Back to Press Releases London June 15, 2023

Freshworks Inc. (NASDAQ: FRSH) announced Crocus, a major gardening retailer in the UK, has cut its average first response time for customers by 91% since the company adopted Freshdesk™ to handle an influx of customer requests during the pandemic. 

The closure of garden centres left Crocus’ customer support team facing a surge in demand for its services - receiving between 3,000 to 6,000 queries per month. However, the software platform they were using was unable to handle the sudden increase in requests, leaving the customer service team overworked and overwhelmed. Looking for a quick fix, the team sought support from other departments to manage the surge, prompting Crocus to explore new options for a more efficient and effective long-term solution.

Crocus selected Freshdesk to bring all contact management in-house, whilst also measuring customer satisfaction efficiently. Freshworks’ new, streamlined knowledge base format has improved efficiency by organising responses and solutions in accessible folders. The knowledge base now includes both customer-facing and internal solutions, eliminating the need for agents to refer to external resources. Through Freshdesk Analytics, the team now receives an email at the end of every workday summarising the day's achievements and highlighting successes, ensuring immediate visibility into the team's performance. 

Since Crocus is able to maintain its customer data within Freshdesk, the team can easily manage customers' inquiries across channels and direct them to the most appropriate communication channel without losing vital information. This resulted in a dramatic reduction in first response time from 24 hours to two hours through automation, an 85% CSAT score, zero spam tickets, and a 30% reduction in support costs.

"Freshdesk provided increased functionality, such as using web forms for contact and improved reporting,” said Ben Ford, Customer Service Development Manager at Crocus. “One achievement we're proud of is reducing our resolution and first response time. Previously, our first response time averaged up to 24 hours, but with the help of Freshworks’ features, such as auto ticket assignment and priority keywords, we've brought it down to just two hours.”

On top of its more traditional retail offering, Crocus' Mind, Body & Soil subscription service delivers customers monthly plants and seasonal goods. With the Chargebee-Freshdesk integration app from Freshworks Marketplace,Crocus can now access customer account details including contact details, subscription status, and specific products subscribed to, all on one screen, eliminating the need to switch between pages.

Crocus also uses other apps from Freshworks Marketplace, including Instagrammer Direct, to support customers who contact via Instagram and Hide/Disable ticket fields that help make agents’ view cleaner, by hiding and/or disabling selected ticket fields for specified agents.

“Crocus is a great example of a business being proactive in the face of challenging and unforeseen circumstances,” said Simon Johnson, Freshworks’ VP of Sales for the UK and Ireland. "Freshworks prides itself on providing low-cost software that delivers high value, and Freshdesk has enabled the Crocus team to cater to increased customer demands. It’s brilliant to see a business not only survive a difficult period, but emerge even stronger.”

About Crocus

Crocus aims to be 'the friendly neighbour across the fence,' providing superior customer service and sharing their extensive gardening expertise with customers. The company has also established a strong presence at events, most notably the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show, where they won numerous gold medals.

About Freshworks

Freshworks Inc., (NASDAQ: FRSH) makes business software people love to use. Purpose-built for IT, customer support, and sales and marketing teams, our products empower the people who power business. Freshworks is fast to onboard, priced affordably, built to delight, yet powerful enough to deliver critical business outcomes. Headquartered in San Mateo, California, Freshworks operates around the world to serve more than 63,000 customers including Allbirds, Blue Nile, Bridgestone, Databricks, Klarna, NHS, OfficeMax, and PhonePe. For the freshest company news visit www.freshworks.com and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

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