Customer support staffing is like a never-ending game of Jenga. If you’ve got a team of customer support reps who are all aligned on how best to help your customers and have experience doing just that, you’ve got an excellent foundation for resolving customer queries. But if you take out just a few of those reps – if they leave, get promoted, or are out sick for an extended period – then your support provision suddenly looks much less stable.

When surveyed, more than half of customer service agents said they usually have to switch between different systems to solve a customer request. Here’s why: When a customer reaches out for support, an agent typically needs a bit of context to fully understand the customer’s situation or problem.

The traditional way to measure customer service metrics is to track averages, such as average reply time or average resolution time. But Geckoboard’s Customer Support Experience Report found that some companies measure first response time as a service level agreement (SLA) metric rather than an average. SLA metrics are internal metrics used by customer support teams to set targets for the proportion of customers who will receive a predefined minimum level of service.

Imagine you’re in the market to buy a new dishwasher. You receive an email from Lowe’s claiming that a new LG model is a customer favorite. But then a few friends tell you their Frigidaire dishwashers are the best they’ve ever owned. Who are you more likely to believe? Probably your friends. SEMrush’s research shows that 88 percent of people have the highest level of trust in a brand when a friend or family member recommends it.

Building a support team is like doing a jigsaw where all the pieces keep moving around: You’re trying to match customer needs with company priorities, maintaining a high level of service while onboarding new team members, and predicting how ticket volumes will shape hiring roadmaps. Even worse, if you’re the first (and only) person doing support at your company, you’re still juggling incoming tickets and covering all your support channels.

So you have a Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) benchmark. How do you figure out if the benchmark you’re using is realistic? Benchmarking can be a very helpful exercise but, if done wrong, can hinder team performance by setting unrealistic goals or expectations.

According to KPMG, 58% of consumers say being able to shop 24/7 is the number one reason they shop online. Companies have international customer bases who are online round-the-clock, and that means a decent chunk of customers will be disappointed if they can’t receive help during off-hours. The Geckoboard Customer Support Experience Report 2021 found that 50% of customer support teams are only available during business hours Monday to Friday, and only 28% are available 24/7.

In 2020, Customer Support teams worked harder than ever before. Not only did most have to adapt to new ways of working but for many the pandemic lead to an increase in support requests. Geckoboard customer Ember described a situation where people were more readily available to contact Support but also expected agents to respond faster than usual. So how is the industry faring in 2021?

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) is one of the most widely used customer service metrics. Companies send short CSAT surveys after a support interaction—but these are tied to your customers’ most recent interaction with your company and can be skewed if they had an issue or poor experience. And because CSAT surveys are kept short to make it easy for customers to respond, they don’t tell you why customers feel the way they do.

It is no news that team culture can impact staff retention, happiness and productivity. Gallup found that engaged employees were 59% less likely to search for a new job in the next 12 months. This is especially true for Customer Support teams who are on the front-line, dealing with customer issues, complaints and queries each day. Without a solid team culture around them to help them through the challenges, many will opt to move on.