Four Revealing Insights into the Customer Support Industry for 2016

Revealing insights intothe customer supportindustry for 2016

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About the surveyUntil now, little research has been done on the state of the customer support profession.

For the first time ever, we worked with the industry to survey more than 110 anonymous respondents to to give them deeper insight into their industry.

Read on to learn more about the trends a�ecting the industry, including salary, tenure, job satisfaction and challenges.

Customer Support Manager

Customer Support Agent

Customer Support Director

Other

VP of Customer Support

1

2

3

4

5

43/37%

36/31%

18/16%

14/12%

5/4%

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Read on for our four main findings

About the survey

See the full report!Kayako’s 2016Customer Support:State of theProfession Report

learn.kayako.com/state-of-the-profession-2016

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TenureMost customer support professionals (41%) have worked at their current company for 1-3 years.

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Team sizeThe most common size for a customer support team is 6-25 employees (36%), with the least common being single-employee support teams (8%).

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ChallengesManaging time and workload was reported as the biggest issue faced in customer support, with 63% respondents saying they find this challenging or very challenging.

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Job satisfactionMost respondents (67%) reported feeling satisfied or very satisfied in their jobs, though when asked how satisfied they felt when they first started their jobs, this number was higher (77%).

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$0

VP

of C

usto

mer

Sup

port

Cus

tom

er S

uppo

rtM

anag

er

Cus

tom

er S

uppo

rt D

irect

or

Cus

tom

erSu

ppor

t Age

nt

Oth

er$20,000

$40,000

$60,000

$80,000

$100,000

Mea

n sa

lary

(USD

)

Job Title

$96,000

$76,667

$53,605$48,972

$64,071

Salary

Customer Support Agent - $45-60kCustomer Support Manager - $45-60k

Customer Support Director - $75-90kVP of Customer Support - $105k +

Median compensation ranges are as follows (in US Dollars):

Customer Support Managers salaries range from

Why are Customer Support Manager salaries so varied?

For a full breakdown on customer support salaries, read the full report [learn.kayako.com/state-of-the-profession-2016]

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$30k $105k+

New facts about thecustomer support industry

1. Burnout is a real issue across the support industry

2. Support professionals prioritise customer happiness above revenue

3. Delivering customer happiness is easy - “delight” is unnecessary

4. Reducing customer e�ort and multichannel support are the future

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1. Burnout is a real issue across the industry

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0very

unsatisfiedvery

satisfiedvery

unsatisfiedvery

satisfied2 3 4

10

20

30

40

50

Num

ber o

f res

pons

es

Level of job satisfaction when first started job

02 3 4

Current level of job satisfaction

Customer support professionals are 6.8% less satisfied now than they were when they first started their jobs.


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Mea

n sa

lary

(USD

)

$40,000

$60,000

$80,000

$100,000

2 3 4Veryunsatisfied

Current level of job satisfaction

Verysatisfied

This graph shows mean job satisfaction compared with mean salary, by job title.

VP of Customer Support

Customer Support Manager

Customer Support Director

Customer Support Agent Other

Job titles

It takes about $10,000 per annum to boost a customer support professional’s job satisfaction from satisfied to very satisfied.


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73% of customer support professionals find managing time and workload their biggest challenge.


This graph shows the number of responses for degree of challenge across all roles.

0Not challenging

at all2 3 4

10

20

30

40N

umbe

r of r

espo

nses

Managing time and workload

Verychallenging


45% of customer support professionals found maintaining and improving team morale challenging or very challenging

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This graph shows the number of responses for degree of challenge of across all roles.

0Not challenging

at all2 3 4

10

20

30

40

Num

ber o

f res

pons

es

Maintaining / improving team morale

Verychallenging

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0Not a

priority2 3 4

10

20

30

40N

umbe

r of r

espo

nses

Handling customer enquiries

Veryimportant

This graph shows the number of responses for degree of priority across all roles.

95% of support professionals say handling customer enquiries is top priority


40% of support professionals say upselling/cross selling is not a priority

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0Not a

priority2 3 4

10

20

30

40

50N

umbe

r of r

espo

nses

Upselling / cross-sellingVery

important

This graph shows the number of responses for degree of priority across all roles.

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Say delivering customer happiness is not particularly challenging or

not challenging at all41%

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AND: For agents, delivering customer happiness is the least challenging part of their job



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AND: For agents, delivering customer happiness is the least challenging part of their job

BUT: Delivering customer happiness becomes harder the more senior the support role



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VP of CustomerSupport

Customer SupportManager

Customer SupportDirector

Customer SupportAgent

1

2

3

4

Not a

priority

Very

important

“How

impo

rtan

t are

the

follo

win

gou

tcom

es?”

Collecting customer feedback Handling customer enquiriesOnboarding new customers Reducing customer churn

Upselling / cross selling

Collecting customer feedback is high priority for all customer service professionals.

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Agents and managers find multichannel customer help and making things easier for the customer one of the least challenging parts of their job.


We asked respondents to evaluate how challenging they found seven aspects of their jobs.The graph shows mean responses for each question by each role.





1

2

3

4

Notchallenging

at all

Verychallenging

“How

muc

h of

a c

halle

nge

are

the

follo

win

g iss

ues f

or y

our t

eam

?”

Managing time and workload Making things easier for thecustomers

Delivering customerhappiness Helping customers on

multiple channels

Maintaining/improving teammorale

Recruiting and retainingqualified agents Managing SLAs and workload

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Agents and managers find multichannel customer help and making things easier for the customer one of the least challenging parts of their job.

BUT: For Customer Support Directors and VPs, these are notable challenges.

We asked respondents to evaluate how challenging they found seven aspects of their jobs.The graph shows mean responses for each question by each role.





1

2

3

4

Notchallenging

at all

Verychallenging

“How

muc

h of

a c

halle

nge

are

the

follo

win

g iss

ues f

or y

our t

eam

?”

Managing time and workload Making things easier for thecustomers

Delivering customerhappiness Helping customers on

multiple channels

Maintaining/improving teammorale

Recruiting and retainingqualified agents Managing SLAs and workload

Support leaders are more concerned with developing and implementing processes that deliver delight at scale. As these methods roll out across support teams, and are likely to become a significant challenge for Customer Support Managers in the near future.


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Priorities of Agents compared to VPs:

Priorities

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Agents

Recruiting and retaining qualified agents


Managing SLAs and workload

Maintaining/improving team morale

Making things easier for the customers

Helping customers on multiple channels

Delivering customer happiness

VPs

Managing SLAs and workload


Delivering customer happiness

Helping customers on multiple channels

Making things easier for the customers

Recruiting and retaining qualified agents

Maintaining/improving team morale

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Need more? Get the full insight!

Download thefree report:

Kayako’s 2016Customer Support:State of theProfession Report

learn.kayako.com/state-of-the-profession-2016

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Four Revealing Insights into the Customer Support Industry for 2016