In a world of on-demand and multi-platform support, customer service metrics allow companies to track the progress they are making. In addition, tracking your customer service metrics can be a great way to gauge the health of your company. Positive word-of-mouth can increase your brand’s reach and encourage repeat purchases from happy customers.
Read on to learn how to track customer satisfaction and success efficiently, so that your team can stay on top of everything customer service.
Bonus: Download a free and easy-to-use template for calculating your monthly efforts in customer service.
What are the metrics of customer service?
Customer service metrics are key performance indicators that measure the effectiveness, efficiency, and quality of customer support.
By tracking common metrics, a company can allocate resources to the right areas, identify which channels are used by customers, and pinpoint recurring problems or bottlenecks.
Client satisfaction is also measured using customer service metrics. Customer feedback, such as surveys or polls of customers, is also used to measure client satisfaction.
In 2023, there will be 18 metrics that you should track to measure customer service.
Here is a list of the most important customer service metrics.
1. Net Promoter Score (NPS)
The Net Promoter Score is a measure of how likely customers are to recommend you to others. It is one of the most critical metrics for measuring customer engagement. Only customers who have a good relationship with your brand will recommend you.
Send a brief survey to your customers after an interaction with customer service or a purchase. You can ask them a simple question, “How likely are you to endorse the brand?” NPS is typically measured on a 1-10 scale, although some companies use a 5-point scale.
Source: Shaw Mobile survey
Subtract your detractors (those that would not recommend your product) from your promoters. Remove those who are in the “maybe” category. These people are “passives” that don’t affect your score.
NPS = Percentage promoters/percentage detractors
2. Customer satisfaction score (CSAT).
Like NPS, CSAT involves asking your customers a simple survey question. In this case, however, you simply ask your customers to rate their experience.
Instead of asking if they would recommend you, ask them if they are satisfied with you. This is one the most important customer service success metrics. This response encapsulates all aspects of the customer service experience.
Sending an NPS survey can be done after a purchase OR a customer service interaction. CSAT surveys are typically sent after customer service interactions. Use a numerical scale or be creative like Booking.com in this CSAT questionnaire:
Source: Booking.com email survey
Divide the number of responses by the positive scores in your survey to calculate CSAT. To get the percentage, multiply by 100.
CSAT = (Number positive scores/Number replies) x100
Hootsuite Inbox will automatically send CSAT surveys to customers after every customer service interaction. The results are then automatically pulled into Hootsuite Analytics, allowing for easy reporting and analysis.
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3. Customer effort score (CES)
This is another metric determined by a simple survey. At first, the survey question looks very similar to that for CSAT. But in this case, rather than asking how satisfied the customer is with the service, you instead ask how easy it was to get the service they needed.
Source: TurboTax email survey
This will give you an idea of how well-organized your customer service program really is. CES is a measure of the ease with which you can access support.
Helping customers get support in all channels they use is a great way to boost CES. Hootsuite Inbox allows you to manage all customer support channels across social media, keeping your customers happy and boosting CES.
The formula to calculate CES is similar to that for CSAT. It’s just the survey question that addresses a different facet of customer satisfaction. To calculate CES, you divide the number positive responses on your CES questionnaire by the total number. To get the percentage, multiply by 100.
CES = (Number positive scores/Number replies) x100
4. Support ticket categories
It’s crucial for companies who organize their support tickets according to the type of problem that they are experiencing, to be aware of which issues occur most frequently. Analyzing which categories have the highest volume of tickets can help you determine where your customers are putting the most effort.
Support tickets may be categorized as follows:
Sales questionTechnical issuesCancellationsReturnsShippingProduct availability
The number of visitors, the pages Frequently Asked Questions, and articles on help are all ways to determine where customers need most assistance.
5. Ticket volume
It’s important to track the most common issues, but it’s also crucial to monitor your ticket volume over time.
Imagine that the number of tickets is increasing, especially in a certain area. If so, you may need to review your communication strategies, help articles or policies. Managers must also be aware of the pressures their support staff is under so that they can offer assistance before burnout occurs.
How can you calculate the volume of tickets? Record the number of tickets you receive on a regular basis: daily, weekly, or monthly. To visualize the results, plot them on a line chart (like in our template for a customer service report, which you can find here).
Try to identify the possible causes of spikes. This could be a product release, global event, or a crisis in social media. This will help you to plan and allocate resources more effectively in the future.
6. Customer retention rate (CRR)
The customer retention rate is the percentage of customers that a business retains in a given period.
This metric can be vital to companies who offer a subscription-based or regular service. Companies may measure retention rates on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis, depending on their industry.
You’ll need the following information to calculate your customer retention rate:
S = Numbers of customers at the beginning of the period
E = Numbers of customers at the end period
N = Number added customers during the period
Calculate the customer retention rate using this formula:
[(E)/S] x 100 = CRR
Say, for example, that you had 100 customers when you started your timeframe (S), then 90 at the end (E), plus 15 new customers (N). You would have a 75% customer retention rate.
7. Churn Rate
Remember that good customer service is all about building relationships with your customers over time. The churn rate is the ratio of customers who leave your brand to those who stay.
The churning rate of customers is calculated for a certain period of time. Most commonly, the timeframes used are monthly, annual, and quarterly.
Divide the number of clients you lost over the period by the total customers you had before the period. Do not include any new customers that you acquired during the period. This will distort your results.
Churn Rate = (Customers who left over a period/Customers in the beginning of the period) * 100
Compare churn rate for different segments to determine if certain products or strategies of product bundling are more successful with customers than others.
Source: Jean-Francois Parent’s presentation at the J.P. Morgan Global High Yield and Leveraged Finance Conference by Quebecor Inc. QMI, and Videotron Vice President and Treasurer
8. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
Customer acquisition costs tracks the average amount spent on marketing and sales to acquire each new customer.
This metric is a partial measure of the ROI for social media, sales, and marketing teams. As teams scale up their efforts, CAC and ROI should increase.
The CAC formula is simple: Divide the amount of money spent on marketing and sales over a period by the number customers acquired during that same time frame.
CAC = Marketing and sales spend/customers acquired
If you spend $10,000 on marketing and sales, and acquire 20,000 new customers, then your cost per acquisition will be 50 cents.
It’s true that a lower number is better, but it can also indicate a smaller budget for sales and marketing. This is why you should consider this number in conjunction with metrics such as customer satisfaction, growth and performance.
9. Customer lifetime value (CLV)
Customer lifetime value (CLV) is the amount you can earn from one customer throughout their lifetime relationship with your brand.
A CLV higher than average first purchase indicates that your customers are making multiple purchases over time. This indicates a strong brand relationship with a high level of brand loyalty.
You’ll need a few customer data points to be able to calculate CLV.
CLV = Average purchase value x Average purchase frequency x Average customer lifespan
One research analyst, for example, estimated that Amazon’s lifetime customer value is $2,283 among Prime members, and $916 among non-Prime customers.
This is also a key metric to understand how much money you can spend on social media marketing to gain a new client.
10. Recurring Revenue
The recurring revenue can be used to determine how loyal your customers are. You can also see if people are increasing or decreasing their recurring spending.
You can calculate recurring revenue for any period of time that corresponds to the notice or renewal period for your subscription services. Most commonly, you can choose between monthly recurring revenues (MRR) or annualized recurring revenues (ARR).
Multiply the number of active users multiplied by the average monthly revenue for each user to calculate MRR.
MRR = Average monthly revenue per active user x Number of active users
11. Revenue from expansion
The recurring revenue metric measures the amount you bring in each month. Expansion revenue is a measure of revenue that comes from premium products and upgrades. This is an excellent measure of customer satisfaction because it shows that customers are willing and able to pay more than what’s required to use your service.
Add up all revenue from upgrades, add-ons and other sources.
Divide the total by the users to calculate the expansion revenue per user.
Expansion revenue = total revenue from upgrades and add-ons/number of users
12. Revenue contraction
Revenue contraction is the opposite to revenue expansion. You’re calculating the revenue lost due to downgrades. It’s similar to churn because it shows that people aren’t happy with their premium plans.
Churn is the number of customers that you completely lose. Revenue contraction is the amount of revenue you lose when customers stay but upgrade their plans.
A number of streaming services have introduced lower-cost, ad supported plans in recent months. Antenna, a research company, found that 29% of the new ad plans were downgrades.
Source: Antenna
Remember that HBO MAx gains ad revenues from the downgrades. It’s not just a loss of income. It is a good indicator of how much customers value premium plans compared to basic plans.
Add up all revenue losses from downgrades to calculate revenue contraction. Divide the total by the users to calculate the contraction per user.
Revenue contraction per user = Total revenue loss from downgrades/number of users
13. Average revenue per user (ARPU)
You may not have recurring revenues if you do not have a subscription-based model. It’s important to monitor how the average spend of your customers changes over time. Customers who are satisfied with your brand are more likely to spend, while customers who are not will tend to spend less.
Divide your total revenue for a given period by the average number of users during that time period.
ARPU = Total Revenue/Number Of Active Users
Because ARPU is a key measure of brand health it appears often in investor and earnings reports.
Meta Earnings Q1 2023 Presentation
14. Average response time
The average response time measures how long it takes customers to hear back from your support team.
Fast response times are a sign of good service, particularly online where customers expect to be served on demand. Many companies use bots to answer initial questions.
Hootsuite Inbox is one of many automation tools that can provide reports on average ticket handling times.
You can use the formula below to manually calculate the amount:
Average response time = Total response time to first customer query / number of queries
15. Average Resolution Time
The average resolution time is the amount of time it takes to resolve customer tickets. The faster a customer’s issue can be resolved the better for both the customer and the organization.
It is important to accurately calculate the resolution time if you have a large volume of queries. How to manually calculate it:
Average resolution time = Total amount of time spent on cases resolved / total number of cases resolved
16. First contact resolution rate
First contact resolution rate is another key customer service performance measure. Customers do not like being passed from agent to agent. This not only reflects poorly on an organization but also leads to longer response times.
You’re likely to have a high Customer effort Score (CES) if you have a poor first contact resolution rate. Particularly if you ask the customer to explain their problem more than once.
Many platforms calculate this automatically, just like average response time and resolution times. Just in case, here’s a manual formula:
First contact resolution rate = Cases resolved by one agent/cases resolved
17. The overall resolution rate
Not every case ends in a positive resolution. That’s normal. A good resolution rate is the ultimate goal.
How to calculate your overall Resolution Rate:
Overall resolution rate = number of cases resolved / unresolved numbers
It’s important to dig deeper if you have a low resolution rate, especially if your CRR is also low. Look at the specific ticket categories that are causing your resolution rate to drop and come up with solutions.
18. Communication channels preferred
To provide top-notch customer service, you need to know the locations where your customers expect support.
Track the platforms and methods your customers use to reach out to you so that you can allocate your resources appropriately. If you get a lot of support requests via Twitter, for example, it might be time to create a Twitter account dedicated to customer service.
Free Customer Service Report Template
Google Sheets has a simple template for a customer service report that will help you track your efforts to provide excellent customer service month after month. Go to “File”, then “Make a Copy” before you can use or customize the template.
The first tab contains a tracker of all your primary and second customer service metrics.
You can see the ticket volume in the second tab, which is a line chart. This allows you to easily identify what type of tickets are most popular and any problem categories that have been increasing. This chart can be used to communicate with product teams if you notice spikes in return rates, technical problems, or product availability.
This tab is almost like a customer-service metrics calculator. It contains all of the formulas and descriptions you need to complete your report. Here is a screenshot from the NPS Calculator.
Hootsuite Inbox helps you save time and improve customer service metrics by automating responses and integrating smart workflows. It also includes handy surveys and chatbots.
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