BPO & Managed Teams

Offshore support team build-out for a services firm

The work was documented in nobody's head but the founders'.

A services firm serving US clients had support costs climbing faster than revenue, with two founders still personally answering routine tickets in the evening. Previous offshore attempts had failed: not because the people were wrong, but because the work had never been documented well enough to hand over. We fixed the documentation problem first, then built the team.

A support agent wearing a headset at a desk in an office

Client: Professional services firm, US market
Engagement: 8-week build, then managed team
Market: Rawalpindi delivery, US hours
Delivered: 2024

The situation

What we walked into

01
Two founders handling routine support personally, most evenings.
02
An earlier offshore attempt abandoned after three months.
03
No written procedures: every process lived in somebody's memory.
04
Support cost per client rising while margin per client stayed flat.

The approach

What we actually did

01
Document before delegating
Three weeks shadowing the actual work and writing it down: decision trees, escalation rules, tone guidance, and the edge cases that make or break a handover. This was the step the previous attempt had skipped.
02
Hire against the documentation
A team recruited and trained against those written procedures rather than against a generic job description, with US-hours coverage built into the roster from the start.
03
Run a graduated handover
Tier-one tickets moved first, with quality sampled daily and a fast escalation path back to the founders. Scope widened only as measured quality held.
04
Manage it as a service
Quality assurance, coaching, rota management, and cover all handled by us, so the client manages a service level, not a headcount in another country.

The result

What changed

82%
Of tickets resolved without escalation: -71%
Founder hours spent on support: 16 hrs
Daily coverage, from 8: -44%
Support cost per client

Founders out of the ticket queue and back on client work.
Documented procedures that survive any individual leaving.
Coverage doubled without doubling cost.
An offshore model that held, after one that hadn't.

Client identities are withheld under confidentiality. These case studies are representative of the engagements we run and the results they produce; figures illustrate typical outcomes rather than a specific audited account. We're happy to discuss specifics, and arrange references, on a call.

Services involved