Feature
The Gist
- Critical gap. Most organizations lack a clear understanding of their customers' wants and expectations.
- Metric importance. Tracking and analyzing metrics like first response time and resolution time are pivotal for streamlining customer support operations.
- Strategic impact. Leveraging customer service metrics informs strategic decisions, guiding product, service and customer journey refinements.
Understanding customer needs and expectations is a necessity, yet it still remains a challenge for many organizations. In fact, less than 1 in 5 organizations say they understand their customers well, according to CMSWire’s State of Digital Customer Experience report.
Essential customer service insights can bridge this gap between customer expectations and company insights. But what are the best ones to look at?
What Are Customer Service Metrics?
Customer service metrics are quantifiable measures of the efficiency, effectiveness and quality of service a company provides to its customers. These metrics offer critical insights into customer satisfaction, service speed, resolution rates and more, helping businesses identify strengths and areas for improvement.
The top customer service metrics you should measure include:
- Net promoter score (NPS)
- Customer satisfaction score (CSAT)
- Customer effort score (CES)
- Customer lifetime value (CLV)
- Social media metrics
- Customer churn
- First response time (FRT)
- Agent touches
- Resolution time (RT)
- Ticket volume
- Employee metrics
Why Are Customer Service Metrics Important?
These metrics provide all sorts of data and trends on things like customer renewals, as well as where there might be room for improvement with the product or service, employees and messaging, said Nichole Hinton, customer operations consultant. It can also offer insight on where a company could “double down” on pushing a popular item or service based on volume of customer and prospect inquiries.
“In addition,” Hinton continued, “as customer journeys become more finite, these metrics help to pinpoint where there may be areas of improvement/refinement in the journey to keep the customer service side of the organization run like a well-oiled machine.”
Related Article: What Defines World-Class Customer Service Now and How to Get There
11 Top Customer Service Metrics
What are some of the top customer service metrics that experts recommend you keep in your arsenal?
1. Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Net promoter score will give you a quick sense of performance, but the real insight comes from the reason why customers gave the score they did, said Jason Bradshaw, customer and employee experience expert and author of “It’s All About CEX.”
“By looking beyond the score to the reason for it, leaders are able to identify what elements of the experience to amplify and which areas to focus on removing or improving,” he explained.
How to Measure It:
NPS is based on the question: How likely are you to recommend the product/service?
Customers choose a score between 0 and 10, with 0 meaning "not likely at all," and 10 meaning "very likely." Customers are then broken down into promoters (those who answer with a 9 or 10), passives (those who answer with a 7 or 8) and detractors (those who answer with 6 or lower).
To calculate your final NPS score, subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters.
NPS should be conducted blind, without the customer knowing the company behind the survey, said Hank Brigman, CX consultant and author of “Touchpoint Power!” The process should also include capturing competitors’ NPS.
2. Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
The customer satisfaction score is a direct reflection of a customer service interaction and can speak volumes on how a customer service representative or entire team is performing, said Hinton.
“I've had more meaningful discussions with customer service teams, based on this score, than any other score for this segment of the business, that have driven real solutions/improvements,” she added.
How to Measure It:
CSAT involves asking customers to rate their satisfaction on a scale, such as 1 to 5 or 1 to 10. It could also use a descriptive scale, like “Very Unsatisfied” to “Very Satisfied.”
To calculate the CSAT score, divide the total number of positive responses by the total number of customers surveyed. Then, multiply this number by 100 to get the final percentage.
For example, say 80 people gave you positive responses on the CSAT survey and you surveyed 100 people total. The equation would look like this:
(80 ÷ 100) x 100 = 80%
3. Customer Effort Score (CES)
“Research shows that customers like doing business with companies that are easy to deal with, so measuring how effortless the experience was is crucial,” said Bradshaw.
Customer effort score, along with NPS, work at the journey-level because they both speak to efficacy, added Brigman. “For CES, we better understand how easy the journey was compared to expectations.”
How to Measure It:
CES is measured by asking customers how to evaluate the ease of their experience with a company’s service or product. This metric is usually captured through a single survey question after a specific interaction, such as resolving a support ticket or making a purchase.
The question might be: On a scale from “Very Easy” to “Very Difficult,” how easy was it to interact with the company/service?
Respondents rate their experience on a numerical scale, such as 1 to 7 or 1 to 5. CES is calculated by taking the average of all responses.
4. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
Customer lifetime value, often shortened to CLV or LCV, is another metric to measure the health of customer relationships, said Brigman. “I like LCV because of its direct correlation to long-term revenue health of the organization.”
Knowing their customers’ CLV allows companies to evaluate long-term profitability, guide marketing decisions, prioritize high-value customer segments and optimize resource allocation.
How to Measure It:
CLV is calculated by first determining the average value of a customer transaction and multiplying it by the average frequency of transactions over a given period of time. Next, multiply this figure by the average customer lifespan.
CLV = Average Order Value x Purchase Frequency x Average Customer Lifespan
If the customer typically spends $72 dollars per order, and places an order every 3 months, and their average lifespan is 7 years, the calculation would look like this:
$72 (Average Order Value) x every 3 months (Purchase Frequency) x 7 years (Average Customer Lifespan) = a CLV of $1,512
5. Social Media Metrics
For social media and customer service, said Brigman, he looks for cause and effect metrics,” said Brigman.
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If you implement a social media campaign, look at metrics like:
- Brand mentions
- Negative comments
- Positive comments
- Technical or account questions
- Time of day customers are most active
How to Measure It:
Monitor and track comments on your company’s social media pages, and keep monthly tallies of the above metrics.
Related Article: What Is Customer Experience (CX)? A Comprehensive Guide
6. Customer Churn
Measuring customer churn, also called customer attrition, involves calculating the percentage of customers who stop doing business with a company over a specific period of time. It’s a metric that helps companies understand customer retention rates and identify areas for improvement in services or products.
How to Measure It:
To start, select a time frame to evaluate, such as monthly, quarterly or annually. Determine the number of customers you had at the beginning of that period and count the number of customers lost by the end of the period.
Customer Churn Rate = (Number of customers lost ÷ number of customers at start of period) x 100
7. First Response Time (FRT)
First response time measures the duration between a customer's initial contact and the moment they receive their first response from the support team or company call center. It’s one metric that’s part of the ticket journey and tells a lot about the kind of customer service your organization believes in, said Hinton.
“Each one of us has a much shorter patience level than we used to, which means we expect quick response/resolution times so we can move on with our days,” she explained. “If there are any delays in response, the perception of the organization you are interacting with starts to decline.”
How to Measure It:
Find the exact time when a customer’s inquiry or support request is received. Then, find the time when the customer receives their first response from a customer service representative. Subtract the inquiry time from the response time to find the total duration it took for the first response.
8. Agent Touches
Agent touches refers to the number of times an agent interacts with a ticket or customer issue until it’s resolved. It’s an important metric for understanding the efficiency and effectiveness of customer service operations.
Customers typically prefer their issues to get resolved with as few interactions as possible. Reducing the number of agent touches can lead to quicker resolutions, which directly impacts customer satisfaction and loyalty.
How to Measure It:
Record the number of times an agent interacts with a customer or a ticket from initial contact until the ticket is resolved. This includes all forms of communication such as emails, call, chat messages, etc. Most customer service platforms and ticketing systems automatically track this number.
To understand overall performance, calculate the average number of agent touches across all resolved issues within a specific time frame.
9. Resolution Time (RT)
“Resolution time — measuring how long it takes between the customers' initial contact and the full resolution of their issue — is important,” said Bradshaw. “It talks about the knowledge, efficiency, and usefulness of your team and processes.”
Some people prefer to swap out the resolution time metric with first contact resolution, he added. “However, the problem with this is that while it is impressive if your FCR is 90% it’s less impressive if you learn that the other 10% of customers are taking months to get their inquiry resolved or worse yet the inquiry gets lost.”
How to Measure It:
For each support request or ticket, record the time when it was created and the time when it was resolved — something most customer service platforms already track. Subtract the creation timestamp from the resolution timestamp for each ticket. This gives you the resolution time for that specific case.
To get an overall picture of your customer service performance, calculate the average resolution time by adding together the resolution times for all tickets within a specific period (daily, weekly, monthly) and then dividing by the number of resolved tickets in that period.
10. Ticket Volume
Ticket volume can tell a lot about the kinds of issues the organization is facing, according to Hinton.
“For example, if you have a volume of tickets related to a particular set of issues, it may require engineering, development, etc. to resolve the issue for both existing and future customers.”
Having the same recurring issues, she added, only eats up valuable time for customer service reps.
How to Measure It:
Pick a time period for measurement, such as daily, weekly or monthly. Use a ticketing or customer support system that automatically logs every incoming request as a ticket. Then, count the total number of tickets created within the selected time.
11. Employee Metrics
It’s essential to measure employee experience because a good employee experience will lead to a more productive team and increased customer loyalty, said Bradshaw.
Employee metrics to keep an eye on include:
- Employee turnover
- Employee satisfaction (ESAT)
- Employee net promoter score (ENPS)
How to Measure It:
ESAT and ENPS can be measured similarly to how you measure CSAT and NPS with customers.
Turnover rate looks at the number of employee departures within a given time period. To calculate turnover rate, you can use the equation:
Turnover Rate = (Number of departures ÷ average number of employees) x 100
Related Article: What Is a Call Center? How They Work
Tools for Tracking Customer Service Metrics
Tracking customer service metrics requires a combination of tools and platforms, each catering to different aspects of customer interactions and feedback.
- Customer service platforms: Self-help portals and customer service platforms have great reporting capabilities, said Hinton. Leading platforms include Zendesk, Freshdesk and Salesforce Service Cloud.
- Survey tools: Many platforms are available to help collect customer feedback through surveys. Hinton recommended InMoment. Other popular choices include SurveyMonkey and Typeform.
- Experience management software: Tools like Qualtrics can help measure customers’ perception of the company’s performance, said Bradshaw, and ideally give a 360-degree view of the customer’s experience throughout their journey(s) with you. Other options on the market include Medallia and Adobe Experience Manager.
- Journey orchestration platforms: Brigman recommends these platforms for capturing and evaluating actual omnichannel customer touchpoints and journeys. Salesforce Journey Builder is one well-known tool.
- Customer relationship management systems: A CRM solution can measure things like resolution time at a division level right down to an associate level, said Bradshaw. Options include Salesforce CRM and HubSpot CRM, among others.
- Social media monitoring tools: Solutions like Hootsuite and Sprout Social can monitor social media channels for customer feedback, questions and complaints, mentions and more.
- Regression Analysis: This tool can be helpful to understand the impact of touchpoint metrics on specific journey metrics, and journey metrics on relationship metrics, said Brigman.
Getting More Out of Customer Service Metrics
Metrics tell you so much about the overall health of an organization, said Hinton — but it’s meaningless unless you take action on what the data is telling you.
“My suggestion,” she continued, “create a program that has a dedicated ‘project management’ person to ensure actions are created, followed through with, and completed.”
Brigman seconded this, adding that to effectively implement, monitor and continually improve journey efficacy, the organization needs to assign performant teams to their critical journeys. “This is typically done as part of a journey approach that has shown to improve KPIs.”
