Stabilize now, scale fast — support as a growth engine.

Context

A Seed-stage healthtech platform was crossing the threshold where founder-led support breaks. Providers were getting inconsistent answers, requests were falling through the cracks between the BPO and the internal team, and there was no operating layer underneath any of it. The mandate: turn support from fire-fighting into infrastructure the company could scale on.

Challenge

Pre-Series-A means no budget for headcount, no patience for process for its own sake, and a customer base that expects concierge responsiveness. The job was to install just enough operating discipline to stop the bleeding — without bolting on heavyweight CS machinery the org couldn't yet absorb.

Approach

1. 01

   Unified intake — one queue, auto-tagged

   Routed every provider request (SMS, email, in-product) into a single shared queue, auto-tagged by channel, issue type, and user type. Stopped the 'which inbox is this in' problem and made volume + pattern visible for the first time.

2. 02

   Tiered BPO / internal ownership with clear escalation

   Tier 1 (BPO): FAQs, credentialing, common technical issues. Tier 2 (internal): clinical/account-sensitive issues. Defined explicit escalation triggers and SLA bands so handoffs stopped being judgment calls.

3. 03

   SLA + first-touch resolution as the leading metrics

   Set targets that mattered at this stage: first-touch resolution ≥ 80%, initial response within 1 hour, resolution within 24–48 hours, repeat-contact rate down 30%. Tracked cost-per-ticket and BPO vs. internal ROI monthly so the model could be tuned, not guessed at.

4. 04

   Backlog and escalation governance — weekly, not quarterly

   Backlog age capped at 48 hours average. Escalation rate held at ≤ 20% of tickets. Weekly review of variance, root causes, and what to absorb back into Tier 1. The system got smarter every week instead of waiting for an annual overhaul.