Part 2 of 3: How BOLD’s Client Services Team Organizing Cases and Knowledge Base Articles

by Stephanie Buckley | Feb 22, 2022

bad management concept, disorder and messy organization

Last week we covered what makes BOLD’s Client Services Team so successful. This week’s topic discusses how BOLD manages and categorizes the Case types that come in and the vast amounts of information we use for troubleshooting.

How BOLD Categorizes Incoming Cases and Distributes Among the Team

Organizing Cases

BOLD’s approach to categorizing our Cases is a four-tiered process. Each tier is the method we use to keep our incoming cases organized and pull reporting based on support’s workload.

Tier 1- Customer Type: Our system automatically assigns Cases to either the PRM or Client Services Queue based on the Customer Type field.

Tier 2- Case Type: A general grouping of Cases that can be used to assign these cases to a specific team within the PRM or CS team. For example, BOLD’s Case Type for “Setup/Terminal Builds” can automatically be designated to the team or member who specializes in file builds.

Tier 3- Case Category: Case Category adds more detail to the Case Type. In the example listed above, a file build might pertain to a specific gateway or terminal (i.e.- setting up an Auth.net account or building a Pax file for a partner). This allows us to choose a Case Owner who is more familiar with different boarding systems.

Tier 4- Stage/Category: This tier allows us to track the progression of these Cases. A Case Stage may start at “Awaiting on VAR Information” but can be moved to “Awaiting File Build” once the VAR information comes in.

It is important to note that there are a number of triggers/notifications built into our CRM system that might assign tasks to a team member or send an email to a group based on the selected Case Type or Category.

Distributing Case Categories to Team Members

BOLD’s Case Types and Categories are primarily handled by designated Customer Service Reps who specialize in that topic/field. This allows us to distribute Cases based on current workload and expertise/experience. This also ensures we are not offloading more labor-intensive Cases onto someone who is already at capacity or requires more training.

For example, when we handle more straightforward Cases, such as bank or fee changes, these are distributed to the entire team so every team member gains experience with these types of cases. We do this to give everyone an opportunity to grow into their position. We are a team and work as a team.

The simpler Cases are designated to new team members so they can understand and acclimate themselves with internal systems and day-to-day communication with partners. This provides new reps real-time experience in Case management and builds their confidence as harder Case Categories are assigned to them as they gain more knowledge and experience with cases.

Managing Vast Amounts of Information

There is no doubt that one can drown in the overwhelming information when it comes to point-of-sale and merchant processing. The industry is constantly evolving and so are the regulations. No two cases are alike and that is what makes each partner unique. One approach BOLD has taken to organize this information in order to stay ahead is to rely heavily on a Knowledge Base that we have made available to our internal team and partners.

Internal Knowledge Base Documentation

BOLD isn’t shy when it comes to the upkeep of our internal Knowledge Base. One important rule we have is Document Everything. Whenever someone learns something new, it’s important to document and save it to the Knowledge Base so everyone has a reference if that issue were to come up again. This has cut down the number of internal questions dramatically as our internal rule is always “check the Internal KB”.

Using the Knowledge Base to Cross-Train

BOLD designates one member from the PRM and CS team to manage the articles available for the Knowledge Base. While one person may be in charge for the organization, the entire team is responsible for the information. This allows us to familiarize certain team members with topics by giving them the opportunity to research and write up an article further developing their training.

External Knowledge Base Documentation

Perhaps the biggest benefit our knowledge base provides our partners is that they have access to our research. The knowledge base is readily available with information to help our partners. When creating a knowledge base article, BOLD selects whether to designate the article for internal use only (i.e.- Standard Operating Procedures) or give external partners access (i.e.- steps for troubleshooting error codes).

For example, assuming a partner needs to perform an OS update for a PAX terminal, our partners can simply search our knowledge base or our internal reps can email a link from the Case covering a step-by-step guide to do so (found here). Furthermore, Salesforce can identify similar cases based on history and recommend articles to future reps if the issue were to arise again.

All of the information above is the process we chose to adopt to continue our success with our partners as well as how we manage our cases and information here at BOLD.

Next week we will share our final Blog – Managing Multiple Team members and how to take advantage of our customer feedback tools.

(Coming soon)
Part 3 of 3:
Managing Multiple team members
Taking advantage of the customer feedback tools

Are you an ISV or VAR looking for ways to organize your support team?

Part 1 of 3: The Tools and Unwritten Rules Used by BOLD’s Client Services Team

by Stephanie Buckley | Feb 15, 2022

Managing a successful support team for POS/Merchant Processing can be tricky.

BOLD’s growth over the past 10 years is directly related to the amazing talent we have brought on board, and one team, in particular, is the Client Services (CS) Team. Each CS Team member is trained and mentored by colleagues during their onboarding process. The team has adopted a culture where each person is encouraged to ask and answer questions. This is what makes our client services team so unstoppable and why I am excited to provide an insider’s look into this three-part series as to what makes BOLD Support so powerful.

The main benefits of this blog is to share how our team works and the tools we have found helpful when supporting our partners and merchants.

Multiple Channels for Support

Support via Email

Perhaps the most popular form of opening support cases for our partners is the use of email. Cases that come in via email directly hit our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software and land in a Case Queue managed by our team. Cases that we receive via email provide smoother comprehension and the ability to resolve high-level issues with a sense of urgency. It also allows us to route or assign Cases to team members that specialize in that particular issue cutting down on the Case Age Lifecycle.

Routing of Incoming Emails

While the entire team is responsible for the queue, we have found that assigning one or two people (our “Queue Masters”) to assign Cases to team members drastically reduces the amount of time new Cases go untouched. This helps keep our initial response times within our goal of three hours (depending on the severity of the issue).

BOLD Unwritten Rules

Goldilocks Communication – Not too much, not too little- just right.

Too much information can overwhelm and even confuse a partner/merchant. They might not know the inner workings of a process and to find out may cause stress when it is not needed.
Too little information causes multiple attempts to communicate. Questions come up and partners are left unsure if what we’ve told them is verifying/answering their question completely.

Tools
Salesforce (Service Cloud)
Email to Case

Support via Phone

Support over the phone allows us to build a personal connection with our partners. Not all ISVs and VARs have the time to pick up the phone to call into a support number, but a verbal conversation is the preferred method for many of our partners.

Giving the Right Answer over the Phone

The Client Service’s job is to provide our partners with an answer or resolution when they need it. However, in such a technical industry dealing with various point-of-sale softwares, we have trained our team that there is nothing wrong with saying “I do not have an answer for that now, but let me speak to someone that can answer that right away.” Providing service just based on the speed of response can sometimes cultivate a culture where the first answer is not always the correct answer. We encourage due diligence to alleviate future headaches for our partners and their merchants.

Routing of Incoming Call

Similar to our email system, incoming calls also end up in a phone queue. Each team member is responsible for logging into the queue when available and out of the queue when they are away from their desk. Each team member has visibility as to which rep is available and makes sure the phones are covered before logging out. Depending on the prompts the user selects when calling, the call is routed to the proper channel based on severity of the call. Should a voicemail be left, the reporting and transcript immediately hit our email Case queue described above where it is assigned to the first available representative.

During uncommon times when the calls outnumber our available reps, BOLD has integrated a solution that allows our busy partners the chance to remain in the queue while they await a callback. When this solution is used, our phone system immediately rings the first available representative and, when answered, automatically places an outbound call to the partner.

BOLD Unwritten Rules

It’s okay to say that you’re not sure, and want to find out that information for them. Trying to answer incorrectly or beating around the bush because you want to perceive you are “all-knowledgeable” is a waste of the partner’s and your time.
- Find the answer quickly – don’t keep them on hold – offer to call them back once you have found an answer. If they would rather hold, great! Check back every 5 minutes or so to gain trust

Tools
GoTo Connect
Salesforce

Portal/Online Support

Opening Cases via Online Forms

Another popular channel for our partners opening a Case with BOLD is our partner portal. Perhaps the largest benefit this has for the Client Services team is the fact that incoming Cases can be automatically categorized and assigned to the proper channel bypassing our Email Queue. Depending on the form being filled out, our System can predefine the Case Category and walk the partner through necessary fields for opening the Case.

Providing a Partner Knowledge Base

Along with the ability to open Cases, a knowledge base (linked here) is available for our partners to quickly find documents, QRGs, and answers cutting down on the amount of inbound calls/emails our services team receives.

Tools
Salesforce Communities
Salesforce Knowledge Base

(Coming Soon)

Part 2

How BOLD Categorizes and Organizes Incoming Cases
Managing Vast Amounts of Information

Part 3

Managing Multiple Team Members
Taking Advantage of Customer Feedback Tools

Questions on implementing some of these tools for your team?

Contacts us below and we can get you started.