How to improve your customer service KPIs

Customer Service KPIs indicate the status of your company’s customer service processes. By measuring and observing these KPIs, you may determine where you’re doing great and where you have room to improve the service you provide.

Of course, sometimes it might not be very obvious how to improve a certain indicator. In this blog post, I will introduce four of my favourite Customer Service KPIs.

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

One of the most apparent customer service KPIs is the Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), which indicates whether your customers are happy with the outcome of their case resolution. This can be measured by sending a short CSAT survey to the customer when their case is closed.

If the CSAT scores seem low, analyse especially the open feedback to find out why your customers are not happy with the service. Perhaps the customer has waited for the initial response for ages, the customer has reached out multiple times in order to get the issue resolved, or their case has been open for a long time, keeping the customer waiting. Next, I’ll discuss these indicators in more detail.

First Response Time (FRT)

First Response Time (FRT) is the time that it takes for an agent to respond to a case initially. When your customers receive a very prompt response, they are likely to be more satisfied with the service.

If your FRT is high, analyse your case queues. Are they really overcrowded with cases? If the answer is yes, you could consider enabling skill-based routing. Skill-based routing helps to route the case to the right agent with the correct skillset and availability to handle the case faster.

If you are already using skill-based routing, you could try to reduce the number of cases arriving at your customer service by giving the customers a chance to help themselves first. This can be FAQ knowledge articles displayed in your customer community before the case is submitted or a forum where your customers can discuss together and help each other. Also, you might consider providing a chatbot that could help reduce the number of cases in the queue.

First Contact Resolution (FCR)

First Contact Resolution (FCR) is a percentage of cases that are resolved on the customer’s first contact with the customer service.

If the FCR rate drops, you might need to take a look at the agents’ skill sets. Maybe you have released a new product or service, and the agents are not yet sure how to respond to customer enquiries? In this case, train your agents and provide them with additional resources to help serve customers better. For instance, you can implement knowledge articles to provide easy access to information and encourage knowledge sharing between colleagues.

If you are using Salesforce CRM, take advantage of its customer 360 view. With a complete view of the customer’s order history or previous cases that they’ve submitted, the agents can better respond to the customer’s new enquiries. Also, if you are using Salesforce Chat as one of the service channels, you might also consider using its omnichannel supervisor feature, which allows the customer service manager to assist the service agent with more difficult cases.

Average Handle Time (AHT)

Average Handle Time (AHT) is the time that it takes for the service agent to close the case. Similarly to FCR, the Average Handle Time can be improved by providing additional training and access to useful information for the agents.

But if the agents are already well equipped with needed skills and knowledge, perhaps take a glance at your customer service console. Ensure that it has been well configured so that all the necessary information is quickly available with just one glance.

Or do the service agents need to do a lot of manual work in order to get the case closed? If the answer is yes, consider implementing Salesforce Macros to reduce the same click patterns that the agents need to do regularly. Macros can significantly speed up the case handling process as well as provide consistency within the CRM system, as all the similar types of cases are handled and closed in a similar manner.

By improving the above-mentioned KPIs, you will most likely also improve your CSAT scores and other customer service KPI’s, resulting in better performing customer service operations. But more importantly, as customer service is all about people, you will have happier customers and service agents as well.