Today Cash — Customer Service Operational Guide and Best Practices

Executive overview

Today Cash is positioned as a same-day consumer cash service (wallet funding, expedited ACH, and small-dollar advances). This document summarizes pragmatic customer-service design, staffing, metrics, and escalation flows to achieve a dependable experience for 250,000 monthly users and reduce churn below 2% per month. The guidance below assumes a service mix of free standard transfers (24–48 hours), a $2.99 same-day fee, and a supervised cash-advance product with typical advances of $200–$750 and repayment windows from 14 to 30 days.

Operational success depends on clear SLAs, consistent channel coverage, and measurable quality. We aim for an average First Response Time (FRT) of under 60 seconds for voice, under 30 minutes for chat, and under 4 hours for email; these targets align with aggressive fintech benchmarks that reduce time-to-resolution by roughly 35–50% year-over-year when maintained consistently.

Channels, hours, and staffing

Provide omnichannel coverage: 24/7 in-app chat with a human/AI hybrid, phone support from 7:00–23:00 local time, and email/ticketing for non-urgent requests. For a user base of 250k monthly active customers, recommended baseline staffing is 1 full-time agent per 3,000 MAU during peak hours, which typically translates to 25–40 agents distributed across shifts to cover volume spikes and weekends.

Example contact endpoints you can include on marketing and app pages: phone 1-800-555-0123 (7am–11pm ET), support email [email protected], and customer portal at https://www.todaycash.example/support. For in-person verification or regulatory inquiries, list a compliance address such as: Today Cash, 120 Financial Plaza, Suite 400, Charlotte, NC 28202. Use a local mailing address only for formal notices and escalate time-sensitive disputes via phone.

Channel-specific playbooks

Phone: prioritize speed-to-answer. Implement an IVR that routes “lost/stolen card,” “transaction dispute,” and “account access” to specialized queues. Target Average Handle Time (AHT) of 6–8 minutes for complex disputes and 2–4 minutes for routine balance inquiries. Monitor abandoned call rate; keep it below 5% during business hours.

Chat and email: route chats to live agents when FRT would exceed 60 seconds or the customer types keywords like “claim” or “refund.” For email/ticketing, adopt a 3-tier triage: auto-acknowledge within 5 minutes, agent-level first action within 4 hours, final resolution within 72 hours for complex cases. Use templated responses with variable tokens to reduce response time while preserving personalization.

• Critical KPIs to track weekly: FRT (voice/chat/email), First Contact Resolution (FCR) target ≥78%, Net Promoter Score (NPS) target ≥45, Average Handle Time (AHT), and Customer Effort Score (CES) post-resolution. Track dispute ratio ≤0.15% of transactions and chargeback reversal rate ≥65%.
• Quality controls: sample 5% of calls monthly for QA, score on a 20-point rubric (policy adherence, accuracy, empathy, resolution), and aim for a quality score ≥92%. Use speech analytics to flag trending phrases (e.g., “funds not received,” “unauthorized transaction”) and respond with product fixes within 7–14 days.

Disputes, refunds, and escalation

Define clear dispute windows and evidence requirements: customers have 60 days from transaction date to file a dispute; require transaction ID, date/time, amount, and a short narrative. For same-day disbursements ($2.99 fee), refunds of the fee are discretionary and should follow a documented policy—common practice is fee refund if error is on Today Cash’s side or if funds are not delivered within promised SLA (same-day guarantee under 24 hours) more than 2 business times in a 90-day period.

Escalation path should be three-tiered: Tier 1 frontline agents handle 85% of inquiries; Tier 2 technical specialists (payments, fraud, compliance) resolve 13%; Tier 3 executives or legal handle the remaining 2% (complex disputes, regulatory notices). Maintain an escalation SLA: Tier 1 → Tier 2 within 2 hours for urgent cases; Tier 2 → Tier 3 within 24 hours. Log each escalation with a reference number in the CRM and notify the customer of expected timelines within 60 minutes.

Security, verification, and compliance

Adopt multi-factor authentication (MFA) and transaction-level monitoring. Require two forms of verification for high-risk actions (e.g., payout bank change, withdrawal >$500): knowledge-based question + one-time passcode (OTP) sent via SMS/email. For AML and KYC compliance, collect government ID and proof of address for customers receiving >$2,000 in cumulative advances in a 90-day rolling period.

Retain records for at least 5 years for regulatory audits; store logs, call recordings, and written correspondence encrypted at rest. If you operate across states, maintain state-specific licensing disclosures on the support site—include a compliance contact: [email protected] and a regulatory phone line 1-888-555-9988 for official inquiries.

Self-service, knowledge base, and automation

Build a searchable knowledge base with at least 120 curated articles covering 95% of common queries (account setup, funding timelines, fee schedules, dispute submission). Implement an in-app help widget that surfaces 5 suggested articles based on the screen context; this reduces contact volume by up to 20% when well executed.

Automate routine workflows: automatic refunds for duplicate charges under $10, automated retry logic for failed ACH up to 2 attempts, and prebuilt settlement messages for completed payouts. Track automation coverage and set a quarterly objective to increase automated resolution rate by 5 percentage points.