Tickets Backlog Handling

Context

A B2B payments company faces a critical ticket backlog crisis following the onboarding of a large merchant that generated 55% more customer inquiries than anticipated. Without intervention, the backlog will grow by 15% weekly, risking customer churn and SLA penalties.

Goal

Resolve backlog issue
Prevent gaining backlog in the future

Key input

Metric	Details
Current staffing	6 FTEs
Service window	Monday–Friday, 9:00 – 18:00
Service channel	Deferred only (webform, emails)
Language support	Not language-specific
Daily incoming volume	310 emails
Monthly service budget	€ 27,600
SLA target	90% in 24 hours
AHT target	8 min
Utilization target	85%
Unplanned shrinkage target	7%
CSAT target	4.0

Analysis

For this case, I focused more heavily on data preparation, to demonstrate how proper analysis of current situation suggests the action plan.

CS KPIs dashboard

Here you can find analytical report with all simulated data for this case:
🔗 backlog-demo.netlify.app

The dashboard represents few relevant KPIs for the analysis:

Backlog behavior: static handling capability vs. growing incoming volume

Year-to-year comparison help to identify seasonal peaks

SLA / Speed of Answer behavior: key symptoms of service deterioration

Efficiency metrics - important to identify if there is any room for extra capacity

Average handle time (AHT): large variance between agents
Utilization: 20% of productive time out of the queue (not handeling customer interactions)
Shrinkage (unplanned): unavailable time (breaks, absences, sickness, etc.)

Current status

To summarize the data, there are a few critical points:

accessibility and speed of service is challenged;
volume increase appears permanent;
24% gap in capacity;
opportunities to improve efficiency.

Conclusion

Resources are not adequate to the new volume plateau:

insufficient staffing;

low efficiency.

Actions

Desired destination

Symptoms of sustainable no-backlog service:

SLA in target

AHT in target

WFM metrics in target

Volume forecast high accuracy

Long-term staffing plan

Risks

Risk	Level	Associated costs
Customer’s (buyers and merchants churn)	HIGH	Lost of revenue, opportunity costs
SLA penalties (merchant contract)	MEDIUM	Direct monthly fee – lost of revenue
Agents’ attrition	MEDIUM	Hiring / onboarding costs
Permanent ramp-up		Payroll, overheads

Plan

Action plan contains three phases.

First phase - urgent low fruits actions to stop gaining backlog.
It includes planning, scheduling improvements, suspending any non-essential activities. Sometimes you can afford overtime or part-timers.
Second phase - permanently increasing capacity and extra care to handle the backlog.
After the second phase, the position is stable but still fragile, because any unexpected volume pick can bring you back and you cannot do phase 1 exercises too often - it will ruin the team.
Third phase - is about scalability and prevention.
The bottom line is to have clear expectations of the volume, planned budget for ramp-ups and continuous efficiency improvement.

Backlog handling

Method

According to COPC© methodology, tickets backlog should be handled using FIFO (first in first out) method.

Some pre-work may be useful:

Tickets merging: combine duplicate inquiries from same customer;
Tickets segmentation: prioritize some categories by urgency/value.

Planning

Here you can see projection of the backlog behavior by taken different actions. Those are not scenarios to choose from, but for comparison.

Red line - natural backlog growing, if no actions taken.
Yellow line - is quite remarkable - it shows that only by taking urgent efficiency improvement actions we can stop backlog from growing. Because 6 FTEs though are not sustainable but adequate for 300 emails daily.
Green line - extreme example of quick solution when you have trained extra staff available.
Blue line is backlog handling according to the proposed plan. It is more realistic, considering new agents onboarding and some efficiency gaps associated with it.

Scenario	Actions	Weekly backlog Δ	Backlog clear time	Investment	Risk
Scenario #1: No change	No actions	+470	never	0	Critical
Scenario #2: Low fruits	- Scheduling improvement - Utilization increase to 97% - AHT improvement 12% (to 7 min) - Shrinkage decrease to 10%	+0	never	Manag. costs increase: 10%*	Critical
Scenario #3: Urgent staffing	- All actions from Scenario #2 - Sufficient staffing from day 1	-700	4 weeks	- Manag. costs increase: 20%* - Annual budget increase 7.5%	Low
Scenario #4: Realistic	- All actions from Scenario #2 - Adding 1.5 FTE since week 2 - Lower efficiency of new hires (week 3-4)	-340	4 weeks	- Manag. costs increase: 10%* - Annual budget increase 6%	Medium

*percentage of total monthly budget during backlog handling period

Planning table example

Staffing

There are three main elements of capacity planning:

Required hours are calculated based on expectedvolume, expected productivity and expected WFM metrics;
Scheduling and coverage;
Hiring / onboarding lead time.

Calculation methodology

You can calculate staffing with this app: 🔗 staffing calculator

\text{Required Hours}_{\text{ weekly}} = \frac{\text{AHT}_{\text{ hours}} \times \text{Weekly Volume}} {\text{Utilization} \times \bigl(1 - \text{Shrinkage}\bigr)}

\text{FTEs}_{\text{ weekly}} = \frac{\text{Required Hours}_{\text{ weekly}}}{40\ \text{hours}}

$\text{AHT} = \text{Average time spent on handling customer interactions}$

$\text{Utilization} = \text{\% of productive time within scheduled time}$

$\text{Shrinkage} = \text{\% of unavailable time within paid time}$

Recommended staffing

Current: 6.0 FTEs
Required: 7.5 FTEs
Gap: 1.5 FTEs

Recommendation:

Since week 1: weekend coverage schedule (temporary)

Since week 2: Add 2 part-timers (0.75 FTE * 2)

New hires: 2-week training / onboarding

Planning & controlling methodology

Financial impact

Current year budget increase: 6% (+ €19,657)
Next year budget increase: 17% (+ €56,561)

Current annual service budget

Position	FTEs	Hourly rate	Monthly hours	2025 annual budget
L1 Agent	6	€ 18.00	911	€ 196,732.80
Sr. Agent	1	€ 22.00	152	€ 40,075.20
Team Lead	1	€ 28.00	152	€ 51,004.80
Overheads				€ 43,171.92
Total				€ 330,984.72

New annual service budget

ramp up in September: 1.5 FTE
overheads temporary increase: up to 20%

Position	FTEs	FTEs since 21/09	Hourly rate	Monthly hours	2025 annual budget
L1 Agent	6	7.5	€ 18.00	978	€ 211,312.80
Sr. Agent	1	1	€ 22.00	152	€ 40,075.20
Team Lead	1	1	€ 28.00	152	€ 51,004.80
Overheads					€ 48,249.00
Total					€ 350,641.80

Next year estimated service budget

Position	FTEs	Hourly rate	Monthly hours	2026 annual budget
L1 Agent	7.5	€ 18.00	1138	€ 245,916.00
Sr. Agent	1	€ 22.00	152	€ 40,075.20
Team Lead	1	€ 28.00	152	€ 51,004.80
Overheads				€ 50,549.40
Total				€ 387,545.40

Conclusion

My goal was to combine realistic efforts in a tight budget and fairly moderate risks.
It is quite universal approach that can deviate by applying different variables.

This case suggests a three-phase action plan to eliminate the backlog within 6 weeks while building sustainable capacity.

The recommended approach combines immediate efficiency improvements (scheduling optimization, utilization increase to 97%) with strategic staffing additions (1.5 FTEs), requiring a modest 6% annual budget increase.

Week 1-2: Implement low fruits + weekend coverage
Week 3-4: Onboard 1.5 additional FTEs (2 x 0.75)
Week 5-6: Backlog eliminated, normalize operations
Week 7+: Focus on automation & efficiency investment

Current year budget increase: 6%
Next year budget increase: 17%

Backlog resolution: 6 weeks
Risk mitigation: medium to low