THE CHALLENGE
Our client, a leading global subscription-based Mobile Photo Editing Application (SaaS), was struggling to manage the demands of its massive and rapidly expanding user base across iOS and Android. The quality of support, delivered primarily via email, was directly affecting the application’s public ratings and, subsequently, new user acquisition.
Key challenges included:
- Rating Erosion due to Device Bugs: A high volume of support requests related to app crashes, slow performance, and rendering issues were device-specific (e.g., certain Android models). This technical complexity overwhelmed general support agents, leading to slow resolution and a drop in the average App Store rating.
- Volume Volatility & Asynchronous Demand: Support volumes spiked unpredictably after marketing campaigns, requiring immediate, scalable 24/7 staffing to handle the influx of high-priority and complex email tickets. This asynchronous channel required deep subject matter expertise to resolve issues efficiently on the first touch, minimizing email tag-backs.
- Closing the Feedback Loop: The client needed a mechanism to quickly identify critical bugs and popular feature requests from support channels and communicate them back to the product team effectively.
- Retention is King: The primary goal was to improve the first 90 days of the user journey, ensuring early technical hiccups didn’t translate into subscription churn.
OUR SOLUTIONS
Building Team
Technical Onboarding: Agents underwent rigorous training on mobile operating systems, including how to read and interpret basic crash logs (e.g., stack traces, device specs), allowing for accurate bug reporting to engineering.
App Store Ambassador Training: Agents were trained on “Rating Rescue” protocols—a specific workflow to intercept negative sentiment, offer technical resolution, and politely request users to revise their public App Store reviews.
Email Support Operations
Email Queue Prioritization & ERT Focus: We implemented advanced queue management and ticket tagging to prioritize high-value and churn-risk users. We achieved an industry-leading Average Email Response Time (ERT) of under 1.1 hours on critical tickets, ensuring immediate acknowledgment and the first round of troubleshooting steps.
Knowledge Integration
We established a direct feed from the client’s bug tracking system to our BPO knowledge base. If a bug was reported as “fixed,” all agents were instantly notified and provided with the new troubleshooting steps, closing the knowledge gap immediately.
Proactive Retention
The team actively monitored the “3rd Ticket Rule”: Any user submitting a third unique support ticket within 90 days was flagged for proactive retention outreach (e.g., offering a free month or a personalized video tutorial) to prevent churn.
THE RESULTS
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
From 80% to 91% on the monthly average.
App Store Avg. Rating (Combined)
+ 800 reviews on the App Store and Google Play after 5 months and reached 4.7 star.
Subscription Growth
15% increase in gross new monthly subscriptions after 4 months.
