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3 Reasons Behind Your High User Support Costs

Jan 31, 2025 | Smart Ticketing

Managing user support requests is essential to ensuring a positive experience and streamlining internal processes. However, many businesses observe an increase in support costs, which can heavily impact their overall budget. This cost inflation is often linked to three factors: the number of tickets submitted, the time taken to process requests, and the hourly rates applied, especially in outsourcing scenarios. Understanding and optimising these three factors will enable you to better control your support costs.
Three Areas to Explore 👇

  1. Ticket Volume: Understanding and anticipating demand
  2. Processing Time: Improving process efficiency
  3. Hourly Rates and Outsourcing: Optimising resources

Ticket Volume: Understanding and Anticipating Demand 🎫

The number of tickets submitted by users is one of the primary indicators of a company’s support needs. A high ticket volume often signals frequent user difficulties, whether due to recurring bugs, unintuitive processes, or insufficient training on certain tools. This high volume can quickly overwhelm support teams, leading to longer resolution times and increased operational costs.

Repetitive tickets on similar issues may also indicate structural problems. For instance, if multiple users encounter the same issue in a business process, such as purchase requests or time tracking, this might suggest that the tool’s interface is not user-friendly or that improved access to training is needed. Over time, this repetition unnecessarily burdens support agents and reinforces user dependency on support.

💡 Tip: To reduce support costs, start by lowering the number of tickets. Invest in a comprehensive and accessible knowledge base as well as ongoing training sessions for users. Implement a regularly updated user guide to address frequently asked questions and promote self-service.

Processing Time: Improving Process Efficiency ⌛

The time taken to process each ticket depends on the nature of the issue, the complexity of support processes, and the availability of information needed to resolve requests. Longer or segmented processes increase resolution times, which directly impacts costs. Inefficient internal workflows or a lack of management tools often prolong ticket resolution times, creating bottlenecks that frustrate users and increase expenses.

Processing times can also increase due to the complexity of systems in place or unclear user requests. When agents need to follow multiple steps to qualify a ticket or contact the user for additional information, the process becomes lengthier. Reducing processing time requires optimising ticket flows and equipping agents with suitable tools to shorten intervention times.

💡 Tip: Streamline ticket management by implementing specialised tools that include routing, ticket prioritisation, and customised support forms. Support agents will then receive better-qualified tickets, enabling quicker responses. Automating tasks further reduces processing times and associated costs.

Hourly Rates and Outsourcing: Optimising Resources 🕜

Outsourcing user support is a common practice, as it allows businesses to access skilled support without the need to recruit and train internal teams. However, outsourcing often involves significant hourly costs, especially when high service levels are required (e.g., extended availability, quick response times, specific SLAs). These costs can vary based on the complexity of interventions, the hours covered, and the expertise of the agents involved.

In outsourced services, hourly rates and priority management become critical cost factors. Poorly managed interventions, undefined prioritisation of requests, or excessive outsourcing for simple tickets can quickly escalate the final bill.

💡 Tip: Ensure that your support provider’s scope of work is closely aligned with your needs and that service levels match your organisation’s actual requirements. Regularly assess performance by establishing key performance indicators (KPIs) and adjust SLAs according to business priorities. By precisely targeting essential interventions, you can limit billable hours and maximise the cost-efficiency of your outsourced support. Additionally, consider innovative solutions like Smart Ticketing to simplify in-house management.

Conclusion

High user support costs may seem unavoidable in complex and digitalised work environments, but they are not insurmountable. By identifying and understanding the three main factors—ticket volume, processing time, and hourly rates—businesses can better manage these costs and optimise their resources.

Reducing ticket volume often involves improving user experience and upskilling employees to foster greater independence.
More efficient support relies on streamlining ticket processing, enabling teams to respond to requests quickly and consistently.
Finally, controlling hourly costs related to outsourcing requires close collaboration and regular evaluation of service providers to ensure that service levels precisely meet business needs.

In summary, an optimised support strategy not only reduces operational expenses but also improves end-user satisfaction and productivity. To achieve these goals, businesses must adopt a proactive and evolving approach to user support, integrating innovative solutions and regularly refining practices to remain competitive.

 

To explore more about optimising your support and turning challenges into performance drivers, check out our other articles:
👉 Many businesses assume that outsourcing user support is a cost-saving measure, but this is a misconception. Read more in “Misconception: Outsourcing User Support Costs Less”.
👉 Discover practical strategies in “4 Secrets to Reducing the TCO of Your Business Application”.