# TAI Erlang Autonomics - Customer Success & Operations

**Version:** 1.0.0
**Date:** January 25, 2026
**Status:** Production-Ready for MVP Launch

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## Overview

This directory contains the complete customer success and support operational framework for TAI Erlang Autonomics. The system is designed around **sustainable margins** rather than support theater—every support dollar should protect multiples in customer lifetime value.

**Key Principle:** Automate the easy 80% (API errors, common questions, quota issues) so humans can focus on the 20% that matter (retaining at-risk customers, strategic account expansion).

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## Documents in This Directory

### 1. CUSTOMER_SUCCESS_PLAYBOOK.md
**The comprehensive guide to customer success operations**

Covers all 10 components of the customer success system:

1. **Support Channels & Infrastructure** - Email, Slack, status page; deferred phone
2. **SLA Targets & Response Times** - Matrix for Starter/Professional/Enterprise
3. **First-Response Automation** - Auto-resolve 45% of tickets without human touch
4. **Escalation Paths & Runbooks** - Decision trees for when to escalate
5. **Knowledge Base** - 100+ FAQ articles covering 80% of issues
6. **Proactive Monitoring** - Detect issues before customers complain
7. **Billing Dispute Resolution** - Process for invoice disputes & corrections
8. **Value Accuracy & Calculation Errors** - Remediation for billing mistakes
9. **Support Staffing Model** - Headcount plan from 0 → 5 FTE with budget
10. **CSAT Measurement** - NPS, CSAT, CES tracking + improvement playbook

**Key Metrics:**
- Support cost: <10% of revenue (healthy)
- CSAT target: 8.0+/10.0
- NPS target: 40+ (industry benchmark)
- Automation rate: 45% of tickets auto-resolved or auto-triaged

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### 2. SLA_TARGETS.md
**Formal Service Level Agreements**

Defines what customers can expect:

**Availability SLAs:**
- Starter: 99.5% uptime (22 min/month)
- Professional: 99.9% uptime (4.3 min/month)
- Enterprise: 99.95% uptime (2.2 min/month)

**Support Response SLAs:**

| Tier | CRITICAL | HIGH | MEDIUM | LOW |
|------|----------|------|--------|-----|
| **Starter** | 24h | 8h | 24h | 48h |
| **Professional** | 4h | 2h | 4h | 24h |
| **Enterprise** | 1h | 30m | 1h | 4h |

**Service Credit Policy:**
- Automatic (no claim required)
- 10-50% credit if uptime misses target
- Applied to next month's invoice

**Key Features:**
- Clear incident severity definitions (P1-P4)
- Post-mortem template for all incidents
- Financial remedies (service credits, not cash refunds)
- Customer-facing reporting (status.tai.ai)

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### 3. SUPPORT_PROCEDURES.md
**Day-to-day operations manual**

How support team actually executes:

**Daily Operations:**
- Morning standup (15 min)
- Shift schedule by tier
- Inbox management (email, Slack)
- End-of-day handoffs

**Ticket Triage:**
- Auto-categorization workflow
- Ticket fields & metadata
- Assignment rules by skill/tier/timezone

**Incident Management:**
- P1/P2/P3 declaration criteria
- 5-phase incident response (detection → investigation → fix → verification → closure)
- Status page + customer communication rules
- Post-mortem template

**Escalation Paths:**
- 4-tier escalation model (Support → Engineering → VP Product → Legal)
- Decision trees for each escalation type
- Churn prevention triggers

**On-Call Rotation:**
- Weekly support rotation ($500/week)
- Weekly engineering rotation (24/7, $750/week)
- Monthly VP Product rotation
- Burnout prevention (4 weeks max per quarter)

**KB Maintenance:**
- Editorial calendar (monthly)
- Article template + standards
- Analytics tracking

**Tools & Configuration:**
- Tech stack (Gmail, PagerDuty, Datadog, Slack)
- Runbook library structure
- Support team training program

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## Quick Start for MVP Launch (Week 1)

**What you need to do BEFORE first customer signs:**

### Day 1: Infrastructure Setup
- [ ] Create support@tai.ai email + Slack integration
- [ ] Set up statuspage.io (free tier)
- [ ] Create Slack channels: #support-general, #support-critical, #support-escalations
- [ ] Set up Datadog alerts → PagerDuty → Slack

### Day 2: Documentation
- [ ] Write 20 core KB articles (API setup, common errors, pricing)
- [ ] Create 5 support runbooks (401 errors, webhook issues, billing)
- [ ] Document support SLAs in contracts (use template in SLA_TARGETS.md)

### Day 3: Team Setup
- [ ] Brief founder/team on support procedures
- [ ] Assign on-call rotation (even if just founder for MVP)
- [ ] Create support email templates (7 templates in SUPPORT_PROCEDURES.md)
- [ ] Set up ticket tracking spreadsheet (Google Sheet)

### Day 4: Monitoring & Alerts
- [ ] Configure Datadog monitoring (error rate, latency, uptime)
- [ ] Create alert rules (P1: API down, P2: latency spike, P3: customer specific)
- [ ] Test PagerDuty integration
- [ ] Add runbooks to each alert

### Day 5: Testing & Validation
- [ ] Send test support ticket, verify response SLA
- [ ] Trigger test incident, verify incident response
- [ ] Verify status page updates correctly
- [ ] Have customer test Slack support channel

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## Key Decisions Made

### Why These Support Channels?

**Email (MVP Launch):** Cheap, async, searchable. No real-time staffing required.
**Slack (MVP Launch):** Reduces friction for developer users. Enables async handoff to engineering.
**Phone (Deferred):** Added cost ($30K+/year) for low-value interactions. Defer until Enterprise tier >$200K ACV.
**Intercom (Deferred):** Nice to have, but custom Gmail setup works fine for <20 customers.

### Why These SLA Targets?

**Starter: 24h response:** $2.5K/month tier doesn't justify 4h response. 24h acceptable for non-urgent business.
**Professional: 4h response:** $15K/month tier justifies faster response, bridges evening submissions to morning.
**Enterprise: 1h response:** $75K+/month tier (LTV=$1.8M) justifies on-call engineer. Prevents churn ($180K+ loss).

### Why Auto-Resolve 45% of Tickets?

Common issues are predictable:
- API key invalid (401) → Auto-response with fix
- Rate limit hit (429) → Auto-response with backoff code
- Quota exceeded → Auto-response with upgrade link
- Malformed JSON → Auto-response with validator link

**Result:** 12 hours/week saved = $75K/year labor cost avoided.

### Why Service Credits, Not Cash Refunds?

- Refunds erode margins (each credit = lost revenue)
- Credits encourage customers to stay (apply to next month)
- Automatic (no claims process) = better optics
- Limited (10-50% max) = incentive not to over-commit on SLA

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## Metrics & Success Criteria

### Monthly Dashboard Targets

| Metric | Target | Why It Matters |
|--------|--------|-----------------|
| CSAT Score | 8.0+/10.0 | Predict churn risk |
| NPS Score | 40+ | Predict expansion |
| Response SLA Met | 95%+ | Customer expectation |
| Resolution SLA Met | 95%+ | Issue gets fixed timely |
| Support Cost % Revenue | <10% | Margin sustainability |
| Churn Rate | <10%/year | Retention = growth |
| Expansion Revenue (NRR) | 110%+ | Upsell/cross-sell working |
| KB Search Ranking | Top 3 for keywords | Self-service reducing tickets |

### Red Flags (Escalate Immediately)

- CSAT drops below 7.0 for 2 consecutive months
- Support cost exceeds 15% of revenue
- Churn rate >15% (customer retention issue)
- Response SLA miss rate >5% (staffing problem)
- Same issue filed 3+ times (product bug, not support issue)
- Customer reports security issue (page general counsel)

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## Implementation Roadmap

### Month 1-3 (MVP: 3-5 Customers)
- Email support + Slack channel
- 20 KB articles
- 5 support runbooks
- Founder handles most support (part-time)
- No dedicated support hire yet

**Cost:** $0 (founder time only)

### Month 3-6 (Scale: 6-15 Customers)
- Hire contractor CSM (0.5 FTE, $15K/qtr)
- Expand KB to 60+ articles
- Implement ticket triage automation
- Build support dashboard
- Analyze support patterns

**Cost:** $15K + tools ($180/mo)

### Month 6-12 (Growth: 15-40 Customers)
- Convert CSM to FTE
- Hire support engineer (1.0 FTE)
- Implement auto-responses for common issues
- Proactive monitoring for all customers
- Monthly SLA reviews

**Cost:** $270K/year + tools

### Month 12+ (Scale: 40+ Customers)
- Hire VP Customer Success
- Add 2-3 more CSMs
- Implement Intercom/Help Scout
- 100+ KB articles
- Executive QBRs for top accounts

**Cost:** $550K+/year + tools

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## Frequently Asked Questions

**Q: Why not hire support immediately?**
A: Early-stage startups should have founder doing support 10-20 hours/week for first 6 months. This keeps you connected to customer pain and prevents over-engineering solutions.

**Q: What if we get slammed with support tickets?**
A: Prioritize ruthlessly: (1) CRITICAL tier 3 issues, (2) HIGH issues, (3) MEDIUM/LOW. Defer non-urgent until next day. If pattern continues, hire contractor fast.

**Q: How do we prevent support from becoming a cost center?**
A: Every support dollar should save 5x in LTV protection. If you're spending $100K/year on support, you should be retaining $500K in customer lifetime value that would otherwise churn.

**Q: When should we move to Intercom/Help Scout?**
A: When you have >30 customers and are missing response SLAs due to volume. Before that, Gmail rules are sufficient.

**Q: How do we measure support ROI?**
A: (Support Cost) / (Churn Prevented + Expansion Revenue) = ROI. If you spend $10K preventing a $100K customer from churning, ROI is 10x.

**Q: What if a customer pays for premium support?**
A: Use custom SLA in enterprise contract (e.g., "30-min response" instead of 1h). Charge 2-3x the base monthly fee for premium support.

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## Integration with Other Systems

### Sales Handoff
- When customer signs: Notify CSM within 24 hours
- Schedule onboarding kickoff call
- CSM gets intro from sales (warm handoff, not cold)

### Product Development
- Support tickets inform feature roadmap
- Top 10 support issues → product planning meeting
- Customer feedback → product improvements

### Finance/Billing
- Billing disputes → Finance team resolution
- Invoice calculations → CFO review monthly
- Service credits → Tracked for revenue impact

### Marketing
- Customer success stories → Case studies (with permission)
- Common support questions → Blog content
- NPS results → Used for "customer testimonials"

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## Document Maintenance

**Update Schedule:**
- CUSTOMER_SUCCESS_PLAYBOOK.md: Quarterly (add new runbooks, update staffing plan)
- SLA_TARGETS.md: Annually (re-negotiate SLA targets based on delivery)
- SUPPORT_PROCEDURES.md: Monthly (document new processes, update escalation paths)
- README.md: Quarterly (update metrics and roadmap)

**Review Cycle:**
- Q1: Review metrics, update staffing plan
- Q2: Audit support team performance, update SLA targets
- Q3: Analyze support trends, improve KB
- Q4: Plan next year, executive summary

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## Support Team Culture

**Core Values:**
1. **Customer Obsession:** We exist to solve customer problems, not process tickets
2. **Transparency:** Share status openly, communicate delays proactively
3. **Ownership:** Own tickets to resolution, not just handoff
4. **Learning:** Every support issue is an opportunity to improve
5. **Sustainability:** No heroics. Well-rested team > 24/7 coverage

**Team Health Metrics:**
- Support team satisfaction (survey quarterly)
- On-call burnout prevention (max 4 weeks/quarter)
- Ticket autonomy (% resolved by support vs escalated)
- Career growth (training, promotion, skill development)

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## Contacts & Escalation

**MVP Launch (Founder-Driven):**
- Founder: All support + escalations
- Contact: [Founder email] + Slack @founder

**Month 3-6 (Single CSM):**
- CSM: Tier 1-3 support + escalations
- VP Product: Executive escalations
- Contacts: See support@tai.ai

**Month 12+ (Team):**
- Support Team: support@tai.ai
- VP Customer Success: [Email]
- VP Product: [Email]
- CEO (emergencies): [Email]

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## Related Documents

**In this directory:**
- CUSTOMER_SUCCESS_PLAYBOOK.md (full 10-component system)
- SLA_TARGETS.md (formal SLAs + service credits)
- SUPPORT_PROCEDURES.md (day-to-day operations)

**In /business directory:**
- PRICING_AND_PACKAGING.md (support costs by tier)
- GO_TO_MARKET_STRATEGY.md (customer acquisition)
- FINANCIAL_MODEL.csv (support cost assumptions)

**In /sales directory:**
- SALES_PLAYBOOK.md (customer handoff to success)
- IMPLEMENTATION_GUIDE.md (onboarding process)

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## Version History

| Version | Date | Changes |
|---------|------|---------|
| 1.0.0 | Jan 25, 2026 | Initial release: 10-component system, 3 documents, MVP playbook |

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## License & Usage

**Confidential:** Internal use only. Do not share outside company without approval.
**Ownership:** VP Customer Success / VP Product
**Last Reviewed:** January 25, 2026
**Next Review:** April 25, 2026

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## Final Thoughts

Customer success isn't a cost—it's an investment in retention and expansion. The most successful SaaS companies spend 10-20% of revenue on CS/support because it drives:

- **Retention:** 5% increase in churn → 25-50% increase in lifetime value
- **Expansion:** Customers who interact with support expand faster (60% NRR from "passive" customers vs 110% from "engaged")
- **Advocacy:** Satisfied customers refer others (every NPS point = 2-3% faster growth)

This playbook is designed to be cost-effective at every stage, from founder-led support ($0/month) to professional team ($50K+/month). The key is matching investment to customer value and scaling deliberately.

**You've got this. Now go delight your customers.**

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**Questions or suggestions?** Contact VP Customer Success or open an issue in the operations folder.
