Common Application Customer Service — Practical, Data-Driven Guide

Overview and objectives

Customer service for application platforms (web and mobile) must deliver speed, accuracy, and predictability. Typical objectives are: maintain average first-response time (FRT) under 24 hours for standard support and under 60 minutes for paid plans; achieve Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) ≥ 85%; and keep Net Promoter Score (NPS) ≥ 30. These targets are industry-informed benchmarks for 2020–2025 SaaS operations and should be adjusted to product complexity and user base.

Success also requires measuring cost per ticket and support margin. A mature operation targets a cost per resolved ticket of $3–$15 depending on channel (self-service ≈ $0.50–$3, email/chat ≈ $5–$15, phone ≈ $15–$40). Use these numbers to build pricing and to decide when to invest in automation (chatbots, knowledge-base improvements) versus headcount.

Support channels and architecture

Offer a minimum of five channels: in-app messaging, email/ticketing, live chat, phone for critical incidents, and a public knowledge base. Channel mix determines staffing and tool choices. For example, expect roughly 60% of queries to be email/ticket, 20% knowledge-base self-serve, 15% live chat, and 5% phone in a typical consumer SaaS product with 100k MAU (monthly active users).

Tool selection: ticketing systems (Zendesk, Freshdesk) typically cost $20–$100 per agent/month for basic plans; full-featured messaging platforms (Intercom) commonly range $74–$1,000+ per month depending on MAU and features. Live-voice services and PBX add $50–$300 per concurrent line plus per-minute costs. Budget $500–$5,000/month for tooling for a small-to-medium app; $5k–$50k/month for enterprise stacks with SSO, advanced routing, and analytics.

Staff architecture should include L1 generalists, L2 specialists (product/technical), and an L3 engineering escalation path. For SLA-sensitive products, maintain an on-call rotation (1:7 or 1:10 personnel rotation typical) so that one engineer is available 24/7 for P1 incidents, and maintain a documented runbook for incident handling and customer communications.

Common ticket types and resolution templates

About 70% of tickets fall into these predictable categories: account access (passwords, 2FA), billing and subscriptions, feature questions, integrations/API errors, and bug reports. For each category define a standard operating procedure (SOP) with a target resolution time and a templated first reply. This reduces FRT and improves CSAT.

• Account access — Target FRT: 30–60 minutes for paid users. First reply template: confirm account identity method, advise password reset link (expire in 1 hour), and provide one troubleshooting step (clear cache). Typical root causes: stale cookies or 2FA mismatch.
• Billing & subscriptions — Target FRT: 1 business day. Include invoice ID, subscription plan (e.g., Basic $9/mo, Pro $49/mo, Enterprise custom), refund policy (30-day pro-rated refund), and next steps. Common fixes: update payment method, apply promo codes, manual invoice reissue.
• Integrations/API errors — Target FRT: 4 hours for paid, 48–72 hours for free tiers. Include API request ID, timestamp (ISO 8601), and sample cURL/JSON to reproduce. Escalate to engineering if reproducible or if error rate >0.5% per hour.
• Bugs/feature requests — Acknowledge within 24 hours, triage window 3–5 business days. Provide ticket number, expected triage date, and link to public roadmap if applicable.
• Security/incident reports — Immediate acknowledgement within 1 hour; provide secure contact channel (PGP key or secure portal). Follow responsible disclosure policy and SLA for updates (every 2 hours during active incidents).

SLAs, escalation, and reporting

Define clear SLAs by priority: P1 (service down, security incident) — acknowledge ≤1 hour, update every 2 hours, resolution target 4–24 hours; P2 (major feature broken) — acknowledge ≤4 hours, resolution target 24–72 hours; P3 (general support) — acknowledge ≤24 hours, resolution 3–10 business days. Document escalation matrices with names/roles and contact methods (email, phone, Slack) and maintain contact list updated quarterly.

Reporting cadence: daily operational dashboards (tickets opened/closed, backlog), weekly quality reviews (CSAT, top 10 ticket drivers), and monthly business reviews (cost per ticket, churn attributable to support issues). Track trends over 6–12 months to justify investments in KB, automation, or headcount.

Onboarding, pricing, refunds, and compliance

Onboarding should be time-boxed: a 14-day checklist for new users that includes automated welcome email (Day 0), product tour (Day 1), 30-minute onboarding call for Pro/Enterprise within first 7 days, and a 30-day check-in. Typical conversion lift from a guided onboarding call is 10–20% higher activation within 30 days versus self-serve only.

Pricing examples used in the field: Free tier for basic use, Basic $9/month or $90/year, Pro $49/month or $490/year, and Enterprise custom pricing starting ≈ $499/month with SLA and phone support. Common refund policy is 30-day money-back for monthly bills and pro-rated refunds for annual downgrades; document all policies in the Terms of Service and display a clear support email like [email protected] and a support site (https://www.exampleapp.com/support).

Operational checklist (practical actions)

Implement these operational controls immediately to stabilize support delivery: hire and train to SLAs, instrument analytics, and publish public status pages. Use weekly QA on random ticket samples (25 tickets/week) to keep quality above 90% compliance with scripts and tone. Maintain KB coverage so 60–80% of top search queries map to a high-quality article.

• Staffing ratio guideline: 1 full-time agent per 700–1,200 MAU or per 80–120 tickets/day depending on automation.
• Training: 40 hours initial product + 4 hours/week ongoing updates; pair new agents with mentors for first 30 days.
• Quality metrics: CSAT target ≥85%, FRT median ≤24 hours, KB deflection 30–50%, backlog <48 hours for P3 tickets.
• Escalation: maintain 24/7 on-call for P1 incidents with documented runbooks and post-incident reports within 72 hours.
• Documentation: cover top 20 ticket use cases with step-by-step articles and short videos; include screenshots and sample API payloads.
• Customer contact template: company support email, phone (e.g., +1-800-555-0199 — sample), and support portal URL; update contact points on billing pages and receipts.
• Monitoring: instrument alerts when error rates exceed 0.5% or ticket volume spikes >200% over rolling 1-hour baseline.
• Reports: daily ops, weekly trends, monthly executive summary including cost/ticket and churn attributable to support issues.
• Legal & compliance: retain support logs per GDPR retention policies, redact PII, and publish a clear privacy & data-deletion procedure.
• Continuous improvement: run monthly retrospectives and a quarterly roadmap for KB and automation projects tied to ticket volume reduction goals (target 15–30% reduction per year).

What is a customer service application?

On the business side, a customer service app can keep all tickets organised and automatically route them to the proper agent, no matter which channel the customer uses. A customer service app for small business may also include mobile capabilities so agents can solve issues in the field.

Where is the Common Application number?

Common App ID (CAID)
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How do I get help with the Common App?

You can reach us at [email protected] to ask questions, offer suggestions, and share thoughts on how we can support you and help you navigate the college application process during these crises.

How long does Common App support take?

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Does the Common App have a customer service number?

The Solution is provided by The Common Application, Inc. through its service provider. If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or complaints regarding this Agreement or the Solution, feel free to contact us at 3003 Washington Boulevard, Suite 1000, Arlington, VA, or by phone at 703.378. 9788.