Tophatter Gains 30% Rise in CSAT Scores With Global Support Agents

Competitive and limited local talent market

Tophatter, an online auction site for shoppers worldwide, was preparing to expand and needed dozens more multilingual customer support specialists. But they faced two challenges: Finding enough qualified talent and finding talent within budget in the highly competitive Bay Area. The company decided to test using remote contractors, but they had concerns about whether adding external talent would compromise the team’s work quality, productivity, and the company’s data security.

Source and collaborate with talent worldwide

To access a large number of qualified talent, the company sourced specialists through Upwork. The solution simplified administrative tasks by enabling customer support manager Aimee Valle to track all contracts on a single dashboard, communicate with talent located worldwide, and pay them with just a couple of clicks. To find the right talent, Valle shortlisted qualified proposals, then gave each person a small project.  Those with the best results were offered a larger 3-month project. “I can find talent within budget and so quickly that I’ve had projects start within 24 hours after I posted a job,” says Valle.

Higher CSAT and global support

Tophatter engaged nearly 80 customer support specialists across 28 countries in 13 time zones. With their help, productivity rose and CSAT scores soared 30%. Valle believes that proper training and access to information are core to customer agents’ success.