But who are the people behind the team, and how does it all work? We asked Karina Maitland one of the In-Form Support Managers to grab a coffee at the end of her day and give us an insight into what a day as a Support Manager looks like.
The Support Desk
“I’m Karina and I am one of the team of Support Managers who manage the busy In-Form customer support desk. Each day one of us is responsible for running the desk to make sure our customer’s needs are met, and also, to make sure our support team are well supported and that their day goes as well as can be. During my day I manage a team of support representatives that consists of staff on Tier 1 (T1) and on Tier 2 (T2).
“The Tiers help us internally to identify the complexity of the support query. Customer support cases start out in our T1 queue, but anything more complicated or which is expected to take a lengthier amount of time gets escalated to T2, where we’ll spend anything up to an hour per case. For anything longer it’ll get sent to Quotes, or if it needs further investigation to the Support Managers queue.
“We also have a support mailbox that needs to be monitored for any queries that come through that aren’t created through a customer’s In-Form system. It’s the Support Manager’s job to keep track of all the moving parts.
“A typical day goes as follows.”
Starting the day at 9am
“With a coffee in hand I check to see who is online and which team members I’ll be working with that day. I review the support queue volumes, making sure that anything urgent is escalated.
“Next, I will look through the Support Managers queue and do a quick check on the status of cases and prioritise work for that day. This queue generally contains the tougher cases, some may need further investigation that could take 2 or 3 days, others may just need monitoring if it is an ongoing issue that another team (such as product) are working on to resolve.”
Supporting colleagues: 9.30am
“Like many other businesses we have had to adapt to other ways of working. As most of our staff are now working remotely, we need to ensure our staff are well both physically and mentally. We also want to make sure that customer service is still maintained to the highest level. So, I check in with colleagues and send them a quick message to make sure everything is ok.
“Today there is a staff member off ill on the T1 queue and both T1 and T2 queues are at high volumes. However, I’ve found it’s best not to get too caught up in numbers. The focus should be on the case in hand and our team’s wellbeing to ensure we are delivering quality responses.
“I put a shout out to the rest of the team for anyone who has any free time to jump in and lend a hand. Even though everyone is busy with their own projects or implementations there is a real sense of team spirit. Everyone is always happy to pitch in and help others in need.”
Getting stuck in: 10:00am – 12:30
“The time passes with a flurry of questions from the team, and as we’re a staff member down I also pick up some cases on T1 when I can spare the time.
“We use Slack for internal messaging so I’m constantly monitoring our Slack channels and responding to direct messages from colleagues. Questions range from advice on support processes such as when to escalate a case, to more technical questions on how to resolve an issue. Usually for the technical questions I’ll jump on a call to coach the staff member through the solution.
“It’s a constant juggling act between working on cases, answering team members questions, and ensuring that everything is running smoothly. Luckily, I have an excellent team behind me.”
Taking a break: 12:30
“It’s already time for lunch. After a quick bite to eat, I like to try and get out for a quick walk so I feel refreshed and ready for the new challenges the afternoon will bring.”
Support Managers meeting: 13:25
“On returning from lunch I have a quick check of the queues and Slack to make sure all is still going well. I also check that someone is ready to pick up the mailbox for the afternoon and I then jump on to our weekly Support Manager meeting.
“This week it’s my turn to take the minutes. With the rest of the Support Managers team, I discuss any cases that may need review or clarification, workload, team motivation, and how we can improve our processes internally to better serve our customers.”
Back to the desk: 15:00
“Meeting finished I’ll have another check of where the case numbers sit for the day, and how the case list is looking. I make the decision to move a T2 team member over to help with the T1 queue.
“We also have a new staff member upskilling on the support desk today, so I check in with them to see how they are finding it and if there is anything I can help them with.”
Quality check: 16:00
“It’s now nearing the end of the day so it’s time to do the Quality Assurance records. This is where I carry out spot checks on cases that the support team have worked on during the day, to ensure we are consistently providing the same level of support for our customers.
“Given it was an incredibly busy day I was delighted to find all staff hitting target!”
The end of the day: 17:00
“It’s time to hang up our keyboards and log off. I thank the team for a job well done, we’ve made it through another busy day!
“We’ll be back again to see what tomorrow has in store.”
Find out more
If you’d like to find out more about who the In-Form team is, visit our website.
Get in touch
If you have a technical question for our support team, raise a case through your In-Form system.
