Nowadays, successful customer service represents a holistic blend of data and results to provide the best experience for consumers.
Pleasant phone calls are only a small aspect of understanding what really makes a customer service experience worthwhile. So, to accurately gauge what produces the best results, businesses must measure a variety of key performance indicators (KPIs) throughout the buying process. From initial customer inquiries to overall employee engagement, you need to keep an eye on the entire journey to reach a happy endpoint.
To help you improve your customer service efforts, here are the top 5 customer support KPIs you need to be tracking.
1. First Time Response matters
The amount of time it takes you to contact a customer after they make a customer service inquiry is called your First Response Time. It makes a huge difference in terms of customer satisfaction.
Overall, customers expect a pleasant experience when interacting with your products and services, and when any situations arise that require assistance, quick responses are an absolute must. Research shows that customers prefer speedy response times, as opposed to ones that are slow and prolonged. So, don’t focus on solving the problem right away, and instead, reply to the customer as quickly as possible and let them know that someone is handling their issue.
Some great ways to quickly engage with customers who make an inquiry may include…
- An automated response informing them that someone will contact them soon
- Using chatbots to engage with customers and solve basic questions before passing them off to an experienced agent
- Using customer service software to resolve incoming customer queries at a faster pace.
- Inviting customers to tweet their concerns or direct message them through social media platforms for fast responses
The main goal is to remove any delays throughout the process so customers can spend less time being frustrated and more time making other purchases.
2. Don’t forget about your CSAT Score
Have you ever been asked to take a survey after you use an app on your smartphone or finish a call online?
Well, that’s the company’s way of inviting you to share how smooth your experience was—asking you to submit feedback to gauge their customer satisfaction score (CSAT). A CSAT score is the average satisfaction rating for all of your customer responses.
Needless to say, tracking this KPI can be a challenge since you’re relying on users for their feedback. However, you can invite them to submit a general response in creative ways that are more engaging, rather than being a nuisance. Basically, your CSAT benchmarks can be measured in several different ways:
- A traditional numbered scale
- Emojis or Animations
- Stars or checkmarks
In any case, the main goal is to make inputting information easy so that your team can learn how to improve CSAT scores in your call center or online services. For example, when an online chat is finished, you can install a pop-up window to ask customers to post a comment or submit an online review of the service. Also, when a phone call is over, make sure your customer support staff invites the customer to participate in a short call survey to help your company understand what areas of the experience may need to be improved or corrected for the future. Don’t worry about berating your customers or stressing them out with extra tasks. Asking for feedback is a necessary step that leads to firm KPIs, which only enhances your business in the long-run.
3. Maintain a High Customer Retention rate
Success for any business means having a great deal of returning customers year after year, but making that a reality is no easy task.
In fact, businesses tend to spend a lot more money trying to attract new customers than keeping the ones they have, so you need to make an effort to boost your customer retention rate to keep steady profits and savings. Primarily, this means always being aware of loyal customers with great buying histories and targeting them to see what strategies worked to keep them engaged. With that insight, you can then focus on extending new ideas to new customers to transform them into repeat buyers.
To get started, try using this helpful formula to measure your customer retention rate. However, be sure to stay consistent with your numbers to track steady growth over long periods of time.
4. Your Employee Engagement plays a huge part
Your customers are certainly number one, but measuring the happiness and engagement of your employees is a close second.
Keep in mind, customer service is only a success when employees are professional, engaged, and happy to be representing your company. If at any time they display the opposite and a team member is upset about their job or work environment, those feelings transmit to the customer, which only manifests in unresolved issues and poor customer satisfaction ratings. Plus, spending time firing and re-hiring employees because of performance issues winds up costing you more money down the line.
That being said, you need to stay engaged with every member of your customer service team and be sure to ask them for any ideas, insights, and opinions they may have for what they want their career to look like. How can you, as a leader, make their professional lives easier and more enjoyable for years to come? Then, how can your employees express that amount of consideration and respect to customers?
A helpful way to understand your employees’ level of happiness at work is to create a survey for them to take, or you can set aside meeting times with your employees to discuss their concerns or ideas about their position and workplace.
5. Track your Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Finally, the overall likelihood of any customers referring your business to others within their immediate network is known as your net promoter score (NPS). The good news is, it’s quite easy to understand and learn more, too!
Much like a CSAT score, an NPS is typically measured on a numbered scale or assessed by a set of emojis assigned to a particulate amount—certain benchmarks on the scale show your customer’s total satisfaction score with your business.
In this sense, NPS scores are simple to integrate, and after so many customers interact with them, you can take the average of total scores to see what your company can do to make improvements for the future.
Something else to consider is that you can easily also incorporate NPS scales and surveys into emails, create in-app surveys, or use them as pop-ups when consumers explore your products and services.
In a nutshell, be consistent and get results!
No matter how you decide to make improvements to your customer service experience, don’t shy away from tracking these 5 customer support KPIs and find ways to develop them into better strategies over time.
With consistent monitoring and consideration, your team can produce strong results on a regular basis, offering reliable service and solving issues without any hiccups. As a result, you can spend more time on other matters, like developing new, innovative ways to engage with customers.
About the author
Matt Shealy is the President of ChamberofCommerce.com. Chamber specializes in helping small businesses grow their business on the web while facilitating the connectivity between local businesses and more than 7,000 Chambers of Commerce worldwide.