Role Sr. Customer Success Manager Company Empowerly Tools Zendesk, Gmail, HubSpot, Slack

Centralizing Support & Building a Scalable Intake Workflow

I consolidated fragmented support channels into a single Zendesk-based system with structured triage, templates, and cross-team routing —eliminating lost requests and unclear ownership.

→Single intake path one address, one system, regardless of origin
☰Structured triage every ticket tagged and assigned before deep work
✓Macro templates consistent responses with one-click application
★Cross-team rollout Sales, CS, and counselors aligned on routing rules

This dashboard is interactive

Click any ticket status to see what happens at each stage of the support workflow.

Zendesk —Support Intake Workflow LIVE SYSTEM
Click any status to see what fires
New
Open
Pending
On-Hold
Solved
When ticket status is: New
Channel Consolidation Model
✉
Gmail (shared inboxes)
support@, info@ —auto-forwarded to Zendesk
✉
Slack DMs
Converted to tickets —no more lost requests
✉
HubSpot threads
Support requests routed out of sales CRM
✉
Direct employee DMs
Counselors redirected to proper support channel
➔
🎯 Zendesk
Single Source of Truth
Tagged, assigned, tracked, searchable
The Problem

Support lived in five places and none of them talked

When I stepped into this role, support requests were scattered across shared Gmail inboxes, HubSpot threads, Slack DMs, and individual employee inboxes. Counselors reached directly to Sales for student issues —bypassing any trackable system.

Nothing was consistently logged. Follow-up depended on memory and Slack scrollback. There was no reliable way to know what was open, who owned it, or what was stuck.

Before
After
Toggle between the before and after to see the transformation.
Incoming RequestsScattered across 5 channels
Channel
From
Message
Age
SLACKCounselor Kimhey can you check on the Chen family scheduling?2d ago
GMAILParent (info@)My daughter's counselor hasn't responded in a week3d ago
DMCounselor LopezCan someone reset my student's portal access?1d ago
HUBSPOTBilling ThreadRe: Invoice question —forwarded from Sales4d ago
?Who's handling the Chen scheduling issue? Check Slack...
?Did anyone reply to the billing thread from HubSpot?
?Is the portal access request resolved? No one logged it
?That urgent match change —was it escalated or forgotten?
ZD
Ticket #4201 —Counselor Match Request
counselor-match urgent Counselor Park 1d ago
Open
Status
Shelby
Owner
4hr
Response
Urgent
Priority
Ticket Details
Open —In Progress
Requester: Counselor Park
Student: Alex Chen, 11th grade
Category: Counselor Match/Fit
Tags
counselor-matchurgentstudent-requestescalation
SLA
First response within 4 hours
Resolution target: 1 business day
Actions Taken
Auto-acknowledgment sent
Tagged: counselor-match, urgent
Assigned to Shelby (CS)
Macro: match-change-process applied
Internal Notes
Student requesting switch due to schedule conflict
Checked availability —2 counselors have openings
Waiting on student preference confirmation
Linked History
Previous: #3988 —Initial onboarding
Previous: #4102 —Scheduling question
Scheduling
Billing
Account Access
Counselor Match
Escalation
Scheduling Response
Hi [Parent/Student Name],

Thank you for reaching out about scheduling. I've checked [Counselor Name]'s availability and here are the next available slots:

• [Date/Time Option 1]
• [Date/Time Option 2]
• [Date/Time Option 3]

Please reply with your preferred time and we'll get this confirmed right away.

If none of these work, let us know and we'll find alternatives.
▶ Apply Macro
Macros & Templates

Consistent replies. Zero guesswork.

Every common request type has a pre-built macro —tested language, personalized fields, and a clear next step for the requester. No more rewriting the same response from scratch.

Macros reduce admin time and ensure every family and counselor gets the same quality response regardless of who's handling the ticket.

☰Category-matched macros auto-suggested based on ticket tags
✎Personalized fields names, dates, and context auto-filled from ticket data
✓Clear next step every first reply tells the requester exactly what to expect
⏱Response time same-day when possible, 1 business day default
Workflow & Guardrails

Automations that prevent tickets from getting lost

Every automation exists to catch what humans miss —tickets sitting too long, urgent issues without escalation, off-channel requests that never made it into the system.

The rules are simple: every ticket gets tagged, gets an owner, and gets a first response with a clear next step. Click any row to see the detail.

✓Auto-acknowledgment immediate confirmation on receipt
↺Pending follow-up reminders for tickets sitting too long
▲Escalation tagging urgent issues surface in priority queue
Ticket arrives
→
Auto-acknowledgment sent + tagged for triage
Regardless of source channel, every ticket gets an immediate auto-reply confirming receipt. The ticket enters the New queue for triage —no ticket sits unacknowledged.
Triage complete
→
Tagged, categorized, assigned to owner or queue
Triage-first rule: every ticket gets a category tag (scheduling, billing, counselor-match, access, program, escalation) and an assigned owner before any deep work begins.
Pending 3+ days
→
Follow-up reminder fires to ticket owner
If a ticket sits in Pending status for more than 3 business days without customer response, the system reminds the owner to follow up or close.
Urgent tag added
→
Priority queue surface + escalation path activated
Urgent tickets bypass normal queue order and appear at the top of the daily view. If unresolved after 4 hours, the ticket auto-escalates to the next level.
Off-channel request
→
Converted to ticket + requester redirected
Slack DMs, direct emails, and Sales-routed requests are consistently converted into Zendesk tickets. The requester gets a friendly redirect to proper support channels.
Ticket solved
→
Summary logged for searchability + auto-close after 48hr
Every solved ticket includes a resolution summary —making the entire history searchable. After 48 hours with no reply, tickets auto-close to keep the queue clean.
Triage Queue —Today's TicketsLIVE
Ticket
Category
Status
Age
Flag
#4201 —Counselor Match
Counselor Park
Open
Urgent
1d
Escalation
Ticket Info
Student: Alex Chen, 11th grade
Issue: Counselor schedule conflict
Owner: Shelby
First response: 4hr (met SLA)
Next Steps
2 counselors with openings identified
Waiting on student preference
Follow-up scheduled for tomorrow
#4198 —Scheduling
Parent (info@)
Pending
Standard
3d
Follow-up due
Ticket Info
Family requesting schedule change
Macro applied: scheduling response
3 time options sent
Status
Waiting on family reply (3 days)
Auto-reminder triggered today
Rule: close if no reply in 5 days
#4203 —Account Access
Counselor Lopez (via Slack)
New
Standard
0d
Converted from DM
Ticket Info
Portal access reset request
Originally sent as Slack DM
Converted to ticket + counselor redirected
Action Needed
Assign owner for triage
Tag: account-access
Apply macro: access-reset-steps
#4204 —Billing
HubSpot thread (routed)
Open
Standard
1d
#4205 —Portal Reset
Student (direct)
Solved
Standard
0d
#4206 —Transcript Request
Parent email
Pending
Urgent
2d
Follow-up due
Ticket Info
Invoice question from family
Originally in HubSpot —routed to Zendesk
Sales notified of routing change
Status
Macro: billing-inquiry applied
Waiting on finance team input
On-hold status if no reply in 2 days
The Daily View

Open it, work the queue, go home

Every morning: open the triage queue, see what needs attention, work through the list. No digging through Slack, no checking five inboxes, no wondering who dropped the ball.

Each row shows ticket category, status, age, and exception flags. Click any ticket to expand the full detail panel with context and next steps.

⚠Exception flags escalations, follow-up overdue, converted DMs
⏱Age tracking how long each ticket has been in the system
◉SLA visibility response time targets front and center

Rollout & Adoption

Tool change fails if people keep DM-ing Sales

Internal alignment + customer-facing messaging + consistent enforcement

PHASE 1
Sales Alignment
Met with Sales
Defined routing rules
Reduced support-through-Sales
PHASE 2
Customer Messaging
Directed families to
proper support channels
Clear guidance sent
PHASE 3
Behavior Change
Managed adjustment
Converted off-channel
into tickets consistently
PHASE 4
Reinforcement
Every off-channel request
becomes a ticket
No exceptions
Counselor Operations

Tracking beyond tickets

Support intake was only half the picture. I also built and maintained the counselor tracker —a shared Google Sheets system monitoring counselor status, coverage, and operational health.

Plus an onboarding tracker standardizing new hire steps and a training manual documenting procedures, tools, and expectations.

📊Counselor tracker coverage, load, responsiveness, quality signals, onboarding stage
📋Onboarding tracker standardized steps preventing new hire slip-through
📖Training manual documenting procedures, tools, and operational expectations
📣Internal reporting tracker stats presented in team meetings
Counselor Operations TrackerACTIVE
Counselor
Load
Status
Response
Quality
Sarah Kim
College Admissions
18 students
Active
<24hr
★★★★★
David Chen
Essay Review
22 students
Heavy
<24hr
★★★★
Priya Patel
College Admissions
12 students
Onboarding
48hr
New
James Wright
Extracurriculars
15 students
Active
<12hr
★★★★★
Maria Santos
Financial Aid
20 students
Active
<24hr
★★★★
Tom Bradley
Test Prep
9 students
Onboarding
36hr
New
Lisa Park
College Admissions
16 students
Active
<24hr
★★★★★
Kevin Nguyen
Essay Review
14 students
Active
<12hr
★★★★★
Impact

The results behind the system

Real outcomes from consolidating support for a distributed edtech team managing a large active student and counselor base.

0
Scattered Channels
→
0
Intake System
0
Lost Requests
<1d
Response Time
100%
Tickets Tagged
100%
Tickets Owned
100%
Searchable

Why This Matters

How I think about operations

Friction > Firefighting
I notice operational friction early and fix it before it becomes standard practice
Structure > Heroics
Build structure people actually follow —matching how work really moves
One Source > Five Half-Systems
Reduce noise by creating one clear truth source instead of scattered channels
People > Process
Design for the people doing the work —reduce interruptions, clarify expectations
Zendesk Administration Support Workflow Design Cross-Team Rollout Macro & Template Design Triage & Escalation Google Sheets Ops Customer Success Change Management