Influencer marketing is a popular and effective form of marketing today. Brands connect with influencers, experts, and leaders to endorse their products. Our client is the world's first creator management platform, helping brands form partnerships with authentic creators. To maintain their high-quality platform, they partnered with SupportNinja to build an expert research team. 

The challenge

Assembling an expert research team

This creator management platform organization needed a team to navigate Instagram and scan for quality leads for customers. Creating this team was about more than just recruiting the right talent, it included establishing training programs and setting performance measures. The company also needed guidance on implementing quality assurance policies to keep their team focused and productive. Having ample, efficient, knowledgeable people was key to forming a successful team that would deliver for the company’s customers.

The solution

A partner to accelerate growth

The resourcing challenge for this content management company could not be adequately addressed internally so they sought a strategic partner to keep marching towards their business goals and brand promise. They identified SupportNinja as the ideal partner. Our existing network of knowledgeable Ninjas was just what they needed: our expertise in training, team management, performance metrics, and quality assurance made this a natural partnership.

Phase 1: meeting immediate needs

We ambitiously set out to hire a full team in under a month. After kicking off the hiring process, it became clear that the client would need closer to 50 team members to meet their needs; more than double the number originally needed.

With careful coordination and strict adherence to our strategic ramp plan, we were able to assemble this team of 50. We got them through the initial onboarding and training process so they could start gathering research insights for the content management platform.

Phase 2: support tools

After the research team was created within the required timeframe, our focus shifted to implementing the right tools for our team to efficiently research.

As we monitored productivity we could continue to tweak and improve the team's processes and ensure efforts were meeting the client’s goals.

Phase 3: optimizing process

Now that the team was recruited, onboarded, and equipped with the proper tools, we could focus on one of the most exciting parts of any partnership—optimization.

In order to track team performance, we needed to compare the gathered data with determined metrics for success. We proposed three business KPIs to evaluate performance: 

1. Productivity: The amount of value added to the company (output) compared to the amount of effort invested (input). 
2. Time to Return: How quickly a task was satisfactorily completed. 
3. CSAT: This is a customer satisfaction score that shows how happy a customer is with the product, service, help, or information they received. 

We added two internal KPIs as well: 

1. Attendance: A measurement for how present each team member is at work (punctuality, engagement, attendance, etc). 
2. Attrition: A way to evaluate instances of reduced effectiveness. 

After these KPIs were established, our Ninjas began drawing live data from the customer to build a strong KPI reporting dashboard for the client. Having clear goals and KPIs helped our Ninjas march toward a unified outcome. Data gathered was reported with transparency which helped the client link the team’s efforts to actual results. 

Phase 4: a winning organizational structure

We implemented a new strategy to better support our client by improving the organization structure of our large team. We formed four smaller pods, each with a coach for mentorship and over-the-shoulder training, managed by a team lead. This structure allowed for continual evaluation, feedback, and improvement, setting up our Ninjas for sustainable success.

The result

Expert team and ongoing optimization

Partnering with this content management platform has shown us how much we can achieve in a short amount of time. With the right strategy and a set of unified goals we can accomplish a lot quickly. But the work does not end there. Continual review, optimization, and adjustment will really ensure this team is a success in the long run.