2023 Information + Free Template

Customer support metrics allow corporations to trace their help efforts in an on-demand, multi-platform world. Plus, okeeping tabs in your customer support metrics is a crucial approach to measure the general well being of your model. Blissful prospects make repeat purchases, scale back the load in your customer support group, and improve the attain of your model by optimistic phrase of mouth. 

Hold studying to learn how to effectively monitor buyer success and satisfaction, and assist your group keep on high of all issues customer support. 

What are customer support metrics?

Customer support metrics are a set of key efficiency indicators used to measure the efficiency, high quality, and effectivity of a enterprise’s buyer help efforts.

Monitoring widespread metrics for customer support permits a enterprise to allocate crucial sources, perceive which channels prospects use, and determine recurring points or bottlenecks within the help course of.

Customer support metrics are additionally used to measure consumer satisfaction. This contains direct suggestions from buyer surveys or polls, and in addition experiences that calculate how lengthy it takes for tickets to be resolved.

18 customer support metrics to trace in 2023

Right here’s a breakdown of the highest customer support metrics that matter.

1. Web promoter rating (NPS)

Your Web Promoter Rating measures how probably your prospects are to suggest your organization to others. It’s some of the essential buyer engagement success metrics. Solely these prospects who’re on good phrases along with your model are more likely to suggest you to others.

To measure NPS, ship a brief survey to prospects after a purchase order or customer support interplay. Ask them one easy query: How probably are you to suggest the model? NPS is often measured on a scale of 1-10, however some use a five-point scale as an alternative.

Supply: Shaw Cell textual content survey

To measure NPS, subtract your proportion of detractors (those that wouldn’t suggest your model) out of your promoters (those that would). Omit those that fall in “possibly” territory—these persons are thought of “passives” and don’t impression your rating. 

NPS = Share of promoters – Share of detractors 

2. Buyer satisfaction rating (CSAT)

Like NPS, CSAT includes asking your prospects a easy survey query. Nonetheless, on this case, you simply ask them to fee their expertise.

So, as an alternative of asking whether or not they’d suggest you, you’re simply asking how happy they’re with you. This is among the most useful customer support success metrics. It encapsulates all the customer support expertise in a single response.

You’ll be able to ship an NPS survey both after a purchase order OR after a customer support interplay. For CSAT, it’s most typical to ship the survey after a customer support interplay solely. You need to use a numeric scale, or get inventive, like Reserving.com did on this CSAT survey:

Supply: Reserving.com electronic mail survey

To calculate CSAT, divide the variety of optimistic scores in your survey by the full variety of replies. Multiply by 100 to get the share. 

CSAT = (Variety of optimistic scores/Variety of replies) x 100 

By the best way, Hootsuite Inbox can mechanically ship CSAT surveys after every customer support interplay and mechanically pull the outcomes into Hootsuite Analytics for simple evaluation and reporting. 

3. Buyer effort rating (CES)

That is one other metric decided by a easy survey. At first, the survey query appears to be like similar to that for CSAT. However on this case, fairly than asking how happy the client is with the service, you as an alternative ask how straightforward it was to get the service they wanted. 

Supply: TurboTax electronic mail survey

This offers you a superb sense of how effectively your customer support program is about up. The place CSAT measures the success of a particular interplay, CES measures the benefit of accessing help within the first place. 

Trace: Providing prospects help on all the channels the place they count on it’s a key manner to enhance CES. Hootsuite Inbox is a superb software to handle buyer help throughout all social channels, conserving prospects blissful and boosting your CES.

The components for calculating CES is similar as for CSAT—it’s simply that the survey query addresses a distinct facet of buyer success. So to calculate CES, divide the variety of optimistic scores in your CES survey by the full variety of replies. Multiply by 100 to get the share. 

CES = (Variety of optimistic scores/Variety of replies) x 100 

4. Help ticket classes

For corporations that set up their help tickets by kind of concern, it’s essential to maintain tabs on which issues come up most frequently. In case your CES is excessive, analyzing which classes obtain probably the most quantity may help you determine the place prospects exert probably the most effort.

Help ticket classes might embody:

• Gross sales query
• Technical points
• Cancellations
• Returns
• Delivery
• Product availability

Site visitors, web page views, Incessantly Requested Questions pages, and assist articles supply one other approach to measure the place prospects require probably the most help.

5. Ticket quantity

Along with monitoring which points come up most frequently, it’s simply as essential to regulate the amount of tickets you obtain over time.

Suppose the variety of tickets you obtain is on the rise—particularly in a particular space. In that case, it could be essential to revisit communications methods, assist articles, and even insurance policies and operations. It’s additionally essential for managers to concentrate on how a lot strain their help groups are underneath, to allow them to present crucial help earlier than burnout turns into an issue.

How do you calculate ticket quantity? Report what number of tickets you obtain at common intervals: day-to-day, week by week, or month by month. For visible evaluation, plot these outcomes on a line graph (like we do in our customer support report template, which you’ll obtain right here).

In case you discover spikes, attempt to pinpoint what might have precipitated them, akin to product releases, international occasions, and even a social media disaster. That manner you possibly can devise plans and higher allocate sources sooner or later.

6. Buyer retention fee (CRR)

A buyer retention fee measures the variety of purchasers an organization retains over a choose interval.

This metric is important for corporations that present an everyday or subscription-based service. Relying on the trade, corporations might file retention charges weekly, month-to-month, quarterly, and yearly.

To calculate buyer retention fee, you’ll must file:

S = Variety of prospects in the beginning of the interval

E = Variety of prospects on the finish of the interval

N = Variety of prospects added throughout the interval

With that data, calculate buyer retention fee with the next components:

[(E-N)/S] *100 = CRR

For instance, say you’ve gotten 100 prospects in the beginning of your timeframe (S), 90 prospects on the finish of the interval (E), and also you added 15 prospects (N). Your buyer retention fee could be 75%.

7. Churn fee

Bear in mind: Good customer support is about constructing long-term relationships with prospects. Churn fee measures the share of your prospects that go away your model versus people who stick round.

Buyer churn fee is measured for a particular period of time. The most typical timeframes are month-to-month, quarterly, and annual. 

To measure churn fee, take the variety of prospects you lose over the interval and divide it by the full variety of prospects you had in the beginning of the interval. Don’t embody new prospects acquired over the interval in your equation, since that can skew your outcomes.

Churn fee = (Prospects misplaced over a interval/Prospects in the beginning of the interval) x 100

You can even evaluate churn charges for various segments of your buyer base to see if some merchandise or product bundling methods are creating larger buyer success than others.

Supply: J.P. Morgan International Excessive Yield & Leveraged Finance Convention presentation by Jean-François Mother or father, Vice President and Treasurer, Quebecor Inc., QMI and Videotron

8. Buyer acquisition price (CAC)

Buyer acquisition price tracks the typical sum of money spent on gross sales and advertising and marketing to acquire every new buyer.

This metric gives a partial approach to monitor the ROI of social media, advertising and marketing, and gross sales groups. In a really perfect scenario, as groups scale their efforts, CAC ought to go down, and ROI ought to go up.

The components for CAC is easy: The quantity spent on gross sales and advertising and marketing over a given interval divided by the variety of prospects acquired in the identical timeframe:

CAC = Gross sales and advertising and marketing spend / prospects acquired

For instance, for those who spent $10,000 on gross sales and advertising and marketing and bought 20,000 prospects, your price per acquisition is 50 cents.

A decrease quantity is a greater outcome—nevertheless it might additionally imply you’ve gotten a low gross sales and advertising and marketing price range. That’s why it’s important to view this determine in tandem with customer support satisfaction metrics and progress and efficiency outcomes.

9. Buyer lifetime worth (CLV)

Buyer lifetime worth is a measure of how a lot you possibly can count on to earn from a single buyer over all the lifetime of their relationship along with your model.

CLV that’s increased than the typical preliminary buy signifies that prospects make a number of purchases out of your firm over time. That signifies a wholesome model relationship and nice model loyalty.

So as to measure CLV, you’ll must have a number of knowledge factors about buyer conduct.

CLV = Common buy worth x Common buy frequency x Common buyer lifespan

For instance, one analysis analyst estimated Amazon’s buyer lifetime worth as $2,283 from Prime members and $916 for non-Prime members. 

That is additionally an essential metric for understanding how a lot you possibly can afford to spend on social media promoting to amass a brand new buyer. 

10. Recurring income

Recurring income is one other approach to measure what number of of your prospects are sticking round. It will probably additionally offer you a way of whether or not persons are upgrading or downgrading their recurring stage of spend. 

You’ll be able to measure recurring income on any time interval that aligns with the renewal/discover interval in your subscription services or products. The most typical choices are month-to-month recurring income (MRR) and annualized recurring income (ARR). 

To measure MRR, multiply your variety of energetic customers by the typical month-to-month income per consumer. 

MRR = Variety of energetic customers x Common month-to-month income per consumer

11. Enlargement income

The recurring income metric above measures how a lot you’re bringing in on a recurring foundation. Enlargement income measures how a lot income comes from upgrades, premium merchandise, and so forth. It is a nice measure of buyer success as a result of it signifies prospects are keen to spend greater than the essential quantity required to entry your service.

To calculate growth income, tally all of the income introduced in from add-ons, upgrades, and so forth. 

To calculate growth income per consumer, divide the full by the variety of customers. 

Enlargement income per consumer = Whole income from adds-ons and upgrades/Variety of customers

12. Income contraction

Income contraction is the other of growth income. On this case, you’re measuring how a lot income is misplaced from downgrades. That is just like churn in that it signifies persons are not seeing success with their premium plans. 

Churn measures what number of prospects you lose totally. Income contraction measures how a lot revenue you lose from prospects who stick round however downgrade their plan. 

One fascinating instance of income contraction comes from streaming providers, lots of which have lately launched ad-supported lower-cost plans. Analysis from evaluation firm Antenna reveals that downgrades from an ad-free plan represented 29% of latest additions to the ad-plan providing over the primary 13 months. 

Supply: Antenna

Take into account that whereas HBO MAx loses subscription cash from these downgrades, they acquire advert income. So it’s not a straight revenue loss. However it’s nonetheless a superb measure of the worth prospects place on premium versus primary plans. 

To calculate income contraction, tally all of the income misplaced from downgrades. To calculate contraction per consumer, divide the full by the variety of customers. 

Income contraction per consumer = Whole income misplaced from downgrades/Variety of customers

13. Common income per consumer (ARPU)

In case you don’t have a subscription mannequin, you don’t essentially have recurring income. However it’s nonetheless essential to regulate how your common buyer spend is altering over time. Prospects who’re experiencing success along with your model will usually spend extra, whereas those that are much less happy will spend much less. 

To measure ARPU, divide your whole income over a interval by your common variety of energetic customers over that interval. 

ARPU = Whole income/Variety of energetic customers

Since ARPU is such an essential measure of brand name well being, it usually seems in earnings and investor experiences. 

Supply: Meta Earnings Presentation Q1 2023

14. Common response time

Common response time tracks how lengthy it takes for purchasers to first hear from a help agent — it basically measures the wait instances concerned in talking along with your group.

A brief reply time is a mark of excellent customer support, particularly on-line, the place prospects just about count on service on-demand. For that reason, many corporations depend on bots to deal with preliminary queries.

There are many automation instruments, akin to Hootsuite Inbox, that present common ticket dealing with time experiences.

In case you’d prefer to calculate it manually, use the next components:

Common response time = Whole time taken for first response to buyer queries / Variety of queries

15. Common decision time

Common decision time measures how lengthy it takes for buyer tickets to be resolved. For a buyer and a corporation, the earlier buyer points may be resolved, the higher.

In case you obtain a excessive quantity of buyer queries, the extra crucial it’s to make use of instruments to calculate decision instances precisely. Right here’s tips on how to calculate it manually:

Common decision time = Whole time spent on resolved instances / variety of resolved instances

16. First contact decision fee

One other key customer support efficiency metric is first contact decision fee. Prospects don’t prefer to be handed from one agent to a different. Not solely does this mirror poorly on the group, it additionally usually results in longer decision instances.

When you’ve got a low first contact decision fee, likelihood is you’ll even have a excessive buyer effort rating (CES). Particularly if the client is requested to clarify their concern greater than as soon as.

Like common response fee and determination time, many platforms mechanically calculate this for you. Right here’s the guide components, simply in case:

First contact decision fee = Variety of instances resolved with one agent / variety of resolved instances

17. Total decision fee

Not all instances finish with a cheerful decision. That’s regular. However a superb decision fee ought to all the time be the objective.

Right here’s tips on how to calculate your total decision fee:

​​Total decision fee = Variety of resolved instances / variety of unresolved instances

In case your decision fee is low, it’s essential to perform a little extra digging—particularly in case your buyer retention fee (CRR) is low as effectively. Get extra granular by seeking to see if there’s a particular ticket class that’s bringing your total decision fee down and develop related options.

18. Most well-liked communication channels

So as to ship top-rate customer support, it’s essential to know the place prospects count on to obtain help.

Hold monitor of the strategies and platforms prospects use to contact your companies so you possibly can allocate sources accordingly. For instance, for those who obtain a excessive quantity of help requests on Twitter, it could be time to open a customer support Twitter account.

Free customer support report template

We designed a easy customer support report template in Google Sheets that will help you maintain monitor of your customer support efforts month by month. To make use of or customise this template, go to “File” and “Make a replica” first.

The primary tab has a tracker for all of your major and secondary customer support metrics.

The second tab comprises a ticket quantity tracker, visualized in a line graph the place you possibly can simply see which sort of tickets you get probably the most of and determine any rising drawback classes or spikes. You can even use this chart to speak with the product group if, for instance, you see spikes in returns, technical points, or product availability.

The third tab comprises all of the formulation and definitions you’ll need to fill out your report, virtually like a customer support metrics calculator. Beneath is a screenshot of the NPS calculator.

Save time on social messaging and enhance your customer support metrics with automated responses, smarter workflows, useful surveys, and pleasant chatbots — all within the Hootsuite Inbox.

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