Hume Customer Service — Expert Operational Guide

Contents

1 Hume Customer Service — Expert Operational Guide

Overview and objectives

This document describes a professional, data-driven customer service model tailored for Hume — whether Hume is a SaaS platform, enterprise AI product, or hardware-enabled service. The primary objectives are to maximize first-contact resolution (FCR), sustain a customer satisfaction (CSAT) score above industry averages, and reduce time-to-value for customers after purchase. Target KPIs should be set early: CSAT 90%+, Net Promoter Score (NPS) +40, and FCR 75–85% within the first 12 months of operation.

Operational objectives must be translated into measurable SLAs and a staffed support plan that scales. Typical timeframes for roll-out are 8–12 weeks for an MVP support center (ticketing, knowledge base, basic chat) and 16–24 weeks for full omnichannel capabilities including 24/7 phone escalation and custom integrations. Budgeting assumptions for an MVP support org start at $25,000–$50,000 one-time implementation and $5,000–$20,000 monthly operating costs depending on volume and tools.

Support channels, SLAs, and escalation

Offer a minimum of three channels: email/ticketing, live chat, and phone escalation. Recommended SLA targets: initial response for severity-1 (system down) tickets within 1 hour, severity-2 (service severely degraded) within 4 hours, and standard tickets within 24 business hours. For live chat, aim for average wait times under 60 seconds during business hours and under 5 minutes with a human or bot-assisted handoff for after-hours.

Escalation paths should be explicit and time-boxed: Level 1 resolves within 4 hours, Level 2 engineering engagement within 8–24 hours, and Level 3 executive review for customer-impact cases within 48 hours. Documentation of these paths belongs in an SLA document signed by customers on enterprise plans. Example contact points (format shown for implementation use): support phone +1 (555) 010-2020 (example), support email [email protected], support portal https://support.example-hume.com.

Operational metrics and reporting

Track the following metrics daily and report them weekly and monthly: CSAT (post-interaction survey), FCR, average handle time (AHT), backlog age distribution (0–24, 24–72, 72+ hours), and ticket volume by channel. Targets: AHT 6–12 minutes for chat/phone and 20–40 minutes for email/case resolution on average. Use a 30/60/90-day cohort analysis to measure churn attributable to support interactions — a best-in-class program should reduce churn by 10–25% over the first year.

Structured reporting should include a monthly executive dashboard with top 5 issues by frequency, time-to-resolution percentiles (P50, P90, P99), and SLA compliance percentage. Example baseline figures to aim for in Year 1: SLA compliance ≥ 92%, CSAT ≥ 88%, NPS ≥ +35. Include root-cause analysis for any P90 breaches and an action plan with owners and deadlines (e.g., “reduce P90 by 30% within 60 days — owner: Head of Support”).

Knowledge base and self-service

Design the self-service portal to deflect 30–50% of incoming requests within 6 months. A knowledge base (KB) should include: 200–500 targeted articles at launch, 50+ short how-to videos (2–5 minutes each) for high-impact workflows, and an index of API error codes with remediation steps. Article health should be measured by “helpful” votes and CTR; retire or update anything with helpful < 30% after 90 days.

Budget and governance: initial KB content creation often costs $8,000–$35,000 depending on depth (freelance technical writers cost $50–$150/hr; internal content at 40–120 hours per major product area). Assign a content owner for regular audits every 30 days and a quarterly content roadmap aligned to product releases. Integrate KB answers into chatbots and in-app help widgets to reduce friction — aim for a 20% increase in self-service success rate after chatbot rollout.

Staffing, training, and technology stack

Staffing should be capacity-modeled using Erlang C or historical ticket forecasts. As a rule of thumb for email/ticket-heavy workloads: 1 full-time agent handles approximately 250–400 tickets per month depending on complexity; for high-touch SaaS with frequent troubleshooting, assume 1 agent per 150–200 tickets. Onboarding: 40 hours of bootcamp (product, support tools, escalation workflows) followed by 60–90 days of supervised shadowing. Ongoing training: 8 hours/month for product updates and soft-skills refreshers.

Recommended technology stack (examples):

Ticketing/CRM: Zendesk or Freshdesk for ticket flows; Salesforce Service Cloud for enterprise integrations.

Chat and voice: Intercom or LivePerson for chat; Twilio Programmable Voice for phone routing and IVR.

Knowledge base: Zendesk Guide, Confluence, or HelpDocs integrated with the chat widget and search API.

Analytics: Looker, Tableau, or built-in reports for SLA and cohort analysis; integrate call recordings and transcripts for QA.

Pricing tiers and service packages

Offer transparent, tiered support plans to match customer needs. Example pricing structure (illustrative): Basic — $49/month per account (email support, 24–48 hour SLA); Pro — $199/month per account (email + chat, 24-hour SLA, KB access); Enterprise — $999/month or custom (24/7 coverage, 1-hour SLA for critical incidents, named technical account manager). Seat-based pricing for per-user support is typical: $15–$35 per user/month for standard help, $50–$200 per user/month for premium managed support.

Include clear add-ons: on-call engineering $1,500/day, quarterly health-check $4,000, dedicated onboarding professional services $6,000–$20,000 depending on complexity. Always publish an SLA appendix with penalties or credits for missed SLAs for enterprise deals; industry norm is service credits up to 10–50% of monthly support fees for repeated breaches.

Implementation timeline and sample contact information

A practical rollout timeline is: Weeks 0–2: requirements and SLA definition; Weeks 3–6: tooling configuration and KB seeding; Weeks 7–12: hiring, training, and pilot launch; Weeks 13–24: scale-up and omnichannel introduction. Milestones should be tied to measurable outcomes (e.g., KB deflection rate, average response time, and customer satisfaction scores at each stage).

Sample headquarters and contact details for operational setup (use these as placeholders when planning agreements): Hume Support Operations, 123 Hume Way, Suite 200, San Francisco, CA 94105 (example). Main support line: +1 (555) 010-2020 (example). Support portal: https://support.example-hume.com (example). Replace placeholders with your legal entity’s real address and phone numbers when finalizing contracts and public-facing pages.