A First-Time Outsourcing Client Finds a
New Lease on Customer Service
Relationship:
Since 2019
Service Provided:
Technical and Customer Support
Channel:
Chat and Email
Industry:
VPN Services Provider
Imagine a client who believes the mission statement is more than just words on a website, that it is a creed that serves as the foundation for the product line. That describes a provider of Virtual Private Network services with a commitment to a free and open Internet. This relationship launched to support chat and email support requests in support of an in-house team facing the best of problems – more customers than the internal staff could efficiently help.
Service is not just resolving issues; it's also representing the brand and building confidence in it.
Managing the Needs of a Growing and Tech-Savvy Customer Base
01 The Challenge
A scalable support solution to accommodate the client’s growth while maintaining a commitment to service quality and a high rate of first-contact resolution.
02 The Solution
A 24/7 support team split across multiple communication channels with the flexibility to manage periods of peak demand.
03 The Results
Improved workflows to manage service demand while earning high CSAT scores and building brand loyalty.
01 The Challenge
This happens far more often than one might think. It is a more common occurrence than one might think. Every company wants to gain market share and expand its customer base, and it puts a great deal of horsepower behind lead generation strategies. Left unattended is the other end of the equation – the increase in customers that will, by definition, increase the demand for user support. As this client was outsourcing for the first time, our initial task was to justify the trust in us to do right by customers.
The nature of the customers was a second point. These are tech-savvy users who seldom, if ever, contact technical support for low-flying problems. Our agents had to be knowledgeable from the start or risk losing credibility. The depth of this product and the complexity of the solutions involved mean the training cycle is a longer than usual – about five weeks of classroom instruction, role-playing, and nesting. A strong computer background defines the hiring profile; there are numerous technical steps involved in troubleshooting and multiple platforms and devices that customers are using.
Third was bringing the service load back to a manageable number. The internal team was straining to keep up with the company’s growth and a key point of friction among customers is service that makes you wait. The client had built a respected brand coupled with quality service, but needed help in scaling the support staff.
02 The Solution
The team is divided across a 24/7 schedule of operations. Agents work through thousands of chats and email tickets each week. While trained on both channels, agents typically work one at a time, moving between the two during the day. This serves two purposes: first, it prevents staleness from working on a single channel for too long, and second, it creates a backup mechanism in case one channel experiences an unanticipated rush in volume. The time parameters for responding to chat are shorter than for answering emails, and since agents handle no more than three simultaneous chats, those assigned to emails can seamlessly transition over to handle any overflow.
03 The Results
Along with timely, effective responses to service and support issues, this client is invested in our agents listening to the voice of the customer. The customer base is deeply knowledgeable, attuned to at least some of the issues that drive the company itself, and as is usually the case with product users, a fountain of feedback and ideas for new features or potential product improvements. This is invaluable, grass-roots data for the client, and agents gather and collate it, add other insights that we find, and send it all to the client, who can now make decisions armed with the confidence of having information to support them.
Along with support, we also developed a proprietary firewall for those customers so that agents can resolve simple or complex requests while safeguarding a user’s privacy. A sizable portion of the customer base lives in countries where Internet usage rules differ greatly from those in the US. Most notable among them is China. A client like this holds great appeal to individuals who want access to a variety of information but live under a government that is bent on restricting it.
