Did you know that by increasing customer retention by just 5% can contribute to a 25% increase in overall profit?

Customer service, being the team that communicates most with the customer, is a reflection of your brand. And to uphold a successful program and best serve your customers, there are several key performance indicators (KPIs) you should be tracking. This article will cover the following metrics:

• Ticket Backlog
• Owner Assignment Time
• Average Time to Resolution
• Support Ticket Categories
• Resolution Rate by Agent
• Average Response Time
• First Response Time
• Net Promoter Score (NPS)
• Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

Ticket Backlog

If you have a customer service team, you probably leverage ticketing software (hopefully HubSpot). A new ticket is created each time a customer attempts to reach customer service. When too many unresolved tickets are waiting to be addressed, you’re faced with a backlog. 

Why is this important?

The larger the backlog, the slower the ticket response time. A backlog of tickets could indicate a severe bottleneck in your customer service process and result in lengthy wait times for customers. Support requests that end up in a void of backlogged tickets are not conducive to satisfied customers. 

How to Improve

In this case, it is important to dissect your customer service processes to determine the bottleneck. Do your representatives have the resources they need to efficiently resolve tickets? Is it taking more than one touchpoint to close tickets? Is there enough easily accessible information on your website to help minimize overall tickets? Are you simply understaffed?

Owner Assignment Time

When a customer submits a ticket, it must be assigned to a representative. This can be done manually or automatically depending on your ticket volume and source channels you are using, alternatively HubSpot can assign the ticket based on the email it came from or the method the ticket was created. The owner assignment time is the time it takes for a customer request to be in the hands of the representative responsible for resolution.  

Why is this important?

Ticket assignment is fickle. If an unavailable representative is assigned the case, it could be hours, if not days, until the ticket is addressed. Tracking the owner assignment time can help you dig deeper into resolution time to see if delays exist. 

How to Improve

If you experience a high volume of tickets, consider investing in a tool that offers an automated workflow. Automating the ticket assignment process can reduce human error and save time. If you are still using a manual solution, are you accurately depicting representative availability? Is there someone on staff who is dedicated to assigning tickets? 

Average Time to Resolution 

It’s no secret that customers prefer their issues to be addressed and resolved promptly. For this reason, it’s crucial to track the time it takes your customer service representatives to resolve issues.

Why is this important?

Customer satisfaction is at stake if your average time to resolution is high. Understanding this KPI can help you determine how efficient your team is when it comes to solving customer issues. Alternatively, it is important to keep an eye out for quick resolution times. This could indicate that unresolved tickets have been marked as closed.

How to Improve

Investigate your team’s initial outreach process. Does the first touchpoint prompt the customer to thoroughly explain the problem? How often are your representatives having to work cross-functionally to solve a problem? What resources, training, and feedback can you provide to reduce the number of times a representative has to use another team’s knowledge?

Supper Ticket Categories 

Support Ticket Categories are the organizational backbone of your ticketing software. Issues are often categorized by type, product, department, product, or priority, ensuring that the correct team is assigned. Oftentimes, larger customer service operations will have dedicated team members for each category.

Why is this important?

Incorrectly categorized tickets can cause both major inefficiencies and inaccurate reporting. If a ticket is assigned to the wrong category, it could be given the wrong priority, resulting in a breach of service-level agreement (SLA). Additionally, it is important to ensure that your ticket categories are chosen strategically. Too many to choose from could cause a massive delay in ticket assignment time.

How to Improve

Assess the current categorization of your tickets. How many categories are currently in your system for representatives to choose from? Does your team categorize tickets manually, or automatically? How often are ticket categories incorrectly assigned? Check up on the status of your ticketing software and run reports where needed.

Resolution Rate by Agent 

Each representative on your team is unique in their workflow. You often can’t expect a group of people to all have the exact same style of organization and customer service. For this reason, it is important to track the resolution rate by agent, or the average time it takes each representative to close issues. 

Why is this important?

Tracking the resolution rate by agent can help you determine the strengths and weaknesses of your team members, ensuring that they are consistently assigned tickets that fit their knowledge base. If your representatives feel happy and proficient in their jobs, they are much more likely to provide excellent customer service. 

How to Improve

Keeping your team happy, making sure they have the correct tools, and understanding their challenges can help you determine whether you need to improve this metric. Is your team overworked? Does everyone receive a manageable amount of tickets in their queue?

First Response Time

When a customer submits a request, it’s categorized, assigned, and opened. Next, the assigned representative must make contact with the customer. First response time measures the time it takes for a representative to make the first contact when a new ticket is opened. 

Why is this important?

Though speed isn’t necessarily the most important attribute of good customer service, it’s surely a good indicator of a satisfied customer. The less time your customers have to wait to get help, the more efficient your operation. 

How to Improve

Benchmark your first response times and strive for a 60-minute response first response time in direct channels. Again, this metric is dependent on efficiency. Are your representatives overworked? Are they able to respond to multiple tickets at once? Do they have templates readily available to make the first contact step as easy as possible?

Average Response Time 

Average response time refers to the time it takes for a representative to respond to a conversation with a customer. The lower your average response time, the faster your customers are being helped and communicated with. 

Why is this important?

Tracking average response time can reveal levels of customer satisfaction. Slow response times can make customers feel unimportant and create unnecessary follow-ups that result in extraneous tickets. 

How to Improve

Evaluate the tools and resources offered to your team. Are they well-equipped? Even if an unsolvable issue arises, is your team still making quick contact? Are your representatives handling an appropriate amount of tickets at once? Too many can lead to overwhelm and important, open tickets being pushed to the backburner. 

NPS

When a customer has a positive experience with your business, they’re more likely to point others in your direction. These referrals are four times more likely to buy your product or service. Net promoter score (NPS) measures the likelihood of recommendations. Oftentimes, this is seen in the form of a “How likely are you to recommend X to a friend?” question in a buyer survey, and is measured by subtracting the percentage of detractor scores (0-6) from promoter scores (9-10).

Why is this important?

Net promoter score is a simple way to determine customer satisfaction with just one question. An easily calculated number can give you a basis on which to determine whether or not you need to improve. 

How to Improve

Include an optional box where customers can explain why they would or why they would not recommend your business to a friend. Analyze responses consistently.

CSAT

All customer service roads lead to one destination: happy customers. CSAT, or customer satisfaction score, is one of the most important KPIs to track in your organization. This is usually measured by a voluntary survey asking customers to rate their experience after interacting with customer service.

Why is this important?

You know the age-old saying: the customer is always right, so any information on customer satisfaction is extremely valuable information. The questions you ask in your survey could help determine bottlenecks and inefficiencies in your customer service processes. If you are experiencing churn, it is crucial to have accurate historical data from your customer experience surveys.

How to Improve

Are you allocating time and resources to listen to your customers? Are you following up to understand where you are going wrong and where you are going right? Are you asking questions in your survey? Consider reading Smart Survey Design from SurveyMonkey, a resource that can help you understand exactly what makes an effective survey. 

Customer Service and KPIs

Customer service is a black hole of KPIs. And while these metrics are often subjective and associated with deep analytics based on emotions, they can help you determine the efficacy of your customer service operation and keep customers coming back.