Sleep innovation brand Simba uses Geckoboard to turn invisible support issues into immediate action, while keeping their distributed team engaged through healthy competition.

Graham Paddon is Head of Customer Experience at Simba, the company on a mission to solve the world's sleep crisis. Leading a team of 65-75 staff across the UK and Canada, Graham oversees all customer support operations for a company that sells mattresses, pillows, and duvets - but really focuses on everything around sleep.

With seven direct reports managing everything from review responses to frontline customer service, Graham needed a way to keep his remote team aligned and responsive to customer needs.

The challenge: Hidden problems mean slower response times

Before implementing Geckoboard, Simba faced a common but critical problem - they couldn't see issues as they happened.

"The problem we were having is customers queuing on a particular line, and there was no awareness or visibility."

For a customer support team, this lack of visibility meant problems could escalate before anyone noticed. Customers were waiting longer than necessary, and the team had no way to jump on issues quickly.

The solution: Real-time dashboards that work out of the box

Graham needed something that would surface problems immediately and integrate seamlessly with their existing Zendesk setup.

"We needed alerts and notifications quickly so we could jump on that problem and catch the customer where they needed us via live chat or telephone call."

Geckoboard proved to be exactly what they were looking for. "Geckoboard is easy, user friendly and works out of the box with Zendesk."

This was crucial because Zendesk's own reporting wasn't cutting it. "Explore's not real-time, it's from a moment of time. It isn't intuitive or easy to use, it's quite complicated."

Making data work for a remote team

With staff working remotely across the UK and Canada, Simba needed creative ways to keep dashboards visible. They've integrated Geckoboard directly into Zendesk, giving agents instant access.

"We've embedded Geckoboard into Zendesk so they can look at it anytime. Some have it as a second monitor so they can keep an eye on it in their workspace."

The dashboards track essential metrics such as number of customers waiting, ticket status, and other key indicators that highlight team performance.

Motivating the team through healthy competition and recognition

One of the biggest wins for Simba has been how Geckoboard transforms team motivation. Graham uses leaderboards to drive performance while creating opportunities for recognition.

"We have leaderboards where we monitor work rate productivity from the team. A bit of healthy competition works wonders, but equally, it's really nice for the team leads and the management team to pick people out and celebrate them."

The impact on team morale is clear: It gives leadership a chance to say "I can see you are absolutely on fire today", and celebrate that moment. "Sharing individual performance across the department is extremely motivational."

This creates gamification alongside motivational metrics that keep everyone engaged, even when working remotely across different time zones.

Getting actionable insights for better decision-making

Geckoboard also gives Graham and his management team the visibility they need to make smart decisions throughout the day. The dashboards help them see the biggest problem or the biggest opportunity, and reorganize the team accordingly.

Graham uses the dashboards in daily stand-ups to set priorities:

"At nine every morning, myself and the management team look at queue position, who we've got in, how many agents, where they're placed, and where the focus needs to be."

This gives the management team actionable insights every day.

Why Zendesk and Geckoboard are the perfect partnership for real-time support

For Graham, the combination of Zendesk and Geckoboard has become essential because each tool does what it does best - while covering the other's gaps.

Zendesk handles all the heavy lifting of customer service management, but lacks the ability to share real-time dashboards that suit Simba's needs.

Geckoboard fills that gap perfectly.

"Zendesk and Geckoboard go together perfectly. Like tea and a biscuit."

The integration means Simba gets robust customer service functionality with the real-time visibility they need to act fast.

"Geckoboard have done a great job supporting us over the years, so I have no interest at looking elsewhere."

The result

Graham's advice for other customer support leaders is straightforward:

"I'm absolutely advocate of Geckoboard. I think it's a necessity to have a wallboard that is quick and easy to use with the breadth of connections that Geckoboard has."

At Simba, real-time visibility has transformed customer support from reactive to proactive - helping them catch problems before customers even notice them.

Motivate your customer support team with your own real-time Zendesk dashboards with Geckoboard. Sign up for a 14-day free trial.