Cardis Customer Service — Professional Guide and Operational Playbook

Overview: mission, scale and key outcomes

Cardis is presented here as a card-issuing and payments service with an operational customer service organization optimized for both consumer and business cardholders. The model assumes a company founded in 2015, commercial launch in 2016, and scale to 1.2 million active accounts by 2024. The service charter centers on three measurable commitments: 1) first contact resolution (FCR) above 75%, 2) customer satisfaction (CSAT) at or above 85%, and 3) net promoter score (NPS) above 40.

This document provides explicit operational details: channel-level service-level agreements (SLAs), staffing formulas, average handle times, pricing for support tiers, escalation matrices, and security/integration requirements. The guidance is actionable for in-house centers or outsourced partners and aligns with regulatory expectations for card programs (PCI-DSS, SOX controls where relevant).

Support channels, hours and SLAs

Cardis supports omnichannel service: phone, email, live chat, secure in-app messaging, and social monitoring. Channel mix typically splits 45% phone, 20% chat, 25% asynchronous (email/in-app), and 10% social. Hours of operation are 24/7 for card-incident handling (fraud, lost/stolen) and 08:00–22:00 local time for general account support. Multilingual coverage includes English and Spanish in primary centers; escalation to on-demand interpreters is available within 60 minutes.

• Phone: 24/7 for fraud (Toll-free: +1 (800) 555-0123). SLA: answer within 30 seconds for priority cases, average speed of answer (ASA) target 20s. FCR target 78%.
• Live chat: 08:00–22:00. SLA: initial response <60s, average handle time (AHT) target 6 minutes, CSAT target 88% for chat interactions.
• Email / In-app secure messages: SLA initial acknowledgment within 2 hours during business hours, full resolution target 48–72 hours depending on complexity.
• Social & monitoring: triage within 30 minutes during business hours; public reply SLA 2 hours to mitigate reputational risk.

For regulatory reporting, maintain auditable timestamps for all interactions. Record timestamps for receipt, agent assignment, agent response, customer confirmation, and closure; retain records for minimum 7 years for financial dispute resolution and compliance.

Key metrics, targets and benchmarking

Operational KPIs should be tracked daily, weekly and monthly. Core metrics: CSAT (target 85–90%), NPS (target 40+), FCR (target 75–85%), AHT (target 4–7 minutes depending on channel), ASA (phone target <30s), abandonment rate (<5%), and cost-per-contact (target $3–$8 depending on channel and geography).

Benchmarking: top-performing card issuers in North America average CSAT ~88% and NPS ~45 in 2023–2024 industry surveys. Use these as aspirational benchmarks when setting internal targets. For cost modeling, expect per-contact costs of $2.50–$4.00 for chat/email and $6–$12 for voice in US-based centers; offshore centers typically reduce voice cost to $2.50–$6 but require stricter quality assurance to maintain CSAT.

Staffing, skills and workforce management

Calculate staffing using Erlang C for voice and historical contact volumes for digital channels. Example: 10,000 monthly voice contacts with target ASA 20s and shrinkage 35% requires roughly 65 full-time agents distributed across shifts; add 10–15% buffer for peak season (November–January). For chat and email, staff to peak concurrency using expected concurrency rates (chat concurrency 2–3:1 per agent).

Recruit for three core skill sets: transactional proficiency (card operations), investigative skill (fraud & dispute handling), and service excellence (soft skills and upsell where appropriate). Training programs should include 40 hours of onboarding (product, compliance, systems), 8 hours monthly refresh on fraud trends, and evaluated role-plays with calibrated QA scoring (scorecard target 90%+).

Technology, security and integrations

Critical systems: CRM with single customer view, ticketing (SaaS or on-premise), voice platform with recording and real-time analytics, chat platform with bot escalation, and back-office case management integrated to payment processor APIs. Ensure PCI-DSS compliance for any cardholder data (PAN) and use tokenization for display in agent UIs.

Integrations: real-time card-block/unblock API (<100ms where possible), dispute initiation API to card processor, and fraud engine feeds (machine learning models retrained monthly). Logging and audit trails are non-optional; retain call recordings, chat transcripts and case notes for 7 years and enable export for legal discovery.

Support tiers, pricing and value propositions

• Basic Support (included): 08:00–22:00, email/in-app response within 48–72 hours, phone for fraud only. No direct SLA credits. Intended for standard consumer accounts; free with card issuance.
• Priority Support ($29/month per account): 24/7 phone and chat, initial response <1 hour, dedicated priority queue, average resolution target 24 hours, annual account review. Typical adoption 8–12% of cardholders.
• Enterprise (custom pricing, typical starting at $199/month per seat): SLAs with financial credits, dedicated account manager, monthly reporting, API-level support (SLA <2 hours), and on-site workshops. Used by corporate card programs or high-volume merchant partners.

Pricing above is indicative: card issuers commonly bundle support into card fees or offer premium support as an upsell. Track revenue from premium support and monitor churn among paying subscribers; a sustainable model aims for a 60–70% retention rate of premium subscribers year-over-year.

Escalation flow, dispute handling and sample scripts

Escalation matrix: Level 1 (frontline agent) resolves 70–80% of cases. Level 2 (specialists) handles complex billing disputes and fraud investigations; target escalation within 4 hours for high-priority cases. Level 3 (operations/engineering) addresses systemic outages and API issues; SLA for assigning a Level 3 engineer is 2 hours for production-severe incidents.

Sample verification script: “For security, I need to verify two points: full name as on the account and the last four digits of the card. May I have those now?” For fraud claims: immediately place a protective block, file an initial incident report within 10 minutes, and escalate to investigations within 1 hour. Document timelines precisely for chargeback windows (typical card networks: 45–120 days depending on reason codes).

Implementation roadmap and continuous improvement

Rollout phases: Phase 1 (0–3 months) set up core channels, hire initial 25 agents, implement CRM and voice. Phase 2 (3–9 months) add chat, integrate tokenization and fraud engine, begin QA program. Phase 3 (9–18 months) deploy advanced analytics, optimize workforce management and introduce premium tiers.

Continuous improvement: run monthly root-cause analysis on top 10 complaint drivers, use A/B testing for message templates, and schedule quarterly NPS deep dives with closed-loop follow-up. Target a 1–2 point annual CSAT improvement and reduce repeat contacts by 10% year-over-year.

Operational contact (example)

Cardis Support Headquarters (example): 100 Cardis Plaza, Suite 300, New York, NY 10001. General support: +1 (800) 555-0123. Website: https://www.cardis-support.example. For production deployments, provide dedicated onboarding contact and API sandbox credentials with rate limits defined (e.g., 1,000 calls/minute) and SLAs codified in a Master Service Agreement (MSA).