Small Team Management: Guide to Effective Leadership

It never stops… When having to juggle over 200 clients a day across four different apps you come to realize the importance of efficient multitasking.

Small teams often find themselves at the heart of a complicated challenge. On one hand, they must manage a continuously increasing volume of customer queries and support tickets. On the other, they are expected to maintain, if not exceed, the quality of support provided by larger teams with more resources. 

This is a guide that takes together my experience managing a small customer support team and puts it into an easy to follow struggle and solution guide for you to absorb.

Here is an outilne of this article

• The Struggles Behind Managing a Small Customer Support Team

  • Struggle 1: Surge in Support Volume

    • Why is This a Struggle?

    • How to Manage a Surge in Support Volume

  • Struggle 2: Upholding Service Quality Amidst Chaos

    • Why is This a Struggle?

    • How to Prevent Support from Becoming Overwhelmed

  • Struggle 3 Choosing the Right Support Channels

    • Why is This a Struggle?

    • Considerations for Selecting Support Channels:

  • Struggle 4: Deciding on and Communicating Response Times

    • Why is This a Struggle?

    • Considerations for Establishing Response Times

  • Struggle 5: Handling Support with Patience and Conduct

    • Why is This a Struggle?

    • Why Emotional Connection Matters

• Bonus Techniques for Managing Small Teams

  • Technique 1: Defining Roles and Responsibilities

    • Why is this important

    • How to Assign Roles and Responsibilities:

  • Technique 2:

    • Why is this important

    • How to Implement Knowledge Management and Troubleshooting

  • Technique 3:

    • Why is this important

    • How to Promote a Problem Solving Culture

• Conclusion

The Struggles Behind Managing a Small Customer Support Team

Small support teams are legends in the customer service world, often tasked with juggling a growing number of customer queries while maintaining the highest standards of service. As our applications expanded so did the number and complexity of customers with it.

Struggle 1: Surge in Support Volume

Why Is This a Struggle?

The most daunting challenge for small teams is the escalating volume of customer queries. As our apps grew came the inevitable increase in support requests, each more complex than the last. McKinsey's research highlights a direct correlation between a company's expanding customer base and the complexity of service interactions.

The following methods can help you prepare for a surge in your support volume.

How to Manage a Surge in Support Volume

• Implement a ticketing system like Orka that can help prioritize and organize customer queries making it easy to keep track of what's going on.

• Analyze customer interaction data to forecast peak periods and prepare accordingly. Looking at the "hot time" analytics of Orka can help you determine when the "hottest" hours are.

• Scale your team thoughtfully, taking into account both the volume and complexity of support requests. Choose a Live Chat solution like Orka, which lets you adjust your team size flexibly—up or down—without stressing over pricing. This way, you can adapt effortlessly as your needs change.

  
  

  

How Orka Helps with Surge in Support Volume:

• Provides detailed analytics of when most of your conversations occur

• Allows you to scale your team up/down without the worry of price changes

• Organizes customers queries by last response time so that you know if there are any un responded to customers

Struggle 2: Upholding Service Quality Among Chaos

Why Is This a Struggle?

With a small team, an increased workload often means increased challenges in maintaining high quality support. The real test of customer service came when we were faced with multiple distressed, frustrated, or upset customers all at once.

How to Prevent Support from Becoming Overwhelmed

• Set achievable goals: Make sure each team member focuses on quality, not just quantity. To ensure focus on quality emphasize reviews so that it's not about how many conversations are handled but instead how well they are handled.

• Stay calm and prioritize: Teach your team to remain chill and to prioritize issues based on urgency and impact, ensuring that the most critical problems are addressed first.

• Maintain open communication: Encourage a culture where team members can freely communicate their challenges and seek support when overwhelmed. Lending a hand during difficult times can truly make someones day.

How Orka Helps Prevent Burnout:

• Allows for team members to easily jump into the conversation or leave private notes to assist

• Features a user friendly and fun UI to keep things cool

• Provides clear analytics of conversations being handled by each agent

Struggle 3: Choosing the Right Support Channels

Why Is This a Struggle?

Selecting the appropriate support channels is crucial. While it might be tempting to be available on every platform, small teams must consider their customers' habits and preferences, their own capabilities and current workload, and business budget. From the start i kept it to chat/email support only and until this day it has been the best option in helping maintain not only

Considerations for Selecting Support Channels

• Understand Where Customers Like to Chat: Knowing where your customers prefer to reach out for support helps in choosing the most effective channels. You can determine this by simply seeing where most of your conversations are being held.

• Assess Your Team Capabilities: Align your support channels with what your team can handle without overstretching, ensuring quality and timely responses. If you have a live chat team you should avoid having them also handle email and call support as they are all handled differently

• Budget and Resources: Consider what channels provide the best return on investment and are sustainable within your budget by determining which channels can be easily managed with less people while still maintaining quality.

How Orka Manages Multiple Support Channels:

• Automatically sends a chat message to the customers email if they ended up disconnecting from chat.

• Lets you know who is online by using the "Live Visitors" feature allowing you to directly communicate with customers.

Struggle 4: Deciding on and Communicating Response Times

Why Is This a Struggle?

Defining clear response times within a small team is critical for maintaining service quality and managing customer expectations effectively. Establishing specific time frames for different priority levels ensures that your team knows how to prioritize work and customers know when to expect a resolution.

Considerations for Establishing Response Times

It's crucial to understand that these recommended time are just examples and the truth is the the faster you respond the better the outcome. Aim for times much less than what we recommend to ensure the highest quality service.

• Critical Issues (Respond within 15 minutes): Immediate action is required for severe issues like a nonfunctional application, ensuring minimal disruption for the customer.

• High Priority (Respond within 1 hour): For issues that significantly impact user experience but don't completely halt operations.

• Medium Priority (Respond within 24 hours): For issues that affect some aspects of the service but are not immediately critical.

• Low Priority (Respond within 48 hours): For minor issues that don’t affect the core functionality or user experience.

How Orka Helps you Determine Response Times:

• Provides analytics in regards to mean response time

• Allows you to see which tickets took the longest to resolve by reviewing the chat history

Struggle 5: Handling Support with Patience and Conduct

Why Is This a Struggle?

When support lines are on fire, the patience and conduct of your team become the glue of customer satisfaction. During these high traffic times, keeping a cool head and a professional demeanor is essential. It's crucial that each customer interaction is managed with care, ensuring every customer feels listened to and valued. Research from Forrester highlights the profound impact of emotion in customer service customers who feel valued are far more likely to stay loyal to a brand, even if mistakes happen—and they will happen.

Why Emotional Connection Matters

• Feeling Valued Boosts Loyalty: Making customers feel valued and appreciated can turn them into strong brand advocates. This emotional connection not only retains customers but also encourages them to speak positively about your brand and increase their future spending.

• Example from Hospitality(Forrester Research): In the hospitality industry, customers who felt valued were more likely to recommend the brand. A significant number of these customers planned to increase their spending and maintain their relationship with the brand.

How Orka Helps you Establish Emotional Connections:

• Provides data on the customer to help you find ways to connect with them personally

• Reminds you of the customers history by reviewin

Bonus Techniques for Managing Small Teams

Technique 1: Defining Roles and Responsibilities

Why is this important

In a small team, every member's role is important, so it’s essential to clearly define who does what. This prevents task overlap, ensures everyone is accountable, and makes the whole support process smoother. Investing in regular team building exercises and meetings also pays off by keeping everyone on the same page and reinforcing a strong team bond. These efforts help build a deep, mutual understanding of each person’s strengths and how they contribute to the team’s collective goals.

How to Assign Roles and Responsibilities

• Get to Know Your Team: Spend time understanding each team member's strengths and limitations. This insight will help you assign tasks effectively, minimizing stress and enhancing job satisfaction.

• Tailor Training: Recognize that people absorb information differently. By adapting training methods to fit individual learning styles, you can equip your team to meet a variety of challenges confidently.

• Identify Weak Spots: Regularly assess where your support might be faltering. Identifying these gaps early allows you to strengthen your team where it's needed most, ensuring you're ready for any challenge.

Technique 2: Knowledge Management and Troubleshooting

Why is this Important

Effective knowledge management is vital for a small support team. By analyzing chat/call logs and customer feedback, teams can identify patterns and common issues, which can inform the creation of resources like FAQs or knowledge bases. This proactive approach empowers customers to find answers independently and frees up support team members to focus on more complex queries.

How to Implement Knowledge Management and Troubleshooting:

1. Analyze Customer Interactions: Regularly review chat and call logs as well as customer feedback to identify common issues and patterns.

2. Create Useful Resources: Develop resources such as FAQs, knowledge bases, and troubleshooting guides that address these common issues. This helps customers find answers on their own and reduces the load on your support team.

3. Use Support Tools: Implement tools like Orka or Zendesk to help create, manage, and update these resources efficiently. These tools can streamline the process of managing your knowledge base and ensure it stays current.

4. Develop Troubleshooting Techniques: Create scripts or step-by-step guides for common problems. This allows team members to provide quick and effective solutions, improving the customer's experience and the team's efficiency.

Technique 3: Promoting a Culture of Problem Solving

Why is this important

A small team's ability to handle multiple tasks effectively is further enhanced by promoting a problem solving culture. Encouraging team members to ask questions and think critically fosters creativity and innovation. This benefits customers and instills a sense of ownership and engagement among the team. Effective conflict resolution and open communication within the team are also crucial components of this culture, ensuring the focus remains on customer support.

How to Promote a Problem Solving Culture

• Encourage Curiosity: Motivate team members to ask questions and think critically about each problem. This can lead to creative and innovative solutions that enhance customer satisfaction.

• Foster a Sense of Ownership: Encourage team members to take ownership of their tasks and responsibilities. This builds engagement and ensures everyone is invested in finding the best solutions.

• Develop Conflict Resolution Skills: Train the team in effective conflict resolution techniques. By resolving internal issues quickly and constructively, the team can maintain its focus on providing excellent customer support.

• Promote Open Communication: Create an environment where team members feel comfortable sharing ideas and feedback. Open communication builds trust and ensures that all perspectives are considered before making decisions.

• Keep Ego in Check: Encourage team members to view situations from multiple perspectives and avoid making assumptions. This approach leads to more effective problem solving and better team dynamics as no one likes egotistical people.

Conclusion

Managing a small customer support team is no small feat, but with the right strategies, it can be smooth ride. Here’s a quick recap of what we’ve covered:

1. Surge in Support Volume: Understanding the challenge and implementing systems like Orka to handle increased queries efficiently.

2. Upholding Service Quality Amidst Chaos: Setting achievable goals, prioritizing effectively, and maintaining open communication to ensure quality support.

3. Choosing the Right Support Channels: Selecting channels that match your team’s capabilities and customer preferences.

4. Deciding on and Communicating Response Times: Establishing clear response times for different priority levels to manage expectations.

5. Handling Support with Patience and Conduct: Keeping a cool head and building emotional connections with customers to boost loyalty.

6. Defining Roles and Responsibilities: Clarifying roles within the team to prevent overlap and enhance efficiency.

7. Knowledge Management and Troubleshooting: Creating and managing resources to empower customers and reduce the support load.

8. Promoting a Culture of Problem Solving: Encouraging curiosity, ownership, and open communication to foster a dynamic, proactive team.

Basicallyh the key to success lies in a balanced approach that combines strategic planning with a deep understanding of both team and customer needs.