Total 525 words used.
Org Intro:
N-able's Technical Support team provides 24x7x365 technical assistance to our ~25,000 MSP partner base covering ~18 core applications and numerous integrations worldwide. This 250-person team works across offices globally.
The pandemic brought unprecedented challenges to businesses worldwide, and N-able was no exception. With the rapid deployment of new products, this 2019 Stevie Award winning support team faced increased pressure to keep up the pace. However, significant attrition, poor training, declining morale, and rising volume resulted in reduced support quality; the team took notice and realised, this needed to change.
Achievements:
In response to declining support performance, we began a multi-year program to implement a new structure, emphasizing skills development and expertise aligned with product teams, coupled with the introduction of an escalation management team. We restructured training to hands-on mentoring and formalized comprehensive onboarding programs that empowered managers down to technicians. A renewed rewards and recognition program and a strategic hiring shift prioritizing our cultural fit resulted in building teams with the right skills, countering the loss of tribal knowledge and attrition. Lastly, a comprehensive escalation management program was introduced to manage and reduce escalations.
These efforts paid off, and our Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) improved starting in April 2023 rising above 90% and we closed 2023 with 36 consecutive weeks over 90% CSAT goal. Attrition numbers dropped, employee satisfaction improved significantly over the previous year, escalation volume dropped by almost 40%, and support quality ceased to be a driver for partner churn.
Today, support cases route to the right technician, with advanced expertise that allows them to resolve issues earlier, elevating the partner experience. Resolving cases sooner prevents backlog getting out of control and keeps volumes manageable. Managers are now leveraging new tools and processes to avoid escalation and negative partner experiences. When our offices reopened following the pandemic, it recreated a robust collaborative spirit which fosters a sense of one team and has set the stage for the next phase of success.
Significance:
The design for the new org structure was done in a very short period between September 2022 and December 2022. It involved assessing technician knowledge and aptitudes against current product offerings, aligning vital skillsets to each of our products into five individual pods. Managers were stretched at the time covering multiple products, and a full re-org at the leadership level was also required. Training needed to be redeveloped to fill the gaps left by attrition and the regrouping of teams by product had to be completed by January 1st, 2023, for deployment.
The timing was significant as it was the launch date of a new product subscription service, Premium Support. The team was reorganized, training started, and we were ready for launch on time. The change took a quarter to begin returning results. Processes were revised to meet the new structure, and by April, key KPIs began to rise, which started the longest CSAT streak in the history of N-able of over 90%.
When the project began, it was expected to deliver results by Q3, and the team beat that estimate by an entire quarter—empowering us to excellence and evolution for our MSP partners, as one team.
Nomination Title: N-able Support: Empowered Excellence and Evolution
