HealthJoy doubles support capacity and cuts ticket volume by 25%

HealthJoy is transforming the healthcare benefits experience by combining an intuitive technology platform with human guidance to drive smarter, cost-saving care decisions. The company’s unique engagement model helps its member employees reduce claims costs, leading to a 21 percent decrease in healthcare spend and measurable savings for employers.

Serving over 2,000 organizations across the U.S., the Chicago-based company offers a mobile app with personalized benefit information and 24/7 concierge assistance. Users, referred to as members, can connect via chat, phone, or web, assisted by a fully human team—150 concierges focused on member services and 65 support specialists who assist HR teams, brokers, and benefit administrators.

The concierge team proactively guides members through a deeply complex healthcare system. Scaling that level of support and sustaining continued growth challenged existing processes. With Zendesk, HealthJoy streamlined operations and cut resolution time by 29 percent, from 52 to 37 minutes, even as the user base grew by 40 percent.

Too many tools, not enough cohesion

HealthJoy’s original tech stack, a fragmented system with disconnected tools across CRM, engineering, and telephony, couldn’t keep up with the demands of the growing business. The team set out to find a unified, flexible platform to centralize workflows and enable real-time collaboration.

“We needed a one-stop shop—more of a single, robust hub that could satisfy our needs now and into the future,” says Jeff Gratton, Vice President of Member Services at HealthJoy.

HealthJoy evaluated Salesforce but found Zendesk offered a more intuitive, flexible solution that was purpose-built for customer support. With other platforms lacking the same focus and ease of use, HealthJoy turned to Zendesk as a strategic partner to unify its concierge support and build a strong foundation for high-quality member experiences.

This marked a turning point—evolving the team from fragmented tools to an AI-powered support system that enabled scalable operations and omnichannel routing.

Boosting medical follow-up with Copilot

The concierge team manages over 450,000 outbound calls annually, many of which involve complex and sensitive healthcare scenarios. Previously, agents had to manually take notes and craft recaps—all while trying to stay present for the user. It was an error-prone process that slowed service down.

Copilot has made those challenges a thing of the past. HealthJoy’s agents rely on real-time AI transcription and summarization for voice conversations to stay focused and capture every detail accurately, creating consistent records accessible across teams. Copilot also drafts follow-ups automatically, reducing manual work and speeding up response times—freeing agents to focus on what matters most: supporting HealthJoy’s members.

Each agent makes 2.7 outbound calls per ticket—often made to providers, insurance or third party administrators as part of resolving a single member request. Total ticket volume has decreased by 25 percent despite rapid user growth. Even more impressively, support capacity increased from 1,800 to 3,700 members per agent—a clear win that reflects greater efficiency and valuable concierge service.

“We’ve doubled our capacity, and Zendesk has been instrumental in making it possible,” says Gratton. “Before Copilot, our concierges were trying to hold intelligent conversations while taking detailed notes. Now, everything is transcribed, summarized, and accessible across departments—a game changer that’s significantly reduced ticket handling time.”

Seamless collaboration from a single app

HealthJoy’s app guides users through complex healthcare journeys so effectively that only 7 percent of sessions require human support. When needed, 55 percent of those requests come through ticketing and 45 percent via chat or phone. Zendesk powers it all within a single app—enabling a connected support experience that meets users wherever they are.

This level of support is made possible through seamless API integrations between Zendesk and HealthJoy’s internal tools, including Salesforce, internal CRM, and Jira for engineering and implementation. By leveraging these integrations, teams can efficiently manage workflows in a single, secure environment—minimizing data movement between systems and keeping sensitive health data within a secure app environment.

“It is very rare my concierge team has to exit Zendesk to use any one of those tools singularly. They’re usually able to do everything they need to via the integrations. So it’s very functional for us,” notes Gratton.

In addition to third-party integrations, the team has built custom chat experiences directly into the HealthJoy app—giving them the flexibility to test and deploy their own AI tools within Zendesk’s ecosystem without disrupting the user experience, and ensuring a smooth handoff to a live concierge when needed.

The result is a fully integrated in-app experience that allows HealthJoy to build, test, and scale—all within a single, secure platform that centralizes communications and adds a layer of protection to every member interaction.

Enabling data-driven decisions

Before Zendesk, HealthJoy relied on external data systems to manage performance analytics but access was slow and siloed. This made it harder for managers to track key metrics and respond to trends in real time.

Today, the team uses live dashboards powered by Zendesk analytics to surface key metrics like resolution times and chat volume—giving leaders the visibility they need to manage performance proactively and make informed decisions.

“Zendesk gives us dashboards with real, accurate data. We can show very real savings or achievements for any particular member,” shares Gratton. “One time, a partner reached out during a client call and asked how many chats we have for this client. Within 30 seconds, I had the answer—all in real time.”

This level of clarity enables HealthJoy to track progress effortlessly and drive a high-performing support operation grounded in real-time, reliable data.

“I love Zendesk for giving us metrics like speed to answer, chat durations, and turnaround time. It’s made me and my team better managers as those easy-hit metrics are always ready for quarterly reviews—making our organization stronger,” adds Gratton.

Scaling with Professional Services

As HealthJoy expanded with Zendesk beyond Member Services into Finance, Clinical Coaching, and Implementation departments, navigating the technical transition became critical. The company needed guidance to build the right architecture and support broader adoption.

Zendesk’s Professional Services team worked with HealthJoy’s engineers to build a scalable chat architecture and quickly onboard new departments. By training admins and customizing setups, they transformed Zendesk into a fully integrated, enterprise-wide solution.

“We’re not just a member services department using Zendesk anymore—we’re an entire organization powered by it,” reflects Gratton. “The Professional Services team paved the way for that transformation by filling critical gaps, connecting us with the right engineers, and making sure we implemented the best solution for our needs. That was an absolute victory.”

Empowering future innovation

HealthJoy currently operates a multichannel experience through Zendesk, with in-app chat, secure messaging, and phone support—all within a single app. Their next goal is to evolve toward a truly omnichannel model, where conversations move seamlessly between channels without losing context.

By leveraging real-time performance management, routing, and dashboards, the team continues to gain efficiency and scale with confidence. “That combination of flexibility, integration, and control is exactly what makes Zendesk the most congruent product to support the needs of a mobile app or technology SaaS company—better than any other product on the market,” concludes Gratton.