2023 Guide + Free Template

Customer support metrics allow firms to trace their help efforts in an on-demand, multi-platform world. Plus, okayeeping tabs in your customer support metrics is a vital approach to measure the general well being of your model. Pleased prospects make repeat purchases, cut back the load in your customer support staff, and enhance the attain of your model by constructive phrase of mouth. 

Maintain studying to learn the way to effectively observe buyer success and satisfaction, and assist your staff keep on prime of all issues customer support. 

Your Net Promoter Score measures how possible your prospects are to suggest your organization to others. It’s one of the crucial essential buyer engagement success metrics. Solely these prospects who’re on good phrases together with your model are prone 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 possible 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 individuals are thought-about “passives” and don’t affect your rating. 

NPS = Proportion of promoters – Proportion of detractors 

2. Buyer satisfaction rating (CSAT)

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

So, as an alternative of asking whether or not they’d suggest you, you’re simply asking how glad they’re with you. This is without doubt one of the Most worthy customer support success metrics. It encapsulates all the customer support expertise in a single response.

You possibly can 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 should utilize a numeric scale, or get inventive, like Reserving.com did on this CSAT survey:

Supply: Reserving.com e-mail survey

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

CSAT = (Variety of constructive 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 straightforward evaluation and reporting. 

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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, reasonably than asking how glad the shopper is with the service, you as an alternative ask how simple it was to get the service they wanted. 

Supply: TurboTax e-mail survey

This offers you a very good sense of how effectively your customer support program is ready 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 anticipate it’s a key approach to enhance CES. Hootsuite Inbox is a good device to handle buyer help throughout all social channels, maintaining prospects completely happy and boosting your CES.

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

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

4. Help ticket classes

For firms that manage their help tickets by kind of challenge, 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 also help you determine the place prospects exert probably the most effort.

Help ticket classes could embrace:

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

Site visitors, web page views, Incessantly Requested Questions pages, and assist articles provide 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 keep watch over the quantity 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 might be essential to revisit communications methods, assist articles, and even insurance policies and operations. It’s additionally essential for managers to pay attention to how a lot stress their help groups are underneath, to allow them to present needed help before burnout becomes a problem.

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 be able to download here).

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

6. Buyer retention price (CRR)

A buyer retention price measures the variety of shoppers an organization retains over a choose interval.

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

To calculate buyer retention price, you’ll have to file:

S = Variety of prospects at the beginning of the interval

E = Variety of prospects on the finish of the interval

N = Variety of prospects added through the interval

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

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

For instance, say you could have 100 prospects at 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 price can be 75%.

7. Churn price

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

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

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

Churn price = (Clients misplaced over a interval/Clients at 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 better buyer success than others.

Supply: J.P. Morgan Global High Yield & Leveraged Finance Conference presentation by Jean-François Dad or mum, Vice President and Treasurer, Quebecor Inc., QMI and Videotron

8. Buyer acquisition value (CAC)

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

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

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

CAC = Gross sales and advertising spend / prospects acquired

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

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

9. Buyer lifetime worth (CLV)

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

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

With a purpose to measure CLV, you’ll have to have a number of information factors about buyer conduct.

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

For instance, one research 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 advertising to accumulate 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 could actually additionally provide you with a way of whether or not individuals are upgrading or downgrading their recurring degree of spend. 

You possibly can 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 person. 

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

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. This can be 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 enlargement income, tally all of the income introduced in from add-ons, upgrades, and so forth. 

To calculate enlargement income per person, divide the overall by the variety of customers. 

Enlargement income per person = Complete income from adds-ons and upgrades/Variety of customers

12. Income contraction

Income contraction is the other of enlargement income. On this case, you’re measuring how a lot income is misplaced from downgrades. That is much like churn in that it signifies individuals 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 attention-grabbing instance of income contraction comes from streaming providers, a lot of which have lately launched ad-supported lower-cost plans. Research from evaluation firm Antenna exhibits that downgrades from an ad-free plan represented 29% of latest additions to the ad-plan providing over the primary 13 months. 

Supply: Antenna

Understand 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 very good 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 person, divide the overall by the variety of customers. 

Income contraction per person = Complete income misplaced from downgrades/Variety of customers

13. Common income per person (ARPU)

In case you don’t have a subscription mannequin, you don’t essentially have recurring income. But it surely’s nonetheless essential to keep watch over how your common buyer spend is altering over time. Clients who’re experiencing success together with your model will usually spend extra, whereas those that are much less glad will spend much less. 

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

ARPU = Complete income/Variety of energetic customers

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

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 together with your staff.

A brief reply time is a mark of excellent customer support, particularly on-line, the place prospects just about anticipate service on-demand. Because of this, many companies rely on bots to handle initial queries.

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

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

Common response time = Complete 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 could be resolved, the higher.

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

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

16. First contact decision price

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

In case you have a low first contact decision price, likelihood is you’ll even have a excessive buyer effort rating (CES). Particularly if the shopper is requested to elucidate their challenge greater than as soon as.

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

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

17. Total decision price

Not all instances finish with a cheerful decision. That’s regular. However a very good decision price ought to at all times be the objective.

Right here’s easy methods to calculate your general decision price:

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

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

18. Most popular communication channels

With a purpose to ship top-rate customer support, it’s essential to know the place prospects anticipate to obtain help.

Maintain observe 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 might be time to open a customer service Twitter account.

Free customer support report template

We designed a easy customer support report template in Google Sheets that will help you hold observe 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 downside classes or spikes. You can even use this chart to speak with the product staff if, for instance, you see spikes in returns, technical points, or product availability.

The third tab comprises all of the formulation and definitions you have to to fill out your report, nearly like a customer support metrics calculator. Under is a screenshot of the NPS calculator.

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

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