Founded in Cambridge, England, RealVNC offers remote access and support software trusted by IT and security teams across technology, manufacturing, finance, healthcare, and education.

RealVNC built its reputation on white-glove service for its largest accounts, but the same lean support team was on the hook for every self-serve account, too. One queue, one team, every ticket. 

As the customer base grew, the backlog became a permanent state: hundreds of tickets deep, with support channels reduced to email only, and phones switched off.

A System That Scales

RealVNC layered in Crescendo's AI and superhuman agents channel by channel.

AI now handles the first response on every ticket, checking issues against RealVNC's product documentation. Simple requests, like a password reset or a basic account question, get resolved on the spot. More complex cases escalate to associates trained on RealVNC's product and processes. Roughly 60% of tickets never need a human at all.

For RealVNC’s IT and security team customers, AI-native support means an answer in seconds. For RealVNC's internal team, it means a queue that finally moves.

Results at a Glance

• Backlog reduced by 90% (down from hundreds of tickets, while simultaneously handling new tickets)
• 60% of tickets resolved without a human
• Time to agent (chat): dropped from over 100 seconds to 21
• Time to agent (voice): dropped from voicemail only to 15 seconds
• CSAT climbed above the team's 95% target (up from low-to-mid 80s)

“We finally turned off the macro that started every message with 'sorry for the delay getting back to you.'”
_{Jack Naisbett, Enterprise Support Engineer}

Growth creates a support problem

Over the last few years, RealVNC went on a growth journey. A push to convert free-trial and free-tier users into paying accounts worked exactly as intended. New teams came in and brought with them new tickets from a segment RealVNC never had to support in large volumes before.

The support team had been holding its own, but the added volume tipped things in the wrong direction. Gradually, the workload grew and grew until there was a backlog of hundreds of tickets. Every email response opened with an apology for how long the reply had taken. At a low point, the team had to turn phones off entirely, routing every caller straight to voicemail because there was no one left to answer live calls.

CSAT that had been sitting around 95% started drifting toward 85%, then dipping as low as 80%.

Justin Wagg, VP of Marketing, was part of the team tasked to repair support. When he brought solutions to the board, their directive was clear: whatever they built had to be cost-effective to meet the current demand plus anticipated future growth. 

‍

Why Crescendo?

RealVNC got introduced to Crescendo through a partner helping them think through AI-native support.

Justin and team evaluated across two elements: people and AI.

• People: How naturally they communicated, how they compared to other support teams on the market, and how closely they adhered to processes and policies.
• AI: What it cost per conversation, how naturally it responded, and whether it stuck to the knowledge base instead of drifting off script.

RealVNC ran a competitive scan and found that none of its competitors offered 24/7 coverage. Few even covered nights and weekends. Almost none supported multiple languages. With AI and always-on coverage, they could create a competitive advantage.

‍

"Crescendo was the only one on the market offering AI coupled with a team that could scale it. Because of that, they priced out every other option we looked at."
_{Justin Wagg, VP of Marketing}

AI that works for a technical crowd

"A large portion of our audience are technically affluent," said Kirsty Charlton, SVP Operations. The product is complex, the users know their way around it, and a wrong or generic answer gets flagged immediately.

RealVNC had tried a bot before. It could recognize what someone typed, but every answer behind it was pre-written. Someone had to teach it the right phrases, then write out the reply by hand, one building block at a time. It worked for the simplest requests and sounded scripted for everything else.

Crescendo's AI was different from the start, built to hold a conversation and stay grounded in RealVNC's documentation. AI was backed up by a team of trained associates, tested and certified on RealVNC's product.

Before anything went live, Crescendo's AI engineer worked directly with RealVNC's QA process, reviewing real responses line by line to make sure the AI sounded right and stayed accurate. At the same time, RealVNC's head of cybersecurity ran his own tests, probing the AI for ways to break it, expose its instructions, or push it off-topic. "The Crescendo team was very quick to work with us on getting that ironed out so we could roll out as quickly as possible," says Jack Naisbett, Enterprise Support Engineer.

Chat went first, tested and refined until the answers were consistently accurate. Email followed, then voice.

AI previously needed a dedicated team to keep it running. Crescendo removed the operational lift. IT and security teams get fast, accurate answers, whether their question comes in over the phone, in a chat window, or via email.

95% CSAT again, even as volume grows

CSAT tells the story. Before Crescendo, the team had started drifting from a healthy baseline down toward 85%, and on the worst days, as low as 80%. With Crescendo live, CSAT climbed back above the team's 95% target.

Speed numbers were a major factor. Time to agent escalation on chat dropped from over 100 seconds to a 21-second median. Time to agent on voice went from voicemail only to 15 seconds. And the backlog that had once stretched into the thousands saw a 90% reduction. All while resolving incoming tickets.

Across channels, 60% of tickets never need a human at all. This frees superhuman agents up to quickly answer calls and handle edge cases as they come in. 

The impact reaches beyond the ticket queue. RealVNC started using Crescendo’s AI Insights to surface patterns in account friction, sending them straight to the product team. “We don't really have that level of data anywhere else,” Kirsty said.

"We had started drifting towards 85 and worst case 80... with Crescendo on board, we're now back above our 95% target most months. That was a 15% increase in CSAT as a result."
_{Jack Naisbett, Enterprise Support Engineer}

Growth used to break RealVNC's support team. Now it just adds revenue.

With AI handling the first response on every ticket and associates covering everything else, RealVNC now serves a $100 account and a six-figure security team with the same speed. No new hires needed.

The backlog that once sat in the thousands is gone, and so is the apology that used to open every reply. Freed from firefighting, RealVNC's team can get back to the technical, high-touch work their best accounts need. 

Support data now feeds the product roadmap directly, giving RealVNC a level of visibility into customer friction that Zendesk alone never surfaced. And with 24/7 AI coverage few competitors can match, support has become a competitive edge.

The team was so confident in the results that they referred another company to Crescendo. That company has since signed on.

RealVNC's customers span every size and budget. With Crescendo, support does too.