How Pendo put Zelta to work: Lessons in AI and customer feedback

Zelta customers, like KOVRR, were using AI-powered customer intelligence to save hours each week and boost their NPS scores. But all good things take a plan, and Pendo’s own team needed to figure out how we could start using the power of Zelta to achieve these same results. 

Compiling data from platforms like Zendesk, Salesforce, and Gong, Zelta (now part of Pendo Listen) helps product people cut through the noise of feedback and get you right to insights. This way, you can skip manual analysis, spend your time on the most important roadmap items, and unlock a deeper understanding of your customers. That is, if you implement and adopt it correctly. 

Luckily, our own rollout of Zelta worked wonders, so you can copy+paste this framework at your own company.

How we implemented Zelta at Pendo

At Pendo, we wanted to become power users of Zelta, using its technology to make a greater impact with our own customer intelligence program. Here’s what we did, what we learned, and how it’s already making a difference. 

1. Assemble the right team 

Involving the right people—and creating a culture of collaboration—is essential to success. To spearhead Zelta’s adoption, we first formed a cross-functional “tiger team” with key stakeholders from Customer Experience (CX), Product, and Program Management. This group was our first internal “customer,” charged with driving value from Zelta’s insights and ensuring the tool delivered impact across teams.

2. Align on business outcomes

Clearly the goals you want to achieve, and align your efforts accordingly. To focus our efforts, we defined two business outcomes: Deflect support tickets by addressing recurring customer issues earlier, and identify churn risks by surfacing signals from customer interactions. 

3. Enable data access

We realized we needed a critical integration to our feedback-rich Zendesk data. By partnering with IT and Security, we integrated Zendesk into Zelta, unlocking the data we needed to get started.

4. Prioritize quick wins

Quick wins build momentum and keep stakeholders engaged with projects, and this is no different. When Zelta surfaced 248 mentions of customer frustration tied to a single issue within Zendesk tickets, we worked with the PM responsible for that product area to prioritize. 

5. Build sustainable processes

Create sustainable processes that keep insights flowing and action-oriented. To keep Zelta at the center of Pendo’s own workflows, we established ongoing routines that include: 

• A 5-minute review of insights during weekly CX-Product meetings
• Quarterly prioritization sessions to align around trends and high impact opportunities
• Monthly “quick win” reviews to fast-track smaller fixes

The results: A 360-degree view of the customer 

Throughout this process, Zelta’s qualitative insights have become an integral part of how our CX and Product teams collaborate.

We also finally got a comprehensive view of how our customers felt about us and our product, bringing together scattered sources into one platform. Before Zelta, qualitative data was scattered across Zendesk tickets, Salesforce opportunities, Gong calls, and countless other tools. 

Now, we use AI to sort and prioritize them, making it easy for our teams to act on what matters most. This means being more proactive in resolving customer pain points, more strategic in prioritizing features, and more aligned across teams. 

What’s next?

We’re just beginning to see what Zelta can do. With a strong foundation in place, we’re excited to refine our processes, uncover deeper insights, and deliver even more value to our customers. Zelta’s advanced AI capabilities are becoming part of Pendo Listen, making it even easier to transform customer feedback into meaningful action.

For teams looking to make sense of customer feedback, the message is clear: tools like Zelta are more than just innovative—they’re transformative. Put them to work.

Ready to jump into the world of customer intelligence? Take a self-guided tour of Pendo Listen, or talk to an expert to hear about what’s coming soon.