Most Important Customer Service Metrics in Kenya

October 16, 2023by Jackie0

Is Data the New Oil?

 

How do you know if your customers are happy?

How do you make sure that you are offering the best service or product?

In this day and age, customer service impacts almost all aspects of a business; from production, marketing, sales process and so much more. We can no longer view customer service as a secondary function of a business because it now affects the income generated.

There has been a lot of talk about the power of the customer. Business owners have now invested in customer service because when you have satisfied happy customers, they become the repeat buyers who sustain the business. 

 

But do you even know if your customers are happy?

You might think that the product or service you are offering is the best in the market but your customers may not think so.

Today, customer service sets a business apart from its competitors and gives it a competitive edge. The secret is now out – The way you treat your customer can make or break your business.

 

So how do you make sure that you are offering the best service or product? 

The answer lies in data. And it is not enough to just collect data but you have to be able to draw great insights that yield valuable results which goes to help companies make more efficient and organized decisions.

 

What are Customer Service Metrics?

Customer service metrics are a set of key performance indicators used for tracking, measuring, and analyzing the quality and efficiency of customer service teams and agents.

 

Four Benefits of Customer Service Metrics

  1. Understand Customer Pain Points

Customer service agents are at the forefront receiving calls from customers in regards to the product or service being offered.

Take for instance, a company launches a product and the customer service team starts getting bombarded with many requests, complaints, and negative feedback. Good thing though, is that the company has put in systems for the agents to log in the issues that come through.

At the end of a given period, a company is able to generate a report that allows them to identify the most common customer issues and then come up with ways to mitigate this.

 

  1. Make Informed Decisions

Customer service metrics can help a business owner to keep tabs on where the company is, what is going well with customers while identifying what needs to be improved.

For instance, by identifying the channel that the majority of your customers use, a manager can then allocate a larger number of customer service representatives on that particular channel to ensure they respond to customer queries in a timely and efficient manner.

The insights derived from the data works as a guide for the team and the organization as whole to reach their maximum potential. With customer service metrics, you get factual, objective data to make informed decisions.

 

  1. Improve Customer Retention and Loyalty

Before you can offer exceptional customer service, you need to understand what is working well, what your shortcomings are, work to improve on that and then get to deliver outstanding customer service.

This consequently translates to happy and satisfied customers who become repeat buyers and loyal to your brand. The same customers become your brand ambassadors and will refer your business to their friends and family bringing in new customers and enlarging the customer base.

 

  1. Identify and Reward Best Performers

By implementing technology that is able to collect data and generate reports, as a manager you are able to easily evaluate the performance of each agent and picking out the best performer and also identifying the areas in which they excel in.

As an organization, it would be ideal to have an incentive plan in place to motivate the customer service agents who meet and/ exceed their set targets. This could be in the form of gift cards, bonus, discounts or additional vacation days.

These kinds of reports also shed light to the other agents who may be struggling and in such a case, it would be ideal for the manager to investigate further as to why some agents may be performing dismally and offer assistance. E.g. through refresher training.

Top performers also serve as an example for the others to emulate.

Customer Experience has now long overtaken price and product as the key aspects that set a brand apart from the competition. Businesses that are now thriving are those that have given their customers a voice.

By getting customer feedback, a business is able to gain insight on how the company’s processes, product and service is perceived by the customer and thereby delivering what customers actually want.

Let us now explore vital customer service metrics that are key performance indicators (KPIs) that objectively assist in measuring and understanding the impact of customer service and support teams.

 

Key Customer Service Metrics

  1. Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)

Customer satisfaction seeks to find out how your customers feel about the product/ service or support they received. This is usually measured by asking the customers to complete a survey after the service is delivered.

It could be on a scale of 1 to 5 or to rate it as “good” or “bad”; or clicking a thumbs up or thumbs down or rate it either “very satisfied”, “satisfied”, “neutral”, “unsatisfied” or “very unsatisfied”.

This metric helps tell how helpful, effective and friendly the customer service team was to the customer and whether the problem was resolved.

It would also be beneficial to have open-ended questions that prompt customers to give additional information about their interaction.

For instance, to identify areas of improvement, possibly ask – “Tell us what we can do better” or ask “How did this experience meet your expectation” to find out what the customer service team is doing right.

In case the survey does not ask open-ended questions, it is important to follow up with those who gave a negative (or thumbs down) experience and request them for more information with regards to their feedback.

 

  1. Customer Effort Score (CES)

This metric analyzes how simple it is for customers to have their issue resolved,finish a task, or speak to a customer service agent. It gives a good picture of how well the customer service program is set up.

While CSAT measures the accomplishment of a particular interaction, CES measures how easy it is to access support. So instead of asking how satisfied the customer is with the service, you ask how easy it was for them to get the service they needed.

It could be on a scale of “very easy” to “very difficult.” It is advisable to send the CES surveys right after a customer makes a purchase or engages with a customer service representative so the interaction is still fresh in their mind.

 

  1. Net Promoter Score (NPS)

This metric is set out to measure your customer satisfaction and loyalty. It seeks to identify how likely your customers are to recommend your brand to others. This metric is important because only customers who love your brand are likely to recommend it to others.

So after a customer’s purchase or interaction with a customer service agent, send the question “How likely are you to recommend the brand?” NPS can be measured on a scale of 1-5, for instance “1-Not at All”, 2-Not Likely”, “3-Maybe”, 4-Probably, 5-Definately”

Others use a scale of 1-10 which translates to:

  • Promoters: those who answer 9–10 are very satisfied, happy customers and will most likely recommend you to others
  • Passives: those who answer 7–8 are satisfied but not likely to recommend your products or services
  • Detractors: those who answer 6 and below are dissatisfied and will not encourage others to patronize your business

 

  1. Average Ticket Count

Regardless of how much effort you put into the quality of your product or service, there is bound to be a question or an issue arising from the interaction with your customer. The average ticket count can be calculated on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

This metric helps to identify issues that keep occurring frequently and establish if they can be automated or not. It also assists in identifying the standard counts for different time periods and you can use this information to create benchmarks for the customer service agents.

This data is important because ticket counts reveal busiest periods and can help in allocating the number of agents at a particular time to meet the demand.

It also provides information about a product or service. For instance if there is a new product or a new feature launched, or even when you are running a promotion and you offer discounts, the ticket numbers may go high.

In this case however, it would be important to investigate the reason, whether it is service related to which you would need to reach out to the team, or in case it is product related, then it would mean there is more polishing required on the product.

 

  1. First Response Time (FRT)

This is also referred to as First Reply Time and it measures the time it takes an agent to initially respond to a request or ticket. Nowadays, customers expect fast response but they also appreciate accurate solutions.

This metric demonstrates how clearly and efficiently the customer service team communicates and how much information the team asks from customers to share when they first reach out.

While speed is not everything, this metric helps in decoding a lot to do with the service offered by agents. In case there are long wait times, it might be an indication that the agents are struggling to manage high ticket volumes, the process is inefficient or that they are slow.

 

  1. Average Response Time

This metric measures how long it takes for the customer service team to respond to a request after opening a ticket. It tracks how quickly your customers are getting assisted as well as how quickly each ticket can be resolved.

The average response time can help to tell the complexity of customer issues as well as the  efficiency of the customer service team.

It is important to ensure that the team is equipped to solve issues and answer questions so that they do not waste time either deliberating with team members or seeking guidance from superiors such as managers for issues that should be resolved easily and quickly.

 

  1. Ticket Resolution Rate

Sometimes it is not possible to resolve all issues that come through and this is normal. However, it is still important to ensure you maintain a good resolution rate.

This metric seeks to track the number of  tickets that are fully resolved in comparison to those that have not yet been resolved over a period of time; this could be measured daily, weekly, or monthly.

An organization can use this information to set daily solved targets for their customer service agents and track how agents and the teams are performing against the set targets as well as spotting resourcing needs.

 

  1. Number of Interactions Per Ticket

This tracks the number of times that the customer service team interacts with the customer while their ticket is open.

It identifies the number of updates the customer service representative makes, as well as the number of interactions that happen with a customer, if they have to be passed around to different representatives, prior to having their issue resolved.

This metric is critical especially now that most customers would prefer to spend more money with companies that ensure they won’t need to keep repeating information.

It is therefore important for the team to ask the right questions from the customer at the initial interaction, communicate clearly and strive to ensure that they swiftly resolve each issue.

 

  1. Ticket Backlog

This metric measures the number of unresolved tickets that are yet to be handled by the customer service team over a period of time – daily, weekly or monthly.

This data is important because it can assist in assessing the workload of the customer service team and spot potential bottlenecks.

It is also a good way to track the progress of the customer service team by checking whether the backlog is reducing and if that is not the case, then it could be an indication that the team is probably overwhelmed with the customer inquiries.

As much as speed is not the key important metric in customer service, it still plays an important role in providing a positive customer service experience.

As a manager it is essential to understand the customer service process from the beginning to the end and identify potential hurdles that could be slowing down the customer service agents.

 

  1. Preferred Communication Channels

Gone are the days that customers would reach out to companies via the phone and this is thanks to technology. Customers now have multiple channels that they use to interact with a brand such as emails, on company websites, social media pages, live chat among others.

Therefore, in this day and age, it is important to know where customers expect to receive support. As a business you are able to understand your customers preferred channel of communication allowing the business to identify areas of focus and improvement as well.

 

To Wrap Up…

The customer service teams deal with a lot of customer issues, inquiries, and concerns regarding a company’s products or services.

And while it is multifaceted and involves multidisciplinary functions, it is arguably the most important area to measure in a business because it has the most direct customer touchpoints.

We know that customer service teams that offer exceptional services lead to happy customers who in turn become loyal customers and brand ambassadors.

Therefore it is important to keep raising the bar higher in order to stand out from the competition. However, you cannot improve the service standards unless you understand where you currently stand.

By measuring the customer service metrics, as a business owner, you get a clear picture of your current service standards and how your business compares with the industry benchmarks.

Armed with this information, you can take an informed and deliberate action to improve each metric and enhance the overall performance and service standards of the company.

 

 

 

by Jackie

Over the last 16 years, Jackie has built a remarkable career in Customer Service in different capacities and industries. As a Customer Experience Trainer, her mission is focused on helping businesses make more and retain more customers through unrivalled Customer Experience. She has an in-depth CX understanding that stems from personal experiences, learning & research all fueled by my passion and commitment to see customers happy and organizations thriving. She is the Co-founder, CEO, and Senior Consultant at Customer Centric Kenya, the consulting and training firm of choice. Her tailor-made training-approach has been a key strength. The companies she has worked with have appreciated some key aspects: → The well-researched and packaged modules. → The depth of training and tailoring. → The applicability and follow up. If You Want to Stay Current with The Latest Customer Service Insights, News, Trends and Predictions, Join her Newsletter. → GO HERE: https://rb.gy/qucj4k To Book or Get More Information on Training write to us: jackie@customercentric.co.ke info@customercentric.co.ke

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