101 customer service stats you need to know

Customer expectations are always evolving. It’s up to businesses and brands to keep a finger on the pulse of their respective markets and meet (or better yet, exceed) expectations by delivering exceptional customer service. And today’s customers contact the brands they do business with on a range of channels, so it’s essential for brands to deliver great customer service across every touchpoint.

With technology evolving, monitoring key customer service metrics and comparing your company’s performance against internal benchmarks and the industry as a whole is more crucial than ever before.

According to Hiver, there are two types of customer service metrics that can provide insights into the quality of your organization’s customer service:

Operational customer service metrics: These metrics relate to the services your call center agents or customer service representatives provide. Operational customer service metrics include metrics such as support tickets received, support tickets resolved, first-call resolution (FCR), average handle time, and similar metrics.

Organizational customer service metrics. These metrics provide insight into how your customers feel about your business and how they perceive your company’s customer service. Organizational customer service metrics include metrics such as customer churn, customer satisfaction (CSAT), customer effort score (CES), and similar metrics.

In this post, we’ve rounded up a collection of customer service statistics that illustrate the importance of providing exceptional customer service to boost customer satisfaction, customer retention, and ultimately company revenue. Then, we’ll take a look at the various operational customer service metrics and organizational customer service metrics you should be tracking to ensure that you’re delivering top-notch customer service and exceeding customer expectations.

Customer service stats on retention & customer churn

1. 9 out of 10 consumers say customer service is important when choosing brands. According to Microsoft Dynamics 365’s 2020 Global State of Customer Service report, 90% of survey respondents said that customer service plays an important role in their choice of brands as well as whether they remain loyal to the brands they conduct business with. Twitter: @Microsoft

2. It costs 5 times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing customer. According to Invesp, despite the fact that new customer acquisition costs 5 times as much as customer retention, 44% of companies place more emphasis on customer acquisition than retention, while 18% of companies place a greater focus on customer retention. Twitter: @Invesp

3. 9 out of 10 consumers say a company’s actions during crises influence their perception of the company’s trustworthiness. According to Salesforce Research, 90% of consumers surveyed said that how a company acts during a crisis (such as the COVID-19 pandemic) reveals its trustworthiness. Twitter: @salesforce

4. More than 9 out of 10 consumers are more likely to purchase from a business again following a positive customer service experience. Salesforce Research found that 91% of consumers surveyed are more likely to make a repeat purchase following a positive customer service experience with a company. Twitter: @salesforce

5. Customers who rate a company’s customer experience as “good” are more likely to recommend the brand. According to Qualtrics XM Institute, consumers who rate a brand’s customer experience “good” are 38% more likely to recommend the brand to others compared to consumers who rate a brand’s customer experience as “poor.” Overall, 94% of consumers who rated a company’s CX as “very good” are very likely to recommend the company, while 82% of those who rated a company’s CX as “good” are very likely recommend the company. Twitter: @XM_Institute

6. Consumers who have an excellent customer experience are more likely to forgive a single bad experience. The Qualtrics XM Institute found that 77% of consumers who rated a company’s CX “very good” are very likely to forgive a single bad experience, compared to 58% of those who rated a company’s CX “good.” Twitter: @XM_Institute

7. A majority of customers said they’ve stopped doing business with a company following a poor customer service experience. According to HubSpot, 80% of survey respondents reported that they’ve stopped doing business with a company as a result of a negative customer service experience. Twitter: @HubSpot

8. Customers are likely to share positive experiences. A survey conducted by HubSpot found that 77% of consumers surveyed shared positive experiences with their friends, on review sites, or on social media within the past year. Twitter: @HubSpot

9. About half of consumers would switch to a different brand after just one negative customer service experience. According to a survey conducted by Zendesk, about 50% of respondents said they’d switch brands following a single negative customer service experience, while 80% said they’d switch brands following more than one poor customer service experiences. Twitter: @Zendesk

10. Your customers may back out of making a purchase with your business due to poor customer service. According to Glance, a survey conducted by American Express found that 78% of customers have backed out of a purchase they intended to make due to poor customer service. Twitter: @GlanceNetworks

11. For many consumers, the most important aspect of customer service is reaching a knowledgeable representative. According to Statista, 39% of survey respondents in the U.S. and 31% of respondents globally stated that reaching a knowledgeable customer support representative is the most important aspect of a good customer service experience. Twitter: @StatistaCharts

12. A slight increase in customer retention can result in a significant increase in profits. According to Bain & Company, increasing customer retention by just 5% can increase profits by 25% to 95%. Twitter: @BainAlerts

13. Two-thirds of customers expect brands to understand their needs. Salesforce found that 66% of consumers expect the brands they do business with to understand their unique needs and expectations. Twitter: @salesforce

14. Most consumers are influenced by online customer service reviews when researching products and services. According to Qualtrics, 93% of consumers say they’re influenced by online reviews when making purchasing decisions, and 91% of consumers between the ages of 18 and 34 trust online reviews as much as they trust personal recommendations from friends and family. Twitter: @Qualtrics

15. U.S. consumers tell an average of 9 people about a positive customer service experience. According to Glance, customers in the U.S. typically share positive customer service experiences with 9 other people, while they tell an average of 16 people about a poor customer service experience. Reports of bad customer service experiences reach nearly twice as many people as reports of positive customer service experiences. Twitter: @glancenetworks

16. More than 9 out of 10 customers will simply leave without warning following a poor customer service experience. According to FinancesOnline, 91% of consumers react to a negative customer service experience by leaving without warning. 47% switch brands, and 40% tell others not to support the business. Twitter: @Financesonline

17. Most consumers value having their issues resolved efficiently. According to KPMG, 90% of consumers report that issue resolution is their most important customer service issue. Twitter: @KPMG

18. Brand integrity and personalization are the strongest drivers of advocacy. KPMG found that integrity is the strongest driver of advocacy in 18 of the 27 markets the company evaluated, with personalization being the strongest driver of advocacy in 8 of 27 markets. Twitter: @KPMG

19. It’s not just the customer service your customers receive directly; your customer service reputation matters too. Hiver found that two-thirds of consumers (66%) say that a company’s customer service reputation is a critical factor when making purchase decisions. Twitter: @hiverhq

20. Asking for and accepting customer feedback impacts customers’ perceptions of your brand. According to Microsoft, 77% of customers said that they have a more positive view of companies that not only ask for their feedback, but also accept and act on it. Twitter: @Microsoft

21. Many unhappy customers who have a satisfactory resolution to their issue are willing to give the company another chance. According to Glance, 70% of previously unhappy customers who have an issue resolved in their favor said they’d be willing to come back to the company. Twitter: @GlanceNetworks

22. Customers who have received excellent customer service from a brand are willing to forgive the company for a mistake. According to Salesforce, 78% of consumers say they’d forgive a company for a mistake if they’ve received exceptional customer service in the past. Twitter: @salesforce

23. First contact resolution declined from 2019 to 2020. According to The Northridge Group, “During COVID-19, many customers increased their use of customer service channels to contact companies about service issues. At the same time, first contact resolution declined from 53% to 42%, increasing effort for customers and costs for businesses.” Twitter: @NorthridgeGroup

24. The average U.S. company loses 20% to 40% of its customers each year. According to Jill Griffin in an excerpt from her book, Customer Loyalty, published by Altfeld, Inc., “The average American company loses 20-40% of its customers each year. Recognizing this pattern and its severe impact on corporate competitiveness and profitability, a business must move away from the long accepted market share strategy to a radically different, more long term approach to business: building customer loyalty.” Twitter: @jaltfeld

Customer loyalty stats

25. Consumers are loyal to particular retailers as well as to product-brands. According to Fundera, 84% of U.S. adults are loyal to retailers, while 82% say they’re loyal to product-brands. Twitter: @fundera

26. Nearly 60% of consumers say customer service has a significant impact on their loyalty to a brand. According to Zendesk, 57% of consumers surveyed said that excellent customer service makes them feel more loyal to a brand, second only to price (62% of consumers surveyed). Twitter: @Zendesk

27. More than half of consumers go out of their way to make purchases from their preferred brands. In Zendesk’s survey, 52% of customers reported that they’ve gone out of their way to buy from their favorite brands. Twitter: @Zendesk

28. A positive customer experience fosters customer loyalty, resulting in a higher customer lifetime value. According to Bain & Company, a superior experience that earns stronger customer loyalty turns customers into promoters who have a lifetime value 6 to 14 times higher than that of detractors. Twitter: @BainAlerts

29. When it comes to driving customer loyalty, personalization and integrity are the biggest drivers. Personalization is the largest driver of customer loyalty in 19 of the 27 markets KPMG evaluated, with integrity leading in 6 of 27 markets when it comes to driving loyalty. Twitter: @KPMG

30. Nearly half of consumers expect specialized treatment for being good, loyal customers. Accenture found that 48% of customers expect brands to provide them with specialized treatment in exchange for their business and loyalty. Twitter: @Accenture

31. Most consumers grow to love their preferred brands over time, making the customer service experience integral in earning customer loyalty. According to InMoment, 80% of shoppers say they grow to love brands over time, a culmination of their experience making purchases, product quality, customer service, and reviews and recommendations from others. Twitter: @WeAreInMoment

32. More than 2 out of 5 consumers spend more with brands they’re loyal to. Fundera found that 43% of customers spend more with the brands that have earned their loyalty. Twitter: @fundera

33. Most consumers report that they’re loyal to specific brands. According to Zendesk, 74% of consumers say they’re loyal to a particular brand or company. Twitter: @Zendesk

34. Three-fourths of loyal customers will recommend their favorite brands to friends and family. InMoment found that 75% of loyal customers said they’d recommend a brand to their friends and family members. Twitter: @WeAreInMoment

35. Customers who feel high levels of trust and loyalty are more likely to share ratings and detailed comments about their positive experiences. InMoment found that “Customers who feel high levels of trust and loyalty are significantly more likely to share ratings (in the 90 percent range for both) and detailed commentary (both exceeded 70 percent) about their experiences.  A good number (30%) are also willing to hand over personal data (name, age, location, etc.), and 41% are up for sharing their purchase data (how much, what, where) with trusted brands.” Twitter: @WeAreInMoment

36. Addressing negative reviews is critical for maintaining customer loyalty. Fundera reports that 57% of customers say they’d no longer be loyal to a company that failed to address their negative review. Twitter: @fundera

37. More than half of consumers are loyal to 1 to 5 brands. Yotpo found that 54.7% of consumers reported that they’re loyal to between 1 and 5 brands in 2020, a decrease from 59.7% in 2019. 31.1% of consumers say they’re loyal to 6 to 10 brands, while 8% are loyal to 11 to 20 brands and 2.7% are loyal to no brands. A small percentage of consumers (3.6%) are loyal to 20 or more brands. Twitter: @Yotpo

38. Many customers are more willing to recommend a brand to their family and friends if the company offers a loyalty program. Grom reports that 72% of consumers say they’re more eager to recommend brands that have interesting loyalty programs.

39. While low customer effort reduces costs and drives brand loyalty, most businesses aren’t measuring customer effort. According to The Northridge Group, just 29% of companies were measuring customer effort in 2020, a slight increase from 25% in 2019. Twitter: @NorthridgeGroup

40. Companies that offer exceptional customer experiences benefit from increased loyalty and higher revenues. According to PwC, companies that provide excellent customer experiences can take advantage of up to a 16% price premium on products and services while boosting customer loyalty at the same time. Twitter: @PwC

Customer service channel stats

41. Despite the rise of alternative customer service channels, about two-thirds of consumers still pick up the phone when reaching out to customer service teams. According to Zendesk, 66% of consumers use the phone to resolve issues with a company, making it the most used customer service channel across age demographics. The second most-used customer service channel is email, with 49% of consumers reporting using email to resolve issues with a company. Twitter: @Zendesk

42. Consumers have a favorable view of brands that contact them with proactive customer service notifications. Microsoft Dynamics 365 reports that 67% of survey respondents globally say that they have a more favorable view of companies that deliver proactive customer service notifications, such as notifications of upcoming service outages. Twitter: @Microsoft

43. One-third of customers expect businesses to respond to customer service emails within one hour. A survey conducted by Toister Solutions found that one-third of customers expect a response to a customer service email within an hour or less. Twitter: @toister

44. Despite consumers’ expected response time, it takes companies an average of 12 hours to respond to customer service emails. SuperOffice surveyed 1,000 companies and found that the average response time to customer service requests is 12 hours and 10 minutes. Twitter: @SuperOfficeAS

45. The average first response time for live chat is under one minute. According to LiveChat.com, the average first response time for live chat customer service messages is just 47 seconds. Twitter: @LiveChat

46. The longer customers have to wait for a live chat response, the less likely they are to be satisfied. LiveChat.com found that the percent of satisfied customers decreased slightly as live chat wait times increased, with 83.4% of customers satisfied after waiting between 0 and 30 seconds for a response, and 71.4% satisfied after waiting for 10 minutes or more. Twitter: @LiveChat

47. Even more startling is a recent finding that many companies ignore customer service emails entirely. Research conducted by SuperOffice found that 62% of companies simply don’t respond to customer service emails at all. Twitter: @SuperOfficeAS

48. More than 2 out of 5 consumers prefer contacting customer service using voice channels. According to a 2020 survey conducted by Statista, 43% of consumers said they prefer to interact with customer servic using voice channels, compared to 34% in 2019. Twitter: @StatistaCharts

49. Customers are frustrated by having to wait on hold and by having to repeat the same information to multiple customer service agents. According to HubSpot, 33% of consumers say waiting on hold is the most frustrating aspect of getting customer service help, and another 33% cite having to repeat information to different support representatives as the most frustrating aspect. Twitter: @HubSpot

50. Not being able to reach a live agent is another key frustration faced by consumers. According to PC Executive Services, 30% of customers say that not being able to reach a live agent is the most frustrating aspect of getting customer service help. Twitter: @PCExecServices

51. Most U.S. consumers prefer human customer service interactions over automated systems. According to PwC, 71% of consumers in the U.S. say they prefer to interact with humans when getting customer service than with chatbots or other automated processes. Twitter: @PwC

52. About half of customer calls are unresolved or require escalation. According to IBM, 50% of customer service calls remain unresolved or require escalation, and 52% of customers hang up on customer service calls before their issue is resolved. Twitter: @IBM

53. Customers often have to call customer service multiple times to get an issue resolved. According to Infolink, 86% of customer service calls aren’t resolved on the first contact, meaning customers must call repeatedly about the same problem to get a resolution. Twitter: @InfolinkTeam

54. Customers are increasingly frustrated by brands that are unresponsive on social media and email. According to Drift, there was a 5.7x increase in frustrations with unresponsive brands on social media and email between 2019 and 2020. Twitter: @Drift

55. Shifting to social media customer service can significantly reduce the cost per contact. According to McKinsey, “on average, handling an inbound telephone call typically costs a company $6 to $8; an interaction using social media, less than $1,” a decrease of 83%. Twitter: @McKinsey

56. Nearly half of Generation Z consumers prefer email for customer support. According to Hiver, 48% of Gen Z consumers say email is their preferred customer support channel, making it the most-used customer support communication medium. Twitter: @hiverhq

57. Nearly one-quarter of consumers say that not having to explain their issue multiple times makes for a good customer service experience. Hiver found that 23% of consumers “consider it a good customer experience when they don’t have to explain their problems multiple times.” Twitter: @hiverhq

58. Social media responsiveness improves millennials’ perception of brands. Microsoft found that 74% of millennials report feeling more positive about brands that are responsive on social media. Twitter: @Microsoft

59. Three-fourths of customers expect to have a consistent experience with a brand regardless of what channel they engage on. Salesforce found that 75% of consumers expect consistent experiences across channels such as social media, mobile, online, and in-person. Twitter: @salesforce

60. Most loyalty program members want to interact with brands through a variety of channels. According to Bond, “95% of members want to engage with brands through a mix of new, emerging, and growing tech, including augmented reality, virtual reality, card-on-file, and more.” What’s more, members who engage with these technologies report higher levels of satisfaction with their member experience. Twitter: @createabond

61. More than 2 out of 5 consumers expect companies to have a real-time customer support line. In fact, 43% of consumers say they’d stop using a brand if the company didn’t offer a real-time customer support line, according to Fundera. Twitter: @fundera

62. Consumers have to work too hard to get resolutions to their issues. According to The Northridge Group, 73% of consumers experience long wait times to reach a live customer service agent, and 69% have difficulty finding answers to their questions on companies’ websites. Six out of 10 consumers (60%) have to repeat information to multiple customer service representatives when trying to get a resolution to their issue. Twitter: @NorthridgeGroup

63. More than half of consumers will “call out” a brand on social media. According to Sprout Social, 55% of consumers call out brands on social media to get a response or resolution, making it paramount for companies to monitor and respond to comments and complaints on social media networks. Twitter: @SproutSocial

AI & chatbots in customer service statistics

64. By 2022, a majority of customer interactions will involve emerging technologies. Gartner predicts that 70% of all customer interactions will involve emerging technologies like mobile messaging, chatbots, and machine learning applications, up from 15% in 2018. Twitter: @Gartner_inc

65. The global conversational AI market is predicted to exceed $18 billion by 2027. According to Verified Market Research, the market will reach an estimated $18.02 billion by 2027. Twitter: @vmrresearch

66. As of 2018, companies were using AI in customer service for various scenarios. According to Statista, 78% of service organizations were using AI for self-service in simple scenarios, 77% for gathering initial information before handing a case off to an agent, 71% for providing agents with guidance while agents are handling cases, and 67% for greeting customers when they call. Twitter: @StatistaCharts

67. Chatbots can handle many routine tasks and customer questions. According to IBM, chatbots can handle about 80% of routine customer questions and tasks. Twitter: @IBM

68. The success rate of bot interactions is on the rise across many sectors. Juniper Research estimates that the success rate of bot interactions in the healthcare sector will rise to over 75% in 2022, while the success rate of bot interactions in the banking sector is expected to increase to over 90% by 2022. Twitter: @juniperresearch

69. Customer experience is a top motivator for companies to adopt AI technologies. According to TechRepublic, 40% of organizations surveyed stated that customer experience is their top motivator for adopting AI. Twitter: @TechRepublic

70. Most businesses were already using or were planning to use chatbots by 2020. According to Oracle, 80% of companies surveyed in 2016 said they were currently using or planned to begin using chatbots by 2020. Twitter: @Oracle

71. A majority of customers prefer chatbots when they’re seeking answers to simple questions. According to PSFK, 74% of users reported that they prefer interacting with chatbots when they’re looking for answers to simple questions. Twitter: @PSFK

72. Customers enjoy the ability to solve customer service issues on their own. According to Adweek, 71% of customers prefer having the ability to solve customer service problems themselves. Twitter: @Adweek

73. Being able to resolve customer service issues without interacting with a human makes customers feel good about themselves – and the company. Adweek found that 64% of consumers say being able to resolve a customer service issue without talking to a live person makes them feel good about themselves and the brand. Twitter: @Adweek

74. Nearly half of consumers expect a response within 5 seconds or less when interacting with a chatbot. According to Drift’s 2020 State of Conversational Marketing report, 46% of survey respondents say they expect a response from a chatbot within 5 seconds. Twitter: @Drift

75. Virtual customer assistants reduce calls, chats, and email inquiries significantly. Gartner reports that organizations experience a 70% reduction in call, chat, and email inquiries after implementing a virtual customer assistant. Twitter: @Gartner_inc

76. Most consumers who interact with chatbots have a positive experience. According to Uberall, 80% of people who have interacted with chatbots report the experience as positive. 16% said their experience was “somewhat negative,” and 4% reported a “very negative” experience. Twitter: @getuberall

77. AI chatbots allow customer service agents to spend more time working on complex issues. According to Salesforce, 64% of agents with AI chatbots spend most of their time solving more complex problems, compared to 50% of customer service agents without AI chatbots. Twitter: @salesforce

78. Nearly half of consumers believe that AI will decrease customer service satisfaction. According to Blumberg Capital, 43% of consumers say they feel that AI will lead to a decrease in satisfaction with customer service and an increase in complaints. Twitter: @BlumbergCapital

Organizational customer service metrics to track in 2021

79. Customer satisfaction (CSAT). “CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) is a measurement used to quantify the degree to which customers are satisfied with a service, product or experience. In most cases, the term ‘CSAT’ is used in connection with 'CSAT score,’ which refers to the numerical measure of customer satisfaction. Brands and marketers use CSAT scores to establish a customer’s level of satisfaction at specific interaction times, such as during a support ticket exchange, the moment of purchase, a phone conversation with customer service, or during the onboarding process.” - What is CSAT? Definition, How to Measure CSAT & Tips, CallMiner; Twitter: @CallMiner

80. Customer effort score (CES). “CES is a single-item metric that measures how much effort a customer has to exert to get an issue resolved, a request fulfilled, a product purchased/returned or a question answered. The idea is that the customer will be more loyal to brands that are easier to do business with. By focusing on reducing customer effort, you’ll create a better experience for your customer.” - Customer service metrics: Definitions, examples and tips, Qualtrics; Twitter: @Qualtrics

81. Net Promoter Score (NPS). “Asking the ultimate question allows companies to track promoters and detractors, producing a clear measure of an organization's performance through its customers' eyes, its Net Promoter Score. Bain analysis shows that sustained value creators—companies that achieve long-term profitable growth—have Net Promoter Scores (NPS®) two times higher than the average company.

“To calculate NPS, start with the ultimate question, ‘How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?’ and score the answers on a zero-to-ten scale. Your Net Promoter Score is simply the percentage of customers who are promoters (those who scored 9 or 10) minus the percentage who are detractors (those who scored 0 to 6).” – Measuring Your Net Promoter Score℠, Net Promoter System, Twitter: @NetPromoterSys

82. Customer retention rate. “Customer retention rate designates the percentage of customers the company has retained over a given time period. Retention rate is a reverse side of churn rate, which shows the percentage of customers a company has lost over a specific period. The importance of retention rate as a metric varies depending on the industry, for example for businesses providing services or selling software goods, customer retention is crucial and it directly affects profitability of the business.” - , Bitrix24; Twitter: @bitrix24

83. Customer churn rate. “The churn rate, also known as the rate of attrition or customer churn, is the rate at which customers stop doing business with an entity. It is most commonly expressed as the percentage of service subscribers who discontinue their subscriptions within a given time period. It is also the rate at which employees leave their jobs within a certain period. For a company to expand its clientele, its growth rate (measured by the number of new customers) must exceed its churn rate.” – Jake Frankenfield, Churn Rate, Investopedia; Twitter: @Investopedia

84. Existing customer revenue growth rate. “Existing customer revenue growth rate is very important for your business.

“A climbing rate would imply that your marketing, sales and account teams are doing a great job at motivating customers to increase spending. It also means that your customers are quickly realizing the value from your engagement.

“Conversely, a floundering or falling growth rate should put your success team on alert.

“A stagnant existing customer revenue growth rate could also be dangerous for your business. After all, acquiring a new customer is actually four times more expensive than upselling to a current one, thereby hampering your organization's ability to scale.” – Oren Smith, 10 Customer Retention Metrics & How to Measure Them, HubSpot; Twitter: @HubSpot

85. Repurchase ratio. “The repurchase ratio gives you the number of customers who come back to your business repeatedly, divided by one-time purchasers.

“But why measure this ratio?

“Most businesses focus their marketing budgets primarily on acquiring new visitors, usually through search and display advertising. According to a study conducted by Adobe, 40% of revenue in the US comes from returning or repeat purchasers who represent only 8% of all visitors. Numbers are similar in Europe, where 38% of the revenue comes from returning or repeat purchasers who account for 10% of visitors.

“Insights into who your repeat customers are will allow you to alter your marketing strategy, so that you don’t waste your time and marketing budget on customers who are unlikely to purchase.

“The idea is to bring your costs per acquisition down, and pull your revenues up.” - Top 6 Metrics To Measure Customer Loyalty, Capillary; Twitter: @capillarytech

86. Renewal rate. “The Renewal Rate is an obvious one to track by product, because it informs the lifetime value of the sales you're making. This metric is crucial for understanding whether the effort your sales and marketing teams are spending on a per-product basis is paying off in the long run, and should therefore be shared with your product team.

“If your sales reps are spending time and energy selling a product, you want to make sure that your customers use it, get value from it and continue to use it. If customers aren’t renewing, then there is probably some work that the product team needs to do to make the product more valuable to the end-user.” – Gregory Keshian, 6 Cross-Sell Metrics Every B2B Sales Leader Should Track, Brainshark; Twitter: @brainshark

87. Upsell conversion rate. “Upsell conversion rates track the number of purchases that customers make above and beyond the initial product they set out to buy.

“This is particularly relevant to e-commerce companies, although all types of companies can and should offer upsells after customers purchase their products and/or services.

“Why Should I Care?

“The additional marketing costs of making an upsell is generally zero.

“As such, upsells can dramatically improve a company’s profitability.” - Metric of the Week: Upsell Conversion Rates, Guiding Metrics; Twitter: @GuidingMetrics

88. Cross-sell win rate. “It’s critical to understand new business win rates and cross-sell win rates for each of your products so you can establish a baseline to measure progress. Having this information in hand will help you decide which product to lead with when talking to prospects. In many cases, companies have one product with very high new business win rates to use as the tip of the spear to land net new accounts. Then, they have multiple chances to generate cross-sell opportunities by having conversations with those customers about other products.” – Gregory Keshian, 6 Cross-Sell Metrics Every B2B Sales Leader Should Track, Brainshark; Twitter: @brainshark

Operational customer service metrics to track in 2021

89. Average handle time. “Average handle time, or AHT, is a vitally important call center KPI. In the simplest terms, AHT is the average time it takes to handle a call or transaction from start to finish – from call initiation, to hold time, to talk time, and all the way through to any related tasks an agent must perform post-phone call to resolve that call.

To calculate AHT, add your total talk time + total hold time + total after-call tasks, and then divide by the number of total calls. That is your average handle time.” – What is Average Handle Time? Challenges, Examples, and Best Practices for Improving AHT, CallMiner; Twitter: @CallMiner

90. Average ticket count. “Your average ticket count measures the average number of customer service or support tickets your team receives. You can measure these on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis … or all of the above.

“While more tickets can be a confirmation that your customer service system is accessible and working, it can actually indicate customers are having frequent issues — and that your product or service may be falling short.” – Allie Decker, 10 Customer Service & Support Metrics You Must Track, HubSpot; Twitter: @HubSpot

91. First response time. “First response time (FRT), or first reply time, is a measure of the number of minutes, hours, or days that elapse between when a customer submits a case and when customer service responds. It is sometimes measured in business hours, and sometimes in general hours. To see trends over time, you can calculate average first response time based on a sum of all first response times divided by the number of resolved tickets.

“Note that first response time is different than average reply time, which measures how quickly customer service organizations respond to all messages, not just first-touch messages.” – What is First Response Time?, HelpShift; Twitter: @helpshift

92. Number of interactions per ticket. “Your number of interactions per ticket is a measure of how many times your customer service team interacts with the customer while their ticket is open. Essentially, it’s a measure of how many times your team has to communicate with a customer before their issue is resolved.

“This metric shows you how effective each message or interaction from your customer service team.” – Allie Decker, 10 Customer Service & Support Metrics You Must Track, HubSpot; Twitter: @HubSpot

93. Issue resolution rate. “Resolution Rate refers to the rate at which your company fulfills service requests. It’s worth noting that customers may have different resolution expectations depending on the channel they use to contact you with a service request. Someone who sends you an email is probably not expecting as prompt a response/solution as someone that calls you on the phone or chats in on the internet.” – Metric of the Week: Resolution Rate, Grow.com; Twitter: @goGrow

94. Preferred communication channel. “In order to deliver top-rate customer service, it’s necessary to know where customers expect to receive support.

“Keep track of the methods and platforms customers use to contact your businesses so you can allocate resources accordingly. For example, if you receive a high volume of support requests on Twitter, it may be time to open a customer service Twitter account.” – Katie Sehl, 14 Customer Service Metrics to Track and What They Mean, Hootsuite; Twitter: @hootsuite

95. Answer rate. “Answer rate is a key metric to understand the efficiency of call center services. Answer rate is simply the number of calls answered in comparison to the number of calls received by the call center.” – What is Answer rate?, Go4Customer; Twitter: @go4customer

96. Average time to resolution time (or average resolution time). “Time to Resolution is a customer service metric measuring the average amount of time between when a customer interaction is created and when that interaction is marked as ‘resolved.’

“Time To Resolution may also be called Mean Time to Resolution or Time to Resolve and abbreviated as MTTR or TTR.” – Mathew Patterson, Time To Resolution: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Reduce It, Help Scout; Twitter: @helpscout

97. User self-service. “User self-service measures the percentage of incidents that are self-resolved by the user, without the assistance of a live agent. Let’s say, for example, that the agents on a particular service desk handle 4,000 incidents per month through voice, chat, and email. Another 1,000 incidents per month are resolved through user self-service (e.g., through a self-help portal that includes a password reset tool). For this hypothetical service desk, the self-service rate is 1,000 self-service incidents ÷ 5,000 total incidents = 20% user self-service.” – Jeff Rumburg, Metric of the Month: User Self-Service, HDI; Twitter: @ThinkHDI

98. Ticket backlog. “Ticket backlog is the number of unresolved tickets in your queue at the end of a given period. For example, if your support team works Monday through Friday, you might look at ticket backlog at the end of the day on Friday to see how many customers will have to wait until Monday for their issue to be resolved.” – Top 5 customer support metrics to help you improve customer relationships, Geckoboard; Twitter: @geckoboard

99. Average after-call work time (or post-call processing time). “After call work includes all tasks which require completion once your contact center’s agents phone conversations with customers are finished. While there are a number of things that take place outside of phone calls in a call center, “after call work” refers to the specific things completed by the reps and customer service agents who actually take the call.” – What is After-Call Work (ACW) or Post-Call Processing? Tips, Industry Standards & More, CallMiner; Twitter: @CallMiner

100. Average call abandonment rate. “Call abandonment is when the caller hangs up prematurely, either before an agent can answer their question or address their concern, or as an agent is trying to help them. Measuring the rate of call abandonment allows you to measure the success of call center customer service and experience.

“Generally speaking, a call center abandonment rate between 5% and 8% is industry-standard. If the rate hits 10%, you’re getting into “high” territory. Though the mobile world that we’re now living in has certainly complicated things to a degree, as studies have shown that here call center abandonment rates can reach as high as 20%.” – Corey McCraw, What is Call Center Abandonment Rate & Why it Matters, GetVOIP; Twitter: @getvoipreviews

101. Average speed of answer. “Average speed of answer is defined as the average amount of time it takes for a call center to answer a phone call from a customer. Included in this metric is the time a caller waits in a queue. The time it takes to navigate through an IVR system is not factored in to ASA.” – Robert Stanley, How to Measure & Improve Call Center Average Speed of Answer, CallMiner; Twitter: @CallMiner