Viacord Customer Service — Expert Operational Guide

Overview and Purpose

Viacord customer service supports a high-touch product/service environment where traceability, promptness and data privacy are core. The function must reliably handle inbound inquiries (phone, email, chat), outbound follow-ups, technical escalations and fulfillment coordination. In practice this means designing a center that operates 7 days/week with documented SLAs, clear escalation paths and an integrated CRM that preserves audit trails for every customer interaction.

Operational objectives should be explicit: average speed to answer (ASA) under 60 seconds for phone, first contact resolution (FCR) ≥75%, and customer satisfaction (CSAT) ≥88% measured by post-interaction surveys. Those targets align with best-practice service in regulated B2C/B2B environments and allow prioritization of staffing, training and automation investments.

Contact Channels, Hours and Example Contact Information

Provide omnichannel access: a toll-free phone line, monitored email, asynchronous SMS, secure web portal and live chat. Recommended hours are 8:00–20:00 local time (customer-facing) and 24/7 on-call for critical escalations. Use an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) tree to route to triage teams for urgent cases and to self-service resources for routine requests.

• Example contact set-up (template): Phone: +1-800-555-0123 (US, example); Email: [email protected]; Web portal: https://portal.viacord-example.com (secure login); SMS short code: 27555 for status updates. Clearly indicate these as operational channels and test quarterly for uptime.
• Hours & SLA routing: Business hours (8:00–20:00) staffed for full coverage; off-hours routed to 24/7 on-call via escalation. Urgent tickets (life-impacting or critical service failure) require response within 60 minutes and resolution plan within 4 hours; non-urgent tickets resolved within 48–72 hours.

Service Levels, Pricing and Tiers

Design tiered service offerings for standard and premium customers. A typical commercial model: standard support included with purchase, email/portal only; premium support at $49/month per account or $199 one-time setup for a dedicated account manager and 24/7 phone access. For enterprise customers offer SLA-backed contracts with penalties, e.g., uptime guarantee 99.9% and response under 30 minutes for P1 incidents.

When pricing support, include cost components: labor (FTE hourly cost), tooling (CRM, telephony, knowledge base), training and compliance. Example budgeting: each full-time agent at a blended loaded cost of $60,000/year supports roughly 1,400–1,800 monthly interactions; outsourced or offshore options can reduce labor cost by 20–40% but add management overhead and potential quality variance.

Processes, Ticketing and Escalation Paths

Implement a single-source-of-truth ticketing system (e.g., Salesforce Service Cloud, Zendesk, Freshdesk) configured with mandatory fields: customer ID, product/kit serial, incident type, priority and SLA timers. Tickets should auto-assign by skills-based routing and include required attachments for verification. Standardize priority definitions: P1 (critical), P2 (high), P3 (normal), P4 (low) with measurable SLA clocks.

Escalation must be two-step: first to a senior technical agent at 30–60 minutes for P1/P2 and second to an incident manager within 4 hours. Maintain an incident playbook with contact matrices (names, emails, phone numbers) that is updated monthly. Log all customer-visible communications and internal actions for audit, with resolution notes and time-stamped attachments.

Training, Knowledge Management and Quality Assurance

Agents should complete a structured curriculum: 40 hours onboarding (product fundamentals, compliance, CRM usage), 16 hours shadowing, and weekly 1-hour refresh sessions. Maintain a knowledge base (KB) with searchable articles, SOPs and decision trees; update the KB after every recurring ticket cluster. Use call recording and QA scorecards that evaluate accuracy, empathy, compliance and resolution completeness.

Quality targets: QA pass rate ≥90% and average handle time (AHT) 6–12 minutes for voice, 30–90 minutes for email (case lifecycle). Review a statistically valid sample of interactions (minimum 5% of weekly interactions or 200 interactions/month, whichever is higher) and feed findings into training and the KB within 72 hours of QA completion.

Regulatory Compliance, Data Security and Privacy

If Viacord handles regulated personal or health-related data, design processes to meet HIPAA (US) or GDPR (EU) standards: encryption at rest and in transit (TLS 1.2+), role-based access control, automated retention policies and routine penetration testing. Maintain Business Associate Agreements (BAAs) with vendors and log access for 3–7 years depending on jurisdiction.

Operationally, implement mandatory data-handling scripts for agents: never record credit card numbers verbatim, use tokenization for payment flows, and require customer consent prior to sharing sensitive information. Conduct annual security awareness training and quarterly phishing simulations; document outcomes and remediation steps.

Performance Metrics, Reporting and Continuous Improvement

Track a mix of operational and outcome KPIs: ASA, AHT, FCR, CSAT, Net Promoter Score (NPS), backlog age, reopen rate and SLA compliance. Example quarterly targets: ASA ≤60s, FCR ≥75%, CSAT ≥88%, SLA compliance ≥95%. Publish a monthly operations dashboard with trend lines and root-cause analysis for any metric deviation.

• Recommended reporting cadence: daily operational snapshot (queue depth, ASA, P1 count); weekly trend review (AHT, FCR, quality scores); monthly strategic review (CSAT, NPS, cost-per-contact, staffing forecasts). Use these reports to adjust staffing (WFM models), update KB content and prioritize development of automation (chatbot answer increases to reduce live-contact volume by 15–30%).

Implementation Roadmap

Roll out Viacord customer service in three phases over 90 days: Phase 1 (30 days) set up core channels, basic KB, and hire initial team; Phase 2 (30 days) implement CRM workflows, SLAs, QA processes and training; Phase 3 (30 days) add automation, reporting and contractual SLAs for premium tiers. Pilot with a 500-customer cohort to validate assumptions and iterate.

Success criteria for go-live: defined SLAs and playbooks, CRM automation in place, QA program operational and CSAT baseline established (ideally ≥80% in pilot). After go-live, run 30/60/90 day reviews to measure KPIs and reallocate budget or tooling as needed to meet long-term targets.

How long should you keep ViaCord?

How long can cord blood be stored for? To date, there is no evidence that cord blood will ever expire. Recent studies published in Stem Cell Translation Medicine found cryopreserving cord blood stem cells for extended periods doesn’t affect their ability to function effectively.

How do I contact CBR cord blood?

Or you can contact CBR’s Client Services Department at 1.888. 932.6568. For your security, we do not recommend sending any payment information via email or chat.

Is it better to donate or keep cord blood?

We don’t recommend private cord blood banking unless you have a family history of a condition that can be treated with stem cells. However, public cord blood banking might help someone in need. While the chance is still small, it doesn’t cost you anything, and the collection is a noninvasive procedure.

What is the success rate of ViaCord?

88%
ViaCord is the only bank to process and store stem cells from both cord blood and cord tissue in a 5-compartment bag. ViaCord is the only family bank to publish short and long-term survival rates – 88% at 1 year.

Can you cancel ViaCord?

The Account Owner may terminate Cell Banking Services at any time. If Client terminates after ViaCord has begun processing Cord Sample(s), Client will be responsible for all fees associated with processing the Cord Sample(s) and the first year of storage of Newborn Stem Cells.

Is CBR cord blood legit?

Is CBR legit? CBR is an accredited and FDA-registered private cord blood bank. It stores cord blood and cord blood with tissue, which can be used to treat life-threatening conditions. At the time of publication, CBR has helped over 700 families use their cord blood stem cells for treatment.