From AI Frustration to Faster Support: How Smartness Cut First Response Time from Hours to 22 Minutes with Pluno
How Smartness went from hours-long response times to 40%+ ticket deflection with Pluno AI after multiple failed AI tools.
Joseph D'Appuzo
Customer Support Manager at Smartness
Core Challenges
- Multiple AI tools tried and failed — high "resolved" numbers but poor quality and customer complaints
- Previous AI gave robotic walls of text and marked tickets resolved when they weren't
- Competitor AI tool required maintaining a separate knowledge base and had one-way Zendesk integration
- Agents forced to constantly monitor views to catch misrouted and falsely resolved tickets
- First response times drifting into hours as volume climbed across multiple products
Solutions
- Deflection AI auto-resolves 40%+ of tickets with genuinely accurate, conversational answers
- Native Zendesk integration — no separate platform to maintain, all knowledge lives in one place
- Knowledge base segmentation ensures each product pulls from the right content silo
- AI ticket summaries let agents jump straight to resolution without re-reading threads
- Smart escalation routes tickets correctly and knows when something needs a human
Key Results at a Glance
Before
Hours
After
22 Min
First Response Time
Before
High False Resolutions
After
40%+
Real Ticket Deflection
Before
Weeks to Ramp
After
40% Faster
New Hire Onboarding
Before
Language Gaps
After
Solved
Language Barriers
Impressive Numbers, Unhappy Customers
Pluno wasn't the first AI solution Smartness tried. Joseph tested every option he could find — from smaller chatbot tools that looked great on paper but couldn't handle real-world complexity, to a major AI solution from a competitor to their ticketing system.
AI tools failed
Multiple AI tools tried and failed — high "resolved" numbers but poor quality and customer complaints
Robotic responses
Previous AI gave robotic walls of text and marked tickets resolved when they weren't
Separate knowledge base
Competitor AI tool required maintaining a separate knowledge base and had one-way Zendesk integration
Manual monitoring
Agents forced to constantly monitor views to catch misrouted and falsely resolved tickets
Slow response times
First response times drifting into hours as volume climbed across multiple products
“The numbers of resolved tickets were high, but when you looked at the quality, it wasn't great. You could feel frustration building up in our customer base.”
— Joseph D'Appuzo, Customer Support Manager
50 Tickets That Changed Everything
Joseph wasn't looking for another AI vendor. When Pluno reached out and challenged him directly, he agreed to a test — but with zero expectations. He handed over 50 real-world tickets with one message: 'You're never going to be better than our current solution.'
“When he shipped it and I saw the results, I said: No, we need to do this. It was miles ahead of the competition.”
— Joseph D'Appuzo
What Pluno delivered
Deflection AI auto-resolves 40%+ of tickets with genuinely accurate, conversational answers
Auto-resolves 40%+ of tickets with genuinely accurate, conversational answers.
Native Zendesk integration — no separate platform to maintain, all knowledge lives in one place
No separate platform to maintain — all knowledge lives in one place.
Knowledge base segmentation ensures each product pulls from the right content silo
Ensures each product pulls from the right content silo.
AI ticket summaries let agents jump straight to resolution without re-reading threads
Lets agents jump straight to resolution without re-reading threads.
Smart escalation routes tickets correctly and knows when something needs a human
Routes tickets correctly and knows when something needs a human.
“I had to tell my team: guys, it's not real. He's here, but he's not a human. That's how good it is at talking to people.”
— Joseph D'Appuzo
From Hours to 22 Minutes — With Numbers You Can Trust
Hours
22 Min
First Response Time
High False Resolutions
40%+
Real Ticket Deflection
Weeks to Ramp
40% Faster
New Hire Onboarding
Language Gaps
Solved
Language Barriers
Constant Monitoring
Accurate
Escalation & Routing
Robotic Walls of Text
Marco 🇮🇹
Human-Like AI Agent
“Thanks to Pluno's summaries, we can jump into a ticket, spend a few minutes, and respond. The team is super happy. Our customers are happy too.”
— Joseph D'Appuzo
“There's No Reason Not to Give It a Try.”
Joseph's advice to any support leader skeptical about AI: give Pluno your 50 hardest questions. They'll come back with a matrix of answers you can analyze and decide.
“If you hadn't insisted on letting us try your product, we'd probably have a very angry customer base right now.”
— Joseph D'Appuzo
Stop settling for AI that needs constant babysitting
See how Pluno resolves 70% of tickets, including complex cases, while supercharging agent productivity.