The Challenge
EdTech never sleeps. But support load rises and falls dramatically with the academic calendar.
For many EdTech businesses, support has to scale twice a year to greet the new semester. In our client’s case, this means a 2-3x increase in support hours for about eight weeks.
This is a large business with a wide international reach, working with thousands of institutions and millions of students across over 240 countries and territories.
And they’re innovating and acquiring new companies, which requires introducing new support coverage and workflows.
The goal? Reduce support costs year-over-year without compromising quality.
Our Solution
For over a decade, we’ve worked across nearly every layer of this global support operation—resolving tickets, refining systems, and rethinking what scalable support can look like in EdTech. This meant working at nearly every level of their support operation, from Tier 0 options to white-glove support at Tier 3 with their top institutions and customers. We deployed the same methodology we use on every project:
- Model and analyze the data.
- Leverage our modular solution to assemble the right team, tools, and workflows.
- Optimize continuously.
Key things that decreased costs without sacrificing quality:
- Optimized Zendesk by writing macros and perfecting workflows to make support more efficient (which translates to cost savings).
- Helped build out a robust Tier-0 self-support solution by creating content that deflects support tickets.
- Methodically migrated the team from native English agents to more cost-effective non-native speakers, without compromising CSAT, by implementing strict QA and a revamped onboarding process for agents.
- Worked closely with their product and engineering teams to create a tighter loop for surfacing bug reports and product enhancements, which reduces future ticket volume and increases satisfaction.
The Results
- Consistent global CSAT averaging 87% – even during rush.
- YOY reductions AHT during rush (Example: calls -17%, chat -36%).
- 22% average cost savings (and over 30% in some cycles).
- Numerous squashed bugs and product improvements.
The Difference
This isn’t outsourcing. It’s a partnership.
Our team doesn’t just handle support—they think like product owners. They ask the right questions. They spot patterns. And they care deeply about the student experience. It’s no wonder that there has been minimal churn in the ModSquad leadership on this project – some have been with it from the beginning.
Students, parents, and educational institutions are a demanding bunch with a demanding schedule.
Our partnership mentality, flexible and modular platform, and proven methodology have all helped support this client’s success in the EdTech industry for over a decade, and we hope to continue doing so for the next one.
