Customer Service for Skylight Card — Expert Operational Guide

Contents

1 Customer Service for Skylight Card — Expert Operational Guide

Overview and scope

Skylight Card customer service must simultaneously serve three audiences: new cardholders (activation and setup), active users (transactions, disputes, PIN and card management), and risk/compliance teams (fraud alerts, SARs, KYC). Operational scope includes inbound voice, chat, email, social, and in-app messaging; outbound notifications (SMS/email for declines or fraud); and back-office dispute handling. Typical card programs handle activation volumes that peak on Mondays and at month-end billing cycles, which should drive staffing and IVR routing rules.

From a commercial perspective, customer service impacts retention and chargeback rates. Best-practice programs target first-contact resolution (FCR) of 70–80% and a customer satisfaction (CSAT) score ≥85%. For context, card issuers that reduce average speed-to-answer to under 60 seconds and maintain a 6–8 minute average handle time (AHT) often see 10–20% improvement in retention year-over-year.

Contact channels, SLAs and sample routing

A multichannel approach is essential: 24/7 phone for lost/stolen cards and fraud, business-hours chat for onboarding, email for documentation and appeals, in-app secure messaging for PIN resets and activation, and social monitoring for public issues. All channels should log a ticket in the same CRM (ticket ID) to support omnichannel continuity and audit trails.

Target SLAs by channel (industry-aligned): answer incoming calls within 30–60 seconds; chat wait under 2 minutes; email first response within 4 business hours (24 hours maximum); in-app secure messages first response within 2 business hours for priority tickets. Escalation timelines should be explicit: Tier 1 resolves within 24 hours, Tier 2 within 72 hours, and compliance/legal escalations within 5 business days.

Essential contact endpoints (example placeholders): Phone (US toll-free): 1-800-555-0123; Emergency fraud line (24/7): 1-800-555-0199; Support email: [email protected]; Web support portal: https://support.skylightcard.example. Use these as templates when designing IVR prompts and on-card documentation.

Routing rules: route any “lost/stolen” or “fraud” keywords immediately to an emergency queue staffed 24/7; route activation questions to onboarding queue with scripted verification; route disputes and chargeback inquiries to a dedicated disputes team with case-management SLA of 45–90 calendar days depending on issuer network rules.

Common issues and detailed resolution workflows

Activation and delivery: Verification requires name, DOB, last 4 of SSN (or local equivalent), and the activation code printed on the card mailer. Typical delivery window for a physical Skylight Card is 5–10 business days; expedited shipping (1–2 business days) should be an upsell priced at $24.95. If a card is not delivered by day 10, the workflow is: confirm address, re-issue card, schedule trace with fulfillment partner, and provide a temporary virtual card when possible.

Lost/stolen and fraud handling: Immediate steps for agents: authenticate using two customer identifiers, place a card block in the switch within the first 90 seconds of verification, issue a temporary virtual card for recurring payments, and open a fraud case. Replacement windows: standard replacement 3–7 business days (fee typically $7.95), expedited replacement 1–2 business days (fee typically $24.95). For disputed transactions, collect merchant name, date, amount, geolocation (if available), and authorization code; submit to issuing processor within network chargeback timelines (Visa/Mastercard rules commonly require submission within 45–120 days depending on case type).

Compliance, fraud prevention, and data handling

Skylight Card customer service must operate under PCI-DSS and applicable local privacy laws (e.g., GLBA in the U.S., GDPR in the EU where relevant). Do not store full PANs in the CRM; use tokenization and display only the last four digits. Implement role-based access controls, session logging, and a quarterly access review. Encryption-at-rest and TLS 1.2+ in transit are minimum technical controls.

Fraud detection: deploy real-time velocity and device-fingerprint checks; block rules for unusual geographies or consecutive declines; integrate a 24/7 monitoring feed that raises alerts at a defined threshold (for example, 5 rapid-fire declines or transactions >$1,000 within 24 hours). Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) must be handled per jurisdictional rules—U.S. SARs are typically filed with FinCEN and often follow internal investigation windows (file within 30 days of initial detection for full narrative where applicable).

Reporting, KPIs, staffing and resourcing

Key monthly KPIs: contact rate (%) = contacts / active cards (target 0.5–1.5%), FCR 70–80%, CSAT ≥85%, AHT 6–9 minutes for voice, escalation rate <5%, dispute rate <0.5% of transactions. Dashboards should include channel-by-channel volumes, root-cause categories, fraud case counts, replacement card counts, and SLA compliance trends. Track cost-per-contact; typical outsourced voice contact cost ranges from $3–$18 depending on geography and complexity.

Staffing formula (practical example): assume 100,000 active cards, expected monthly contact rate 1% → 1,000 contacts/month → ~50 contacts/day. With 8-hour shifts and occupancy target of 70%, you would staff ~6–8 full-time agents to cover phone/chat lanes, plus 2–3 back-office specialists for disputes and compliance. Scale by peak multipliers (1.5x for Monday/month-end peaks) and factor in training and shrinkage (20–30%).

Scripts, templates and escalation matrix

Keep short, verified scripts for safety: Phone opening — “Thank you for calling Skylight Card Support. This is [Agent]. For security, please confirm full name and last 4 digits of your Skylight Card.” For fraud confirmation — “I will place a hold on your card immediately and issue a temporary virtual card. Can you confirm the last charge you did not authorize?” Use templated emails for disputes that request receipts, dates, merchant names, and a signed affidavit when required.

Sample escalation matrix: Tier 1 (frontline agents) — resolve activation, PIN resets, simple declines. Tier 2 (specialists) — disputes, refunds, re-issue cards, chargeback submission. Tier 3 (fraud/compliance/legal) — SAR review, complex litigation holds, regulatory reporting. Include SLA timers in the ticketing system to auto-escalate at 24/48/72 hours.

Common email subject lines and ticket subjects: “Urgent: Lost/Stolen Card — Block Request [Ticket ID]”, “Dispute Submission — Transaction [MM/DD/YYYY] — [Amount]”, “Card Activation Assistance — Activation Code [XXXXXX]”. These conventions reduce triage time and speed routing by 30–40%.