The Definitive Guide to Setting Your Company‘s Support Hours as You Scale

As your business takes off and your customer base expands, one of the most important considerations is how you will scale your customer support to keep up with increasing demand. Your support hours play a crucial role – after all, customers expect prompt, helpful service whenever they reach out with an issue. But providing extensive support coverage becomes more challenging as your team and customer base grow.

At HubSpot, our support has evolved tremendously since the company was founded in 2006. We‘ve gone from a small team of 5 offering limited phone support to a global organization of over 300 support employees across 6 international offices, providing assistance via phone, email, live chat and social media. As the former VP of Services and Support who oversaw much of this growth, I‘ve learned some valuable lessons about setting support hours at each stage of scaling.

In this ultimate guide, I‘ll share an in-depth look at how to determine the optimal support hours for your business as it grows, common challenges you may face, and best practices to maintain excellent customer service even as your team expands. Whether you‘re an early-stage startup or an established company going global, read on to learn proven strategies for success.

Why Setting the Right Support Hours is Crucial for Customer Service

Before we dive into the specifics, let‘s discuss why support hours matter so much. In today‘s competitive landscape, customer experience has become a key brand differentiator. Numerous studies have shown that customers prioritize excellent service when choosing between companies. For example:

• 93% of customers are likely to make repeat purchases with companies that offer excellent customer service (HubSpot Research)
• 90% of Americans use customer service as a factor in deciding whether or not to do business with a company (Microsoft)
• After one negative experience, 51% of customers will never do business with that company again (NewVoiceMedia)

Clearly, the quality of your customer service has major revenue implications. And your support hours are an essential component of that. By providing assistance at the times that are most convenient for your customers, you demonstrate that you value their business and are committed to ensuring their success with your product or service.

Failure to offer adequate support coverage, on the other hand, can be incredibly frustrating for customers who can‘t get timely help when they need it – leading to decreased satisfaction, poor reviews, and ultimately customer churn. As your business scales and your customer base becomes more diverse, spanning multiple time zones and countries, it becomes even more critical to offer support hours that cater to all of your customers‘ needs.

Of course, that‘s often easier said than done. Expanding support coverage presents challenges in terms of staffing, training, and infrastructure. You need to hire and onboard more support reps, implement the right tools and processes, and ensure consistency in service quality. It can be difficult to find the optimal balance between providing exceptional service and managing costs.

That‘s why it‘s so important to be strategic and intentional about setting your support hours at each phase of growth. By planning ahead and implementing best practices early on, you can scale more smoothly while continuing to delight your customers. Now, let‘s look at my recommendations for support hours and customer service tactics for companies at various stages.

The Startup‘s Guide to Support Hours

In the early days of your business, you likely have a small, lean team wearing many hats. With limited resources, you simply can‘t offer 24/7 support right off the bat. However, you can still provide excellent service within a narrower timeframe. Here‘s what I recommend:

• Limit support hours to 7am-8pm in your main time zone, Monday through Friday. This allows you to cover the majority of the business day.
• Have your small support team of around 4-5 reps work in shifts to maximize coverage. For example, two reps work 7am-3pm while the other two work 12pm-8pm.
• Outside of these hours, provide clear information on your website or in your product about expected response times. Set up an automated email response with this information as well.
• Offer one main support channel, such as email or phone. Trying to cover too many channels will stretch your small team too thin.
• For urgent issues, consider implementing an emergency escalation process where customers can reach an on-call team member. However, set clear guidelines around what constitutes an emergency.
• As your customer base grows, consider expanding to 7am-8pm support on Saturdays as well. Have reps rotate weekend shifts.

The goal at this stage is to provide the best service you can at the times when most of your customers need it, while still being realistic about your team‘s bandwidth. Remember, your support reps will also likely be working on other areas of the business at this point too. Burnout can become a real issue if you overcommit. By setting expectations clearly and focusing your efforts strategically, you can still deliver a great customer experience as you grow.

Scaling Support Hours for the Growing SMB

As your business gains traction and your support queries increase, you‘ll naturally need to expand your team and your support hours. Here‘s how to navigate this next phase of growth:

• Expand weekday support to 7am-10pm or 12am to accommodate customers in later time zones
• Offer full 8am-8pm coverage on weekends and holidays
• Grow your support team to 10-20 reps and start specializing roles (e.g. weekend reps, email vs. phone reps)
• Consider adding live chat support in addition to email and phone. This is a cost-effective channel that allows reps to help multiple customers at once.
• Look for customer service software that will enable you to scale, with features like ticketing, automation, reporting, and a knowledge base
• Start tracking key support metrics like first response time, average handle time, and customer satisfaction score. Use this data to identify peak times and optimization opportunities.
• Survey customers on their support preferences and adjust your hours and channels accordingly. For example, you may find that your audience heavily prefers live chat and has less need for phone assistance.

At this stage, it‘s critical to put the right infrastructure in place to support your growth. By implementing tools and processes designed for scale, you‘ll be able to maintain fast response times and high service quality even as volume increases. You should also begin using data to guide your support hours, channeling more resources into the times of highest demand. Always let customer preferences and behavior be your north star.

Achieving 24/7 Support Coverage

The next major milestone is providing true 24/7 support – a powerful selling point that tells customers you‘re always there whenever they need assistance. However, the transition from business-hours-only to round-the-clock support is a significant one that must be carefully managed. Here‘s my advice:

• Start by expanding to 24/7 coverage Monday through Friday; offer 8am-8pm weekend hours
• Hire an initial overnight team of 4-5 reps to work the new shift, with room to grow
• Extensively train the overnight team and establish clear communication channels with daytime staff for smooth handoffs
• Reevaluate your daytime shifts as well – you may need to adjust shift times to ensure sufficient overlap
• Consider limiting your overnight support channels at first; 24/7 phone coverage is more expensive than 24/7 live chat
• Be mindful of the health and work-life balance of overnight reps. Offer resources and schedule accommodations to combat burnout.
• Analyze your 24/7 support traffic to understand which hours have the highest demand. Staff accordingly, perhaps having more reps on-shift in the early evening vs. 3am.
• Monitor key metrics closely in the initial stages of 24/7 support to catch any issues quickly. Have managers regularly check in with the overnight team.

Providing 24/7 support requires around 20 total support reps at a minimum to allow for sufficient coverage across shifts. This is a big jump, so be sure to budget accordingly and plan your hiring strategy in advance. It‘s also wise to overcommunicate the change to existing customers so they know they now have more options for getting help whenever they need it.

Taking Support Global

For businesses with a substantial international customer base, the next frontier is expanding your support team globally. This means hiring teams in strategic locations to better serve customers in their time zone and language. When HubSpot first opened its Dublin office to support the EMEA region, it was a game-changer that considerably improved our service quality and language coverage. Here are some things to consider:

• Determine which regions outside your home base have the highest concentration of customers and need for support
• Hire an initial team of 3-5 reps in a new global office to seed your presence, with plans to scale
• Extensively train the new global team on your product, processes, and culture. Have veteran reps provide mentorship.
• Take advantage of the language skills your global reps bring to the table to better serve those markets
• Establish regional support hours for each global office – they don‘t necessarily need to be 24/7
• However, your global team can help fill overnight coverage gaps for other regions, minimizing the need for overnight shifts in each location
• Implement a "follow the sun" model where the support burden is continuously passed between offices in different time zones
• Give global team members opportunities to travel between offices for more immersive training and culture-building
• Use customer data to continually optimize your global coverage and language support

Managing global teams does introduce new challenges around communication, training, and consistency. It‘s critical to invest heavily in documentation, establish clear processes for collaboration between offices, and frequently bring global team members together (either virtually or in-person) to align on goals and best practices.

Fine-Tuning Your Global Support Coverage

As your business continues to scale globally, the final step is optimizing your support routing to connect customers with reps who can best serve them based on language, culture, and expertise. This requires a robust tagging and ticketing system as well as customized support channels. For example:

• Implement skill-based routing that directs customers to reps who speak their native language
• Create dedicated support queues and phone numbers for VIP customers or those with complex technical needs
• Set up regional social media support handles and monitor them during relevant business hours
• Enable customers to self-select the department or team they need to reach for faster service
• Monitor data on which markets are heaviest users of each support channel and staff accordingly
• Continually gather customer feedback on support preferences, satisfaction, and rep performance to optimize

At this stage, with hundreds of support reps globally, you can no longer take a one-size-fits-all approach. Use the wealth of data and direct customer input at your disposal to provide the most personalized, efficient experience possible. The name of the game is specialization – both in terms of the reps themselves and the support channels and processes you provide.

Using Technology to Scale Support

Underpinning any successful scaling of support hours is the right technology. No matter how many reps you hire, you simply can‘t provide great service around the clock without tools to streamline and automate your efforts. Some key ways technology can help:

• AI chatbots can provide always-on support for common queries, freeing up reps for more complex issues
• Robust knowledge bases allow customers to self-serve answers 24/7 without needing to contact support
• Ticketing systems enable you to efficiently route, prioritize, and track customer requests as volume grows
• Workforce management software helps you forecast demand and optimize staffing to ensure sufficient coverage
• Reporting dashboards surface real-time insights on rep performance, customer satisfaction, and support KPIs
• Integrations with your CRM and other business systems provide reps with full context on each customer for more personalized service

When evaluating support technologies, prioritize those that will enable you to maintain fast response times and high satisfaction as you scale. Look for opportunities to automate or deflect simple tasks so that your reps can focus on higher-value work. Over time, build out a robust tech stack that empowers your team to work efficiently and focus on customer relationships.

Staying True to Your Customer Service Mission

Through all the challenges and complexities of scaling support, it‘s crucial to never lose sight of your underlying mission: to provide an excellent customer experience. No matter how large your team gets or how many geographies you cover, every single customer interaction matters. Some key ways to stay grounded in your support values:

• Clearly document and communicate your customer service philosophy, values, and goals. Ensure every rep is aligned.
• Regularly recognize and reward support reps who go above and beyond or receive stellar customer feedback. Celebrate your wins!
• Share customer success stories widely within the organization. Help every employee understand their role in the customer experience.
• Invest in ongoing training and coaching for support reps at every level. Provide clear paths for growth and advancement.
• Frequently gather customer feedback through multiple channels (NPS, CSAT, social media, etc.) and act upon it
• Close the loop with customers on how you implemented their suggestions. Show them their voice matters.
• Encourage support reps to build real relationships with customers. Empower them to make judgment calls to better serve customers.
• Have support leaders visit customers on-site to better understand their needs and use cases
• Tie support metrics to larger company KPIs and OKRs; ensure the entire business is invested in customer success

Scaling support is a never-ending journey that requires continuous optimization as your customer base evolves. By keeping customers front and center, using data to guide your decisions, and adapting your approach at each stage of growth, you can provide world-class service no matter how large your business becomes.

What I‘ve outlined here is a high-level roadmap for how to scale support hours and service levels based on my experience at HubSpot. But every company‘s needs will vary based on their unique customers, product, and goals. The most important thing is to stay agile, listen closely to your customers and employees, and never stop iterating. With the right people, processes, and technology in place, you‘ll be well-equipped to delight customers at every stage of your growth.