Desk
Customer support desk
An outsourced customer support team from AssistBPO answers your email, chat, tickets, social messages and reviews in your voice, inside your help desk, in your hours.
- Named assistant plus backup
- Employed, screened, managed
Twelve services cover email and live chat, ticket support in Zendesk, Freshdesk, Gorgias, Intercom and HubSpot, order support, technical level 1, customer success, community moderation, billing support and a 24/7 pod.
Why this desk is different at AssistBPO
Support outsourcing usually means a shared floor of agents reading from a knowledge base they did not write. The Customer support desk is built the other way round: named agents dedicated to your queue, trained on your product and your tone, working inside your Zendesk, Gorgias, Intercom or Freshdesk with the macros and tags your team already uses. A team lead runs the weekly review and scores tickets monthly on a QA scorecard, so your CSAT and first-response times are measured rather than hoped for. Start with one agent on email, add chat and social as volume grows, and layer a follow-the-sun pod when your customers stop sleeping.
· Reviewed by Issabela Masters
- Dedicated agents who learn your product, your voice and your macros
- Email, chat, tickets, social, reviews and community on one desk
- Your help desk, your hours, with a 24/7 pod when you need it
What does the customer support desk cover?
- Email supportOne named agent in your shared inbox, plus backup and team lead
- Live chat supportA named chat agent who answers in seconds during your hours
- Customer supportDedicated agents, not a shared queue, working inside your own help desk
- Social customer serviceDMs, comments and mentions answered by one person who knows your brand
- E-commerce customer serviceWISMO, returns, exchanges and refunds handled inside Gorgias, Zendesk or Shopify
- Technical supportTier-1 troubleshooting from your playbook, in Zendesk, Freshdesk or Intercom
- Customer success assistantOnboarding calls made, check-ins sent, health scores kept current in your CRM
- Review managementReview requests sent after every job, order or visit, with consent
- Community moderationMember approvals, rule enforcement and spam removal on a set sweep schedule
- 24/7 support podOne queue, one tone, every hour of the week, from a pod you know by name
- Billing supportInvoice, payment and subscription questions answered by someone who reads the ledger
- Customer onboardingWelcome call or email within 1 business day of every signup
Which roles can you hire for customer support?
Customer support agent
Dedicated support agent- Clear written English that explains without condescending
- Product curiosity: learns features, limits and workarounds quickly
- Structured troubleshooting and clean bug reports
Customer service representative
Dedicated customer service representative- Patient, clear phone manner with de-escalation habits
- Plain written English for email and ticket replies
- Fast navigation of order, billing and account systems
Live chat agent
Dedicated live chat agent- Fast, accurate typing with a friendly written voice
- Handling three or more concurrent chats without errors
- Product and pricing knowledge applied consistently
Customer success associate
Dedicated customer success associate- Confident, friendly phone and video manner for onboarding and check-in calls
- Product learning: able to demo core workflows and explain settings without an engineer
- Reading usage data and health scores and knowing which drop matters
Community manager
Dedicated community manager- Warm, plain written English that sounds like a person, not a brand account
- De-escalation in public threads: cool a heated exchange without embarrassing anyone
- Judgment on what to answer, what to escalate and what to leave for members
What does a week on the customer support desk look like?
The same five days run whether the desk is one person or a pod with a lead. Friday ends with the weekly review.
Monday
- Weekend queue cleared by mid-morning, oldest tickets first
- Chat answered in seconds during your peak hours
- Where-is-my-order tickets resolved from tracking data without escalation
Tuesday
- Returns and exchanges processed to your policy in Shopify and Gorgias
- Three new macros drafted from repeat questions and sent for approval
- Social DMs and comments answered, negative ones routed to you
Wednesday
- Level 1 technical tickets resolved from the knowledge base, level 2 escalated with full notes
- Onboarding calls made to this week's new customers
- Billing questions answered and payment plans logged with LedgerBPO
Thursday
- Reviews responded to within your tone guide
- Community posts moderated and a weekly highlights note written
- Knowledge base gaps listed from the week's tickets
Friday
- Renewal check-ins made and at-risk accounts flagged to your success lead
- Weekly review with the team lead: volumes, CSAT, first-response time, escalations
- End-of-week report: tickets closed, open, waiting on you
Handled today
- Tickets58 closed, 4 escalated with summaries
- Chat33 conversations, first response under 40 seconds
- Reviews5 responses posted in your voice
- Macros2 updated after repeat questions
Waiting on you
- Refund over the limit for order 4821
- Sign off the new returns macro
Tomorrow
- Backlog sweep on the shipping tag
- Weekly CSAT export
Illustrative report. The format is real: every dedicated engagement sends one at the end of each shift, with timestamps.
KPIs we report
| KPI | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| First response time | Customers forgive a slow fix more easily than silence. We report median first response by channel every day against the target you set. |
| Resolution time and backlog | The number that shows whether the desk is keeping up. Tickets open more than a set number of days are listed by name in the end-of-day report. |
| CSAT | Your customers' own score on the tickets we handle, pulled from your help desk survey and reviewed weekly with the team lead. |
| First-contact resolution | How often an issue is solved without a second reply or an escalation. Low scores point to knowledge-base gaps we then fix. |
| Escalation quality | When a ticket must go to your team, it arrives with the history, the customer's ask and what was already tried. We audit a sample monthly. |
| QA scorecard | The team lead scores tickets and chats each month on accuracy, tone, policy and completeness, so quality is measured rather than assumed. |
Tools we work in on this desk
Frequently asked questions
Do the agents work in our help desk or yours?
Yours. Agents work inside your Zendesk, Freshdesk, Gorgias, Intercom, Help Scout or HubSpot account through named user seats with the roles you choose. Your macros, tags, views and reporting keep working, your data stays where it is, and you can see every ticket the desk touches in real time. If you have no help desk yet, we help you set one up.
How much does an outsourced customer support team cost?
Plans depend on hours, desks and coverage. Get a staffing plan within 1 business day. For orientation, managed offshore assistants are published at $7 to $15 an hour or $640 to $2,400 a month full-time, while US customer-facing staff average $19.45 an hour on PayScale (Wishup 2026 Industry Report). We price per agent for a block of hours or per ticket on a shared desk, and a 24/7 pod is quoted as a team.
How do agents learn our product and voice?
Onboarding starts with your knowledge base, your top 50 tickets and a tone guide we write with you. Agents shadow your team or your best macros for the first week, then handle live tickets with the team lead reviewing every reply before send until accuracy is proven. After that, the weekly review and monthly QA scorecard keep tone and policy on track.
Which channels can one desk cover?
Email, live chat, help-desk tickets, social DMs and comments, marketplace messages, reviews and community forums. Most clients start with email and tickets, add chat once macros are stable, and then social and reviews. Phone support sits on the Front desk & phones desk and can share the same team lead. Each channel gets its own response target and tone notes, because a chat reply and a review reply should not read the same.
Can you cover 24/7?
Yes, with the 24/7 support pod: a team of agents and a lead working follow-the-sun shifts from the group's two offices, with one queue, one tone and logged shift handovers. Many clients run a dedicated agent in their own hours and add the pod for nights and weekends only. Overnight agents work from the same knowledge base and macros, and the morning handover note lists anything that needs your team's attention.
What do you escalate and how?
Anything outside the policy or knowledge base: refunds above a threshold, legal threats, safety issues, level 2 technical problems, upset VIP customers. Escalations go to a named person on your side with the full history and a suggested next step, through your help desk or Slack, and are tracked to closure in the weekly review. Escalation thresholds are yours to set and change.
Is this suitable for e-commerce brands?
Yes, it is one of the most common uses. Agents handle where-is-my-order, returns, exchanges, damaged items and pre-sale questions inside Gorgias or Zendesk with Shopify, Amazon and marketplace data open beside them. Peak seasons are staffed with a pod that has run your macros before, so Black Friday does not mean a new team. Refund and replacement limits are set by you, and anything above them is queued for your approval.
How do you keep customer data safe?
Agents are background-checked employees of the group under NDA, on managed devices with MFA and no local storage, working through named seats in your help desk. Card numbers are never taken in chat or email; customers use your payment portal. For healthcare and finance clients we add a BAA with HIPAA-trained staff or GLBA-style access controls. Access is reviewed monthly and revoked the day an engagement ends.
Ask an AI assistant to summarize this page
Next step
Your desk, staffed. Wherever you are.
Tell us what is overloaded. A named person replies within 1 business day with a staffing plan, and we propose your assistant within 72 hours.
Or call +1-657-777-0006 during US, UK or Australian business hours, or hear our demo receptionist.
- A named assistant proposed within 72 hours
- Employed, screened and managed staff, never freelancers
- Your hours, your tools, your data