You know you're short-staffed.
What you don't know is by how much.
We build the business case for the headcount you actually need, backed by your own numbers, not the number you assumed you could get approved.
Every headcount request has the same problem.
It's not backed by numbers you can defend.
You already know your team is stretched. Maybe it's a seasonal spike you can see coming. Maybe it's been building for two quarters and you've stopped mentioning it because nothing changed the last three times you did.
Either way, when you go ask for more people, the conversation usually stalls in the same place. You know the workload. You don't have it translated into something a budget owner can act on. So the ask gets trimmed down before you even make it, because you're guessing at what might get approved instead of asking for what the work actually requires.
That's the part worth sitting with. Most support leaders don't overestimate their staffing need. They underestimate it, because they've learned through experience that big asks get denied, so they ask for less and hope it's enough.
Requests trimmed down
Before they're even submitted, because the real number "felt like too much to ask for."
Missed SLAs and burnout
That compound quietly instead of showing up as one dramatic failure.
A leadership team
That's learned to discount staffing requests, because none of them came with numbers attached.
We don't just build the case for the number you ask for.
We find the number that's actually right.
We take your team size, contact volume, handle time, and shrinkage, and build the real staffing model — the one that shows what your team needs to be fully staffed, not just what feels reasonable to request.
Sometimes that number matches what you were already planning to ask for. Sometimes it doesn't. When it's bigger, we don't just hand you a number that's technically correct and impossible to get approved in one meeting. We model multiple scenarios, find the version of the ask with the strongest return, and build the case for that one first, with a documented path back for the rest.
You find out if the number you were about to ask for is actually right, before you ask for it.
If the real gap is bigger than you assumed, you get a phased plan instead of one all-or-nothing ask.
Leadership sees a model that's already weighed the tradeoffs, not just a request.
If it doesn't open the conversation you need, we revise it once at no cost.
Why not just build this yourself?
A spreadsheet you build yourself
Tells you the math you already believe. Doesn't tell you when your assumption about the right ask is wrong.
A free template
Built for every company, calibrated to none of them. Won't catch that your team needs 6 more people when you were about to ask for 2.
ChatGPT
Can build a plausible-looking model. Can't tell you which of three scenarios will actually survive a leadership team that's historically distrusted staffing requests.
The hard part was never doing the math. It's knowing which number, out of several correct ones, is the one worth asking for first.
How it works
STEP 01
Book a Call
A short call to understand your team, your workload, and what's driving the need — whether that's a season, a growth stretch, or a gap that's been building quietly.
STEP 02
Share Your Numbers
Send us your team size, contact volume, handle time, and shrinkage. We'll send a simple checklist first, so you know exactly what to gather.
STEP 03
We Build the Model
We calculate your real staffing gap, not just the number you had in mind, and model multiple hiring scenarios to find the one with the strongest return.
STEP 04
You Get a Case Built to Get Approved
Delivered in 3 business days. If the full gap is bigger than one ask can cover, you also get a phased plan for the rest. If the case doesn't open the conversation you need, we revise it once at no charge.
What's included
Your Real Staffing Gap
The actual number your team needs to be fully staffed, calculated from your contact volume and handle time, not assumed from your current headcount.
Cost of Inaction, Quantified
What staying understaffed is costing you annually, in missed contact capacity and the revenue tied to it.
Multiple Hiring Scenarios
Two or three staffing options, each with its own investment, ROI, and payback period, so you can see which ask has the strongest return, not just the biggest one.
A Phased Plan, If You Need One
If the full gap can't be justified in one ask, a documented path for coming back for the rest once the first phase proves out.
ROI and Payback Summary
Year-one return and payback period, calculated the way finance evaluates a spend.
Methodology Note
How the numbers were calculated, so the case holds up if someone on the leadership team asks how you got there.
Delivered as a presentation-ready document. Drop it into a deck or forward it as-is.
What you get beyond the document
You find out if you've been asking for the wrong number. Before you walk into the meeting, not after it goes badly.
Approval moves faster. A model that's already weighed the tradeoffs doesn't need a second meeting to get a yes.
You get a real answer even if the timing is bad. If the full gap can't be funded at once, you leave with a phased plan instead of a denied request.
You keep the framework. The model you get back works for next quarter, next year, or the next time leadership asks you to prove it again.
You stop discounting your own ask. Once you've seen the real number modeled out, you're not guessing at what feels safe to request.
Case Study
They asked us to justify 2 hires. The real number was 6.
A 9-person support team was underwater, and everyone on it knew it. What the team didn't have was a leadership group that made staffing decisions based on numbers. Past requests had been treated as opinions, so the support leader had learned to ask small. Coming to us, the ask was help justifying 2 new hires — not because 2 was the right number, but because 2 felt like the number that might get a yes.
We built the staffing model from scratch: contact volume, handle time, occupancy, shrinkage. The team wasn't short 2 agents. Fully staffed, they needed 15 — a gap of 6, three times the original ask.
Hiring the entire gap at once didn't make financial sense in year one (modeled ROI: -28%, mostly ramp and onboarding cost outweighing benefit that early). The first 2 hires alone captured almost as much annual benefit as all 6 ($204,297 versus $224,297), at a third of the investment, with a 96% year one ROI and a 6.1 month payback.
We built the case around those 2 agents and laid out a phased plan to return for the rest once that case proved out. The 2-agent request got approved — on numbers, for the first time.
9 → 15
Real staffing need
6
Actual gap (3× the ask)
96%
Year 1 ROI (first 2 hires)
$204K
Annual benefit captured
Results are specific to this client's engagement and data. Individual results will vary.
Support leaders use this year-round. Here's one example from a peak season engagement.
"We were able to secure our peak season headcount with this plan and prove the value of our team along the way. The outcome showed an ROI that made our request a no-brainer."
Head of Customer Service
E-commerce Brand
Pricing
One-time cost. No subscription.
Priced by team size. Delivered in 3 business days. If the case doesn't open the conversation you need, we revise it once at no charge.
5–9 agents
$1,500
one-time
- Your real staffing gap analysis
- Cost of inaction, quantified
- Multiple hiring scenarios with ROI
- Phased plan (if needed)
- ROI and payback summary
- Methodology note
10–19 agents
$2,000
one-time
- Your real staffing gap analysis
- Cost of inaction, quantified
- Multiple hiring scenarios with ROI
- Phased plan (if needed)
- ROI and payback summary
- Methodology note
20 agents
$2,500
one-time
- Your real staffing gap analysis
- Cost of inaction, quantified
- Multiple hiring scenarios with ROI
- Phased plan (if needed)
- ROI and payback summary
- Methodology note
20+ agents
Custom
one-time
- Your real staffing gap analysis
- Cost of inaction, quantified
- Multiple hiring scenarios with ROI
- Phased plan (if needed)
- ROI and payback summary
- Methodology note
Frequently asked questions
Not ready to book yet? Get the intake checklist first.
See exactly what you'd need to gather (team size, contact volume, handle time, SLA data) before you ever talk to us.
Find out if the number you're about to ask for is the right one.
You already know your team needs more people. The question worth answering before you ask is whether the number you have in mind is actually the number the work requires, or the number that's felt safe to request.