Customer support data and metrics allow businesses to monitor their customer service efforts in an on-demand and multi-platform world. Tracking standard metrics for customer support enables a company to allocate adequate resources, understand which mediums customers use, and identify recurring problems and bottlenecks in the customer support process.
Also, customer support data and metrics can help businesses measure customer satisfaction. This includes reports calculating how long it takes to resolve customer support tickets and direct feedback from customer polls and surveys.
Further, improving your customer support team’s efficiency can reduce friction for your customers, so they leave feeling happy with their experience. And the first step toward improved efficiency is monitoring customer support data that give you a vivid picture of your customer support team’s performance and the overall customer experiences.
The Importance of Tracking Customers
82% of customers have stopped doing business with a brand because of poor customer support. When you think of poor customer support experiences, you may think of damaged or incorrect orders, unhelpful or rude agents, or slow response times. However, not being up-to-date with a customer’s goals and needs can cause an equally terrible customer experience that could cost you business.
Thus, setting and monitoring your customers’ needs and goals is a vital part of the customer support you deliver and a crucial factor in customer satisfaction. By making the needs and goals of your customers a top priority, you can provide exceptional customer service and build better and lasting relationships with your customer base.
First, interview your customers to determine their long- and short-term goals. Next, make a list of those goals, starting with the most important ones, and develop a strategy for accomplishing each of them. After a clear vision of your customers’ needs and goals and a plan to achieve them, you must communicate frequently and monitor the progress you’re making.
Here are some helpful tips that can help you better support your customer’s needs and goals:
- Be available when needed and respond to their concerns and questions as quickly as possible Celebrate their success, whether small or large. And point out essential milestones that can help them achieve their goals.
- Acknowledge problems or setbacks that keep recurring. Sometimes, setbacks could signify that you don’t understand your customer’s goals and needs as you thought you did. Ask follow-up questions and listen. Repeat back what the customer said and make sure you interpret everything correctly. Check-in with your customers frequently to see how things are going. And ask tough questions that can help you strengthen your relationship, such as:
- What can I do better to help you achieve your goals?
- What do you think about my level of communion or responsiveness?
Showing your customers that their goals and needs are a top priority is crucial, but the actual follow-through requires you to track the progress towards reaching those goals.
Retaining existing customers is crucial in the success of any business today, as more and more companies focus on keeping their existing customers to drive growth and revenue. Thus, having the right tools and knowledge for monitoring customers’ goals and needs is critical in maintaining positive and long-lasting relationships with existing customers.
Customer Demographics
Customer demographics are metrics and data related to an individual’s unique identifiers and identities. This data may include:
- Basic information includes age, gender, education, and marital status.
- Location, including zip code and address.
- Purchase intent.
- Lifestyle information.
- Buyer type, such as online shopping or deal seeker.
Customers can submit their demographics via a contact form when they sign up on your website or collect this data through surveys.
Essentially, customer demographics help identify segments within an overall group of customers or potential customers. In addition, knowing a specific target audience’s unique attributes and interests can help you understand previously unseen market opportunities. For instance, knowing the average household income of a particular customer segment can inform your decisions about pricing strategies to ensure the price isn’t a barrier to prospective buyers.
Also, segmenting your customers based on their demographics allows you to personalize their customer support experiences, so they feel understood and appreciated, resulting in increased customer satisfaction and engagement. Also, by collecting and tracking customer demographics, you can treat your customers differently based on their goals and needs, which is one of the most effective ways to build meaningful and lasting relationships that foster customer loyalty and growth.
Using Numbers to Assess Performance
Jason Whitehead notes, “What is the point of having data and metrics if you don’t use them to make better decisions and take action?”
78% of consumers have backed out of a purchase because of a poor customer experience. So, unless you want to lose about 78% of your business, you must track your customer support performance. However, when considering how to monitor your customer support performance, you’ll realize that there are many factors that you could assess. Also, it might be clear that focusing on one area at a time may cause major blind spots.
For instance, how many customer support tickets can your team handle each day? Of course, the number could be higher, but if you’re leaving thousands of clients unsatisfied after every interaction, that’s not a sign of success. Thus, you must find out within that volume how satisfied every customer is with the help they’re receiving.
To do that, you must track customer support success from a quantitative operational point of view. Also, you must track qualitative and quantitative customer experience metrics. So, it’s crucial to assess the efficiency and success of your workflows and software solutions, track cost-effectiveness, and track the time savings and other intangible benefits for your company. And it’s also crucial to send out customer satisfaction surveys to gather immediate feedback on your performance.
And as you measure customer service performance, don’t forget that the best way is to adopt a holistic approach.
Here are five metrics that can help you monitor your customer support performance:
- Average Response Time. Customers are happiest when their issues are resolved promptly. Tracking this metric can help you determine how your performance stacks up. To determine your average response time, calculate the sum of all support tickets resolution durations and then divide that number by the total number of cases resolved.
- Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT). This metric assesses your customers’ feelings immediately after an interaction with your customer support agents. You can capture your customer’s satisfaction level on a scale of one to five by sending them a Likert survey question.
- Net Promoter Score (NPS). This is a popular metric that can help you track your customer support team’s effectiveness and determine customer satisfaction. Just like CSAT, you can collect customer feedback using this type of survey question: “How likely are you to refer our business to a friend?” Again, high responses signify higher satisfaction levels with your brand and the customer experience.
- First Response Time. Consumers expect immediate help, and you track how quickly they’re receiving support by calculating your first response time. Here, you just need to calculate the average time between the moment a client reaches out to your company and how long it takes for a customer support rep to respond.
- Resolution Rate. To determine your overall resolution rate, subtract the number of unresolved customer support inquiries from the total number of customer inquiries, then divide that number by the number of queries. The fewer unresolved inquiries, the more successful your customer support team has been. You can use this metric to determine the first contact resolution (FSR) rate, which determines just the inquiries resolved during the first interaction.
Bringing it Home
To fully understand your customers–their goals, needs, and wants, what motivates them to do business with your brand–you must look at the bigger picture. Tracking customer behaviors across customer support, sales, and marketing funnels enable you to serve them better, improve customer satisfaction, and build a pool of raving fans.
Zight (formerly CloudApp) is an all-in-one visual communication software that you can use to record and embed screen recordings, screencasts, HD video, marked-up images, screenshots, and GIFs throughout your business workflows. This app can also help you improve your customer support resolution times. For instance, the team at Social Tables cuts down their customer support response by 7 minutes by using Zight (formerly CloudApp). Social Tables customer support team also saves at least 3 hours per week by leveraging the app.