The Challenge: A Disjointed Support System Hindering Growth

ConnectSphere, a rapidly growing SaaS company providing a cutting-edge project management tool for creative agencies, was facing a critical operational bottleneck. While their core product was earning rave reviews, their customer support infrastructure was struggling to keep pace. Their system was a fragmented patchwork of disconnected tools: a shared Gmail inbox for support tickets, a separate, hard-to-update WordPress site for their knowledge base, and a basic third-party chat widget with no integration into their user data.

This disjointed approach created several significant problems:

Slow Response Times: Agents wasted valuable time switching between tabs and manually searching for customer information, leading to an average first response time of over four hours.
Inconsistent User Experience: Customers had to navigate multiple interfaces to find help, creating frustration and diminishing the perceived value of the product.
Lack of Data & Insights: With data siloed across different platforms, the management team had no unified view of support metrics, customer pain points, or agent performance.
High Agent Turnover: The inefficient workflow and constant context-switching led to burnout and frustration among the customer support team.

ConnectSphere's leadership knew they needed a change. They researched various off-the-shelf SaaS customer support platforms, but found them to be either too rigid, prohibitively expensive, or lacking the deep integration they required with their core application. They needed a custom-built solution that was not only powerful and scalable but also felt like a natural extension of their brand. They turned to Vertex Web to architect and build it from the ground up.

The Solution: A Bespoke, Integrated Support Hub by Vertex Web

Our team at Vertex Web partnered with ConnectSphere to design and develop a comprehensive, custom support platform. Our approach was centered on creating a single source of truth for all customer interactions, powered by a modern, high-performance tech stack. The project was broken down into three key phases.

Phase 1: Discovery and Architectural Blueprint

We began with a series of in-depth workshops with ConnectSphere's support, product, and engineering teams. The goal was to map out existing workflows, identify every friction point, and define the key pillars of the new system. This collaborative process resulted in a detailed architectural blueprint for a unified platform comprising three core components: an internal Agent Dashboard, a public-facing Help Center, and an integrated in-app Support Widget.

We selected a technology stack optimized for performance, developer experience, and scalability:

Frontend: Next.js for its server-side rendering (SSR) capabilities, ensuring a lightning-fast and SEO-friendly Help Center, and a highly responsive experience for the Agent Dashboard.
UI Components: React and Tailwind CSS for building a consistent, reusable, and beautiful design system across the platform.
Backend & Database: Supabase as our Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS). Its robust PostgreSQL database, built-in authentication, and real-time capabilities were perfect for powering live chat and instant ticket updates, significantly accelerating development time.
API Layer: Node.js with Express.js for custom server-side logic and secure integration with ConnectSphere's primary application database.

Phase 2: Building the Core with Next.js and Supabase

With the blueprint finalized, our development team got to work. The first major deliverable was the Unified Agent Dashboard. Built as a secure single-page application (SPA) with Next.js, this dashboard became the command center for the support team. It consolidated tickets from email and the new in-app chat into a single, filterable view. Agents could see a customer's entire support history, subscription level, and recent activity at a glance, all pulled in real-time via our Node.js API.

Simultaneously, we developed the public-facing Help Center. Using Next.js's static site generation (SSG) for article pages, we created an incredibly fast and perfectly optimized knowledge base. This structure made every support article highly indexable by Google, turning their support documentation into a powerful organic traffic driver. Articles were written in a simple Markdown format, allowing the ConnectSphere team to add and update content without any developer intervention.

Phase 3: Real-Time Integration and Intelligent Automation

The final phase focused on tying everything together. We built the In-App Support Widget using React. This widget was embedded directly into the ConnectSphere application, providing users with seamless access to help. Upon opening the widget, users could search the Help Center directly. We implemented a lightweight AI integration that used the user's query to suggest the top three most relevant articles, aiming to resolve issues through self-service first.

If the user still needed help, they could initiate a live chat. This is where Supabase's real-time features shone. Using its WebSockets functionality, we built a robust, low-latency chat system that instantly pushed messages between the customer and the agent's dashboard. Agents received desktop notifications for new messages and could handle multiple conversations concurrently. The entire conversation history was automatically logged and attached to the customer's profile. This project showed how a custom build could far exceed the capabilities of standard SaaS customer support platforms by creating deep, meaningful integrations.

The Results: Transforming Support into a Competitive Advantage

The new, unified support platform launched in early 2025. The impact was immediate and profound. By replacing their fragmented tools with a single, cohesive system, ConnectSphere didn't just solve their operational issues—they created a new competitive advantage. Our goal was to build one of the most efficient, custom SaaS customer support platforms, and the metrics speak for themselves:

70% Reduction in First Response Time: Average first response time plummeted from 4 hours to just 72 minutes.
23% Increase in Customer Satisfaction (CSAT): The CSAT score soared from 75% to 92% within six months of launch.
40% Increase in Agent Productivity: With a unified dashboard and automated workflows, agents could handle more tickets with less stress.
45% Decrease in Average Ticket Resolution Time: Agents resolved issues faster with immediate access to customer data and history.
35% Self-Service Resolution Rate: Over a third of all support queries were resolved through the AI-powered Help Center search without ever needing an agent.
200% Increase in Organic Traffic to Help Center: The SEO-optimized Next.js build turned their support docs into a valuable acquisition channel.

This case study demonstrates the immense value of custom development. By moving beyond the limitations of generic solutions, ConnectSphere now possesses a support system that enhances user experience, improves efficiency, and directly contributes to business growth.

A Word from ConnectSphere

"Working with Vertex Web was a game-changer. They didn't just build us a platform; they built us a strategic asset. Our previous support system was a constant source of frustration for both our customers and our team. Now, we have a lightning-fast, intuitive system that our agents love to use and our customers appreciate. The increase in our CSAT score and the reduction in response times have had a direct, positive impact on our customer retention. Vertex Web's expertise in Next.js and their smart use of Supabase delivered a world-class solution on time and on budget."

- Sarah Jenkins, COO of ConnectSphere

Build Your Custom SaaS Customer Support Platform with Vertex Web

Are you struggling with an inefficient, off-the-shelf support solution? If you're ready to provide a superior customer experience and improve your operational efficiency, a custom platform is the answer. At Vertex Web, we specialize in building high-performance web applications tailored to your unique business needs.

Contact us today for a free consultation and let's discuss how we can build a custom solution that turns your customer support into a powerful driver of growth.

Case Study: Custom SaaS Customer Support Platform