When a US-based digital publishing platform came to us, their platform had 180,000+ book titles, 220,000 readers, and 4,500 authors — and a support backlog that was threatening to undo all of it. Here’s what we learned about what it really takes to support an ePublishing ecosystem.
The Myth of the ‘Simple’ Reader Ticket
The common assumption in SaaS support is that end-user tickets — especially for a consumer reading app — are simple. Download button didn’t work. Page won’t load. Password reset. In practice, ePublishing support is anything but simple.
Readers interact with complex DRM systems, cross-device sync engines, audio narration players, and format-specific rendering engines. When something breaks, the failure mode is almost never obvious. A reader saying ‘my book won’t download’ might be experiencing a DRM token expiry, a file format incompatibility, a CDN caching issue, or an account entitlement mismatch. The agent needs to know the difference — and know it fast.
Internal Learning: We invested 40+ hours in product certification before the first ticket was handled. That upfront investment paid back within three weeks — agents were resolving DRM and sync issues independently, without escalation.
Author Support Is a Different Animal
If reader support requires product knowledge, author support requires something closer to a guided consulting relationship. Authors uploading manuscripts for the first time are navigating file format validation, cover image specifications, metadata requirements, ISBN registration, and royalty payout setup — all in the same session.
We found that the most effective approach for author onboarding was scheduled screen-sharing sessions with a structured checklist. Rather than reactive troubleshooting after an upload fails, proactive pre-upload walkthroughs eliminated the most common friction points before they became tickets. Within 90 days, author-originated ticket volume had dropped 29% — not because we were deflecting queries, but because we were preventing them.
The Backlog Is a Symptom, Not the Problem
When we onboarded this client, their ticket backlog stood at 1,400 open items and was growing by roughly 200 tickets per week. The temptation in this situation is to treat backlog clearance as the objective. It isn’t. The backlog is a symptom of structural problems: insufficient coverage hours, inadequate first-contact resolution capability, and absent self-service resources.
Our approach was to run a parallel-track rescue: a dedicated surge team clearing existing backlog while the steady-state team was being trained and onboarded to standards. This meant the backlog stopped growing from day one — and was fully cleared by day 28 — without compromising the quality of training for the long-term team.
What the Data Told Us After Six Months
| Metric | Before Engagement | Month 6 |
| First Response Time (Email) | 11 hours | < 90 minutes |
| CSAT Score | 68% | 93% |
| App Store Rating | 3.1 stars | 4.4 stars |
| Open Ticket Backlog | 1,400+ | < 200 (steady state) |
| Author Activation Rate | Baseline | +38% |
| Engineering Support Hours/Week | 12+ hours | < 2 hours |
Three Things Every ePublishing Support Team Needs
1. Product Certification, Not Just Training
Generic customer service training fails in publishing support. Agents need to understand how the platform works at a functional level — DRM, sync, file formats, author workflows — before they take their first live ticket.
2. Screen Sharing as Standard, Not Premium
Text-based support cannot resolve complex author upload issues. Screen-sharing should be a standard capability, not an upsell, for any publishing platform support engagement.
3. Proactive Knowledge Base Development
The best way to reduce ticket volume is to prevent tickets. A well-maintained, regularly updated knowledge base — built from real ticket data — compounds over time into meaningful self-service deflection rates.
When publishing platforms scale, support complexity compounds.
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