How Many Customer Support People Do I Need?

A good rule of thumb is to take your player base and multiply by 1% to arrive at a minimum number of support personnel needed. Note that this can greatly vary depending on whether your game has one "dimension" (i.e., copy of the game world) or many, how advanced your customer service tools are, how complex the game is, how much support you want to provide, whether you plan on an all paid staff or the use of volunteers, and how much power you are willing to place in the hands of your volunteers. The 1% rule is followed primarily by medium to large games with more than one dimension that use a combination of paid staff and volunteers.

For example, a game with 50,000 players providing 24/7 support might be able to survive adequately with four paid staff on at all times, but will most likely be better off planning to have one paid staff on at all times and 10 volunteers on at any given time. However, what many games fail to plan for is the number of staff needed to administer the volunteer program itself. As of 2002, the most successful volunteer programs have required one to three paid staff managing the volunteers. However, it is vital to note that these programs empower several of the volunteers with extended abilities and allow for approximately 10% of their volunteers to work in supervisory and administrative capacities.

Case Study 4.3.5: Staffing a Volunteer Program

Demographics for FunCom's program ARK (Advisors of Rubi-Ka) show the average volunteer to be a college student with one to five years of gaming experience. Polls of their volunteers showed over 60% to be in the 21 to 30 age group, approximately 15% in the 18 to 21 range, and 15% in the 30 to 40 range. The majority of volunteers are male, which is also reflective of the player base for the game. Eighteen months after the program began, 7% of the volunteers had been in the program for over one year, and another 10% had volunteered for six consecutive months.

Types of Volunteers

Typically you can expect to get three types of volunteers:

• Desirable: Those who have the time, energy, and knowledge to effectively improve the customer service program for the company. Many volunteers in this category have college degrees and lucrative careers but simply enjoy the challenges and friendships that come with such a venture. A large number in this category are also college students seeking a "foot in the door" of the game industry.

• Temps: Those who just want to see what they can learn or get by being a volunteer, or who genuinely want to try it out and find that it's too much like work. Temps drain time and energy, and usually give up within 45 days.

• Problems waiting to happen: Volunteers who join to find information to abuse game mechanics, share with other companies, or to get an inside edge to assist friends.

Proper recruiting, training, and monitoring will keep the latter two categories to a minimum.

Turnover

Turnover in volunteer programs is normally very high, and is directly affected by the ability of the volunteers to receive satisfaction from helping players, the manner in which the company treats the help, and the "family" feel to the program. Programs that do poorly in these areas can expect a 25% turnover ratio per week. Even the best managed programs will still see a turnover of 3 to 7% depending on the season. One measure of a volunteer program is how long the volunteers remain active, as well as their level of activity. As in any business, happy people stay longer and produce better results.

In short, the secrets to a successful volunteer program are responsible empowerment, good management, correct tools, and the right people:

• Ensure that volunteers sign a well-written non-disclosure agreement (NDA), that rules for volunteers are clearly posted, and that you pursue violations.

• Verify that the volunteer is of legal age. This extra step can save you in child labor laws and NDA violations.

• When recruiting representatives, ensure that they can write proficiently if they will be dealing with customers online and that they have a friendly "online presence."

• Provide training. Some programs give a help file to volunteers and let them go. Some programs train, mentor, and teach tools and customer service basics. The latter cannot be stressed enough. Customer service does not come naturally to all. Training your representatives in diffusing difficult situations, how to escalate problems, and how to use positive statements along with the game mechanics will pay for itself when your staff is on the front line.

• Make the volunteers feel respected by the company. Developer chats, meetings with paid staff, informal discussions, and occasional telephone calls can go a long way toward building relationships. As rjan Mathis Tvedt, volunteer program manager for Anarchy Online, states: "The most important thing with a volunteer program that I have found is that it's just like any relationship. You get out of it what you put into it, you have to treat others like you want to be treated, and there has to be room for give and take."

• Empower volunteers to do what needs to be done. The number-one complaint of volunteers is invariably, "I don't have the tools or permissions to help the players when they have a legitimate need." If your volunteers can only answer players with "I'm sorry I can't help you", or "Let me refer you to (fill in the blank)," no one is benefiting. If your company cannot excel at internal customer service, there is no hope of them excelling with the external customers.

• Have the tools to monitor and deal with staff problems immediately. Make sure you can catch abuse of power or poor customer service and that you deal with these issues appropriately when they arise.

• Get good management and treat them well. Consider money spent on customer service an investment for the future rather than a expense. Strong leadership and personable people in both the paid and volunteer programs of customer service will save you time, money, and customers.

• Provide rewards and recognition for the volunteers. Thank people, publicly recognize them, and provide tangible benefits when possible.

Case Study 4.3.6: Rewarding Customer Service Staff

Here are a handful of ways in which effective service representatives can be rewarded for their work, and therefore retained longer:

• Unique items for their characters

• Renaming items in the game after employees/volunteers

• Letters of recommendation, awards, and parties

• Increased responsibility, ranks, and titles based on longevity

• Recognition on public Web sites, boards, and in the game itself

• Rewards of game points that can be used to purchase items or skills

• Preferential employment opportunities

• Invitation to participate in developer chats

• Beta testing of other company games

• Trips to gaming conventions