Top KPIs for Sales, Support & Customer Service Teams Blog

Going through the LiveAgent details, we found it to be a powerful help desk platform suitable for every type of business. It is built to give you and your agents a tight grip on feedback to fast track resolution times. It also boasts of scalability, letting you kpi for support team manage a customer-oriented team, whether it is composed of a couple of agents or dozens. What makes KPIs quite effective are the resulting actions they trigger. Customer-related KPIs show how well a company is performing from the standpoint of its clientele.

Their scorecard may reflect how well they’re meeting this organizational goal across different performance measures, like sales KPIs, over a quarterly time frame. Last but not least, don’t forget to measure the satisfaction of your employees. When you’re working to optimize your sales team, the KPIs you track will look a little different. You might focus less on average wait times and more time on call volume and tracking individual sales performance. Average wait times are important and can affect a customer’s experience. In fact, In our own consumer research, we found that consistency in a company’s service and experience is one of the most important factors in creating satisfied customers.

You can weaponize CRM data to segment your customers and target them with specific surveys or follow-up questions. For example, you might send a survey to customers who have been waiting more than 24 hours for a response to their support ticket. The average first response time is the amount of time it takes for your customer service team to respond to a customer inquiry.

After all, organizations are composed of customer-facing units departments, each with its own sphere of activities that affect the outcomes of operations. And in a lot of cases, taking a granular approach lets you see areas of improvement that you didn’t know existed. To get started, read our articles about how to set OKRs, write better SMART goals, or create great short-term goals.

After all, customers shouldn’t feel like resolving their issue is a worse experience than what they were contacting the service team about in the first place. The escalation rate is a percentage that represents the number of support tickets that escalate to a person with more experience or specialized knowledge. The person receiving the escalated ticket is typically a supervisor or manager.

Number of Interactions Per Ticket

It’s smart to pair this metric with first contact resolution as they often correlate. If both figures are below your standards, it may indicate an issue with support processes or necessitate further employee training. Employee engagement surveys can help measure how happy your support team members are in their roles and with your business. It can refer to how confident they feel in their job title, how supported they feel regarding development and promotions, their work-life balance, and more. More mature service teams are usually subdivided into specialized roles at levels (N1, N2, N3…). Measuring SLAs and stocks makes it possible to manage your team dynamically and optimize value delivery, generating satisfaction.

In addition, we recommend adding financial metrics to have an overview of the economic impact of your IT support operations. The two most important metrics to measure for a support team will depend on the specific goals and objectives of the organization. Still, Customer Satisfaction and First Contact Resolution Rate are considered the most important metrics for a support team. It’s important to balance AHT with other metrics, such as Customer Satisfaction and First Contact Resolution Rate. For example, an IT support representative may be able to handle requests quickly.

That’s why you should encourage your customer service team to provide more demos and webinars and track how many leads sign up for your product after them. Don’t push too hard — and reward those who manage to achieve the monthly goal. As I say, it’s not your typical customer service experience to cross-sell or upsell. But sometimes, the opportunity just presents itself, and it would be a total waste to miss it. KPIs measure progress toward specific goals, and metrics gauge the overall business health.

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If you find that you have a low CES score, identify how to remove obstacles and friction. Average handle time (AHT) is similar to average resolution time, but there is a slight difference. To calculate TTR, subtract the time at which the customer made the request from the time at which the issue was resolved. It is calculated by dividing the total score received by the total number of responses and multiplying it by 100 to get a percentage score. Customer Satisfaction Score measures how satisfied customers are with the IT support they receive. For instance, if you had 50 open tickets at the beginning of the week and agents resolved 30 tickets, the backlog at the end of the week would be 20 tickets.

It lets you streamline your support by identifying bottlenecks and examining problematic tickets right from the report. Fortunately, Freshdesk offers a free trial to help you examine the solution closely. Our Freshdesk reviews gave this award-winning help desk software high marks on the strength of its ease-of-use and robust features. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are a special set of metrics that help determine whether business is going in the right or wrong direction. At first glance, it seems that customer service KPI scores take a backseat to traditional business KPIs, like profits, costs and regional sales.

To reduce your response time, you must either scale your support agents or implement a chatbot. Chatbots can handle basic queries 24×7 when your agents are busy or unavailable, which reduces the number of support tickets raised and human handovers. Below is a list of important KPIs for customer service evaluation and acquiring actionable feedback. Let us discuss the key metrics on how to measure customer service success with higher accuracy. This is the measure of the number of repeated calls or support tickets from a customer within seven days from their first contact. The customer callback KPI encourages agents to resolve current as well as future (anticipated) issues.

For instance, you stated to answer 70% of the email requests you receive within 1 business day. Monitoring these customer service metrics is important for you to know if you are performing well in comparison to this predefined goal. It does not really matter which specific metrics you chose, but it is essential to respect these agreements. Not evaluating them might let you out of track and some problems might also go unnoticed, delaying the moment you are aware of them and start fixing what has to be. The goal is to keep the churn rate minimal, but it happens in every company so you don’t need to panic immediately.

First Contact Resolution is the ability of an IT support team to resolve customer issues or requests during the customer’s initial contact with the support team. It measures the percentage of customer issues that are resolved during the first contact without needing the customer to follow up or escalate it. As its name suggests, the abandon rate tracks the percentage of clients that leave a call or other form of communication before they can speak to an agent. This KPI can be used to measure the ability of the support department in answering requests in due time.

ROI stands for Return on Investment, which measures the efficiency of an investment. Organizations use it to evaluate the financial returns of investments in IT infrastructure, software, or other technology-related projects. For example, if 60% of customers are Promoters, 20% are Passives, and 20% are Detractors, the NPS would be 40 ( ). For example, if an agent spends 6 hours out of an 8-hour workday on support-related activities, their agent utilization rate would be 75%. Implementing a writing-box can also be a good way to receive qualitative feedback that helps you know what is working. Monitor this KPI closely for your different support channels to keep it from going up.

What are the two most important metrics to measure for a support team?

You can optimize the FCR metric by training your customer support team to improve their communication skills and deliver quality service. You can provide live chat scripts and customer surveys to improve resolution in the first interaction itself. CRM systems usually have many out-of-the-box features for measuring customer service performance.

But they don’t do a great job measuring customer support performance, usually because they don’t understand the link between customer experience and revenue. You can establish mechanisms for collecting and analyzing customer feedback. Utilize surveys, feedback forms, and social media channels to understand customer sentiments. This feedback not only provides insights into customer satisfaction but also helps in identifying specific areas where improvements can be made. You can provide your customer service team with the necessary tools, training, and empowerment to meet KPIs effectively. Equip them with the skills and knowledge needed to handle customer queries efficiently, resolve issues promptly, and contribute to positive customer experiences.

To calculate net promoter score, you first need to gather data using a customer survey. Send a survey to customers after they make a purchase that asks them, “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend [products or service] to a friend or colleague? ” On this scale, 0 would be not at all likely, and 10 would be extremely likely. You always have to understand your customer’s expectations and deliver support to enhance their satisfaction and reduce abandoned rates. You can implement ways to collect qualitative and quantitative feedback, that help you know the areas working well and the gaps that need to be improved.

Correspondence Replied to On Time

First contact resolution rate is different from the average resolution time as it measures the percentage of tickets solved during initial content. While it is a marker for efficiency, it can skew metrics as some issues are more complex and require more time to resolve. If you could only track one customer service metric — which we do not recommend — it would be this one. Average resolution time (ART) refers to the amount of time it takes for your customer support team to fully solve the customer’s problem and close the ticket. We analyzed data across about 6,000 ecommerce companies using Gorgias to provide customer support and we found that the top-performing companies have an average resolution time of 1.67 hours.

You know abandoned call rates are a major part of measuring KPI for customer satisfaction. When customers have to wait for a long time to get in touch with the agent, it becomes frustrating for them. It provides analytics and helps to gain insights from the data collected. The insights can be used further to engage customers in the right way and improve sales conversion.

This cloud-based service requires no hardware or software, making it highly usable, so you can get your support team up and running in no time and at less cost. Service Cloud is also adaptable to any industry workflow with its business automation tools and the ability to use custom or pre-integrated apps. Take note that there is no one approach for evaluating all your different KPIs. You’ll be using various metrics and assessment methods specific to the KPI and the goals you set.

Repeat customer rate (RCR)

Conversation abandonment rate is a metric to understand how frequently your customers abruptly end interactions with customer support before reaching a clear resolution. Customer satisfaction (CSAT) is a metric to measure your customer base’s level of satisfaction with their experience. CSAT is one of the most important measurements because satisfied customers return to your store, refer friends, leave reviews, and unlock reliable revenue for your brand. In your account, you’ll get visual reports showing your average resolution time in a given time period. The customers will rate you on a scale of 1-5 based on how much effort it takes to complete a transaction, resolve a support issue, and otherwise interact with your company/product online or in person.

Monitor the revenue churn not just as a bigger picture, but also on an individual (customer) level so that you can identify reasons for churn and improve in the future. You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. Measure this customer service KPI over time and see how your trend line is. If at some point they reach an unusually high percentage, it might be good to dig deeper. Monitor the customer churn over time and see what causes higher rates in order to improve the results in the future. Keeping tabs on your revenue is vital to ensuring your brand’s growth and continued success.

Let’s say that one of your agents writes 200 messages per day while another agent writes only 10. This could be a sign that one of them deserves a raise and the other probably needs to have a chat with you. Obviously, you should look at these results in the context of other customer service measurements. This means that a helpful customer service team can earn a high CSAT score even if customers needed assistance with overcoming some difficulties. On the other hand, CES is not biased by how happy the customer was before contacting customer service, while CSAT may be influenced by this factor.

There is also the concept of SLO (Service Level Objective), which can also be used in conjunction with the SLA. The SLO is used in conjunction with the SLA bringing a more restricted working parameter, making the process work in a tighter pattern. For example, if your first response SLA is 4 hours, your SLO can be 2 hours, and the process can be defined according to this most difficult parameter. In case there is no SLA policy in the contract, the team can define an internal SLO to guide their definitions and process standards. HubSpot Service Hub includes a Customer Feedback tool so you can truly understand your customers and spot opportunities to make them happier — so they stay with you longer. If a customer needs to search for your ‘Contact us’ button even for a minute, you’ve failed your mission.

You can easily calculate it by dividing the total support costs by the number of issues. You will get to know how much individual support costs to your business. If you deliver services that are consistent and predictable, the lifetime value to the customer increases significantly.

Sudden changes could represent an issue with your product or shipping speeds. Every business focuses on improving the retention rate, and that’s why it should be amongst the main customer support metrics to measure. A general positive brand image and high satisfaction score will directly increase your customer retention graph. At first, you have to identify the primary goals of your customer service team.

If a customer service metric doesn’t directly affect progress toward a business goal, then it’s just a metric, not a KPI. For example, a business goal or objective might be to decrease customer churn. A KPI related to this goal could be measuring customer satisfaction following service interactions or the number of issues resolved in the first contact.

Happy customers are more likely to return, refer their friends, and buy again. Unhappy customers, on the other hand, can damage a company’s reputation with a single tweet or review. Companies are continually looking for ways to elevate their customer experience. Over 50 percent of customers will switch to a competitor after a single unsatisfactory customer experience. Here’s a list of 35 more customer experience statistics to share with your team. Of course, there are other ways to achieve your goals, but if you use these steps as a springboard, you’ll be sure to find success in your support efforts.

This metric can be helpful in identifying trends related to customer service demand. For example, if you see a sudden spike in ticket volume, it could indicate that your product or service is having difficulties. That’s why it’s important for businesses to track team performance metrics related to customer support quality. By monitoring these metrics, you can identify problems early and take corrective action before they become bigger issues. However, some of the most important KPIs you should measure are customer satisfaction scores, first response time, and customer churn. Communicate your customer feedback to your product and marketing teams so they can understand what your customers may be dealing with or asking questions about.

According to Gorgias research, repeat customers generate 300% more revenue than first-time customers of ecommerce brands. We estimate that by increasing your repeat customer base by 20%, you could increase your revenue up to 6%. Finding your total self-service resolution rate is a bit difficult because you don’t have a ticket to open or close.

The downside of surveys is that they’re often long and time-consuming, which can lead to low response rates. In addition, they can be biased if customers only answer the questions they want to or if they don’t have time to provide a detailed response. This metric is a good way to track the progress of your customer service team. If the backlog is consistently increasing, then your team is probably not keeping up with the customer demand. For instance, if agents are constantly being bombarded with messages, it might be a sign that you need to hire more customer service staff. On the other hand, if agents have too much free time, it might be a sign that you’re not using your resources efficiently.

• For a closer look at project management metrics, consider these other examples of KPIs.
• For instance, you can measure a KPI like service time and match it with the rate of satisfied customers within a given timeframe.
• The agent can access all customer information from the console to get the context he/she needs for the interaction.
• Sudden changes could represent an issue with your product or shipping speeds.
• Customer service metrics can help businesses track the effectiveness of their operations.

This data can give you valuable insight into how your training and onboarding materials could be improved and help you provide specific feedback and training to individual team members. This metric helps you stay on top of things and draw important conclusions, such as whether you should expand or contract your team. It is also important to know how many calls are answered within a given period of time.

It is an important metric as it is well known that retaining a customer is less expensive than acquiring a new one. By maximizing this customer service KPI, you can reduce costs, or assign them to other channels that will grow your business. Customer service KPIs and metrics are crucial for delivering a great customer experience. It allows businesses to gauge customer satisfaction, retain loyal customers, ensure operational efficiency, identify and address pain points, and continuously improve their support processes. Online companies can measure customer service metrics in a number of ways, including surveys, live chat, chatbots, and chat analytics.

• By measuring CES, you and your team members can work towards reducing customer effort, which in turn will increase the lifetime customer value and the likelihood of word-of-mouth referrals.
• This metric measures how quickly your customers are being helped as well as how quickly each ticket can be resolved.
• Considering that 92% of survey respondents say they’d spend more money with companies that ensure they won’t need to repeat information, the number of interactions per ticket is a critical metric.
• For example, a marketing team may track the conversion rate of a campaign to determine how effectively it turns prospects into customers.
• You can improve this by redesigning your onboarding process or providing additional documentation.
• Your business needs and priorities are different from those of other organizations.

It lets you see usage statistics, evaluate performance reports, and learn from customer satisfaction ratings. Its extensive reporting possibilities enable you to keep tabs on support agent performance. You can take advantage of the LiveAgent free trial and get to know the features firsthand at no cost and without commitment.

So, use these metrics to improve your customer service and support processes — and boost your business’s bottom line. Make sure reps ask thoughtful questions and encourage the customer to explain their problem in detail. Also, ensure your team is well-versed in your products or services so they can respond and resolve issues quickly without having to reach out to other teams for help — thus lengthening the process.

And if you make new hires, change policies or procedures, or adopt technology like AI, you can easily see how performance is affected. You’ll also be able to identify opportunities to proactively communicate throughout the customer journey and create ways to surprise customers and catch them before a problem becomes a pain point. This is a better resolution time measurement than average resolution time (ART). While first contact resolution results in a solution being provided in the initial outreach, average resolution time measures the amount of time it takes to completely close a case. If you are in a service industry where issues escalate or move to other departments, measuring ART takes the true view of your performance out of your hands. The number of tickets by medium KPI refers to the number of tickets per different channels customers use to reach out to support teams.

According to a report by SQM Group, for call centers, the average First Call Resolution is about 70%. And you can speak of high-quality support standards when the FCR is over 75%. For example, let’s say you received 20 customer inquiries in a day and your team was able to resolve 15 of them on the first contact. It’s usually expressed as the number of messages per day, week, or month. Looking at the message volume instead of the absolute number of tickets closed can give you a better idea of how much work each agent is actually doing.

Contact resolution rate (CRR), also known as first-contact resolution (FCR rate), is a customer service critical metric that measures the percentage of customer issues resolved on the first contact. This means that the problem is resolved without the need for any further interaction with the support team. With this data, decision-makers can make wise decisions to ensure improved client satisfaction rates, extended retention levels, and heightened profitability. The most straightforward KPI for customer service teams is tallying the total number of customers submitting support tickets. In addition to tracking the top-line figure, you’ll want to analyze to identify how volume fluctuates based on times of day, day of the week, or based on seasons.