What’s really keeping customer experience (CX) leaders in the gaming industry awake at night? Against the backdrop of rapidly advancing technology, it’s the enduring operational challenges that stand out significantly. In this blog post, we’ll reveal some of the core issues that dominate the player support sector. Drawing from 5CA’s “2024 State of Player Support” research, we’ll explore how challenges like scalability, peak management, and managing player issues at scale stand as the foremost hurdles. This blog is just a snapshot; the full report is packed with even more insights.
The Scaling Puzzle
With gaming’s popularity surging, support services are under pressure to grow at the same pace. It’s not just about adding more team members; it’s about building scalable systems that are as flexible as they are robust. Finding the sweet spot between a support team that’s undersized and one that’s unsustainably large is a constant struggle. Plus, ensuring that these teams are well-trained and keeping the high performing people on board are critical for consistent, quality support.
Tackling the Volume of Player Inquiries
As player numbers grow, so do their requests for support via many different channels. Ensuring every single player feels valued and heard is a challenging task for any team.Support strategies must evolve to handle these inquiries effectively, ensuring that response time, player support and protection, and the quality of assistance all remain uncompromised. This often means integrating advanced support tools, training teams to handle complex issues, and fine-tuning internal processes for efficiency.
Peak Times Strategy
The gaming world is full of highs and lows. During new game releases, events, or unexpected surges, the pressure on player support ramps up. Preparing for these spikes isn’t just about having extra bodies in chairs; it’s about fully utilizing data insights & advanced analytics (ML/AI), smart forecasting, flexible resource deployment, automating high effort, low complexity processes, focusing on the right priorities and having contingency plans in place.
Vendor Collaboration
In the age of outsourcing, managing third-party vendor relationships is more crucial than ever. Keeping a cohesive strategy across different teams and companies is challenging but necessary. Ensuring that these vendors deliver the same level of service, uphold your brand’s standards, and provide seamless support is essential for a unified player experience. Also, when working with multiple vendors, it is important to remember: “The whole can be greater than the sum of its parts”. A close collaboration is essential for success.
Summary
The “2024 State of Player Support” report doesn’t stop here—these four areas are just the starting point. There are five more operational challenges detailed in the full report, each requiring a deep dive to understand and overcome. If you want to learn more about the “2024 State of Player Support”, download the full report here, for an in-depth analysis of all the challenges and strategies that will define success in this vital sector.
About the author
Joep de Jong is the 5CA Head of Operations. He has over 17 years’ experience in managing teams in the BPO industry across the globe. Joep has a strong focus on people and on building partnerships based on transparency and trust.
