5 Key Customer Service KPIs You Should Always Track

With the growing demands and expectations of today’s consumers, customer care is more important than ever. Tracking your company’s customer service KPIs is essential to know how well you’re meeting your customers’ needs and what areas of your customer care need improvement. 

In the past, customers simply wanted to shop with companies who offered the best product at the best price. Now, 90% of Americans consider customer service when deciding whether to conduct business with a company. Consumers want to shop with companies that understand their needs and deliver solutions for their specific problems. They want a positive customer experience, and part of that is the ability to provide excellent customer service. 

Keep reading to learn about the key customer service KPIs you should track and why they’re essential to your lead generation, sales growth, and the overall success of your business.

Key Takeaways

• Customer satisfaction gives you a temperature reading on how your customers perceive your business.
• Efficient first contact resolution helps you retain loyal customers, earn new business, and save your company time and money.
• Your net promoter score is a helpful indicator of whether people will serve as a promoter for your business or keep people from buying from you.
• Not only does the abandon rate reveal dissatisfied customers, but it also reflects customer service productivity.
• Identify your customer care strengths and weaknesses by analyzing your customer retention rate.

5 Customer Service KPIs You Should Track

Your company’s customer service can be the difference between establishing deep, lasting relationships with prospects and turning people off from your business.

Check out this TEDx Talk by John Boccuzzi Jr. about how he was seduced by exceptional customer service. This demonstrates just how important customer service is.

See how your business stacks up by tracking these five customer service KPIs for optimal success. 

1. Customer Satisfaction Score

The most obvious way to gauge an individual’s perception of your customer service team is through customer satisfaction. Survey your consumers throughout the customer journey to learn how they feel about their experience. Offer an incentive to entice people to leave candid feedback. Either way, use these metrics to find areas where your customer service excels and elements that need improvement.

A satisfied customer will return for future purchases, leave positive reviews that influence the purchase decisions of others, and spread the word about your business. All of this helps with lead generation and increases revenue.

2. First Contact Resolution (FCR)

FCR is the percentage of issues resolved during the first contact with a customer. This means your customer service agent solved a problem before hanging up the phone or ending a live chat session online. To calculate FCR, divide the total number of issues resolved during the first contact (F) by the total number of department contacts (C). 

F / C = FCR

By identifying issues that aren’t being solved upon first contact, you can determine the root problem and strategize ways to improve that element of customer service.

Having a high rate of FCR is essential for numerous reasons. Eliminating the need for future follow-up conversations means you minimize frustrations and earn customer trust and loyalty. This helps with demand generation and customer lifecycle marketing. 

You also lessen the workload for team members who would otherwise have to follow up with those customers and save your company the money and resources it would take to find a solution to an ongoing problem.

Source: SQMGroup.com 

3. Net Promoter Score

Your Net Promoter Score is an effective KPI for measuring customer service performance. Ask your customers how likely they are to recommend your business to their contacts. Use a scale from 0 (not likely) to 10 (extremely likely). Their responses will segment participants into one of three categories:

• Promoter: They rate their likelihood as a 9 or 10 and are fervently loyal customers.
• Passive: They give a 7 or 8 rating and, while generally satisfied with your customer service, aren’t overly enthusiastic about their experience.
• Detractor: They give your company a 0 to 6 score and are unsatisfied customers who will probably never patronize your business again. Or worse, they might dissuade others from becoming customers.

Source: SurveySensum.com 

Knowing how your customers feel about your company allows you to uncover reasons for dissatisfaction and improve those areas of customer service.

4. Abandon Rate

Long wait times are a significant pain point for individuals making inbound customer service calls. The longer a customer has to wait on hold before talking to a live customer service representative, the more likely they are to hang up. 

Measuring your Abandon Rate helps you see how efficient your customer service team is in answering calls and how rapidly they can solve the problem. You’ll be able to discern how many dissatisfied customers you have as well as gauge your team’s productivity level. A typical abandon rate is 5% to 8%. A rating above 10% is problematic.

When you know your abandonment rate, you’re able to optimize your resources to provide a more positive customer experience. Add staff members to cover customer service calls during busy hours. Allow customers to request a call back if they don’t want to wait on hold. 

Use chatbots programmed to answer most commonly-asked questions. By minimizing wait times, you increase customer satisfaction and keep people from abandoning their calls.

5. Customer Retention Rate (CRR)

CRR is the percentage of customers you’re able to maintain throughout a certain period. This KPI also helps you know how many customers you’re gaining and losing during that time. CRR shows your customer loyalty, which ultimately reflects your overall success. 

To calculate this rate, first determine the timespan you want to study (yearly, monthly, daily, etc.). Then gather the number of customers at the start of that time period (S), the total amount of customers at the end (E), and any new customers you gained throughout that time (N).

Use the following CRR formula to identify your customer retention:

 [(E-N) / S] x 100 = CRR

By tracking CRR, you can better understand what strategies are working to keep customers and how to improve customer service duties to minimize customer churn.  

Improve the Quality of Your Customer Service 

Televerde provides sales and marketing solutions to global businesses looking to meet the ever-changing needs of today’s customers through quality customer service. Let us help you assess the state of your customer service and develop strategies to increase customer retention through superior customer care.

Looking for more resources? The Televerde Resource Library contains webinars and tools to help you boost your customer service strategy.