific customer groups.
- Measure and Optimise: Leverage reporting and A/B testing to refine messaging strategies and maximise ROI.
How to Get Started with Relay
- Install Relay: Visit the Zendesk Marketplace to install Relay directly into your Zendesk instance.
- Connect Channels: For WhatsApp, ensure you have a phone number connected to the WhatsApp Business API. For SMS, add SMS as a channel through Talk Text.
- Build Audiences: Use the new audience builder to segment your customers based on relevant criteria.
- Create and Send Campaigns: Design your message, select your audience, and launch your campaign. Monitor results in real time.
- Analyse and Iterate: Use campaign reports and A/B testing to continuously improve your outreach.
Practical Use Cases for CX Teams
- Service Outage Notifications: Instantly alert affected customers about service disruptions and resolutions.
- Appointment Reminders: Reduce no-shows by sending timely reminders via SMS or WhatsApp.
- Promotional Campaigns: Announce new products, features, or special offers to targeted segments.
- Feedback Requests: Proactively solicit feedback after key interactions to drive continuous improvement.
Best Practices for Proactive Messaging
- Always obtain customer consent before sending messages.
- Keep messages concise, relevant, and actionable.
- Use segmentation to avoid spamming uninterested users.
- Monitor performance and adjust strategies based on data.
Further Resources
- Installing and using the Relay Messaging app
- Adding WhatsApp channels to the Zendesk Agent workspace
- Zendesk Community Forum
With these upgrades, Zendesk Relay is a must-have tool for any customer experience team looking to deliver proactive, personalised, and impactful communication at scale. Ready to take your CX strategy to the next level? Explore Relay today and start building stronger customer relationships!
