Customer Experience 
Customer service metrics are key performance indicators (KPIs) that businesses use to track, measure, and optimize their level of customer support.
At least one-third of consumers said they would consider switching companies after just one instance of bad customer service!
Those customers might not just take their business elsewhere; they could also tell their friends, family, or social media about their poor customer service interactions, which could damage your brand’s reputation.
But how do you know if your customer service is thriving or needs help? Customer service metrics, of course.
The more value you create for your customers, the less you generally have to worry about losing their business. You can measure your effectiveness with several call center metrics and KPIs that illustrate different parts of the customer experience.
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We compiled the top fifteen metrics for customer service that will help you nurture your customers and avoid pitfalls in your customer experience.
Customer Experience & Satisfaction Metrics
Let’s take a look at the top customer service metrics for the overall customer experience.
1. Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
Happy customers spend more and churn less. One of the best ways to measure customer satisfaction is through CSAT surveys. This crucial metric measures what customers feel, think, and do regarding your business.
Calculate your CSAT score by giving a simple, one-question survey after a customer interaction: “How would you rate your overall satisfaction with the service you received?”
You can vary the customer satisfaction survey question if the intent stays the same. Then, customers can respond on a scale from 1–5, with 1 being Very Unsatisfied, 3 being Neutral, and 5 being Very Satisfied.
A good customer satisfaction score a 4 or 5.
If you surveyed 100 customers, and 43 answered “Satisfied” while 29 answered “Very Satisfied,” your CSAT score would be 72, based on the formula.
The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ASCI) publishes the CSAT scores of several major companies every year. This public data makes it easy to benchmark your scores against other companies in your industry.
With Nextiva’s inbound call center solution, you can easily handle tons of incoming calls, track team performance against benchmarks, and generate more revenue. You can even see customer sentiment in real time with built-in CRM.
How to improve it: Focus on a top-notch customer service strategy and use the right communication tools to increase satisfaction across the board.
2. Net Promoter Score® (NPS)
The Net Promoter Score is a survey-based metric that aims to show how likely a customer is to recommend your business. Unlike the CSAT survey, it’s not necessarily asked right after a service interaction.
The NPS survey can be sent to the customer after purchasing your product or service.
Some consider the Net Promoter Score a staple for SaaS businesses and apps, and businesses often use it when forecasting organic growth. Like the CSAT, it’s one question: “How likely is it that you would recommend [BRAND] to a friend or colleague?”
Answers are usually on a scale from 1–10. To find the NPS, you divide the results into three categories:
- Detractors (Scores 0–6)
- Passive (Scores 7–8)
- Promoters (Scores 9–10)
If you surveyed 100 customers and 70 answered 9–10, 20 answered 7–8, and 10 answered 1–6, your NPS would be 60.
How to improve it: Quickly reducing first-impression metrics like hold time, response time and resolution time can encourage customers to recommend you.
3. Customer Effort Score (CES)
The Customer Effort Score is another single-question, survey-based metric.
This one is from 1–7, and asks: To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement? “The company made it easy for me to handle my issue.”
Then, the answer scale ranges from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Total CES is the average of all the answers.
How to improve it: Reduce negative customer feedback and the number of customer issue tickets (like adding self-service resources) and lower average resolution time to encourage higher Customer Effort Score responses.
4. Next issue avoidance
Next issue avoidance measures agents’ steps to prevent potential problems for customers. This includes proactive actions like suggesting preventive solutions or providing resources to help customers with future needs.
Tracking how often agents proactively prevent future problems allows you to measure how effectively your team reduces recurring issues.
How to improve it: Use predictive analytics to anticipate customer needs and encourage proactive communication, especially if it’s bad news.
Customer Retention & Loyalty Metrics
Here are the key customer service metrics for encouraging repeat customers and improving customer loyalty.
5. Customer churn rate
For any high-growth service business, customer churn is a key customer service metric. Churn is the percentage of customers who leave during a specified time frame.
For example, if you had 100 customers last year, and 12 months later you have 50 of those same customers, this means your churn rate is 50% (over 12 months). There is no unified time for churn, but many companies calculate it by weeks, months, or quarters.
Churn rates over different periods can give you insights into how different variables affect customer retention. For example, if you introduced a new CRM in June, churn for the calendar year might look different in the year’s first half compared to the second half.
It all depends on the industry, type of service, and contracts. A social media app might go as far as to calculate churn by the day. A real estate management company might calculate it by the year. But regardless of the industry, reducing customer churn should always be top of mind.
How to improve it: Spotlight the customer journey touchpoints where most churn happens and redirect resources to improve that pain point.
6. Customer retention rate
Keeping existing customers is 5-25 times less costly than acquiring new ones. That makes customer retention an extremely important customer service metric to track for long-term business success.
Customer retention rate is calculated as the percentage of customers who stay with your company over a specific period. Like customer churn, retention can be measured over various timeframes, such as monthly, quarterly, or annually.
For example, say you had 100 customers at the beginning of a year and 80 of them were still customers at the end. Your retention rate would be 80%.
How to improve it: Deliver an exceptional, personalized customer service performance with every interaction.
Operational Efficiency Metrics
These important customer service metrics measure how efficient your operation is.
7. First Response Time (FRT)
First response time, also known as first reply time, is the time it takes you to respond to a customer inquiry. (This is different from Average Response Time (ART), which is the average time it takes for a customer service agent to respond to messages within an ongoing conversation.)
When you record response time, it’s vital to differentiate between communication channels. This accounts for the different customer expectations seen in each channel. Some customers might think that a 24–to-48-hour email response time is acceptable, while an Instagram Message response time of more than 12 hours is unacceptable.
How to improve it: Optimize your conversational channels with chatbots to immediately respond to a customer inquiry.
8. Average Wait Time (AWT)
Average wait time is the average time customers spend before connecting with a customer service agent.
No one likes waiting on hold, especially your customers who have important questions about your products. When customers wait, they’re 16 times more likely to feel impatient than excited or any other non-negative emotion besides neutrality.
How to improve it: Use VoIP phone service to gather and display vital customer information before answering their call, so your agents spend less time digging.
9. Average Handle Time (AHT)
Average handle time measures call center efficiency via the average amount of time a customer spends on a call from start to finish.
You can also use AHT to evaluate individual agent and team performance. Longer AHT for an individual might spotlight a coaching opportunity, while lower AHT across a customer service team may indicate a training need.
How to improve it: Introduce automations to tackle demanding agent tasks, including following up on customer queries.
10. Average Resolution Time (ART)
Also called time to resolution, average resolution time is the time it takes to resolve a customer request from first contact.
The difference between ART and average handling time is that ART has a confirmed resolution, while AHT typically measures call length, regardless of the result.
With customer experience metrics like first response time and average interactions per ticket, ART can show how quickly your customer service agents solve problems. If ART is high, your product needs more post-sale support, lowering your customer lifetime value as you spend more time dealing with issues.
How to improve it: Use unified communication tools that allow customers to continue conversations across channels. This limits repetition, speeds up problem-solving, and improves this important customer satisfaction metric.
11. First Contact Resolution (FCR) rate
Also known as first call resolution, first contact resolution rate measures the percentage of customers that have their problem solved on the first call. According to our State of Customer Experience Report, 24% of respondents said their company doesn’t track the first contact resolution rate, which creates a blindspot in the customer experience.
FCR can be tricky to measure without a proper CRM system. If you only measure phone numbers, you could dilute your data with calls from the same customer about different issues. If they call from two different phones or reach out through another channel, you’ll record two different customers.
FCR is also a key metric in call centers that captures a more nuanced customer annoyance: disappointment. They’ll start getting impatient if they never reach an agent. However, they may also become disappointed and annoyed if they get through to a customer service agent and don’t solve their problem.
That’s why tracking the customer journey across all channels is crucial by using state-of-the-art tools.
How to improve it: Get the right calls to the right people at the right time by using conversational AI prompts to quickly route calls to the appropriate customer support team.
Customer Service Productivity & Performance Metrics
And, finally, these top customer service metrics are for productivity and performance.
12. Rate of answered calls
The one frustration that enrages customers most is waiting through long, scripted prompts before speaking with an agent. A high percentage of missed calls means you have lots of customers with negative experiences who gave up before they got through to someone.
Measure your answered call rate to watch out for any spikes in customer dissatisfaction. If you use landlines, tracking customer service metrics can be difficult. But with VoIP and Nextiva’s Service CRM, call tracking happens automatically.
Check out this breakdown of the rate of answered and missed calls.
How to improve it: Use self-service resources like FAQs to help you triage high call volumes and reduce less urgent customer calls. Remember, a satisfied customer is one whose call is quickly answered!
13. Issue resolution rate
Your issue resolution rate is the percentage of total issues that your customer service team resolves.
A happy customer is also one whose issue is resolved quickly, so a high resolution rate is always a priority for your customer support team.
Many companies offer self-service customer support for common issues, whether through a Facebook chatbot or a VoIP phone service.
How to improve it: Think about any problems your existing customer has that could be solved with one click. Then, create a CTA for them to click it.
14. Ticket reopens
Ticket reopens measure how often an agent reopens a previously closed support ticket.
This customer support metric gives valuable insight into the complexity of customer issues and how effective your support processes are in resolving them on the first try. Tracking ticket reopen rates allows you to gauge how often customers need further assistance after their issue is thought to be resolved.
A high number of reopens may indicate unresolved issues or insufficient problem-solving in initial interactions. Ticket reopens can also highlight agent training gaps that lead to repeat customer dissatisfaction.
How to improve it: Provide adequate training to help agents handle complex issues. AI-powered contact centers can provide real-time agent assistance and suggestions for how to best resolve a customer’s issue.
15. Self-service usage and success rate
Self-service usage measures the percentage of your customers who take advantage of your self-service options for these support requests.
Each of the following can contribute to your self-service usage rate:
- How much traffic visits your knowledge base or help center
- How many cases open and close without an agent
- Positive feedback on support articles, like ratings or upvotes
- How many customers elect to solve their issue with interactive voice response rather than contacting an agent
How to improve it: Use self-service tools that enable customers to learn independently to decrease the total number of support tickets you receive.
Nextiva: Grow Your Capabilities With Comprehensive Customer Data
Unified communication tools help measure every step of the customer journey across multiple channels.
You can isolate metrics like first response rate and average number of interactions per ticket to visualize the satisfaction of each customer account.
Now that you know how to measure customer service metrics, you can pinpoint where your team needs to improve most.
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Customer Service Metrics FAQs
Get the details on customer support metrics with these frequently asked questions.
The best customer service KPIs (key performance indicator) measure the entire customer experience and map the journey from beginning to end. These include customer satisfaction score, average wait time, first contact resolution, average resolution time, and more.
Service-level metrics are internal metrics companies use to benchmark their customer service goals. These metrics aren’t made publicly available. They are often called SLAs and measure how many customer inquiries happen within a given time frame.
One of the best ways B2B companies can measure customer service ROI is with artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Conversational AI and other customer support tools allow you to analyze interactions and gain key insights like issue resolution rate, purchase frequency, and more.
