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Customer support to customers ratio

  • 15 April 2020
  • 6 replies
  • 594 views
P
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For a lot of companies customer support has truly become a differentiator. While a lot has been spoken about scaling customer first culture, effective Onboarding processes et al- all these start to diminish as the support org (and the company)starts to scale. 


Given this premise- What do you think is the right ratio of customers to customer support agents? Is there a magic number to ensure that you're not hurt by the scale problems? 


Do let us know with industry and the size of your support org and customers (if you can share them). 


6 replies

Yogeshkumar S
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For a lot of companies customer support has truly become a differentiator. While a lot has been spoken about scaling customer first culture, effective Onboarding processes et al- all these start to diminish as the support org (and the company)starts to scale. 

 

Given this premise- What do you think is the right ratio of customers to customer support agents? Is there a magic number to ensure that you're not hurt by the scale problems? 

 

Do let us know with industry and the size of your support org and customers (if you can share them). 

 

I Agree

Arthur Taylor
Rank

I think the ratio should be measured by incoming queries vs customer care agents.

If you can measure the average time it takes to resolve a ticket, you can plan how much time a person spends on a ticket/issue and then workout how many agents you require in a day/shift.

If you measure it by time spent on ticket/issue, you can perhaps see if your agents need maybe assistance with more efficient equipment or understanding. So instead of throwing numbers, you empower your agents.

 

irina_alymova
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We’re B2B, over 200 cutomers, 800 requests a month on average. We have 4 agents. But the calculation like this has too many variables to be answered easyly. How many communication channels do you have? Do you have tier2? If yes, are those different agents? How much time on average does it take to resolve a ticket for your type of services, what SLA is required? Also, how often your customers need support, what is the load per company. For B2B - what is the scale of your customer? 

Not to mention that a lot of business decisions can change the number of agents you require. Ask yourself how well customer self help is organised (portal, guides, bots)? What processes can be automized?

Arthur Taylor
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Ask yourself how well customer self help is organised (portal, guides, bots)? What processes can be automized?

That right there is my goal, to empower the customer to be able to assist himself. We often find ourselves helping clients who could actually just have helped themselves.

There will always be work for customer care agents, but sometimes we just need to ask is this request sustainable or can the client actually help himself?

e.g. “I’ve forgotten my password” but your system has a forgot password option.

geebranz
Userlevel 1

Customer service do a good job.

 

 

https://fencecompanylincolnne.net

Summa
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Hin

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