Case Studies

The work, in real numbers.

Four engagements. Anonymized clients. Documented outcomes.

Consulting is too often sold on claims. What follows is a small set of engagement summaries — situations our clients arrived with, the work we did together, and the specific results that came out of it. Client names and identifying details have been removed; the situations and numbers are real.

A note on confidentiality: customer service work is deeply tied to a business's brand and operations, and we treat that work as private by default. The case studies below describe real engagements but have been generalized — industry indicators kept, identifying specifics removed. We are happy to discuss our work in more detail with prospective clients under NDA.
B2B SaaS · ~$8M ARR · 12-person CS team

QA Program Rollout Lifts CSAT and Reduces Escalations

9-month engagement · Quality assurance program design
The Situation

A growing B2B SaaS company serving operational software to mid-market customers had built a customer service team without ever putting a formal quality program in place. As volume grew, performance variance widened — some agents were consistently strong, some were inconsistent, and leadership could not articulate why. CSAT had plateaued at 4.1 out of 5 for nine consecutive months. Escalation rates were climbing steadily and consuming senior team capacity.

What We Did

Designed a QA scorecard structured around the team's actual service standards, weighted to reflect what mattered most for B2B SaaS — accuracy, follow-through on technical issues, and consultative tone. Built a calibration process across the supervisor team to ensure the scorecard was applied consistently. Established a coaching framework tied to QA findings, with weekly 1:1 coaching sessions replacing the previous monthly QA reviews. Trained the supervisor on coaching conversation structure.

Outcomes (9 months)
  • +0.5 CSAT lift (4.1 → 4.6 out of 5)
  • -38% reduction in escalation rate
  • +12 pts First Contact Resolution improvement
  • -22% agent variance on QA scores (more consistent quality)

The QA program itself was less important than what it enabled — a coaching cadence the team could actually run. Most of the lift came from coaching, not measurement.

E-Commerce Apparel · ~$15M GMV · 8-person CS team

Returns Program Redesign Cuts Contact Volume 32%

6-month engagement · Operations consulting + returns workflow design
The Situation

A direct-to-consumer apparel brand was drowning in returns-related contacts — roughly 40% of total ticket volume traced back to returns, exchanges, or status questions about returns in progress. The customer service team was understaffed for the volume; the operations team was spending significant time on returns processing; and customers were complaining about the experience. Repeat contact rate sat at 28% — meaning more than one in four customers had to contact the team again about an issue that should have been resolved the first time.

What We Did

Mapped the full returns journey from the customer's perspective and identified the seven friction points that generated the majority of contacts. Redesigned the post-purchase email sequence to surface return information proactively. Built a self-service returns portal with intelligent eligibility logic. Rewrote the return policy page using plain language. Trained the team on a new escalation framework for returns disputes. Implemented better tagging so the team could see returns volume by failure mode.

Outcomes (6 months)
  • -32% total contact volume
  • -61% reduction in repeat contacts (28% → 11%)
  • +0.5 CSAT improvement on returns interactions
  • +18% repurchase rate within 90 days of a return

The contacts that should not have existed were more expensive than the contacts that needed to be resolved. Fixing the upstream experience was higher-leverage than improving how returns were handled when customers called.

Subscription Wellness Brand · ~$22M ARR · 20-person CS team

CSAT Recovery Through Voice of Customer Program

12-month engagement · Strategy + Voice of Customer program design
The Situation

A subscription wellness business had seen CSAT drift from 87% to 78% over fifteen months. Leadership was uncertain whether the decline was caused by service issues, product changes, pricing changes, or customer mix shifts. The customer service team had grown rapidly during the same period, and the existing reporting did not segment performance in ways that could answer the question.

What We Did

Designed a Voice of Customer program that combined post-interaction feedback, cohort-based NPS tracking, churn-interview synthesis, and conversation analytics. Surfaced the three patterns driving the CSAT decline — none of which were primarily a customer service issue. Built operational dashboards that segmented service performance by customer cohort and product line. Worked with the cross-functional leadership team to address the upstream drivers while simultaneously rebuilding service consistency in the segments where it had eroded.

Outcomes (12 months)
  • +13 pts CSAT recovery (78% → 91%)
  • -2.3 pts reduction in annual churn rate
  • $1.4M estimated annual revenue retention from churn improvement
  • Continuous VoC program now embedded in the operation

The hardest part of the engagement was getting leadership comfortable with the finding that most of the CSAT drop was not a service problem. The discipline of the VoC program was what allowed that conclusion to be defensible.

B2B Professional Services · ~$6M Revenue · 6-person CS team

Fractional CX Leadership Builds Measurement Infrastructure From Scratch

14-month engagement · Fractional CX advisory + supervisor mentorship
The Situation

A growing B2B professional services firm had scaled 50% year-over-year for two consecutive years without ever building dedicated customer experience leadership. The supervisor running the customer service team was a strong operator promoted internally but had no prior CX strategy background. Leadership knew the operation was under-instrumented but had no senior CX voice in the room to design the path forward — and was not ready to make a full senior hire.

What We Did

Engaged as fractional CX leadership on a monthly retainer. Mentored the in-house supervisor on strategy, measurement, and team development. Built the operation's first-ever measurement framework — defining what to track, why, and how often. Established CSAT measurement, FCR tracking, and a customer health scoring methodology suited to professional services. Designed the QA program. Sat in on quarterly leadership meetings as the senior CX voice. Set the supervisor up to take over the work permanently by the end of the engagement.

Outcomes (14 months)
  • 4.2/5 first measured CSAT score (previously untracked)
  • 78% First Contact Resolution baseline established
  • Promoted the in-house supervisor to CX Manager
  • Self-sustaining measurement and coaching cadence handed off internally

The goal of a good fractional engagement is to make itself unnecessary. The supervisor we mentored is now running the operation we built — and that is the right outcome.

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