Zendesk lands funds to provide help desk nirvana

Zendesk, maker of software that streamlines customer service operations while integrating it with Web 2.0 tools like Twitter and RSS, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding to recruit more clients and open a new headquarters in Boston.

Companies of all sizes, ranging from Fortune 500s to small startups, can use the system to collect and respond efficiently to help tickets filed by users, Zendesk says. Any request submitted to the system generates a ticket, which will have its open or closed status clearly demarcated. After a ticket is received, the system will determine whether to send a canned response — if and when a solution in provided, it will be recorded in a database for future reference. All of this information will be stored in the cloud, to be accessed by authorized personnel from anywhere.

All of these capabilities save companies the time and resources needed to set up their own customized help desk operations — a potentially pricey endeavor. It also cuts down on the amount of staff needed to run responsive customer service. Zendesk offers its software in six different packages — dependent on the number of customer service agents — ranging from $19 to $475 a month.

The company allows its client companies to brand their customer service interfaces with their logos and color schemes. This flexibility is no doubt important to some of its major users, including Twitter, MSNBC.com and cloud company Rackspace. It currently serves about 1,000 clients around the world.

The recent round of funding, Zendesk’s first, was provided by Charles River Ventures.