Case study · Customer care operations
How two Lowe's installation companies hold a 2% abandon rate through leaves, resignations, and peak season.
Backfills ready before the seat opens
The storyKeeping a phone team on its numbers
Service Pros Installation Group and its sister company, Integrity First Installations, run installation and customer care for Lowe's flooring, window, and door projects. Every install creates calls: scheduling, material status, post-install questions, and the occasional frustrated customer.
Today, 35 Assistantly Unicorns work across both companies. Most sit on the customer care team run by Customer Care Manager Jimmy Chestnut. Some have been on the team for close to three years, and with new territories ahead the team is ready to grow again.
This isn't a story about a team that never had problems. Anyone who has built a large phone team knows that's not how it works. It's about what it takes to keep one performing, and growing, season after season.
Phone support exposes every gap. A missed shift on an admin team can be caught up later. On a call queue it shows up right away, as longer holds and abandoned calls. Agents are measured on 80% on-queue time, 90%+ QA scores, and how quickly they respond after a missed call.
Volume doesn't wait for hiring. The team hit its first 1,000-call day in March 2026. Peak season brings more calls and more stressed customers, and the November to December holiday stretch adds pressure on top of that.
Headcount never sits still either. In the past year alone, the team worked through:
Reliability is the job. For a fully remote phone team the hardest problems aren't call skills. They're showing up on time, returning from breaks on time, and having a backup plan when the power or internet goes out.
The team can't afford to go into November short-staffed.
What Assistantly put in place
Assistantly keeps candidates moving before a seat opens. When a local agent resigned in mid-September, two new hires were ready the same week and started training the following week. When two agents went on leave, temporary coverage was chosen the same day.
Seasonal hires, maternity coverage, and backfills are mapped out with SPIG's team well before they're needed. Replacement candidates are sourced during a performance plan, so a change is plug-and-play if it comes to that.
Assistantly's support team joined SPIG's call calibration sessions to learn the metrics the supervisors actually score against. We track PTO, makeup time, and attendance alongside their team, and when auditing needed documented hours, we built the reporting.
Every quarter, Assistantly runs an all-Unicorn busy-season realignment covering backup internet, on-time breaks, and immediate communication.
Performance issues get documented coaching first. When a change is needed, exits are timed to the backfill, so the queue is never left uncovered.
Good attendance standing is required at Assistantly, and we promote from within. One customer care Unicorn was promoted into an Installation Coordinator role. When IFI's volume dropped seasonally, an agent was redeployed into cross-training instead of being let go.
Assistantly's internal client support team has built multiple call center teams like this one, so the playbook here started from experience rather than from scratch.
How the year went
Volume steps up well before the hiring plan has to react to it.
Agents learn both lines, so either queue can be covered when the other gets busy.
A customer care Unicorn moves into an Installation Coordinator role, with the backfill already sourced.
Two new hires the same week the local agent resigned, in training the following week.
Temporary Unicorns were chosen the day the leaves were confirmed.
Backup internet, on-time breaks, and immediate communication, reviewed with every Unicorn on the account.
The team goes into the holiday stretch at full strength, with new territories next.
The result
The team hit its first 1,000-call day in March 2026, and the account is still growing.
SPIG and IFI didn't get a team without problems. They got a team where problems get caught early, handled quickly, and backfilled without leaving the queue uncovered.
That's why the account keeps growing heading into November.
In their words
“Our team at Lowe's said we have an excellent customer care team working for IFI. They're such a small group, and they do so well.”
“They've been averaging for a whole six months straight a 2% abandon rate with the 80% service level, so they've been really consistent.”
“That communication kind of opened up a lot of their eyes. People have been really consistent and also more proactive with communicating with the supervisors.”
Jimmy ChestnutCustomer Care Manager, Service Pros Installation Group
Recognition, unprompted
To the Assistantly Team,
I would like to take a moment to recognize three of our outstanding CCS agents who consistently demonstrate dedication, teamwork, and a commitment to excellence.
Peter Borja has been with us the longest and continues to demonstrate his dedication to the team. He has been instrumental in supporting our newer agents by assisting with shadowing calls and sharing his knowledge and input to help them succeed. His experience, dependability, and willingness to help others make him a valuable asset to our team.
Michael Vallescas has grown into one of our top-performing outbound agents. His excellent attendance, strong work ethic, and willingness to take on additional team responsibilities demonstrate his commitment to our department's success. Michael consistently shows that he can be counted on.
Mary Ausan was performing exceptionally well before experiencing health challenges that required her to step away. Since returning, she has demonstrated incredible determination and a renewed commitment to her responsibilities. Her metrics continue to excel, and she has come back ready to contribute and perform at a high level.
We truly appreciate all the hard work our Unicorns bring to the team.
Why this worked
Keeping a 35-person remote phone team reliable through leaves, resignations, promotions, and peak season is where staffing partners fall short.
SPIG runs a structured four-week training program and knows its customers. Assistantly owns the talent supply, the standards, and the follow-through when something slips.
A ready bench, account-specific standards, and a CSM who knows the queue mean an issue with one agent never becomes a coverage problem for the whole team.
That's how Jimmy plans for November instead of reacting to it.
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