Refy Customer Service: Operational Playbook

Contents

1 Refy Customer Service: Operational Playbook

Executive summary

This document is a practical, implementable customer service plan tailored for Refy. It focuses on measurable targets, staffing models, channel design, escalation procedures, and tooling choices. The goal: achieve a CSAT ≥ 85%, First Contact Resolution (FCR) ≥ 75%, and Net Promoter Score (NPS) ≥ 40 within 12 months while keeping cost per contact (CPC) below $10 on average.

All numbers below are operational targets informed by industry norms for SaaS and consumer brands between 2018–2025; where specific values are shown as examples (phone, address, website) they are prefixed with “example” to avoid misrepresentation. Use this as a blueprint you can adapt to traffic, product complexity, and regional requirements.

Service channels and coverage

Design a multichannel support offering that balances cost and customer expectations: email for complex cases, live chat for rapid sales and troubleshooting, phone for escalations and refunds, and a self-service knowledge base for repeatable issues. Target service hours should reflect your customer geography: for a US-centric product, begin with 8am–10pm ET (14 hours) and scale to 24/7 as volume and revenue justify it.

Channel-level SLAs should be concrete. Suggested SLAs: chat response <60 seconds, phone hold <90 seconds, email initial response <4 hours, and resolution-oriented SLA for priority issues of 24–72 hours depending on severity. Use the list below to formalize channel commitments and staffing tradeoffs.

Channel SLA summary (recommended): Live chat — response <60s, FCR target 70–80%; Phone — answer rate ≥80% within 90s, FCR target 75–85%; Email — initial response ≤4 hours, average handle time (AHT) 30–90 minutes per ticket; Self-service — article deflection target 25–40% of inbound volume.

KPIs, SLAs and reporting

Track a small set of high-impact KPIs daily and weekly: CSAT (post-contact) target ≥85%, NPS quarterly target ≥40, FCR ≥75%, AHT by channel (chat 6–12 min, phone 8–15 min), and CPC <$10. Monthly dashboards should include volume by channel, backlog, SLA breaches, top 10 case types, and trending root causes. Establish monthly executive reviews with a one-page highlight showing KPI trends and two recommended corrective actions.

Operationalize quality by sampling 5–10% of resolved tickets for QA scoring across empathy, resolution completeness, and compliance. Establish SLA penalties internally (e.g., coaching, reduced shift allocation) rather than punitive customer-facing policies. Aim to close 90% of severity-1 issues within 24 hours and 95% of severity-2 within 72 hours.

Team structure, hiring and cost model

Staffing should be driven by peak concurrent contacts. Use Erlang-C modeling for precise headcount; as a simplified rule, 1000 incoming tickets/day across channels typically requires 18–28 full-time agents (mix of chat, phone, email) plus 3–5 leads and 1–2 workforce planners. Plan for 20% shrinkage (breaks, training, meetings) when calculating coverage.

Cost out a baseline: entry-level agent fully loaded (salary + benefits + tools) ~ $55,000/year ($4,583/month), experienced agent ~$75,000/year. For a 25-agent team, annual personnel cost ~ $1.4M–$1.9M. Add technology and outsourcing contingency: CRM/license $20–$50 per agent/month, telephony $10–$30 per agent/month, and third-party escalation partners or overflow at $2–$6 per ticket. Consider a premium support tier for enterprise customers at $9.99–$49.99/month or per-incident fees of $49–$299 depending on urgency and SLA.

Technology stack and automation

Choose a CRM that supports omnichannel routing, SLA enforcement, and automation. Examples include solutions with mature APIs and workforce management: Zendesk, Salesforce Service Cloud, or Freshdesk. Integrate telephony (WebRTC/SIP), chatbots for intent triage, and a knowledge base that supports contextual suggestions in the agent UI. Budget $20–$40 per agent/month for core SaaS tools; expect an initial integration project of 4–8 weeks with an implementation budget of $10k–$60k depending on customization.

Implement automation where it reduces handle time without reducing quality: auto-triage to tag and route tickets, macros for common replies, and a bot that deflects 15–35% of simple queries (password resets, order status). Monitor bot deflection accuracy and ensure seamless handoffs to humans with full context to preserve CSAT.

Escalation, quality assurance and legal/compliance

Define a three-tier escalation matrix: Tier 1 (general agents) resolve 70–80% of tickets; Tier 2 (product specialists) handle 18–25%; Tier 3 (engineering/exec) handle <5% and focus on root causes. Escalation SLAs: Tier 2 acknowledge within 2 business hours, Tier 3 response within 24 hours. Maintain a published escalation contact list for internal use with phone and Slack channels to expedite critical issues.

QA must be continuous: weekly coaching, monthly calibration sessions, and quarterly policy audits. If you handle payments or PII, ensure SOC 2 readiness and GDPR/CCPA compliance: maintain documented data retention policies, encryption standards, and clear consent flows. For legal-sensitive cases (chargebacks, litigation), route to a named legal contact within 48 hours for review.

90-day implementation checklist

Days 0–14: Baseline metrics collection (volume, AHT, CSAT), choose CRM and telephony vendors, publish channel SLAs, and set up sample dashboards.

Days 15–45: Hire initial agents to cover core hours (target 70–80% of projected volume), implement knowledge base with top 25 articles, deploy chat widget and email routing, and configure SLA alerts.

Days 46–90: Launch quality program, integrate a chatbot for simple deflection, finalize escalation matrix and run 2 tabletop drills for severity-1 incidents, and move to continuous improvement cadences (weekly ops, monthly exec review).

Contact and example information

Operational teams should publish a single source of truth for contacts and hours. Example contact placeholders (replace with real data): Support phone +1 (415) 555-0123 (example), Support email [email protected], HQ example address: 123 Refy Plaza, San Francisco, CA 94105 (example), website https://www.refy.com (example). Ensure these are validated and localized before public use.

Final recommendation: run a 90-day pilot with measurable success criteria (CSAT lift, SLA attainment, cost per contact), iterate based on data, and scale staffing and hours only after sustained improvements. This disciplined, metrics-driven approach will help Refy deliver reliable, efficient, and empathetic customer support while controlling costs and driving product improvements derived from real customer feedback.