Yes, it is a leads driven business. I have focused on improving SEO in three of their core markets. Any new customer that signs up as a result of my marketing efforts, as long as their base margin is met, I get paid for the lifetime of that account.
Did you already have a relationship with this company somehow or did you have to go and sell them?
Maybe I'm reaching here, but as a guess, are you able to offer your partner's services out the cut you take to smooth over issues? I'm just thinking that you have fantastic incentives to do stuff like that (prioritize long-term money) that a support person working as an employee of the company directly would not have real incentives to offer...
In a former life I was a support drone. Days were full of us taking calls from abusive a-holes who just wanted to get over on someone and also people who had legitimate grievances and deserved relief. We typically weren't empowered to do anything about either of them.