Learn how Rovio provides seamless in-game customer service with the Zendesk mobile SDK

The allure of slinging angry but cute birds at egg-stealing pigs has proven irresistible. The original Angry Birds game, created by the Finnish company Rovio, has gained billions of fans and is one of the most downloaded games of all time.

It’s simple, universal appeal has branched into a franchise of spin-off games and a full-length feature film. The birds have even come to life in 3D in the form of parade floats and plush toys.

Angry Birds is successful not just because the game features a flock of birds with personality. People love the game because it’s easy to learn, has an appealing visual design, and provides immediate satisfaction. These are the same qualities Rovio strives to provide in the customer service experience it offers across its 19 current game titles.

To help achieve its goal of delivering excellent customer service, the company has turned to Zendesk. Ric Thorneycroft, who became Rovio’s customer support manager in 2013, said, “It was very clear that we had the right tool in Zendesk to provide a great ticketing system for our fans, to make it easy for them to be in touch with us and to ensure we could reply in a timely manner.”

Thorneycroft is especially pleased with Zendesk’s mobile SDK, which enables players to report issues without leaving the game environment. “It doesn’t make sense to have to put down a mobile device, go to a computer and then go to help center to report an issue,” he explained. “If players don’t have a way to contact us because a computer isn’t handy, they may feel helpless and possibly may feel averse to reporting an issue that we would want to help solve. We wanted to be in a position where someone can contact us the moment there’s an issue. The Zendesk mobile SDK provides an ideal way to do that. It allows players a simple way to report even the most minor issues and in doing so, gives us the opportunity to hit an even higher level of quality”

For their players, the in-game support is seamless. “We wanted to give the game teams a tool where they could have control over exactly how much customization they wished, so that they could make in-game support look as much like the game as possible, to make it part of what the game is,” Thorneycroft said

Since implementing in-game support, Rovio has seen an uptick in support requests and from Thorneycroft’s perspective, this is a good thing. The volume increase underscores the number of customer conversations the team was potentially missing out on. The team can now realize the potential to build relationships and provide more effective support to those players who need it.

Thorneycroft added that as many as 85 percent of players who contact Rovio about its Nibblers game contact them through the mobile SDK. “This validates what we thought—that players want to have this kind of service,” he said. Happily, most of these contacts are easily addressed, aided by the use of the Support SDK, which pulls in relevant content from Rovio’s help center. Despite the volume increase, the number of tickets the team is able to resolve in one touch is up to 90 percent. Their use of the Support SDK has been so successful, in fact, that going forward all new Rovio games will be utilizing the Support SDK.

Thorneycroft is also relying on some support of his own as he continues to implement Rovio’s use of Zendesk products. He has partnered with both Zendesk’s product management team and the Customer Success Program to continue to improve players’ customer service experience.

“Zendesk has been there every step of the way in helping us with our integrations and providing solutions that make sure we move forward,” Thorneycroft said. “They’ve also shown us some fascinating insights into what we haven’t done yet, to improve the service we provide to our players. Zendesk are fantastic in the help they’ve given us.”