eoStar optimizes Zendesk for the ultimate CX solution

Did you ever stop to think about the logistics in getting your favorite adult beverage from the brewery to the bodega? eoStar has made a business of it.

Founded in 1986, eoStar provides accounting and warehouse management software for the beverage distribution industry, serving hundreds of distributors and suppliers across the U.S. Its innovative inventory tracking and forecasting systems help keep the business of beverage logistics moving.

In 2022, eoStar was acquired by Vermont Information Processing (VIP), one of the leading distribution, sales, and warehouse technology suppliers in the beverage industry. Today, eoStar is a strategic partner with MolsonCoors and the preferred technology and solution for Coca-Cola North America, North Star.

Post-acquisition clarity for CX

Before the acquisition, eoStar’s Michigan-based support team—about 20 in-house agents—handled requests from across nearly every part of the business.

“We were talking to all kinds of different people,” says Chris VanRandwyk, Director of Customer Support at eoStar. “Reps out in the trade, people in the back office, the warehouse—they were all calling us for support.”

At the time, eoStar relied on a mix of tools and was even mid-implementation of Salesforce, a platform that VanRandwyk found overly complex.

“It was overwhelming,” he explains.

When VIP acquired eoStar, the company brought the Michigan team into its existing Zendesk instance, unifying platforms across support functions. The migration was fast and straightforward—VanRandwyk imported legacy tickets himself—and the benefits were immediate. Rolling out Zendesk Voice took less than an hour.

“We got a number, redirected our existing phone line—and it just worked,” he says.

Finding and fixing bottlenecks with data

Before Zendesk, eoStar’s time-tracking process depended on agents manually entering start and stop times for customer inquiries, resulting in inconsistent and unreliable data.

“You had to push a start and stop button,” VanRandwyk recalls. “It wasn’t really accurate, and we couldn’t see what other people were doing.”

Now, with Zendesk’s Workforce Management (WFM), the management team can see exactly how agents spend their time inside Zendesk.

“We weren’t getting that visibility at all before,” says VanRandwyk. “Now, we can see exactly where our time goes.”

The data revealed surprising insights: agents were spending nearly 40 percent of their time in Azure DevOps tracking bug reports, and about 30 percent of their time in meetings.

“I was like—what are we doing?” VanRandwyk says. “With WFM, you discover things that you didn’t realize were happening.”

Using Zendesk’s triggers and APIs, VanRandwyk built a connection between Zendesk and Azure DevOps. Now, when a support ticket becomes a development issue, a linked DevOps ticket is automatically created. Customers receive real-time updates as their bugs progress through the pipeline.

“It has saved tens—and even hundreds—of hours over time,” says VanRandwyk. “Now, our customers just go to the Zendesk portal and see the status of their development items. Nobody has to chase down information.”

The platform has also helped eoStar track AI adoption.

“On my team, I have five or six reps who are actively using AI,” VanRandwyk explains. “And WFM has given us visibility into exactly how much we’re benefiting from adopting AI.”

Integrating and automating for speed

Password resets are a familiar headache for many CX pros.

“We manage all customer logins,” VanRandwyk explains. “And guiding customers through resetting their password is our most common—and time-consuming—request.”

Password resets originally took up valuable time because agents had to perform each step manually across multiple systems. And even though the process could be automated, VanRandwyk had relied on Power Automate to manage the password reset process—which slowed everything down and made troubleshooting difficult.

When VanRandwyk began exploring automation inside Zendesk, the password-reset workflow was a prime target. With integrated, AI-powered workflows provided by Zendesk Action Builder, he was able to automate the password reset process himself. And when he added Zendesk’s AI Copilot tool into the action flow, he reduced password requests by 99 percent.

“With Action Builder, our team was able to take this process down from ten minutes to five seconds,” VanRandwyk says. “And with Copilot, it’s amazing. It asks if you want to reset a customer’s password, you say ‘yes,’ and there—it’s done!”

Unified, easy-to-use CX—all in one place

For VanRandwyk, Zendesk’s greatest advantage isn’t just its individual products—it’s how easily they work together. What once required multiple logins and custom scripts now happens inside one intuitive platform.

“With Zendesk, everything just fits,” he says. “Our agents don’t have to bounce between tools anymore—it’s all in one place.”

The team’s rollout of Zendesk Voice exemplifies that simplicity. Within an hour, eoStar redirected its existing phone line into Zendesk, immediately giving agents a single view of voice and digital tickets.

“We love Zendesk Voice,” says VanRandwyk. “Our team had been asking for something built into their CX solution for years, so it was a huge win.”

Every missed call automatically creates a ticket, ensuring 100 percent of customer inquiries are captured and tracked. Meanwhile, Zendesk Knowledge powers a unified help center where customers can find answers and agents can draw from the same trusted source.

“Before, knowledge lived everywhere,” VanRandwyk explains. “Now, customers are in the help center, submitting tickets, and getting article suggestions right away.”

When combined with WFM and Action Builder, Zendesk forms a complete feedback loop—WFM reveals where time is lost, Knowledge equips agents with the right information, and Action Builder automates fixes in minutes, not days.

“Zendesk is a heck of a lot easier to use than our previous system,” VanRandwyk says. “Hands down.”

Building strong AI foundations for the future

By combining Zendesk Copilot’s intelligence, Action Builder’s automation, and WFM’s visibility, eoStar created a cycle where every resolved issue improves the next interaction. Looking ahead, VanRandwyk is looking to ramp up AI adoption within eoStar, and across VIP’s other brands.

The team’s success with Action Builder and Copilot served as a proof of concept for future workflows, where VanRandwyk hopes to automate 95 percent of VIP’s password reset requests with additional integrations and automations.

“We don’t need a dozen AIs,” says VanRandwyk. “We need one that works where our agents work. Zendesk’s AI Copilot plus Action Builder gets us there—and Azure DevOps triggers will take it the rest of the way.”