Guide: Key Customer Service KPI (Customer Service Performance Metrics) & Customer Service Outsourcing Advantages

A simple picture shows the letters KPI in orange — with the caption “Key Performance Index;” KPI also stands for “Key Performance Indicator” — or, “Key Performance Indicators.”

To increase market share and rise above sales competitors, it’s direly important for globally-expanding businesses to create a superb digital customer experience that incites international customers to continue purchasing brands’ products/services. Quality service actively impacts businesses’ bottom lines, setting them apart from the competition. According to a 3rd party report — as approx. 52% of consumers pay higher pricing for products/services due to higher levels of CX, 87% of satisfied customers purchase product/service upgrades/new products/services, and repeat customers spend 33% more on purchases — global customer service that acquires/retains new customers is vital to long-term sales success/market dominance.

Key Customer Service KPI & Performance Metrics; The Importance of Customer Service Outsourcing

How can go-global businesses — like your own — take advantage of global sales market competition with top-tier customer engagement that brings long-term sales success?

With knowledge on the most vital customer service KPI & customer service performance metrics needed to measure/track customer service quality, you can take advantage of international sales market(s) via top digital customer service experiences. Let’s dive right into a treatise on 5 important customer service support metrics — what they are and how to improve them.

Customer Service & Support Metrics

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

Measuring the quality of your customers’ perception on their customer service, CSAT data is based on a five-point scale and gathered post-service via customer satisfaction surveys (i.e. post-service telephone keypad requests, pop-up windows, email surveys, etc.), giving you insight on how supportive/friendly customer service teams are and if issues were effectively-resolved.

Positive CSAT responses indicate customers receive quality customer service (CS) and enjoy pleasant customer experiences; to improve CSAT:

• Listen to customers; such valuable feedback, positive/negative, will help you decide if your customer service strategy is creating pleasant CX — or, improvements are needed.
• Make sure CSAT surveys ask specific questions; for non-pleased customers, you can follow up their experiences with open-ended questions.

First Response Time (FRT)

FRT measures customer service representatives (CSRs)’ first response time to new tickets/inquiries; by ensuring the FRT is low, your CSRs can ensure customers receive rapid service that creates positive, enjoyable customer experiences, and can ensure new tickets/customer inquiries are handled with a quicker service speed — as a cumulative effect.

Lesser wait times indicate positive customer experiences; to improve FRT:

• Ensure your CSRs’ obstacles to opening new tickets and sending initial responses are properly handled.
• Encourage your team to multi-task — handling a few tickets at once so customers can feel engaged from the get-go.
• Make sure you have efficient staffing so there’s no limitations to handling the workload — especially during peak times.

Average Response Time (ART)

Tracking CSRs’ open ticket response time, ART helps your business understand how quickly customers are served and how rapidly tickets are being resolved; keeping ART low means CS teams are actively/efficiently meeting customer needs, creating quality CX since customers require fast service without much lapse.

Rapid response times demonstrate customers are being valued; the end result is positive customer satisfaction measures.

To improve ART:

• Ensure customer service agents are thoroughly-equipped to solve customers’ pre-sales/post-sales questions/concerns — as having CSRs depend upon management for routine/special customer requests means they’ll need to take longer to meet CS requests.
• Know your CSRs’ limitations and how you can juggle them with their current service volume to ensure maximum CS performance; when agents handle/resolve a proper number of service calls/tickets at once — without feeling too overwhelmed — you can cut ART down and proportion quality CX that brings lasting sales dividends.

First-contact Resolution Rate

First Contact Resolution Rate (FCR) measures the ticket response rate of CSRs’ first-response to tickets — indicating your team’s communication efficiency and determining if the amount of info. it needs from customers affects efficiency; FCR ensures consumers receive accurate, rapid responses when/as needed, enhancing customer engagement experiences.

High FCR rates are direly important; to improve FCR:

• Ensure form fields request complete info. from customers — furthermore, ensure CS agents request any missing info. that’s needed; complete info. from the first contact ensures CSRs can handle customer requests quickly — ideally in as little responses as possible.
• Provide clear instructions to/set realistic expectations for customers regarding any steps needed to resolve their questions/concerns; by making sure customers know what they should do — and by ensuring that they know what you’ll need to do — on your side, your business can avoid beating around the bush and in-turn provide the best support in the least amount of time, ensuring customers get their support needs handled effectively/efficiently.
• Have your CSRs stay calm, collected, and positive amidst dissatisfying situations; by doing so, your business can evade taking customers for a round — and instead focus on solving their undesired customer issues promptly.

Average Ticket Resolution Time

Average ticket resolution time measures individual support ticket resolution times, detailing you on the complexity of customer issues, as well as how efficiently your CS team handles customer service requests.

Short resolution times are key; to improve this metric:

• Make sure CS reps ask thoughtful questions, encouraging customers to give as much detail as possible so that issues can be handled/resolved promptly and accurately.
• Focus on ensuring your CS agents has the necessary product/technical knowledge and/or FAQs to pull common answers from; doing so cuts resolution time down by evading the need for CS personnel to look for the info. and/or ask others internally for support.
• Your team can build a knowledge base by utilizing other similar support tickets’ data; this is good for CSRs — but, it may also be good for customers as it could even cut down customers’ needs for customer service.

Callnovo’s Expert Customer Service Outsourcing Solutions — a Worthwhile Opportunity to Enhance Global CX

A smiling female customer service representative holds high the extreme value to providing top-tier customer service solutions that helps businesses to effectively create high-quality CX that drives strong sales margins and creates long-term competition in the global sales market.

By understanding the most vital customer service KPI & customer service performance metrics, your go-global business can intuitively ensure its strategy offers quality CS that enhances market competition efforts. As a more worthwhile manner of effectively enhancing your global CX, our very own Callnovo Contact Center — a one-stop, global customer engagement leader in customer service outsourcing solutions with a 17+ year tenure in the provision of top-tier remote customer service/tech support — can help; we offer global businesses high-quality customer engagement solutions that influence repeat sales, improving customer retention/brand loyalty, so your business can benefit from progressively long-term market dominance. Callnovo’s customer service outsourcing solutions help improve CX with the following benefits:

• Round-the-Clock Service: your business can meet customers’ needs at all times — without limits — via our flexible plans tailored to your business needs/goals.
• Global Native Language Support: By utilizing our own native language customer support, your business can professionally/pleasantly meet international customers’ needs rapidly/efficiently, ensuring nothing is lost in context, and securing quality conversations that conform to customers’ cultural expectations.
• Multiple Expertise Areas: our global customer service support team ensures you get the right experts with the time, energy, and language support needed to meet your customers in the best manner while focusing on multiple areas of customer engagement — regardless of the industry.
• Greater Sales Cultivation: as customers “want service and they want it now,” our very own rapid, omnichannel customer engagement solutions can ensure your business significantly increases sales/gains more loyal customers.

Conclusion

With the above-mentioned key customer service KPI in mind, your business can successfully improve its customer service strategy and customers’ satisfaction experiences, fortifying its brand reputation and loyalty, resulting in next-level market competition. To further help you accomplish this endeavor, our very own Callnovo offers a comprehensive multilingual, omnichannel customer service solution to meet your customers’ CS needs, proportioning superb customer satisfaction experiences that increase customer loyalty and long-term sales success.