Many people don’t understand the importance of customer service metrics. Consider that 78% of customers will do business with you again after a mistake if you have excellent customer service.
Unfortunately, while most companies obsessively track sales and marketing numbers, they completely overlook customer service metrics—and miss out on the insights they can learn about customer service, customer satisfaction, and brand loyalty.
The main challenge is knowing which metrics to track. So, to help you out, we talked to leading customer service experts to discover what metrics they track and why.
Here are the 15 most important customer service metrics:
1. Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) is a popular key performance indicator that enables you to track how satisfied your customers are with your products and services.
You can conduct surveys with multiple-choice questions and allow people to rate different aspects of your products, services, and customer support. As far as customer service metrics go, CSATs are perhaps the most important one to track.
How to calculate it:
Send a survey to your customers asking them to rate their experience on a number scale (such as 1-10).
Then, to calculate the average CSAT, you can use the following formula:
Average CSAT = total combined value of all CSAT ratings / # of customer ratings
What it tells you:
The CSAT tells you how happy customers are with your company. It also provides some insight into what you could do better. For instance, if you receive a six or lower CSAT from a customer, you can ask additional questions to identify specific issues to address.
Be sure to focus on the aspects of customer service that your team can control. For example, you may receive negative feedback because of pricing or something out of your hands, like an unreasonable request to change something. Don't take this personally. Simply move on to other feedback that is actionable.
2. Ticket Volume
Ticket volume is the number of open customer requests, cases, or inquiries in your support inbox. As it's one of the critical customer service support metrics, ticket volume should be visible on your customer service dashboard at all times.
How to calculate it:
You can calculate your current ticket volume by logging into the software you use to track support tickets. It can also be helpful to calculate ticket volumes over specific periods to derive an average.
What it tells you:
By performing data analysis on your ticket volume, you can identify trends and may be able to predict spikes in customer inquiries. For instance, you might project more queries in the run-up to a new product launch or during a seasonal sales campaign. By leveraging data analytics, you can prepare by staffing more agents or developing a more robust FAQ section on your website.
When changing your product features, you can measure the rise or fall of ticket volume to determine if the changes to your product made your customer experience easier or more difficult. In the end, your ticket volume tells you if you are moving in the right direction by reducing support issues and queries over time.
3. Unresolved Tickets
Unresolved tickets, or ticket backlog, is the number of outstanding support tickets that have yet to be resolved. Ticket backlog is among the leading customer service metrics for a simple reason: the more unresolved tickets you have, the more unhappy customers you have.
How to calculate it:
Count the number of tickets in your queue that are not yet resolved. For deeper insights, compare the number of unresolved tickets to the total number of tickets you received during a specific period, such as the month of December.
What it tells you:
Unresolved Tickets tell you how much work your customer support team has ahead of them. This metric also helps you understand how well or how quickly your team is resolving issues. With these insights, you may determine that you need to improve training, staff more agents at specific times, or hire more people to address the outstanding issues.
4. Case types and topics
You can classify customer service issues by case types and topics, which refer to the nature of your customer support tickets. For instance, you may have case types such as refunds, product quality, or website navigation questions.
By keeping a record of all the case types and topics, you can understand which elements of your products, services, and customer service are working well—and which areas need improvement.
How to calculate it:
To calculate case types and topics, use tags within the program you use to track customer inquiries and support tickets, such as your customer relationship management (CRM) platform or email provider.
You can sort and filter inquiries by individual tags to view the source of the most common requests or complaints.
If your software does not automatically allow you to view the total number of tags for a chosen topic, then upload the tags manually into a spreadsheet. Just remember to update the spreadsheet and review the totals periodically.
What it tells you:
By tracking the nature of your support cases, you can glean insights into recurring issues. If specific topics are tagged often, you should identify ways to reduce confusion or improve the quality of the customer experience around these aspects of your business.
5. Issue Resolution Rate
The issue resolution rate tells you the percentage of total inquiries that your team has resolved. Failing to solve customers' problems is not a good look for your brand and could damage customer trust. Therefore, consider this rate as one of your essential customer service metrics.
How to calculate it:
You can calculate the Issue Resolution Rate with the following formula:
IRR = # of issues resolved / total # of issues generated
What it tells you:
Knowing the ratio that your team resolves customer issues is vital, as it tells you how efficient your team is at handling customer concerns. Over time, a rising issue resolution rate is a sign your customer service is getting stronger.
6. First Response Time (FRT)
The FRT is the time it takes between a customer making an inquiry and a support agent first responding. First impressions matter, which makes this metric one worth tracking.
Customers want to know that their issue is being worked on right away. Even sending a quick email to let customers know you received their inquiry is a step in the right direction, which can boost customer satisfaction.
How to calculate it:
Calculate the number of minutes between the time the customer sent their inquiry and the time your team sent its first response.
What it tells you:
The FRT gives you a good indication of how well your support team is staffed or how efficiently they are working.
A short FRT means that your team is not too overloaded. You should implement automated responses whenever possible to reduce the FRT and put customers at ease. Automation can also indirectly boost other customer service metrics.
7. First Touch Resolution Rate
The first touch resolution rate tells you the percentage of inquiries that are entirely resolved on the first engagement. Also known as the first contact resolution rate, this metric is a crucial barometer to gauge team productivity and customer satisfaction.
How to calculate it:
You can calculate the First Touch Resolution Rate with the following formula:
FTRR = # of issues that are resolved on first contact/total # of issues generated
What it tells you:
A high first touch resolution rate indicates that you are efficient and clear with your communication. A low first touch resolution rate means that you should refine your response messages to provide more helpful guidance.
Not every issue can be resolved with one touch, but there are "low hanging fruit" scenarios where a prolonged back-and-forth is not necessary to solve the issue.
8. Average Resolution Time
The average resolution time is the median amount of time a business takes to resolve a customer's issue completely. This metric has a massive influence on customer satisfaction.
As a result, it's often smarter to focus more on faster resolutions and worry less about quick replies.
How to calculate it:
You can calculate the Average Resolution Time with the following formula:
ART = total time to resolve all issues/total # of issues resolved
What it tells you:
Average resolution time can tell you if you are solving customer's issues within your target timeline. Keep in mind that certain situations can create outliers that impact this metric, such as a computer error, website crash, or if a customer service agent was out of the office.
9. Average Handle Time (AHT)
The average handle time (AHT) is a commonly used metric for call centers, which represents the average length of a phone call with a customer. 66% of people still use the phone to resolve service issues, making AHT one of the most crucial customer service metrics.
How to calculate it:
You can determine handle time for individual inquiries by tracking the time that elapses from the moment an agent answers the phone until they resolve the issue—including all the post-call tasks they undertake.
To calculate AHT, use the following formula:
AHT = (total talk time + total hold time + total time spent on post-call tasks) / total number of calls
What it tells you:
Shorter handle times mean your team is more efficient at resolving issues, and therefore, you are saving time and money. A higher AHT is a sign that you need to address issues, such as poor productivity, inadequate training, or a complex or confusing issue resolution process that contains unnecessary steps.
10. Customer Contact Rate
Customer contact rate is the percentage of customers who make support requests within a given period, like per month or year. As your company improves its services and online channels, including website features, copywriting, bug fixes, and product design, this rate should fall.
How to calculate it:
You can calculate CRR with the following formula:
CRR = # of customer support inquiries in a specified period / # of paid orders within the same period
What it tells you:
A low customer contact rate means you probably have an easy-to-use purchasing funnel or a well-designed product. A high rate tells you there is room to create more self-help resources or ensure that there are ongoing issues with your products, services, and services or the customer experience as a whole.
11. Escalation Requests
The escalation requests metric is a measure of the number of times customers ask to escalate an issue—or speak to a higher authority within the company than the current customer service agent. It's important to track these incidents to understand customer sentiment and also the efficacy of your support team members.
How to calculate it:
Log any time that an escalation request occurs. You can then use filters on your tracking software to view the total number of escalation requests within a defined period, such as per month, quarter, or annum.
What it tells you:
A high level of escalation requests can indicate that your customers are not happy with your service. It might also suggest that your frontline support agents need more tools or training to resolve issues without escalation.
12. Net Promoter Score (NPS)
The NPS is an indication of how likely your customers are to recommend your product or service to others. A high NPS is important in generating word-of-mouth marketing and strengthening your brand reputation.
How to calculate it:
Survey customers and ask them how likely they are to recommend your company on a scale from one to ten. After you gather all data points, you can classify customers by their responses as follows:
- 9-10 - Promoter
- 7-8 - Passive
- 0-6 - Detractor
Then, you can calculate your NPS for a defined period by using the following formula:
NPS = Percent of Promoters - Percent of Detractors
What it tells you:
A low NPS is a big problem that signifies critical mistakes in your customer service or other aspects of your business. Consider sending follow-up surveys to detractors to identify the exact issues your company needs to improve.
13. Conversation Ratings
Conversation ratings are a type of customer service metric that assigns a satisfaction rating to each customer resolution. The higher the rating, the better your team handled the customer's inquiry regarding speed, service level, and helpfulness.
Low ratings could be a symptom of an underlying problem such as your agent's demeanor or another aspect of your customer experience, which may be causing friction or stirring up resentment for the customer.
How to calculate it:
How to measure conversation ratings is pretty straightforward. Once you close a customer ticket, send a quick email asking the customer to rate the conversation with your team on a scale from one to ten.
What it tells you:
There are various factors in any conversation with a customer. When they provide a low conversation rating, you need to dig deeper. You may need to increase response time, reduce the number of back and forth messages, or ask better questions to resolve their problems.
14. Customer Retention Rate
The CRR represents how many of your customers you are retaining over a given period. It is one of the most vital customer service metrics to track because low retention rates lead to more time and effort to acquire additional customers. Higher retention rates reduce your customer acquisition costs.
How to calculate it:
You can calculate the CRR with the following formula:
CRR = (# of total customers at the end of a period) - (# of new customer acquisitions during that same period) / ((# of customers at the beginning of that period) x 100)
What it tells you:
If your CRR is falling over time, it means that you aren't meeting your customers' needs. They are either choosing to do without any product in your category or going to a competitor. You need to evaluate whether this is due to customer service, price, or other factors.
15. Upsell and Cross-Sell Frequencies
Upsell and cross-sell frequencies are customer support metrics that tell you how often customers purchase a higher-tier version of your product (upsell) or a complementary product (cross-sell).
How to calculate it:
You can calculate upsell frequencies with the following formula:
Upsell Frequency = # of customers who purchase an upsell / # of paying customers
You can calculate cross-sell Frequencies with the following formula:
Cross-sell Frequency = # of customers who purchase a cross-sell / # of paying customers
What it tells you:
If you are up-selling and cross-selling frequently, it likely means your service department is excelling at identifying product-market fit. Not only are your support teams doing a great job of making customers happy, but your customers like and trust you enough to make further purchases after their initial buy.
If these metrics are lagging, you must develop a stronger understanding of what your customers truly need and offer product recommendations that align with their interests.
Which Customer Service Metrics Are You Tracking?
Customer service is the lifeblood of any business nowadays. Amid intense competition and similar products, an excellent customer experience is often what sets a successful company apart from the competition.
The customer service performance metrics here are the most commonly-tracked KPIs, but you should not use just one alone—it's essential to track several and consider them in relation to one another. With this approach, you get a holistic view of your customer experience, your customer service standards and identify where improvements are required.
Joran Hofman
Hofman | Head of Customer Success
At Leadfeeder, we often look at the 'outcome' metric first, where for customer support the most important one is conversation ratings. We want to ensure that our clients get the answers they're looking for within their ideal time frame. To keep the ratings high, we also look at the input metrics, which are; median response time, median first response time, median time to close, and the number of conversations and replies.
Karen Orford
ECAL.com | Global Head of Customer Success
If it exists we measure it, because as the saying goes, if you can't measure it then you can't improve it. NPS is our most important metric.
Rebekah Dotty
Donorbox | Head of Customer Support
Petra Odak
Better Proposals | CMO
