The customer service industry is fiercely competitive and expectations of customers are very high. They aren’t shy of switching to companies with better customer service. So, in order to succeed you need to up your game and monitor your customer service metrics. 

Before you start reading this article why don’t you look over these two short but informative reads about document automation trends and updating outdated software.

Importance of Customer Service Metrics

Organizations are now changing the way they prioritize their efforts and it is mainly because of the shift towards customers. This shift gives rise to the need of high quality customer service. Now you must make sure that your support program meets the expectations your customers. 

To make sure that your customer service is impeccable you can measure the metrics that are important. Using the data that is produced from the feedback, you can make modifications wherever required. The following are the 5 noteworthy customer service metrics which you should monitor. 

First Response Time 

First response time or FRT means the time that an agent takes to respond to the first request of the customer. If this time is long, it could lead to accumulation of multiple tickets on the same issue, frustration on the side of customer and bitter verbal exchange and bad customer experience. 

On the other hand if this time is short and the agent gets back to the customer as soon as possible then it could lead to multiple purchases and increased revenue. So, it is important to know the expectations of your customers for FRT and binding your agents to that. The following are a few examples. 

• Email: 1 hour
• Phone call: 3 minutes
• Social media: 1 hour
• Live chat: 40-45 seconds

You can also set up automated replies to your customers who reach out to you, telling them that you have received their query and that you will get back to them soon. 

Average Resolution Time

This metric is about the average time a customer waits for their problem to be resolved. This is an objective estimate of the productivity of your agent. The shorter the resolution time, the more successful and effective will your team be in handling tickets.

To boost your teams’ productivity you can identify the common customer issues and develop responses and processes for them so that they don’t have to wait longer. You may even provide guides on company blog to make things simpler. 

Interaction and resolution

This metric shows how many interactions your agent needs with a customer to solve an issue. You can come up with the ideal number of interactions as it mostly depends up on the complexity of the product or service you offer and the workflow of your customer service.

If the number of interactions still grows then it means that your agent isn’t providing the right assistance or that the customer is not redirected to the right agent.

Rate of Resolution 

Rate of resolution or RR tells you the percentage of issues that are resolved out of the total tickets which were submitted. High RR means that your team is clearly efficient and that current employee training is working. In order to keep the transparency of the process you must have strong audit processes and QA mechanisms in place. 

Customer Satisfaction Score

Customer satisfaction score or CSAT is the commonly monitored metric which tells you how satisfied your customer are with you. Based on a study by Hiver, 41% of teams said Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) is their most important KPI. Although this metric can be quite subjective but it’s still worth knowing what your customers think about your support program. Although this metric can be quite subjective but it’s still worth knowing what your customers think about your support program. To improve CSAT you should train you agents well and improve their efficiency and response time. 

Conclusion

Good quality customer service can give your company the competitive edge that it needs over its competitors. About 90% of customers nowadays decide which company to choose based on the customer service they provide. It is better to measure the quality of your customer support with the metrics we mentioned in this article. Along with that for more improvement you should embrace multiple communication channels, train your agents better and gather feedback