As a leading global small business platform with over 4.2 million subscribers across 180 countries, Xero is committed to offering fast, accurate, and personalised customer support. To manage this scale, Xero needed more than just cutting-edge technology — it required seamless integration across its customer experience (CX) teams.
Boosting CX with Slack and Service Cloud
In 2024, Xero continued to streamline its CX operations by integrating Slack with Salesforce Service Cloud. This integration transformed the internal ‘swarming’ process, in which CX teams collaborate to resolve complex customer queries in real time.
“Before the integration, resolving issues required manual coordination and we also had limited visibility into where our teams encountered challenges,” said Megan Harrigan, Head of Global CX Projects & Readiness at Xero. “Now, with Slack and Service Cloud, we can quickly bring together the right people — with the right skills — into dedicated channels, allowing us to solve complex customer problems faster.”
Xero has seen significant improvements following the integration:
- 38% reduction in swarm wait times (that’s how long specialists wait for help from senior team members), speeding up customer query resolution, and improving satisfaction.
- A 1% decrease in the swarm-to-close ratio (the number of swarms opened compared to the number of closed CX cases), resulting in 476 fewer swarms being raised and allowing teams to address issues before they escalate.
“A survey across the team showed an uplift in productivity, with over 80% of our team reporting the integration as a positive change,” said Harrigan.
Streamlining communication for Xero’s global CX teams
Xero’s CX teams span multiple time zones and Slack is an essential tool for communication. However, the high volume of messages and updates sometimes created an overload of messages. Slack AI helped alleviate this by summarising key messages, channels and thread updates, enabling employees to quickly get up to speed and focus on high-priority tasks.
“Slack AI has been a major asset for us,” said Harrigan. “As a global company with CX teams across multiple timezones, the amount of notifications sometimes felt overwhelming. Slack AI summarises critical updates, allowing teams to hit the ground running when they log on.”
With Slack AI, Xero’s global CX teams maintain their collaborative culture while cutting through the noise, and staying focused on what matters most.
Slack AI has been a major asset for us. As a global company with CX teams across multiple timezones, Slack AI summarises critical updates.
Agents and the next wave of CX transformation
Xero is looking ahead to the potential of agentic productivity. “We’re excited about how this new technology could automate manual tasks so our teams can focus on complex queries and customer relationships,” Harrigan said. “By freeing our specialists from repetitive tasks, we’re enabling them to focus on what really matters: helping customers get the most out of Xero.”
“As we continue to invest in these technologies, we know they will help us operate more efficiently and create experiences that delight both our customers and employees,” Harrigan added. “We’re excited to see how agents will continue to help us improve productivity and customer satisfaction.”
We’re excited about how agents will help automate manual tasks, freeing up our teams to focus on complex customer queries and more meaningful interactions, so they can deliver the best possible experience for our customers.
