In a fragmented and fast-evolving industry like EV charging, charge point operators and solution providers are judged by uptime, hardware reliability and the user experience. But if anything goes wrong and your customer needs help, a support team can make the difference between a bad and a great experience.
And a bad customer experience can be very expensive for your reputation and bottom line.
At Monta, we analysed data from 17,000 new EV drivers to understand the impact of their first charging experience on long-term behaviour. Here's what we found over the following 3 months:
The takeaway? A great charging experience more than doubles charging activity. And with the global charging station revenue expected to grow by $12.6 billion between 2024 and 2029 - a 257% increase - the stakes have never been higher. To seize the opportunity, however, you need a support setup that steps in at critical moments, keeps users satisfied, and turns frustration into loyalty.
In this post, we’ll dive into why customer support needs to be a strategic focus for your business and explore:
- Why great support is so difficult to get right in EV charging
- Data-driven insights on what EV drivers expect when using your network or services
- A practical framework to help you choose the right customer support setup for your business
Charging isn’t smooth yet but your customer experience can be
When we conducted an EV driver survey in 2023, one thing became clear: charging isn’t always smooth. Among respondents:
| Question | Total | UK | FR | DE |
| How many have encountered a public CP that didn’t work | 31% | 41% | 28% | 30% |
| How many have tried to charge but failed | 21% | 26% | 18% | 23% |
| How many have driven to a station to find it in use already | 28% | 33% | 21% | 35% |
| How many have gotten into arguments with other drivers over charging access | 16% | 9% | 14% | 22% |
31% said they had encountered a public charge point that didn’t work, while 21% said they had tried to charge but failed. 28% had driven to a station only to find it already in use and 16% had even gotten into arguments with other drivers over charging access.
These numbers indicate that our industry is still finding its footing. And when charging fails - whether the issue stems from hardware, software, roaming, or payment - the customer turns to the one name they know: yours.
You can’t always control the root cause but you can control the experience your customers have when something goes wrong. That’s where customer support becomes critical because resolving issues in EV charging isn’t always straightforward, it’s actually very complex. And your support function interacts with every part of it.
The real job of customer support? Understanding the whole ecosystem
Unlike other industries, EV charging support doesn’t follow a simple playbook. It requires a deep understanding of the entire charging ecosystem - from the hardware and backend systems to tariff structures, mobile app flows, and even the roaming agreements in place.
As Monta’s Director of Customer Support, Michael, explains:
“You can’t have a support team that just resets passwords. EV support agents need to understand hardware models, firmware errors, tariff logic, app UX. And often, they need to diagnose issues across systems they don’t even control.”
That’s a high bar. And to meet it, you need a support setup that’s designed for this complexity from the ground up.
But technical complexity is only one side of the equation. The other side is the behavior of the people using your network. Because no matter how sophisticated your setup is, it only creates value if it’s aligned with how drivers actually charge and when they need help most.
Design your support team around real-time charging behavior
Too often, support structures are shaped by internal resources or operating hours and not the realities of customer need. But EV charging doesn’t follow a 9-5 schedule. When something goes wrong, drivers expect fast, effective help no matter the time, day, or location.
Our 2023 survey reflects just how diverse and dynamic those behaviors are:
| Question | Total | UK | FR | DE |
| How many charge 3-5 times a week | 27% | 27% | 26% | 29% |
| How many charge at home | 50% | 70% | 43% | 47% |
| How many charge at public charge points | 39% | 34% | 37% | 44% |
| How many have encountered payment issues | 18% | 18% | 14% | 23% |
| How many worry about availability when travelling abroad | 27% | 41% | 22% | 25% |
27% of drivers charge at least 3–5 times per week and 50% primarily charge at home, but 39% rely on public charging where issues are more likely to arise. 18% have encountered payment issues and 27% worry about availability when charging abroad, situations where fast and informed support makes all the difference.
Without the right setup in place to respond to these moments, friction turns into frustration and frustration turns into churn.
Because at the end of the day, how support is delivered isn’t just a matter of operations. It’s a strategic business decision. The model you choose will impact your ability to scale, maintain quality, and protect your brand reputation.
Choosing the right support model: In-house, outsourced, or partnered
That brings us to the next big question: What’s the right support setup for your business?
As a CPO or solution provider, you generally have three options:
- Build your own in-house support team
- Outsource to a third-party provider
- Partner with a dedicated industry expert like Monta
Let’s take a closer look at the pros and cons of each approach.
Option 1: Building customer support in-house
On the surface, building your own customer support team might seem like the most natural route. You have full control. You can train people directly, integrate them deeply into your business, and even build in-house knowledge that strengthens your operations over time.
But here’s the reality: high-quality support doesn’t come cheap, especially in a 24/7, multi-market environment like EV charging. What starts as a manageable team for one market can quickly snowball into a complex, expensive operation as you expand.
To help you visualize what this actually cost, here’s what a typical in-house setup could look like at different stages:
| Setup level | Markets covered | languages | Team size | Monthly cost estimate* | Common pain points |
| Basic | 1 market, daytime only | 1 | 3-4 agents | 20k-25k EUR | Fragile coverage, no 24/7, no scale flexibility |
| medium | 2 markets or 1 market 24/7 | 2 | 6-8 agents + 1 lead | 35k-50k EUR | Scaling pain, shift burnout, cost starts to climb |
| Advanced | Multiple markets, 24/7 | 3-5+ | 10-20 agents + leads | 65k-100k EUR | High complexity, hiring challenges, expensive tooling, fragmented knowledge |
In-house setups might give you control but they require significant investments in people, tools, training, and management, especially if you want to maintain consistency across markets and time zones.
Option 2: Outsourcing to a third-party provider
If in-house support feels like too much of an operational burden, many CPOs and solution providers consider outsourcing to call centers or BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) providers. On paper, this route is often positioned as a cost-effective and quick-to-scale solution.
But while the price tag may look appealing, there’s a fundamental trade-off: quality and expertise.
Call center agents may be good at handling high volumes, but they don’t know your product. They likely don’t know your industry. And they almost certainly don’t understand the nuances of EV charging. Without this context, support becomes a script-reading exercise and not a solution-driven experience.
In an industry where 31% of EV drivers report encountering non-functional public chargers, and 21% say they’ve tried to charge but failed, that kind of support failure can be the difference between losing a customer or earning loyalty.
Option 3: The partner model
There’s a third way: a support setup designed specifically for the EV charging industry, powered by specialists who know the ins and outs of the ecosystem. From roaming integrations to hardware diagnostics to grid-related challenges.
At Monta, we treat support as a core part of delivering a reliable, seamless charging experience for CPOs, solution providers and their customers.
Our approach blends scalability, expertise, and operational excellence, so you don’t have to choose between cost and quality.
So while it may not be as cheap per hour as a third-party call center, Monta’s setup delivers long-term value and customer satisfaction that generic solutions can’t match.
And importantly: you still retain focus on your core business, while knowing your end users are in expert hands.
| Support setup | Advantages | Challenges | Typical use case |
| In-house team | - Full control over team and processes- Close proximity to product and operations- Can build long-term customer relationships and internal expertise | - High cost (e.g. €20K/month+ for single-market 24/7 setup)- Complex to scale across markets and time zones- Requires investment in tooling, training, HR, infrastructure | Ideal for companies with large budgets, slower scaling pace, or niche support needs |
| Third-party provider | - Low setup and operating cost- Quick to launch and scale- Useful for basic or high-volume support | - Limited industry or product knowledge- Quality and consistency may vary- Higher agent turnover, less proactive support | Suitable for low-complexity products or temporary overflow support |
| Partner model | - EV charging industry expertise- Multilingual, market-specific coverage- Deep product integration and faster issue resolution- Scalable without full in-house investment | Higher cost than third-party on surface level- Requires strong collaboration with partner | Best for companies wanting quality, scalable support without building large in-house teams |
If you’re exploring what best-in-class support should look like - whether you're building your own team or partnering externally - it's helpful to understand what’s possible.
Below, we’ll share what we’ve built at Monta. Not as the only solution, but as a benchmark for what’s achievable when support is designed specifically for the complexity of EV charging — and built to scale with your business.
Ready to level up your support? Let’s find the best-fit setup together
Customer support is one of the most direct and emotional touchpoints in the EV charging experience. When something goes wrong, support is the only human interaction a driver or customer has with your brand.
Yet, support setups aren’t all created equal. And choosing the right one isn’t a simple decision.
At Monta, we work with CPOs and solution providers across all maturity stages, from early growth to multi-market scale. And one thing is clear: there’s no universal right answer. The ideal support setup depends on your market reach, internal resources, and long-term strategy.
Sometimes that means building internally with a clear plan for scale. Sometimes it means offloading complexity to a specialized partner. Either way, we believe that a well-informed decision starts with understanding what “great” actually looks like.
What great EV charging support looks like in practice
Here’s what we’ve learned from running an EV-specialized support function at scale and what benchmarks you can use to assess your own setup:
| Support metric | Monta benchmark |
| Live chat response time (business hours) | 58 sec |
| Live chat response time (24/7 coverage) | 3min 52 sec |
| Avg. CSAT score (past 90 days) | 97% |
| Support volume | 100.000 tickets annually (300+ per weekday and 150+ per weekend day) |
| Multilingual support | Coverage across all Europe and North America with +25 support agents and 24/7 support |
These aren’t just vanity numbers. They reflect an operational setup that’s designed to scale without compromising quality and to ensure that when customers reach out, they get fast, empathetic, and effective help.
If you’re looking for a partner to work through these questions, we’re happy to help. We’re not here to push a product, we’re here to help you design a support function that strengthens your customer experience and unlocks growth over time.
And if it turns out a partnership model makes sense for your business, we’ve built one that’s already delivering results at scale - and we’d be happy to share how it works.
