How does follow-the-sun support work?
- Split the clock into two or three shifts anchored to offices in different time zones, each working local daytime hours.
- Agree a handover format: open tickets, escalations in progress, known incidents and anything promised to a customer.
- Use one shared queue and one knowledge base, so every team works from the same tickets and the same answers.
- Set overlap windows of 30 to 60 minutes between shifts so the outgoing team can brief the incoming one live.
- Report the same metrics for every shift: response time, resolution rate and backlog at handover.
A worked example
A subscription software company in Seattle sells to customers in North America, the UK and Australia and was paying overtime for a support agent to work 11pm to 7am. It moved to follow-the-sun support with two remote teams: one covering US daytime and one covering the hours that map to UK mornings and Australian afternoons. Each handover posts a short summary in a shared Slack channel and tags any ticket with a promised callback. Overnight first replies now arrive within the same hour, the night-shift overtime is gone, and no ticket has waited more than a single shift for an update.
Where does follow-the-sun support show up in your tools?
Zendesk, Freshdesk, Help Scout and Intercom support this model with shared views, business-hour schedules per team and ticket assignment rules that move work to whichever group is on shift. Slack or Microsoft Teams carries the handover note, and a Notion or Google Doc holds the on-shift runbook.
Common mistakes
- Running two teams with two knowledge bases, so customers get different answers depending on the hour.
- Skipping the live overlap window, which turns every handover into a guessing game about what the last shift promised.
- Measuring only the daytime team, while the overnight shift quietly builds a backlog nobody reports.
Why does follow-the-sun support matter?
Customers in other time zones do not care that your office is asleep, and night shifts in one location burn out the people you most need to keep. Follow-the-sun support gives round-the-clock coverage using normal working hours everywhere, which is better for quality and for retention. The handover discipline it forces also improves the daytime team.
How does AssistBPO handle follow-the-sun support?
AssistBPO's 24/7 support pod runs follow-the-sun across our US-hours team and a second office in Pakistan, with employed agents on daytime shifts in each location and a team lead who owns the handover. Every shift works your help desk, your macros and your knowledge base, and the pod's response and resolution numbers are reviewed with you weekly. Coverage in AEST hours is available on request.
Follow-the-sun coverage without three shifts of hiringGet a staffing plan