deltastring weekly

Zendesk news and incisive views

This week

I'm trying to get these newsletters out on Thursdays. But with the bank holiday and half term and deadlines on every project it has ended up being Friday now I'm sat down and typing this. So, happy Friday all! Got weekend plans?

We've been talking a lot about how we find the right level when it comes to building in public. I've added a Deltastring Live page (see below) and we want to find more ways to talk about the little utilities we build for ourselves. The energy storage which reduces the cost and carbon used powering our offices. Intelligent scheduling connected to our calendars and Jira so we don't have to do a bunch of extra planning if a client needs to rearrange some meetings.

I think a lot about how to simplify my life and work. Owning your business does make the boundary a bit fuzzy. Sometimes you need to pave the desire path, spot where there's the urge to cut the corner and optimise in that way. Other times you need to plant a metaphorical hedge so you stay on the designed route. The trick is knowing which situation demands which solution!

From Deltastring

PAGELive

We couldn't get so much done without automating the boring stuff. This week I started building out this Deltastring Live page with stats showing what's going on. See what you think!

PAGEThe Racing Line

You might have noticed I've been a little quiet on the blog posts, videos, linkedin lately. It's not because I don't have a lot to say. It's because I've been writing this book!

What caught our attention

Zendesk forced a customer from 2016 to pay 4× more, they rebuilt it in 48 hours

1 source · general · 2026-05-28

A decade of Zendesk loyalty undone in hours. As a Zendesk-first business here at Deltastring it's worrying to see the vendor self-harm.

Why 74% of AI customer service chatbots are pulled offline after launch

2 sources · general · 2026-05-26

A useful counter-stat for any boardroom currently being sold on "AI-first support." Pulled offline doesn't mean abandoned forever. We get booked regularly for these reimplementation type projects.

Transurban to run more of its customer service out of Amazon Connect

1 source · general · 2026-05-27

Australian toll-roads operator continues its move onto AWS for contact-centre routing. Interesting detail here for those assessing which CX workloads are straightforward to lift first.

Zendesk’s CCaaS story keeps getting stronger

2 sources · industry · 2026-05-27

Zendesk is an increasingly viable option for voice-first support. People used to bolt on a separate CCaaS because it wasn't up to scratch. At enterprise scale most still want a dedicated routing platform. If you're already in the Zendesk ecosystem and you will need to add voice channels, Zendesk does the job.

What we shipped

Beacon

Zendesk configuration management

Live statistics panel now displays key metrics, accessible directly from the browser with CORS support.
Push confirmations use redirect-based result pages to show promotion outcomes clearly, with optimistic UI feedback whilst processing.
Deletion safeguards prevent accidental removal of critical objects like ticket forms, custom statuses, and shared dependencies by checking live usage counts.
Import validation now scans for duplicates in the target system and cross-references dependencies within single workbooks before promoting changes.

Deltastring AI

AI-native support platform

Deltastring can read your website to understand your product and processes, no longer requiring a local repository clone
Users receive clear feedback to issues with provided learning material, rather than silent failures
The product handles more feed formats, including Jekyll-style feeds and flexible entry structures

CX News

CX platform news, aggregated and analysed

Extended live status for individual platforms – check the health of stories, articles, and other services separately via new status endpoints
Maintenance windows now display clearly – maintenance alerts appear distinct from operational issues in the status panel
Support platform integrations – status updates now pull from Zendesk, Salesforce, Intercom, Bolddesk, and Freshdesk

Worth your time

GrowthDot's new Zendesk webinar series Andriana at GrowthDot is one of my favourite voices in the Zendesk space right now, and I won't be missing this first webinar.

The Jony Ive team designed a Ferrari Even the advertising looks like a straight rip from Jony's old gig at Apple.

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What happened in Zendesk this week

Platform changes, security updates, and honest opinions from someone who builds on Zendesk every day. One email, Fridays.

“This is the only newsletter I want in my inbox, a beacon in a world of spam”
— Erica Clayton, Partner Relations, Forethought.ai (now Zendesk)
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