20 Key Metrics to Measure The Success of Your Customer Support Strategy

96% of consumers worldwide find customer service an important factor in their choice of loyalty to a brand. Unless you want to lose these customers, you’ll try all the ways to stay on top of the customer service and support. 

Our previous lessons focused on building a customer support strategy along with workflows and templates that your customer support representatives can use to expedite the support process. But how do you know the strategy you’ve employed is helping you achieve your results or not?

In this final lesson of our masterclass on e-commerce customer support and service, we’ll discuss the importance of tracking the effectiveness of your customer support strategy. We’ll also look at various customer service KPIs and metrics to track.

What is customer support analytics?

Customer support analytics is a process of collecting and analysing different sorts of customer data and metrics to get useful insights that help you evaluate your current strategy and optimise it for better customer experiences. 

You collect data and metrics from every interaction with your customer support team via live chat, support tickets, social media, etc. Let’s look at this in a little more detail. 

Different types of customer support analytics

Here are some different types of customer support analytics to look for:

1. Customer experience analytics

Customer experience analytics helps you understand what “customers experienced” while interacting with your support team. It gives you insights into if their queries were resolved on time or not and what is your customer satisfaction rate. 

These analytics use raw data to interpret useful and meaningful information. Some of the key performance indicators in this analytics are Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) and Total Time to Resolution (TTR).

2. Customer journey analytics 

To build unique experiences and give a better customer experience, you must first understand your customer’s journey. Customer journey is a much broader concept than customer experience. It includes understanding customer order history, product usage, cart abandonments, and return. Conversation with your support opened outbound emails and CSAT ratings are also part of this analytics.

3. Customer retention analytics 

Increasing customer retention by just 5% boosts profits by 25% to 95%. Retaining customers is equally important as acquiring new ones. Your customer service has a direct impact on customer retention. Because when customers receive quick and satisfactory support, it leads to customer satisfaction turning them into brand advocates. 

Customer retention analytics help you look at key metrics which are helping you retain customers and improve those which are not working.

4. Customer engagement analytics 

Customer attrition is lower for e-commerce companies that successfully engage with their customers. Customer engagement is the most important factor in retaining customers. 

At each touchpoint, you must keep your customers engaged. And the best approach to measure customer satisfaction is to gather data and metrics from various customer touchpoints such as social media, customer service channels, etc.

Why is customer support analytics important for e-commerce?

Now that you’ve learned what customer support analytics is and how to use it. It’s more important to know why you’re using it in the first place and what it’s for. Below listed are some benefits of evaluating customer support analytics in your e-commerce business:

1. Understand customers better

Customer support analytics helps you better understand your customers by providing relevant insights about their behaviour. To create unique experiences for your customers, you must first understand them. 

You may create a holistic 360-degree view of each consumer by collecting data from all sources, including live chat, social media, the website, and customer service. Customers’ basic contact information, order history, and information on interactions with business touchpoints encountered along their journey with your brand are all included in this data. 

2. Improve customer experience 

For e-commerce businesses, creating unique experiences for their customers is no longer an option but a necessity. However, to create these experiences, you must first gain a better understanding of your consumers, which you can accomplish through customer support analytics. It’s simple to improve customer experience, increase revenue, and retain customers when you know who your customers are, their pain points, and how they behave.

3. Simplify online shopping journeys

Customers seek support at each stage of their buying journey (pre, during, and post). But to provide the support, you need to know how and when to provide the right assistance, which is only possible when you have clear metrics and insights. 

These metrics and insights help you know their preferred communication channel and understand their pain points. Understanding your customer journey with your brand helps you understand different touch points providing the best results and those that need improvement.

4. Optimise your spends

Customer support analytics help all departments in your company find solutions to some important questions. For example, customer support analytics will help your sales team understand the customer buying process. This information is pertinent for them to reduce the sales cycle. 

Similarly, it will help your product team know which product feature is being used the most. Your support team can use it to reduce their churn rate. These answers will give you a better idea of where your company’s money is best spent. With that, you’ll know where to double down and cut costs.

Metrics to measure the success of your e-commerce customer service strategy

We all know that providing excellent customer service can help organisations reach their full potential. However, many firms still prioritise meeting sales and marketing goals, with little attention paid to customer service. Because most of these companies can’t find a direct correlation between customer support and revenue, this is also why some businesses develop a customer service plan and then forget about it.

However, creating a customer service strategy without measuring the results will serve no purpose. Because then you don’t iterate and improve. As a result, you should track the success of your e-commerce customer care plan to improve.

You should focus on two types of KPIs to measure the effectiveness of your e-commerce customer care strategy: operational and organisational.

Operational metrics are primarily concerned with your customer service representatives. These metrics show how well they function, manage queries, and how successful they are.

Organisational metrics, on the other hand, allow you to enter the thoughts of the customers. This allows you to learn what customers think of your product or service and whether or not they like it.

Below listed are some metrics to measure the success of your e-commerce customer service strategy. Let’s dive in.

1. Operational KPIs

Average Issue Count (Daily/Weekly/Monthly)

Even if you have the best product or service, you will certainly receive a certain number of issues from your customers. As a result, calculating the average daily, weekly, and monthly issues is important.

In what ways does it help you?

• Once you’ve determined the average number of issues every month, you’ll be able to figure out how much staff you’ll need to manage these issues.

• If you keep track of your issue count, you’ll notice that some issues recur regularly. It will be simple to automate them, saving time for your customer service team.

• The analytics will also reveal the most pressing issues in your e-commerce business, allowing you to devote more effort to improve it.

First Response Time 

When a customer sends a message, the first response time is the time it takes for your customer service agents to respond. In other words, it is the amount of time it takes for your customers to receive a response from your customer service representatives.

Do you know? The average live chat support wait time is 46 seconds. Companies that care about their consumers attempt to keep this time as short as possible. Because they know that the longer they keep their customers waiting, the more likely they are to switch to a competitor.

In what ways does it help you?

• Once you’ve determined the first response time, you can set realistic expectations for your customers and communicate to them when they contact you.

• If you see that the average response time is very long, you can eliminate all of the obstacles that cause late responses.

• Keeping your first response time to a bare minimum demonstrates that you care about your customers, which leads to increased customer retention.

Average Resolution Time 

Customers demand not only quick responses but also practical solutions to their problems. As a result, average resolution time helps determine how long it takes your customer service representatives to handle a problem once it has been identified. It is more concerned with resolving the problem than with the response time.

If your First Response Time is swift, but you don’t give a timely resolution, the customer experience will suffer. Low ART significantly impacts total customer satisfaction and leads to greater NPS (Net Promoter Score) scores.

Note: Sometimes, customer service representatives might tag tickets as resolved without really resolving them to keep their average resolution time down. Make sure this does not happen; otherwise, your customer turnover rate will skyrocket.

In what ways does it help you?

• If you see that your average resolution time is long, speak with your support team to figure out what’s causing it. Is there a lack of sufficient training or resources for support personnel to deliver timely resolution?

• Improving the time it takes to resolve a problem might help you increase customer satisfaction.

Number of Interactions per Case

This metric helps analyse the number of interactions that occur between your customer service representatives and consumers. This demonstrates your team’s efficiency in resolving queries with minimal interactions.

The ideal number of interactions per ticket should be 0 because everyone wants to deal with customer issues before they become a problem. But sometimes, your customer service representatives might have to interact with customers to better understand their problems.

If the number of interactions is high, it suggests your support team isn’t asking the correct questions, or the problem isn’t directed to the right person.

In what ways does it help you?

• By calculating the number of interactions, you’ll be able to quickly resolve customer issues.

• This will help determine whether or not your customer service agents require more training. As a result, you can help them through live chat scripts or customer surveys.

• You can find some obvious questions that your support reps ask and inform them not to ask them again. This will save them time and allow them to respond quickly.

Issue Resolution Rate 

Your customer service representatives receive several inquiries. However, not all of them are resolved. As a result, Issue Resolution Rate can help you figure out what percentage of total queries your team was able to resolve.

The rise in issue resolution rate indicates the efficiency of your customer support team.

In what ways does it help you?

Ideally, the issue resolution rate should be 100 percent, as there should be no questions unanswered. However, there are still chances of any or all queries remaining unanswered. With this statistic, you can easily keep track of them and find a solution. 

Preferred communication channel 

For your e-commerce store, you should provide multiple communication channels such as Live Chat, Social Media, Email, Phone, etc. But it’s equally important to understand what channels your customers prefer the most. However, finding the customer channel most preferred by your customers is hard. So, this metric provides a bigger picture and gives you a better idea about the communication channel being used by most customers.

In what ways does it help you?

• Once you find the most preferred communication channel for your customers, you can optimise that channel for a better experience.

• After receiving a detailed report, it will be simple to determine how many support representatives are required for each channel, so your customers never go unanswered.

Rate of Answered Calls

This metric compares the number of calls answered to the number of calls received by your customer service representatives. If you have a high rate of answered calls, it shows your team is capable of properly handling customer inquiries. The decreasing call volume, on the other hand, results in a negative customer experience and customer attrition.

When customers call your customer service representatives, they’re seeking a quick response. However, failing to respond to their questions can frustrate them and cause them to tell others about it.

In what ways does it help you?

This number is a straightforward indicator of how quickly your customer service representatives answer the call and resolve customer issues. If the number of calls answered is low, it may be time to hire more executives to deal with the high volume of calls.

Average Handle Time 

Average Handle Time is how much time your consumers spend on a call with your ecommerce store’s support agent. It’s another useful statistic for assessing your team’s efficiency.

The time a customer spends in a line or before the call is answered is not included in the Average Handle Time. Many e-commerce businesses prefer to keep their average handle time low so that customers don’t have to wait long. However, this does not imply that your customer service representatives are compromising on the quality of service.

In what ways does it help you?

• This metric will help find the proper balance between speed and quality of service.

• You may also teach your representatives to provide exceptional service while reducing average handle time.

Self-Service Usage 

With the advancement of technology, many e-commerce businesses are using different communication channels. However, customers who cannot speak with customer service representatives may seek out self-service options. It’s here that helpdesk automation comes in.

If you come across frequently asked issues when measuring the average issue count, you can set up a helpdesk service on your e-commerce business to assist customers with self-service.

This metric allows you to track how well your helpdesk or self-service kiosks are performing. Consider this a successful strategy if more customers use a self-service option over other communication channels.

In what ways does it help you?

You can allocate your customer support staff to handle more complex issues rather than answering repetitive questions by tracking the rate of self-service usage on your e-commerce store.

Backlog

Backlog refers to the accumulation of customer support requests or tickets on your e-commerce store over time. Naturally, you should attempt to maintain this number as low as possible.

There are various reasons for the backlog. Perhaps your customer service representatives are underperforming, or the number of inquiries is high.

This metric aids in determining your backlog rate. If you see that the number is very high, it may be time to devise a new strategy.

In what ways does it help you?

• Backlog is a critical statistic for assessing the success of your customer service team and their ability to resolve issues.

• If you notice that your backlog is increasing, you might consider recruiting extra customer service representatives.

2. Organisational KPIs

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

For your e-commerce business, word of mouth is an important indicator of how effective your customer service is. The Net Promoter Score, or NPS, is a number that determines how likely your consumers are to suggest your e-commerce firm to their friends and family.

You can simply ask customers to rate you on a scale of 0-10 if they’ve to refer your services to others. To make it more effective, you can add a quick question asking customers the reason for their answer. This will help you dig deeper and find the factors responsible for their decision.

In what ways does it help you?

• Measuring NPS will help you understand how effective customers find your current support strategy.

• If your NPS is low, you can start looking for reasons resulting in the same based on other metrics or investigating your product itself.

Customer Satisfaction Rate (CST)

Customer satisfaction rate, or CST, is another useful metric for evaluating customer service effectiveness. This metric, however, does not represent the full picture, and you may need to look for additional metrics to make sense of it.

It’s possible, for example, that your CST is high, but your NPS is low. You’ll have to dig a little deeper to find out the actual reason.

CST can be calculated in many ways, including surveys and feedback ratings.

In what ways does it help you?

• Measuring customer satisfaction rate helps determine consumer loyalty for your e-commerce business.

• Customer satisfaction surveys can tell a lot about your customers, including what they like and dislike about your product or service. This will help you in improving.

Frequency of Up-Sells and Cross-Sells 

Up-Selling and Cross-Selling are no longer only limited to your sales department. Your customer support team also plays an important role here.

Up-selling is when you convince customers to purchase the upgraded version of the product or service. For example: A customer comes to your e-commerce site seeking the most basic plan, but you persuade them to upgrade because it allows them to do more.

Cross-selling is when you convince customers to purchase a competing product or service to the existing product/service.

In what ways does it help you?

The frequency of Up-Sells and Cross-Sells can help you determine if your customer service team is doing a good job of convincing customers to spend more money on your products.

Customer Experience Rating 

61% of consumers will pay at least 5% more if they know they’ll get a good customer experience. Today offering a great customer experience is not an option but necessary for your e-commerce to grow. Every interaction your customers have with your e-commerce firm contributes to this experience. It could be your website, customer service, helpdesk, social media, etc.

 Customer satisfaction can be measured using a combination of transactional surveys and in-person feedback.

In what ways does it help you?

• Today, customers expect great experiences, and metric helps understand if the current customer support strategy can provide those experiences or not.

• Delivering exceptional customer experiences leads to increased customer loyalty and retention.

Customer Retention Rate

Acquiring a new customer can cost five times more than retaining an existing customer.

Also, your existing customers are more likely to buy new products or services instead of new ones.

The customer retention rate tells you about your current retention rate and whether you should stick with the approach or try to enhance it.

In what ways does it help you?

Customer retention is driven by two factors: customer experience and support. If you have a low retention rate, one of the two options is not performing. However, if your customer satisfaction rate is poor, your support team is likely underperforming. You’ll have to push them to provide your customers with a one-of-a-kind experience.

Customer Effort Score (CES)

Apart from providing a quality product or service, it’s important to make it easy for people to use your product or service. The customer effort score allows you to track how much effort your consumers have to put in to use your product or service. You can follow up with customers a few days after purchase to know their experience with the product or service. You can ask them to rate their efforts on a scale of 1 to 10.

This metric aims to determine whether or not using your product or service is easy because it will impact your customer retention and revenue.

In what ways does it help you?

If using your product is difficult, your customers may get frustrated. They may share their experience with others affecting your reputation. If you notice that your customers are exerting a lot of effort to use your product, you might wish to break down the steps involved.

Customer Churn 

Every e-commerce company should make reducing churn a top priority. Because recruiting new customers is more expensive than keeping existing ones. Customer churn is a percentage of customers who have stopped purchasing from your online store.

There is no exact reason for the increase in customer churn, but metrics like customer engagement and retention may help you find out.

In what ways does it help you?

Customer churn measurement gives you a better understanding of what makes customers abandon your service or product. You can focus on enhancing those parts of your e-commerce business once you’ve found an answer.

Repurchase Rate 

89% of consumers are more likely to make another purchase after a positive customer service experience. This is the most underrated yet important metric that you should measure for your e-commerce business. The repurchase rate tells you how many customers are willing to do business with you again. Sure, there are a variety of variables that drive customers to buy from you again, but a positive customer experience is undoubtedly the most important one.

In what ways does it help you?

 Once you track your repurchase rate, you can analyse if the rate of purchase is high or not. If the repurchase rate is less, it means you need to work on your customer support strategy and make it top-notch.

Return Rate 

The return rate is an important e-commerce metric that can help you determine how often buyers return their online orders. It’s a key indicator for e-commerce companies because it affects customer satisfaction and revenue.

Although achieving a 0% return rate is unrealistic, e-commerce enterprises should strive to keep this percentage as low as possible.

However, in the e-commerce industry, the average return rate is 18.1 percent. Lowering your return rate can give you a competitive edge if your online business falls within that range.

If your return rate is higher, you must take proactive measures to limit and manage returns.

Your customer support also plays a key impact in lowering return rates. When your customer service representatives respond to all product questions, customers are less likely to become frustrated and return products because they don’t understand how they work.

In what ways does it help you?

If you find that your current return rate is high, educate your customer service team about your products to suggest the best product for the consumer. Hold regular team meetings to introduce new products and discuss customer feedback on existing ones.

Order Cancellation Rate 

The order cancellation rate is the percentage of items ordered that the customer ultimately cancelled. You can estimate your order cancellation rate for a specific period. After purchasing a product or service on your online site, receiving poor customer service can lead to order cancellation. You won’t be able to totally prevent order cancellation, but you can take steps to limit it.

In what ways does it help you?

• Knowing the order cancellation rate might help you determine whether the rate is acceptable or whether you need to devise a good strategy to lower it.

• You can encourage your customer service representatives to give consumers unique experiences and assist them in finding solutions to their questions after they’ve made a purchase.

Conclusion 

Only measuring the key metrics for your customer support strategy won’t lead to satisfied customers. You must evaluate the essential metrics and create a customer service experience that helps in your company’s growth.

Set KPIs based on each customer service metric to help your customer service representatives make the best decisions. For your progress, rely on a helpdesk automation solution. 

LimeChat, a helpdesk automation solution, can help you stay ahead of customer expectations. Not only does it provide Level 3 AI for tailored and human-level interactions, but it also consolidates all of your customer service channels into one dashboard. It’s much easier to track the success of your customer support strategy with LimeChat because of an easy-to-understand analytics report.

Ready to take your customer support to the next level? Book a free demo today!

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This post is the seventh and last lesson in our Masterclass series on Ecommerce Customer Support & Service, where we deep dive into the current expectations and strategies some of the best D2C brands use and how to execute them in simple, actionable ways.