Zoko is an all-in-one platform that lets Shopify merchants use WhatsApp as their primary channel for sales, marketing and customer support. With thousands of brands leveraging Zoko's automation and conversational commerce tools, hiring the right people who can combine communication skills with operational agility is critical to the company's growth. We sat down with Arpit Joseph, Director of Growth and Operations at Zoko, to explore how they partnered with Goodfit to streamline hiring, reduce screening volume and focus on candidates who truly fit culture and role.
The challenge: 1 recruiter vs 1000s of applicants
Zoko had plans to rapidly scale hiring; however Arpit is currently the only one in charge of hiring. Every job post on LinkedIn generated anywhere between 600 to 1,000 applications within a week.
Arpit personally reviewed every single application. He had to open each one on LinkedIn, download the attached resumes, and read through them to check for relevant experience. Plus, LinkedIn's interface made this even more time-consuming since it required navigating through each application individually.
Because of the sheer volume, shortlisting became a major bottleneck. The entire hiring cycle from job post to final offer often stretched to four weeks or more. This made it difficult to consistently identify candidates who demonstrated initiative, attention to detail, and the right mix of communication and problem-solving skills needed for customer-facing roles.
"For every job posting we've put up, we get anywhere between 600 to 1,000 applications within a week. Just going through those applications and downloading resumes took days. Most nights I sat late just to get through all of them."
Arpit Joseph
Director of Growth and Operations, Zoko
Why Zoko chose Goodfit
Zoko needed a way to handle the overwhelming volume of applications while maintaining control over candidate quality and intent. Arpit wanted a solution that could automate the first layer of screening, help identify serious applicants, and save time without compromising hiring accuracy.
The decision to use Goodfit was straightforward. Arpit already knew the Goodfit team and trusted their approach. What stood out most was the platform's simplicity and the support provided during setup.
"When we first tried Goodfit, we didn't have to worry about implementation at all. I simply shared the questions I wanted the AI to ask, and their team handled everything. The onboarding was seamless, and it immediately started saving us time."
Arpit Joseph
Director of Growth and Operations, Zoko
The solution: automating high-volume screening with AI
Zoko's main priority was to hire for non-technical roles like Customer Success and Business Development. Here's how they use Goodfit to find the perfect candidates:
Automating screening to filter for intent and communication
With Goodfit's AI interview tool, Zoko now automates its first-round interviews. Instead of manually reviewing 600 to 1,000 applications, only candidates who complete the AI interview are considered for the next stage.
This immediately filters out low-intent applicants and highlights those who have taken the time to understand the role and apply thoughtfully.
This approach transformed how Zoko handles volume. Shortlisting that once took an entire week can now be completed in a single day or less.
Maintaining quality through AI-driven scoring
The Goodfit dashboard automatically evaluates candidates based on communication, clarity, salary expectations, and role alignment. Zoko uses these scores to categorize applicants into groups, such as "Good Fit," "Poor Fit," or "To Review Later."
Arpit uses a cutoff score of 7 or above to identify potential fits. Anyone below that threshold is automatically deprioritized, saving time and reducing decision fatigue. Zoko also asks questions about salary and if it's out of their set budget, the candidate is automatically categorised in "To Review Later" in case they scored well.
Goodfit as Zoko's default ATS
Before Goodfit, Zoko had no Applicant Tracking System in place. The entire process from job postings to candidate tracking was managed through LinkedIn and spreadsheets. Today, Goodfit serves as Zoko's default ATS, centralizing all candidate data, roles, and interview results in one dashboard.
This means Arpit no longer needs to juggle multiple tools or manually track candidate progress. Every application, interview score, and note is now stored and accessible within the Goodfit portal.
Faster hiring cycles and measurable results
Since implementing Goodfit, Zoko's hiring process has become dramatically faster and more focused.
For customer success and support roles, the improvement has been especially noticeable. In one instance, Zoko hired a top candidate within three weeks from job posting to joining, a process that previously took more than a month.
Results: faster hiring and smarter shortlisting
Since adopting Goodfit, Zoko has conducted 1000+ interviews, identified 307 "Good fit" candidates, saved 14 days of hiring time, reduced manual resume screening effort by 95%, brought time to hire down by 75%, accelerated decision-making with AI-based scoring and communication insights, and built a consistent pipeline of high-intent and high-quality candidates.
What's next for Zoko
Zoko plans to expand its use of Goodfit for upcoming customer support and customer success hires. The team is also looking to test new features like the upcoming assessments and coding evaluation tools to refine their screening process further.
Arpit and his team will soon set up a dedicated Goodfit-powered careers page to manage applications directly and improve candidate flow. This will help them continue scaling their hiring efficiently while maintaining quality and structure.
Shortlisting and time-to-hire
