How Hugo Scaled A Support Team in 60 Days While Maintaining Quality

The Client

A play-to-earn platform serving over 30 million users, helping businesses boost customer lifetime value through incentive-driven experiences. As its user base exploded, the platform needed support operations that could scale rapidly while maintaining service excellence.

The Challenge: Scaling Support Without Sacrificing Quality

The fragmented freelance support model was collapsing under the weight of 30+ million users. What worked at a smaller scale now created critical bottlenecks that strained operations and put user trust at risk. Key issues included:

• Scaling Constraints: Difficulty onboarding and managing new team members quickly.
• Inconsistent Service Quality: Dispersed freelancers made it nearly impossible to maintain consistent quality standards.
• Volume Overload: Surging ticket volume led to slower responses, frustrated users, and growing reputational risk.

The platform needed a partner that could move fast, building a high-performing team capable of scaling with their growth.

The Solution: Precision Scaling in Three Phases

Phase 1: Foundation Building (Weeks 1-2)

• Proactive Talent Sourcing: Hugo built a vetted talent pool ahead of demand, sourcing agents with expertise in rewards platforms and cultural alignment. Through personality assessments, Hugo identified candidates with the communication skills, emotional intelligence, and problem-solving abilities essential for the platform’s user base.
• Train-the-Trainer Model: Partnering with leadership, Hugo trained a core group of agents and Team Leads on tools, workflows, and brand standards. These leads then cascaded knowledge across the team, creating a multiplier effect that ensured consistency and alignment from day one.

Phase 2: Rapid Scaling (Weeks 3-6)

• Systematic Team Growth: Hugo deployed parallel training streams covering product knowledge, communication, and processes, followed by a structured nesting period with supervised live ticket management and continuous feedback. The team expanded from 11 to 41 agents while maintaining strong performance throughout.

Phase 3: Premium Service Launch (Weeks 7-8)

• Specialized VIP Team: Hugo curated top performers from the scaled team to create a specialized 13-agent VIP operation, delivering premium support to high-value users. This premium tier joined the broader operation to provide 24/7 multi-channel coverage across Chat, Email, SMS, WhatsApp, and Telegram.
• Management Framework: Hugo implemented a robust oversight with team leads, QA specialists, and shift managers to drive coaching and knowledge retention. Real-time monitoring and continuous feedback loops ensured consistent quality and accountability at every stage of the scaling-up process.

Technology Stack

• Intercom – Ticket management
• Unbabel – Multilingual support
• Solid Road (implemented by Hugo) – Agent simulation tool for training and personalized, on-brand support

The Results: Scale without Sacrifice

Scaling Achievement

• 273% team growth – from 11 to 41 agents in under 60 days
• Zero service disruption during freelancer-to-dedicated team transition
• Freelancer phase-out completed 1 month ahead of schedule

Quality at Scale

• 90%+ QA scores maintained consistently during rapid expansion
• Sub-2-minute first response time for both general and VIP support
• 97% CSAT across all service levels

Business Impact

• 24/7 global coverage enabling continuous user support
• Premium revenue protection through a dedicated VIP team
• Scalable foundation built for continued growth

“We were looking for a partnership to help us, and Hugo delivered. I’ve worked with many partners before, but the Hugo team has not just brought professionalism, but personality. Hugo has become a natural extension of our company.” – Robert M.

Strategic Scaling

In 60 days, Hugo replaced the fragmented freelance setup with a 41-agent dedicated team, built to scale high volumes without sacrificing quality. The phased approach delivered fast results and laid the foundation for long-term growth.