Scaled customer success with a new support channel.
Challenge
Affinity Sports, a division of DICK’S Sporting Goods, was scaling rapidly, but its support operations were not. Ongoing customer support relied on a homegrown ticketing tool, phone support, and institutional knowledge. Customers had no central destination for answers, so even basic questions flowed directly to the support team.
As ticket volume increased, the team was overwhelmed with repetitive requests, limiting their ability to focus on complex issues. Affinity Sports needed a scalable, self-service model for customers once they adopted the product.
Approach
Zendesk had been selected, but no one was leading the implementation. Shortly after joining the company, I stepped in to own the rollout with a tight timeline ahead of the busy season.
I partnered closely with a Zendesk consultant and internal stakeholders to assess existing workflows, identify agent and customer needs, and define success metrics. From there, I led the end-to-end implementation with a focus on scalability, consistency, and customer success.
Solution
I led the full implementation and ongoing optimization of Zendesk Enterprise (Support + Guide), including:
- Tool Adoption & Enablement: Quickly learned Zendesk and assumed internal ownership to lead adoption and deliver a successful launch on an accelerated timeline.
- Support Strategy & Planning: Defined goals, metrics, workflows, and launch milestones aligned to both customer experience and operational efficiency.
- Workflow & Automation Design: Standardized ticket handling, implemented automations, and reduced manual effort to give agents time back.
- Policies & Procedures: Established clear, scalable support policies that aligned teams and improved day-to-day execution.
- Customer Education & Self-Service: Created articles, guides, and videos that enabled customers to resolve issues independently.
- Help Center Development: Built and launched 47+ Help Centers, defining structure, content standards, and governance to ensure long-term usability and searchability.
- GTM Enablement: Trained internal teams and delivered resources to support adoption and readiness across the organization.
Results
Zendesk launched in just six weeks, ahead of our busiest season.
Within the first year, the new support model delivered measurable improvements:
- Reduced support volume by 25%.
- Achieved a 96% CSAT rating.
- Freed customer success managers to focus on building relationships and customer retention.
- Allowed customers to answer simple questions on their own, and support agents to focus on complex customer issues.
- Improved response times through automation and standardized workflows.
- Empowered customers with 47+ intuitive Help Centers.
- Launched a new, fully digital support channel.