Six Sure Signs You Need to Scale Your Support Team

At ModSquad, we’ve seen a lot in the past 10 years. We’ve worked with companies of all sizes, from startups to enterprise-level corporations. But whatever industry they’re in, no matter how large or small, they share the common need for flexible outsourced support. Every company experiences peaks and valleys, and not just the kinds that affect stock valuations. Sometimes periods of variable needs and demands are only felt internally but can still have a big effect on the overall organization.

That’s why we’ve put together this checklist of symptoms of a business that needs to scale its support team. Knowing the signs of impending demand or likely support gaps can allow you to plan, budget, and schedule accordingly. Any of the following situations may necessitate reaching out for additional support.

Vacation Time is Approaching

We’ll start with a no-brainer. During the holidays, seasonal sales tend to boost many company’s bottom lines. But they’ll only hit those heights if they’re prepared. With a huge spike in tickets, it’s critical to have a right-size staffing plan in place. Similarly, school vacation periods and summer breaks are when many of your team members will want to use their vacation time. Don’t let your queues build up because a percentage of your staff is on break; prepare for their absence with simple pre-planning. This is low-hanging fruit, and an easy situation to manage.

You’re in Pre-Launch Period

Your company has been working toward this for months, perhaps even years, and now it’s time to unveil your new product offering. What are your expected needs? Have you taken into account the possibility of your new release exceeding expectations? What if a major flaw is discovered once it hits consumers’ hands? Have an action plan in place to get the help you need, preferably from a flexible provider with the ability to add hours and team members on demand.

You’re Preparing to Enter a New Market

If you’re venturing out into a brave new world, hitting markets that you’ve not served before—either geographically, demographically, linguistically, or a combination thereof—you’re likely not prepped to properly serve your potential new audience. Make sure your team speaks and writes in the customer’s language. Are your support agents multilingual? Does your product require a certain familiarity on the support agent’s part? Put in place a team that’s comprised of enthusiasts who understand the product and its user base, so that they can have authentic dialogues with your customers.

Your HR Team is Pulling Support Tickets

When your R&D group is manning the phones, answering technical support questions that are beyond the capabilities of your core staff, and when your marketing department is busy drafting responses to customer inquiries, they’re not doing what you hired them to do. If your entire team is pitching in to help keep up with the growing backlog of customer requests, you need to hit the reset button. Free up your employees’ time by properly ramping up a support team. It not only increases your people’s productivity, it improves your relationships with your customers, who see quicker resolutions from agents with appropriate backgrounds.

You Support Queue is Becoming Unmanageable

Even though you planned your support strategy down to a T and thought you had everything in place, you’re still unable to keep up with the demands of your audience. It happens to the best companies. Step back and look at the big picture and know when it’s time to reach out for additional help. You’re not helping yourself by thinking you can manage it all when your incoming-ticket stats say otherwise–the numbers don’t lie.

You Don’t Have a Back-Up Plan

As noted above, sometimes the best-laid plans go awry. That’s why it’s smart to always have a back-up plan available. Just as companies prep crisis plans that they hope they’ll never have to use, so should you have a design in place that will inform your group how to swiftly and efficiently escalate your support team if and when the need suddenly arises. Knowing that you have a squad available to provide up to 24/7/365 support, in scores of languages and in countries all over the world, should help you rest easy.

After the ramp-up, a flexible solution will allow your company to scale down just as quickly, always providing you with just as many (or as few) support hours as you need. A partner with flexible options ensures you don’t pay for time you won’t use. We’ve put smart scaling solutions in place time and time again, helping countless clients reap the rewards of right-sized support teams.