The Brand

Industry: Marketing Automation SaaS
Users: ~25,000 monthly active
Team: ~150 employees
Ticketing System: Intercom software
Channels: Email + in-app support
Support Hours Needed: 09:00–17:00 UK time
Daily Ticket Volume: 90–140 tickets/day

The Situation Before

The company relied on 3 internal support agents, each juggling Tier 1, Tier 2, and product tasks.

They were struggling with:

• Ticket spikes after product releases

• No clear ownership between Tier 1 vs Tier 2

• Macros outdated or unused

• Long first-response times during afternoons

• Support manager stuck writing replies instead of improving the team

• Tone inconsistent across agents

• No documentation, no QA, no clear structure

Key issue:
Support quality depended on “who was on shift,” not a process.

Why They Came to Talnificant

They didn’t want to hire more UK staff for Tier 1.

They wanted:

• predictable SLAs

• stable coverage

• cleaner escalations

• helpdesk structure and cleanup

• affordable support that didn’t need micromanagement

• a Tier 1 layer so internal team could focus on technical issues

A. 7-days-go-live

1. Playbook Setup

We built a Tier 1 playbook using 20–40 past tickets, covering:

• the 6 biggest categories

• tone rules

• correct do/don’t examples

• clear escalation triggers

• expected answers per category

2. Helpdesk Setup

We reorganised:

• categories

• tags

• priority rules

• macro structure

We created 10–12 simple, clean macros for:

• login problems

• basic setup questions

• integration confusion

• billing basics (under client rules)

• “stuck campaign” troubleshooting

• general navigation issues

3. Agent Training

Agents were trained on:

• product basics

• past ticket patterns

• macro usage

• escalation logic

• tone & messaging style

4. Daily Syncs

10 minutes per day with the client’s Support Manager. Each day accuracy improved.

Outcome after 7 days:
Agents ready for soft launch with proper tone, categorisation, and escalation behaviour.

B. 4-Week Operational Model

We deployed:

• 3 Tier 1 seats

• Shared team lead

• Full Tier 1 ownership

• UK business hours (09:00–17:00)

Structure included:

• Daily QA during Week 1–2

• Weekly operations review

• Macro audits every week

• Trend spotting and issue tracking

• Respecting client’s escalation rules

Talnificant handled:

• response quality

• escalation accuracy

• tone consistency

• ticket triage

• daily reporting

• weekly summaries

C. Backlog Recovery Program

Initial backlog: 389 tickets

Mostly:

• old integration questions

• half-completed troubleshooting

• retry requests

• billing confusions

• stuck marketing campaigns

Our recovery plan:

• re-categorisation

• rebuilt 5 fast-resolution macros

• simplified P1/P2/P3

• 20–30 min daily backlog sprint

• team lead handled exceptions

Outcome:

Backlog reduced within 10–12 days and stabilised by Week 3

Results After 30 Days

Before Talnificant

• FRT: 8–12 hours

• Resolution Time: 2–3 days

• CSAT: 78%

• Backlog: ~389 tickets

• Escalation chaos: too much Tier 2 load

After 30 Days

• FRT: 1–2 hours

• Resolution Time: same day for most Tier 1

• CSAT: 90–92%

• Backlog: cleared by Week 3

• 40% fewer escalations

• Internal team regained 20–30 hours/week

Business Impact

For the Support Manager

• predictable workflow

• cleaner escalations

• weekly insights → product team gets clearer bugs

• stress dropped noticeably

• didn’t need to hire extra UK agents

For the Company

• lower cost

• more stable customer experience

• fewer churn-related complaints

• better structure → easier to scale later