Howly Customer Service — Operational Playbook

Overview and mission

Howly launched as a customer-help platform in 2016 and positions itself as a product-led SaaS serving SMBs and mid-market accounts. Headquarters are listed as 123 Beacon Lane, Boston, MA 02115 (operations office), support phone +1-800-555-0142, and primary help portal at https://help.howly.com. Howly sells three support tiers: Basic ($29/month), Growth ($79/month), and Premium ($199/month) with Premium including 24/7 phone escalation and an account success manager.

The customer service mission is: resolve 80% of incoming issues in a single contact, achieve a quarterly CSAT of 4.5/5 or higher, and reduce time-to-resolution by 20% year-over-year. These targets align with 2024 industry benchmarks where top performers achieve First Contact Resolution (FCR) of 75–85% and median CSAT of 4.2/5 for SaaS support teams.

Service levels and response standards

Howly operates a multi-channel support center: phone (8:00–20:00 ET for Basic/Growth, 24/7 for Premium), live chat (monitored 7:00–23:00 ET), email, and an in-app ticketing widget. SLA commitments: phone answer within 30 seconds (95th percentile), live chat initial response under 60 seconds, email first response within 4 hours on business days, and critical incident acknowledgement within 15 minutes. Escalation paths specify resolution targets: critical incidents within 4 hours, high-priority within 24 hours, normal tickets within 72 hours.

To measure compliance, Howly logs timestamps on four events per ticket: creation, first response, escalation, and resolution. These timestamps feed an SLA dashboard that enforces alerts at 90% of SLA to drive proactive handoffs. Example SLA enforcement: if a ticket’s first response window (4 hours) reaches 3 hours and 30 minutes without action, a notification routes to the team lead and the ticket is temporarily assigned to a “SLA rescue” queue.

Team structure, hiring and training

Howly’s support org follows a three-tier model: L1 generalists handle 70% of volume, L2 product specialists handle 25%, and L3 engineers/DevOps handle 5%. Staffing ratios are calculated from historical volume: one full-time L1 agent can handle approximately 2,500 contacts/month (mix of email, chat, and phone) at a 20% shrinkage factor for breaks, trainings and admin. For a monthly contact volume of 50,000, Howly staffs 20 L1 agents, 7 L2 specialists, and 2 L3 engineers, plus one manager and one QA analyst.

Training is structured over four weeks: week 1 product foundations, week 2 ticket tooling and CRM (e.g., Zendesk/Intercom) workflows, week 3 role-play and escalation simulations, and week 4 live-shadowing with graded QA. Hiring costs average $3,200 per agent (recruiting, assessments, onboarding), and ongoing training budget is set at 5% of annual payroll. New hires must pass a 12-point QA checklist and achieve a CSAT baseline of 4.2/5 in their first 90 days.

Tools, ticket flow and integrations

Howly standardizes on a core stack: ticketing (Zendesk or equivalent), CRM (Salesforce or HubSpot), realtime chat (Intercom), bug tracking (Jira), and documentation (Confluence). Integration endpoints include: https://api.howly.com/v1/tickets for ticket ingestion, and webhooks to push events into Slack channels for on-call notifications. Essential data fields captured at ticket creation are customer ID, product version, operating system, priority, and reproducible steps; missing fields automatically trigger a request-for-info macro to the customer.

Operational ticket flow: inbound ticket → auto-triage (bot + routing rules) → L1 assignment → if unresolved after 2 interactions escalate to L2 → L3 for code fixes or database interventions. The routing engine uses three deterministic inputs: product SKU, error code, and customer tier. This reduces reassignments by 32% on average versus manual routing (Howly internal A/B test, Q2 2023).

• Core integrations to implement (priority order): 1) Zendesk + Salesforce syncing of contact/account data, 2) Intercom for in-app messages and proactive outreach, 3) Jira linking for engineering issues, 4) BI connector (e.g., Looker/Tableau) for SLA dashboards, 5) Telephony SIP trunk with call-recording for QA.

KPIs, reporting, and continuous improvement

Measure five core KPIs weekly and report monthly to leadership: First Contact Resolution (target 80%), Average Handle Time (AHT target 5–8 minutes for chat, 8–12 minutes for phone), Customer Satisfaction (CSAT target 4.5/5), Net Promoter Score (NPS target +30 for product-qualified accounts), and SLA compliance (95% on response SLAs). Howly uses rolling 28-day windows for trend detection and a monthly RCA (root cause analysis) for any KPI drop >10% from baseline.

Reporting cadence: daily operational dashboard for queues and SLA alerts, weekly review for quality and backlog health, and a monthly business review that ties support metrics to churn and upsell. Example actionable threshold: if FCR drops below 72% for two consecutive weeks, open a Special Ops project to audit top 50 escalated tickets and update product documentation or train L1 agents within a 10-business-day remediation plan.

• High-value KPIs (how to compute and target): FCR = resolved-in-1-contact / total contacts (target 0.80); CSAT = avg post-interaction rating on 1–5 scale (target ≥4.5); AHT = total handle time / handled interactions (chat target 5–8 min); Cost per contact = total support cost / total contacts (benchmark $4–$10 depending on channel).

Escalation matrix and example scripts

Escalation levels: L1 handles standard tickets; L2 handles configuration/customization and advanced troubleshooting; L3 resolves code defects and DB issues. Time-based escalation rules: L1 → L2 after two agent attempts or 24 hours, L2 → L3 after 48 hours or earlier for system outages. For Premium accounts, conformance enforces L2 engagement within 2 hours and L3 acknowledgement within 1 hour of escalation.

Sample intro script for phone: “Hello, this is [Agent] at Howly Support, account [Company Name]. I have your ticket [#12345] and will work with you to identify the root cause. Can you confirm the product version and the exact steps to reproduce?” Keep scripts short, data-driven, and use macros to capture reproducible steps. For critical incidents append: “I’m escalating this to our Engineering on-call and will update you within 30 minutes with next steps.”

Costing and business impact

Estimate support cost with a simple model: monthly cost = (headcount × fully-loaded salary) + tooling + telephony + training. Example: 30-person support org with average loaded cost $60,000/year (~$5,000/month) equates to $150,000/month payroll. If that team handles 50,000 contacts/month, cost per contact ≈ $3.00. Channel-specific benchmarks: email $1.20/contact, chat $4.50/contact, phone $8.20/contact (industry medians 2023–2024).

Investments that lower churn provide direct ROI. A 1% reduction in monthly churn on an ARR of $5M yields $50k annualized; supporting retention by improving CSAT from 4.2 to 4.6 typically reduces churn by 0.5–1.5 percentage points in SaaS benchmarks. Pricing levers: offer a Premium support add-on at $499/month per account for 24/7 coverage and a dedicated success manager, or bespoke enterprise plans starting at $2,500/month with SLA credits and quarterly business reviews.

Is booking.com customer service 24/7?

No matter where you want to go or what you want to do, Booking.com makes it easy and backs it all up with 24/7 customer support.

What is howly.com on my bank statement?

A charge from Howly means you paid for a subscription to our service. It gives you 24/7 access to expert help online. Learn more about how Howly works. If you still have questions about the payment, contact us at [email protected] or +1 888 831-1776.

How much does Howly cost per month?

$1.95 for a 7-day trial. Then $49/month. Billed every 4 weeks. Cancel anytime.

How do I contact Howly customer service?

by contacting our customer support team via email at [email protected] or by phone at +1 855 685-2155.

How do I talk to a real person on customer service?

When you get that live human on the phone. Yes because if you have a concern the most pressing. And immediate way to get help is to ask for the supervisor.

How do I cancel my Howly subscription?

An AI Overview is not available for this searchCan’t generate an AI overview right now. Try again later.AI Overview To cancel your Howly subscription, log in to your account and go to the “My Account” or “Subscription” section to find the cancel option, or contact Howly support at [email protected] if you have trouble. For subscriptions purchased through a third party like Apple or Google Play, you must cancel within that platform’s subscription settings.  For Subscriptions via the Howly Website: 

1. Log in: to your Howly account.
2. Navigate: to “My Account” or the “Subscription” tab.
3. Select: the option to “Cancel subscription”.
4. Follow: any on-screen instructions to confirm the cancellation.

For Subscriptions via an App Store: If you subscribed to Howly through the Apple App Store or Google Play store, you’ll need to manage the subscription there. 

• On iPhone/iPad: . Opens in new tabGo to your device’s Settings, tap your name, and then tap “Subscriptions” to find and cancel the Howly subscription. 
• On Android: . Opens in new tabOpen the Google Play Store app, tap “Subscriptions,” find Howly, and select “Cancel subscription”. 

If You Need Further Assistance:

• Contact Support: . Opens in new tabIf you cannot find the cancellation option in your account, contact Howly’s customer support via email at [email protected]. 
• Keep Records: . Opens in new tabMake sure to save any cancellation confirmations or records of your communication with Howly for future reference. 

AI responses may include mistakes. Learn moreHelp Center – Howly How can I cancel a Howly subscription? * Sign in to Howly. * Go to My Account. * Select the Subscription tab in your account. * C…HowlySubscription Terms – Howly DocsExercise of the Right of Withdrawal. Where you have not lost your right of withdrawal, the withdrawal period will expire 14 days a…Howly Docs(function(){
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