Report: 73% of Customers Will Switch to a Competitor After Several Bad Customer Experiences”
Measuring customer service agent performance is crucial for tracking improvement over time. A set of specific metrics collectively paint a comprehensive picture of service performance.
Research by Forrester has found that companies can nearly double their revenue growth by focusing on putting the customer first, while Gartner highlights that customer experience has become the primary battleground for leading organizations.
A Zendesk report reveals that 73% of customers will switch to a competitor after several poor customer experiences, while nearly the same percentage will spend more with a brand that excels in customer experience. Forrester has also confirmed that retaining just 5% more customers can increase profitability by approximately 25%.
Taheed has identified the top 5 metrics for measuring customer service agent performance, based on a report by Qualtrics:
Average Handle Time (AHT): The average time it takes for a company’s customer service team to handle customer issues, including the time spent speaking with the customer, researching their issue, and any necessary follow-up. This metric is critical for improving operational efficiency and increasing customer satisfaction.
Measurement: Calculate AHT by adding up the total duration of all customer interactions and dividing by the number of interactions over a specific period.
Improvement: Improve AHT by providing better training to customer service representatives, simplifying processes, providing better tools and resources, and optimizing your use of technology to automate routine tasks.
First Contact Resolution (FCR): The FCR metric measures the percentage of customer issues resolved during the first contact, without requiring the customer to follow up or contact support multiple times.
Measurement: Calculate FCR by dividing the number of issues resolved on the first call by the total number of customer issues, then multiplying by 100 to get a percentage.
Improvement: Additional tools and strategies, such as building a comprehensive knowledge base, fostering cross-team collaboration, and implementing AI-powered automation solutions, can all help simplify problem resolution.
Average Wait Time: This metric measures the average amount of time customers spend waiting when contacting a customer service representative.
Traditionally associated with phone calls, it can also include wait times on digital tools like live chat.
Measurement: Calculate wait time by averaging the time customers spend waiting over a specific period.
Improvement: To reduce wait times, you’ll need to optimize staffing levels and routing strategies, as well as implement self-service options that can help reduce the overall number of calls by enabling customers to help themselves.
Transfers to Other Departments: This metric tracks how often customer service representatives need to transfer customer issues to other departments or higher-level support. The higher the number, the higher the customer frustration.
Measurement: Calculate this metric by taking the percentage of calls that require transfers or escalations out of the total number of customer interactions, divided by the total number of calls or contact interactions, multiplied by 100.
Improvement: Implementing strong training programs, building a comprehensive knowledge base, and using AI tools that can provide agents with insights and next steps during each support inquiry is essential.
Customer Effort Score (CES): CES measures how easy it was for customers to resolve their issues.
It reflects the amount of effort a customer has to exert to reach a solution, helping to inform support teams about how easy common issues are to fix.
Measurement: CES is traditionally measured through customer surveys to assess how easy it was to resolve their issue on a broad scale.
Improvement: Reducing customer effort means listening to what customers are saying and making changes before there is a risk of damaging the reputation.
