Originally designed to help women sell new and used clothing, Poshmark has evolved into a leading fashion resale marketplace for women’s and men’s fashion, kids, pets, home, electronics, and more, powered by a vibrant, highly engaged community of buyers and sellers and real-time social experiences. Keeping their thriving community of over 100 million users happy has been a mainstay for the team in the last decade, and informs their unflinching commitment to high-quality customer support.
As Poshmark's offering and catalog expanded, so did its support organization. Originally, the team was entirely in-house and co-located, relying on Google Calendar and Google Sheets for scheduling and reporting. Upon moving to remote work during the pandemic, the team sought a new system to improve their processes – specifically with capabilities to show real-time agent states and adherence.
"When we shifted to remote work due to COVID, tracking availability and managing response times presented an emerging challenge. We needed a solution that integrated with Salesforce to give us clear visibility into our team's activities. Despite unprecedented circumstances, it was critical we stayed on top of our game.”
Neil Chowdhury, Head of Customer Success, Poshmark
The WFM search begins
The Poshmark team realized they were quickly outgrowing point solutions—the customer service team was expanding internationally and adding support tiers and agent specializations. They needed a platform that could match their fast-paced environment. Notably, the team knew they didn’t want a legacy platform solution that treated workforce management (WFM) like an afterthought.
Specifically, Poshmark needed a tool that would help them schedule to meet SLAs. They wanted to track PTO and offer flex days to employees, which was nearly impossible to manage in spreadsheets. And without a formal notification system, the team leads were stuck sending out individual emails to employees about their schedules.
Assembled emerged as the front-runner solution with its agile scheduling features, seamless Salesforce Service Cloud integration, and modern, intuitive UI. But what really stood out was the white-glove treatment from the Assembled team along the way, reflecting Poshmark’s own mission to put people at the heart of commerce.
"Assembled was great at leaning in from the beginning, which is a unique differentiator, especially for companies our size. Their leadership even set up time to gather feedback on what was working and what wasn't. They took the time to listen, understand, and help solve some of our core issues.”
Neil Chowdhury, Head of Customer Success, Poshmark
Outsourcing enters the fold
In 2021, Neil Chowdhury joined Poshmark to spearhead their new outsourcing function. With over 15 years in customer support, Neil knew exactly what he needed out of a WFM solution. At the time, the Poshmark support team had primarily been using Assembled for scheduling, but bringing on a team of outsourced agents was the catalyst for unlocking the full potential of WFM for the entire organization.
Neil worked closely with the Assembled team to understand forecasting and time-tracking capabilities in order to effectively manage their BPO operations. With a team based out of the country, it was essential to stay on top of metrics like utilization rate, adherence rate, shrinkage, productivity, time to first response, and time to resolution.
Positive outcomes from the outsourcing project trickled over to the in-house teams as well. The entire organization faced a cultural shift—becoming more rigorous about staffing and training, implementing new team procedures, introducing more metrics, and sharing best practices.
"Our outsourced team has improved agent productivity by 10 to 15 percent, thanks to insights from Assembled. It's been key in comparing our internal agents with outsourced ones, enhancing our visibility and boosting productivity."
Neil Chowdhury, Head of Customer Success, Poshmark
A new era of efficiency and growth
Since implementing Assembled, Poshmark has seen improvements across the board for both their outsourced and in-house teams. Visibility into real-time metrics was the first big unlock, allowing the teams to make smarter, faster staffing decisions.
"Understanding shrinkage, adherence, and utilization metrics has directly improved our time to first response. With Assembled's help, we've seen a 10% improvement year over year in our response times.”
Neil Chowdhury, Head of Customer Success, Poshmark
Staffing Heatmaps and the Staffing Timeline give the team a big-picture view of how the team is meeting customer demand on a weekly basis, while the Agent Scorecard has become an essential part of their monthly business reviews.
Assembled’s automations and reporting have saved the team from cluttered spreadsheets and getting left in the dark when it comes to forecasting and real-time tracking. Now that they’ve made crucial improvements in response times and productivity, the team is always ready to deliver fast, reliable support, while maintaining the human connections their customers expect.
Poshmark's journey with Assembled is a testament to how the right technology, paired with strategic vision and partnership, can transform the effectiveness of customer support.
"In my experience with many tech vendors, Assembled really stands out. They strike a great balance in providing support, regardless of whether a customer is well-versed or just starting out with these solutions. That adaptability, along with product functionality, is invaluable to us."
Neil Chowdhury, Head of Customer Success, Poshmark
