The ultimate guide to customer service metrics
A primer on 14 essential metrics every support team should track, plus tested tips for optimizing them
Introduction: Why tracking metrics matters
Customers today have sky-high expectations — they demand personalized, fast service, and they want it now. At the same time, support teams face mounting pressure to maximize their customer base and minimize churn, making it essential to monitor every aspect of the customer experience.
Teams can adapt and improve their service, but how can they truly measure whether they’re meeting (or exceeding) those high expectations? The answer lies in tracking the right support metrics.
In the past, support metrics focused on basic inputs and outputs like response time and ticket volume. Today, the most valuable (and actionable) metrics assess the quality of interactions and overall satisfaction. This shift reflects the growing availability of data from knowledge bases, chatbots, and workload reports, along with the recognition that true support excellence is really about the holistic impact on customer service.
We’ve broken down the top 14 metrics to know about and how to optimize them, with tips from Kenji Hayward, head of support at Front. By staying familiar with and tracking these metrics, you can refine operations and directly impact the customer experience — leading to strong relationships and long-term loyalty.
And once you’ve got a handle on measurement, you’ll be in a position to showcase your service and motivate your team by sharing your performance publicly.
1. Net promoter score: NPS
What is net promoter score?
Often considered the gold standard of customer experience metrics, the net promoter score (NPS) is a widely recognized method for measuring customer loyalty and satisfaction.
Used by millions of businesses to track how they’re perceived by customers, your NPS provides a snapshot of your overall customer service: Happy customers have likely had a positive journey with your brand and are more inclined to recommend you to others.
How to calculate NPS
To calculate your NPS, you’ll ask your customers a single question: “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our brand to a friend or colleague?” Based on the number they choose, they’re grouped into three categories:
Promoters choose 9 or 10 and are usually the most loyal and enthusiastic of the bunch.
Passives choose 7 or 8; they’re generally satisfied, but not effusive about their experience or eager to share with others.
Detractors choose 0 through 6 and are unhappy, unlikely to buy from you again, and may even discourage others from buying from you.
Once you have these numbers from your NPS survey, you’ll subtract the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters. For example, if 10% of respondents are Detractors, 20% are Passives, and 70% are Promoters, your NPS would be 70 - 10 = 60.
Scores can range from -100 to 100, with higher scores generally indicating greater customer loyalty. But your NPS doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Different industries have varying standards, so try to focus on two things: how your NPS stacks up compared with competitors and how it improves over time.
Think of it as a temperature check that you can take at repeated intervals to identify trends and understand customer sentiment. And remember that it’s what you do between those intervals to improve your customers’ experience that counts.
💡Using a round-robin approach to NPS
At Front, we implement a round-robin approach to distribute NPS responses among employees, which ensures that tasks are assigned evenly in rotation and gives everyone a taste of common customer inquiries. We ask that Fronteers engage with Promoters by encouraging them to share their experiences and assist other customers in our Front Community. Fronteers can follow up with Detractors to address their concerns and offer solutions (of course, tapping the product or customer support team when needed). This collaborative process helps foster a more customer-centric culture across the organization.
2. Customer satisfaction score: CSAT
What is customer satisfaction score?
Similar to NPS, the customer satisfaction (CSAT) score measures customer feedback. But instead of determining the likelihood that a customer will recommend a brand, product, or service to others, a CSAT score measures a customer’s experience with a specific interaction, product, or service. It generally follows that the higher the satisfaction, the higher the customer retention and profits.
How to calculate CSAT
You’ve probably seen a CSAT survey: Companies send surveys to customers immediately after an interaction, asking customers to rate their satisfaction on a five-point scale (1 being poor, 5 being very good).
Common questions might be:
How satisfied are you with the resolution provided by the agent?
Did the agent address all your concerns?
How easy was it to communicate with the agent?
The most popular way to measure a CSAT score is by taking the number of satisfied customers (those who rated the experience as 4 or 5) and dividing it by the total number of responses, then multiplying by 100 to get a percentage. Average scores above 90% are considered exceptional.
There are also a few other easy ways to measure CSAT:
Happy-neutral-unhappy ratings
This one’s pretty simple: Have a Happy/Neutral/Unhappy face as your response option. The red face is Unhappy, the green is Happy, and the yellow/gray is Neutral. While this rating isn’t the most nuanced or in-depth, it’s useful if you’re just looking for a quick way to check satisfaction levels. To calculate CSAT, tally the number or percentage of Happy faces.
Thumbs-up/thumbs-down approach
Sort of like a simplified version of the NPS, this binary system reduces feedback to a positive or negative response. Here, the percentage of thumbs-up responses gives a direct measure of satisfaction. For instance, if 80 out of 100 responses are thumbs-up, the CSAT would be 80%.
This format is particularly useful in industries where you’d value quick and straightforward feedback. For example, in online content services (like streaming platforms), users can quickly indicate if they’re happy with the service or not, guiding other users’ choices and providing immediate feedback.
5-star ratings
A star-rating system offers visual feedback you can use as a quick, convenient way to analyze CSAT results. This offers a slightly more nuanced view of satisfaction compared with the binary thumbs-up/thumbs-down.
Regularly monitoring your CSAT helps you maintain high service standards and respond promptly to customer feedback. By focusing on improving CSAT, you can boost customer loyalty and build a positive brand reputation.
💡Tips for the CSAT survey
Kick off a CSAT survey on the first of the month so you know your baseline for the rest of the month and each month moving forward. Give it about 30 days to gather enough feedback to build a meaningful and accurate score reflective of your team’s performance. At Front, we use link-based signatures in addition to sending surveys as another way to encourage customers to share feedback.
3. Customer retention rate: CRR
What is customer retention rate?
Customer retention rate (CRR) measures your ability to keep customers over a specific period of time. It provides insights regarding both customer loyalty and churn, as well as the effectiveness of your customer service strategies.
Think of it like tending a garden. When you provide the right care and attention, your plants thrive and continue to grow. As the garden expands, it becomes harder to keep track of which plants are flourishing and which ones need extra care. In business, the CRR acts as your gardener’s log, helping you measure how well you’ve nurtured your customers: It tracks how many are still healthy, how many are withering, and which new ones have taken root.
How to calculate CRR
Calculating CRR involves determining the percentage of customers your company retains from the start of a designated time period to the end, excluding new customer acquisitions during that time. The formula subtracts the number of customers acquired within a given period (N) from the number of customers at the end of the period (E), and divides that total by the number of customers at the start of the period (S):
[ (E - N) / S ] x 100 = CRR
A high retention rate often signifies satisfied customers who are more likely to make repeat purchases and refer others, contributing to steady revenue and reducing your marketing costs.
💡Put high-quality, personalized support first
Improving customer retention starts with prioritizing strategies that enhance the customer experience, like personalized support, consistent quality, and value-driven engagement. For high-tier accounts, for example, boost personalized service by assigning a dedicated account manager to the customer to ensure they have a consistent point of contact. Personalized support could mean asking customers where they prefer to communicate and meeting them there: whether on chat, email, phone, or social media. AI tools can also play a role here in helping agents scale personalized responses and anticipate customer needs.
4. Service-level agreement compliance: SLA compliance
What is service-level agreement compliance?
The service-level agreement (SLA) compliance metric measures whether you meet the service delivery standards agreed upon with your customers. These promises, known as service levels, are sworn commitments to indicators like response times, resolution times, and the quality of service provided. The SLA compliance metric helps track whether these promises are being kept and is vital because it directly impacts customer satisfaction and trust. There are also internal SLAs, which are SLAs set by team leads for team performance but not shared with the customer.
By consistently meeting or exceeding SLAs, businesses reinforce their reliability and commitment to customer service excellence, which can improve retention and build a stronger brand reputation. Failing to meet SLA commitments can lead to dissatisfaction and potential contractual penalties or, worse, customer churn.
How to calculate SLA compliance
This metric is usually expressed as a percentage. For example, if an agreement states that 90% of support tickets should be resolved within 24 hours, the SLA compliance metric will show what percentage of tickets were actually resolved in that time. It’s calculated by dividing the number of incidents that met the SLA by the total number of incidents, and then multiplying that by 100.
SLA compliance is monitored regularly, often on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. This ensures that the service provider consistently meets the agreed-upon standards. The results can also be used to identify areas that need improvement and help with future contract negotiations.
To ensure SLA compliance, you should implement robust monitoring systems and set up alert mechanisms to flag potential breaches before they occur.
💡Train your team and gather feedback
Regularly train your support teams on SLA requirements and performance analysis to maintain high compliance levels. It’s also important to update SLAs frequently based on customer feedback, changing business needs, and evolving expectations. One way to gather feedback from customers is through post-ticket surveys that request they share their experience with response times and what can be improved.
5. Customer churn rate: CCR
What is customer churn rate?
Your Customer churn rate (CCR) is the percentage of customers who stop using your product or service during a given time period. Churn metrics help you pinpoint any underlying issues affecting customer retention: Once you understand why they leave, you can take action to promote customer loyalty and longevity.
Imagine you’re throwing a party with 100 guests. By the end of the night, if 20 people left early, you’d have a 20% “guest churn rate.” Just as you’d want to understand why those 20 guests left early so you can throw a better party next time, you need to figure out why customers are leaving and make the changes necessary to keep them engaged.
Since acquiring new customers can be significantly more expensive than retaining existing ones, reducing churn is key to sustaining long-term profitability. High churn rates can also signal deeper issues, such as product flaws, poor customer service, or competitive disadvantages. By closely monitoring churn, you can identify trends, understand customer behavior, and implement strategies to improve retention.
How to CCR
To calculate your CCR, you’ll need the number of customers you started with for a specific period of time and the number of customers you ended with during that same time frame.
(Number of customers lost during a specific time period / number of customers at the start of that same time period) x 100 = churn rate
For example, if you started the month with 1,000 customers and lost 50 by the end of the month, your churn rate would be:
(50 / 1,000) x 100 = 5% churn rate
Benchmarks for churn rates vary by industry. For example, SaaS companies might experience an average churn rate of 5% to 7% annually, while telecommunications companies skew higher.
💡It’s all about proactivity
Take steps to remedy any problems early on, before they churn. Set up a system to proactively reach out to customers showing signs of dissatisfaction (identified by negative feedback, frequent raising of issues, or decreased engagement). We set up color-coded tags based on how “happy” we think customers are based on those points that are automatically applied, so the “health” of the account is visible to the support agent right away. You can also use AI-based sentiment analysis, which we recently rolled out ourselves using AI tagging in Front.
6. Customer effort score: CES
What is customer effort score?
Your customer effort score (CES) evaluates the ease of interaction between a customer and your business. Specifically, it evaluates how much effort a customer must exert to get an issue resolved, a product purchased, or a service delivered. A higher CES indicates more effort, which correlates with lower customer satisfaction and can drive them to competitors.
Typically, CES surveys ask a simple question after an interaction, such as: “How easy was it to handle your issue?” Responses are usually recorded on a scale from “very difficult” to “very easy.” The easier it is for customers to get what they want, the more likely they are to continue doing business with your company.
Imagine you’re trying to cook a new recipe. If the instructions are clear and the ingredients are easy to find, the cooking process feels effortless. But if the instructions are complicated and you struggle to find the ingredients, it’s frustrating. Just as clear directions make cooking easier, a low CES indicates that your support team is making it easy for customers to get their problems solved.
As support experiences become more blended, with AI chatbots taking on the basic inquiries and leaving humans more time for the complex, tracking CES will become even more important. It helps answer the question: Are investments in automation making it easier or harder for customers to get the resolution they’re looking for?
How to calculate CES
For CES calculation, you’ll ask a customer to rate their experience on a predetermined scale, often from 1 to 7. Then you’ll take the average of all their responses. For instance, if 100 customers respond with scores ranging from 1 to 7, you add all the scores together and divide by 100 to find the average CES. A higher CES indicates that your processes are easy for customers to navigate, which is a strong predictor of customer loyalty and repeat business.
While industry averages for CES vary, a common goal is for most customers to rate their experience as “easy” or “very easy” (typically aiming for a score of 5 or higher on a 7-point scale).
CES has become increasingly important because it provides actionable insights that can lead to immediate improvements in customer service. Unlike NPS or CSAT scores, which measure overall satisfaction or loyalty, CES focuses on reducing friction in customer interactions. In a world where customers prioritize convenience, this targeted approach is essential.
💡Don’t wait on sending
Send CES surveys in a timely manner after customer interactions (we recommend no later than 24 hours after). Customers are more likely to reply when they receive the surveys soon after an interaction. The fresher in their minds, the better!
7. Average handle time: AHT
What is average handle time?
When you consider the kind of support experience you want for your customers, is it fast or good? Ideally, it’s both — which is what you should expect from agents and what your customers will most certainly expect from you.
Average handle time (AHT) measures how long it takes for an agent to handle a customer interaction from start to finish — including talk time, hold time, and any follow-up tasks. It’s a comprehensive indicator of how efficiently your support team resolves customer inquiries and issues.
A low AHT means that customers spend less time waiting for solutions, leading to better overall experiences. However, it’s crucial to strike a balance; while reducing AHT is ideal, it shouldn’t come at the expense of the quality of service. You want to be fast and good. Focusing too much on speed can lead to rushed interactions where issues aren’t fully resolved, potentially leading to repeat calls and dissatisfied customers.
How to calculate AHT
To calculate AHT, add up the total time spent on calls (including talk time, hold time, and after-call work) and divide it by the number of calls handled within a specific period.
(Total talk time + total hold time + after-call work time) / total number of calls = AHT
For example, if a support team spends 500 minutes handling 100 calls, the AHT would be five minutes.
A typical AHT ranges from four to six minutes in many call-center environments, but this can differ based on the nature of the support provided and the complexity of your customer inquiries.
💡Self-service is key
While there’s no shortcut to fulfilling a customer’s needs, creating a proactive customer service strategy can head off more common concerns. To do this, you’ll want to build a substantial knowledge base that allows them to find their own answers before reaching out to your reps. Your knowledge base is also what your chatbot will pull from to reply to customers, making investment in it doubly important.
It’s also worth it to invest in your support agents’ training as often as you can — including product knowledge, tooling use, and soft skills — helping them provide responses faster on the fly.
Pre-built message templates are another way to make things easier and faster for support reps to provide great service without starting from scratch. For example, say you want to point a customer to additional resources:
✍️✍️
Hi {{recipient.first_name}},
To support your team in learning how to use Front, we have Front Academy, which is a self-paced training program that teaches admins how to set up Front, shows your team how to use it for their daily work, and contains many other topics that we are continuously adding to.
It’s included with your Front plan, and you simply need to log in with your Front account. It’s designed to fully onboard and train your team, and our team is always here if you have additional questions!
8. First contact resolution rate: FCR rate
What is first contact resolution rate?
If it takes three separate emails and a lengthy real-time chat to solve a customer issue, you can assume that customer is frustrated — and unlikely to recommend your brand to others. This is why you want a high first contact resolution (FCR) rate.
FCR reflects the percentage of customer issues resolved during their initial interaction with your support team, without the need for any follow-up. FCR indicates your team’s effectiveness and efficiency, reflecting their ability to address and resolve customer issues promptly and accurately on the first attempt.
The industry average for FCR varies, but many organizations aim for a rate of 70% to 90%. Achieving a high FCR can differentiate your company from competitors by demonstrating a commitment to efficient and high-quality service.
How to calculate FCR
To determine your FCR, divide the number of customer issues resolved on the first contact by the total number of customer issues, then multiply by 100 to get a percentage. The formula is:
(Number of issues resolved on first contact / total number of issues) x 100 = FCR rate
For example, if your support team resolves 800 out of 1,000 issues on the first contact, the FCR rate would be 80%.
High FCR rates contribute to a positive customer experience, which can reduce churn and boost your brand reputation. It also indicates that your support processes are effective and your agents well-trained. Tracking FCR helps identify areas for improvement in both customer service and workflows, giving you the insights you need to deliver streamlined and effective support.
💡Quality > quantity
Train agents to listen and read carefully to understand the customer’s issue before attempting a resolution. Prioritize quality over speed when possible. When agents are pressured to do a lot of work quickly, they have to take shortcuts, which leads to increased interactions. It’s also important to empower the team with access to internal documentation like product specs in addition to maintaining robust internal and external knowledge bases.
9. First response time: FRT
What is first response time?
Imagine you’re at a busy restaurant, and as soon as you sit down, the waiter promptly comes to your table. This attentive service immediately sheds a positive light on your experience. First response time (FRT) is like this: It measures how quickly your support team responds to a customer’s initial inquiry. Just as fast service in a restaurant makes for a better experience, a short FRT ensures customers that their concerns are valued and being addressed promptly.
FRT tracks the duration from when a customer submits a request or complaint to when they receive their first reply from one of your support agents. Indicating how fast a support team acknowledges and begins to address their customers’ issues, FRT sets the tone for overall customer service. It reassures customers that their issue is important and a solution is forthcoming. By showing you care and taking action, you build trust.
Average FRTs can vary depending on the channel and industry. For instance, the average first response time for email support is typically between one and 24 hours, while live chat responses are expected within minutes.
How to calculate FRT
To determine your FRT, you need to measure the time from when a customer inquiry is received to when the first response is sent. The formula is:
Total time to first response / number of inquiries = FRT
For example, if your team handles 200 inquiries and the total time for all first responses is 1,000 minutes, the average FRT would be five minutes.
Customers value prompt attention, and a quick initial response reassures them that their issue is being taken seriously. A low FRT can also lead to a faster overall resolution, as the issue is addressed before it becomes too complex. Plus, when you’re perceived as more reliable and customer-centric, it naturally inspires greater customer loyalty. Conversely, a high FRT can indicate potential inefficiencies in your support process, such as inadequate staffing or training, which can decrease customer satisfaction and increase churn.
💡Message templates to the rescue
Utilize automated responses to acknowledge customer inquiries when appropriate, and make sure these automated responses have useful information in them — like how long the customer should expect to wait and links to self-serve resources like knowledge base. Prioritize inquiries based on urgency and customer size and health. And importantly, make sure your support team is appropriately staffed during peak hours.
Here’s an example of a strong note to send a customer acknowledging their inquiry:
✍️✍️
Hey there,
You’ve reached Front’s support team 👋
We’re excited to help and will get back to you within one business day. In the meantime, we’ve put together a few helpful resources:
Front Academy: Access guided learning paths focused on setting your team up for success. This is your go-to learning platform to help answer questions on advanced features like automated rules, tagging, analytics, etc. It’s a great starting point for setting up your team or sharing best practices for rolling out Front at your company. If you’re new to Front, check out our Onboarding Learning Path to get up and running by the end of the day!
Help Center: Search for answers to your questions or browse the plethora of articles in our help center.
Live office hours: We understand that sometimes it’s easier to speak to someone live about a complex workflow you’re trying to set up. You can now sign up for our weekly office hours, hosted by Front’s education team. Simply follow this link [ADD LINK], sign in with your Front login, select the date of the session you want to join and select register. You will then be sent a calendar invite with a Zoom link.
Front Community: Check out what other users are asking and discussing in our community, from best workflows with your team to building a custom plug-in using our developer docs. You might find your question already answered here, plus more!
Talk to you soon,
The Front team 😄
10. Resolution time: TTR or MTTR
What is resolution time?
The average amount of time it takes to fully resolve a customer issue is called resolution time. It may also be called time to resolution (TTR) or mean time to resolution (MTTR). This includes all interactions, follow-ups, and any other actions needed to ensure it’s completely resolved. The faster an issue is resolved, the more satisfied your customer is likely to be. On the flip side, a long resolution time can lead to frustration, negative reviews, and potential loss of business.
Industry averages for resolution time can vary significantly based on the nature of the support provided and the severity of the issues. Simple inquiries might be resolved within a few hours, while more complex problems could take days or even weeks. Generally, a common target for resolution time is 24 to 48 hours.
How to calculate resolution time
The formula is as follows:
Total time to resolve all issues / number of resolved issues = resolution time
For example, if your team resolves 150 issues with a cumulative resolution time of 600 hours, the average resolution time would be four hours.
When customers know their issues will be resolved efficiently, it builds confidence in the service you provide, which inspires brand loyalty and increases their customer lifetime value (CLV). Plus, when employees are empowered to resolve issues quickly, they often feel more accomplished and satisfied with their work. Shorter resolution times also prevent backlogs of unresolved issues, reducing stress on your teams.
💡Turn to AI and automation tools
AI and automation tools can help with speeding the time to resolution in some cases. For example, we use AI or chatbots to handle repetitive inquiries, like finding order numbers or resetting a password. Front’s AI Answers, for example, sources from our knowledge base to serve up resolutions on demand.
This frees up our agents for more complex resolutions, like billing changes for high-value customers, debugging integration errors with engineering, or locating delayed shipments in custom integrated inventory management systems. It’s also important to continuously monitor ticket escalation and identify bottlenecks in escalations. Once identified, offer agent training to streamline the process.
11. Average response time: ART
What is average response time?
The average time it takes to respond to a customer’s inquiries across multiple touchpoints throughout their entire engagement with your support team is called average response time (ART). Since it considers all the interactions with the customer, this metric is useful for assessing the overall responsiveness of your customer service team. The focus here is on the consistency of responses throughout the interaction, not just the initial reply.
Imagine you’re sending a text message to a friend, and you’re eager for a reply. The time it takes for your friend to respond is like ART. Just as a quick response to a friend’s text keeps the conversation flowing smoothly, a shorter ART means your support team is consistently providing timely replies, ensuring customers feel heard and valued without unnecessary delays.
At Front, we break down average response time by chat and email. Industry averages for ART vary depending on the communication channel and sector. For example, customers using live chat typically expect responses within seconds to a few minutes, while email responses might average between one and 24 hours.
How to calculate ART
Here’s the formula:
Total response time for all inquiries / number of inquiries = ART
Let’s say your support team handles 2,000 inquiries in a month, with a total response time of 10,000 minutes. Your average response time would be five minutes. Shorter response times enhance customer satisfaction and demonstrate commitment to resolving their needs quickly, contributing to a positive brand image and helping build customer loyalty.
💡Use tracking and tiers to help accelerate
Real-time tracking with dashboards helps monitor live response times and allows you to redistribute workloads as needed. You can also create tiered support teams (we have a priority tier and then tiers 1 to 3) and utilize routing to get inquiries to the right department. For example, urgent inquiries that require more immediate attention are routed to priority or tier 1.
For chat, we utilize pre-chat forms to gather critical information so agents can jump right into solving the issue. Use chatbots for initial triage and automate responses to basic inquiries or FAQs, allowing agents to focus on more complex issues. We also have SLA warnings when wait times approach the SLA limit so those inquiries can be addressed as soon as possible.
12. Agent turnover rate: ATR
What is agent turnover rate?
Agent turnover rate (ATR), also known as an agent attrition rate, measures the percentage of support team members who leave your business over a certain period of time, typically a year. This rate includes all forms of employee departures, such as resignations, terminations, and retirements.
High agent turnover rates can signal underlying issues within your team or business, including dissatisfaction, burnout, or inadequate management. They often correlate with lower employee morale and engagement, which can further exacerbate the problem. Understandably, this can have significant negative impacts on both operations and customer service quality. Frequent turnover can also lead to increased recruitment and training costs, disruptions in service, and a loss of valuable institutional knowledge.
How to calculate ATR
The formula is:
(Number of departures during a specific period / average number of employees during that same period) x 100 = agent turnover rate
For example, if your support team has 10 employees at the start of the year and four employees leave by the end of the year, with an average of nine employees over the year, the turnover rate would be:
(4 / 9) x 100 = 44.4%
Industry averages for turnover can vary widely depending on the sector and region. For instance, in customer support roles, annual turnover rates often range from 30% to 45%, though this can be higher in high-stress or low-wage environments.
Imagine running a relay race where your team frequently has to swap runners participating in the race. If you’re constantly changing athletes on a team, it’s challenging to maintain momentum and achieve a smooth handoff. Agent turnover rate works similarly: If employees are leaving and being replaced frequently, it disrupts team performance. Just as a consistent team of runners helps keep the race steady and efficient, a lower turnover rate ensures your support team remains stable and effective, providing better service and maintaining continuity.
💡Open communication is critical
Foster a culture of open communication where employees feel supported and valued through having regular one-on-one meetings (weekly) and career discussions (quarterly). Note: This goes both ways; employees should provide upward feedback as well!
It’s also very important to provide clear progression paths and opportunities for advancement to reduce burnout and stagnation. At Front, we take steps to help teammates move outside of the support organization, if that’s where they see their career going, as a way to ensure the retention of top talent.
13. Internal quality score: IQS
What is internal quality score?
Internal quality score (IQS) evaluates the quality of customer interactions handled by your support agents. It assesses various aspects of your support process, including how closely your team follows protocols, the accuracy of information provided, their professionalism, and the overall effectiveness of resolutions. This score is typically derived from internal evaluations or audits of support interactions.
By tracking IQS, you can identify strengths and areas for improvement within your team, enhance training programs, and refine support processes to ensure they meet both organizational standards and customer expectations.
Think of the IQS as a grading system for a chef’s cooking. When a dish is prepared, it’s evaluated on various aspects like taste, technique, and presentation. Each aspect is scored, and the overall quality of the dish is determined by an average of these scores. Similarly, IQS measures the quality of a response by evaluating factors such as accuracy, relevance, and clarity. Just as a high score reflects a well-prepared, delicious meal, a high IQS indicates a well-crafted, high-quality response.
Industry averages for IQS can vary widely depending on the sector and criteria used for evaluation, but many organizations aim for scores above 80% on a scale of 100.
How to calculate IQS
Calculating IQS involves assessing various elements of customer interactions based on predefined criteria, and then averaging the scores. Typically, a quality assurance team or supervisor reviews a sample of interactions, scores them according to a set of standards, and then calculates the average score. The formula is:
(Total score from quality assessments / total possible score) x 100 = IQS
For example, if your quality assessment covers 10 criteria per interaction and an agent scores a total of 85 out of a possible 100 points across 20 interactions, the IQS would be:
(85 / 100) x 100 = 85%
By prioritizing IQS, businesses can uphold high standards of service, enhance customer experiences, and drive continuous improvement within their support teams.
💡Implement QA audit and quality rubrics
Set up regular quality assurance (QA) reviews. Routine QA audits with detailed feedback can help improve performance.
This involves developing clear and detailed quality guidelines by creating a standardized quality rubric. Define clear, measurable criteria for scoring chats and emails, such as completeness, tone, correctness, and brevity.
Consistent training on products and processes and utilizing an internal knowledge base can ensure agents stay up-to-date with product features, troubleshooting steps, and internal processes.
14. Customer lifetime value: CLV
What is CLV?
Customer lifetime value (CLV) estimates the total revenue you can expect from a customer over the duration of their relationship with your brand. It takes into account each customer’s total amount spent and compares that with your predicted customer lifespan. The longer a customer sticks with you, the greater their CLV.
It’s important to note that CLV is not a way to predict sales, and it does not indicate your success as a business. Rather, it measures the financial health and quality of the customers you’re acquiring and their average value within a specific time frame.
How to calculate CLV for a B2C business
To calculate CLV, you’ll need to know:
Average purchase value-To get this number, divide your total revenue by the number of customer purchases over a specific period. We suggest a year for simplicity’s sake.-Total revenue / number of purchases = average purchase value
Average purchase frequency-Determine this by dividing the total number of purchases by the number of unique customers over the same period used to calculate the average purchase value (let’s stick with a year).-Number of purchases / number of unique customers = average purchase frequency
Average customer lifespan-This will be the average number of years (or months, depending on your business) that a customer continues to purchase from your company.
Here’s the formula:
Average purchase value x average purchase frequency x customer lifespan = CLV
As an example:
$100,000 (total revenue) / 2,000 (number of purchases) = $50 (average purchase value)
2,000 (number of purchases) / 400 (number of unique customers) = 5 (average purchase frequency)
5 years = average customer lifespan
Once you have these numbers, you’ll multiply them all together.
Therefore:
$50 (average purchase value) x 5 (average purchase frequency) x 5 (average customer lifespan) = $1,250
That means that on average, each customer is expected to generate $1,250 in revenue over their lifetime with your business.
How to calculate CLV for a B2B business
If you’re calculating CLV as a B2B business, you’ll swap the above purchase value and frequency for average monthly revenue or customer value and use the same formula:
Average monthly revenue or customer value x average customer lifespan = CLV
Once you understand your CLV, you can split your customer base into more specific cohorts (e.g., grouping by acquisition channel) to identify which are most valuable to your brand. This data can inform business strategies for increasing customer loyalty and reducing customer churn, and ensure your big decisions map back to those valuable repeat buyers.
💡Keep relationships strong with the right resources
Offering robust onboarding and support resources for customers not only helps with initial customer relationship building but can also increase retention and CLV. For example, we created Front Academy as a way to enable customers to learn the ins and outs of Front at their own pace through different learning paths. Rewarding loyal customers is another way to fortify and future-proof those relationships.
The case for making your support metrics public: Why transparency is key
Knowing which metrics to track and how to optimize them is the first step to building a world-class support team. The next step: holding your team accountable by making those metrics public.
Support leaders can talk all they want about delivering great customer service, but can they back it up with data?
Making metrics data available shows the world your team can lead with transparency and is strong enough to consistently deliver great results. It helps customers see service as a differentiator for your team — which is critical at a time when customer demands for great service are higher than ever.
Rippling’s call to action
We saw Parker Conrad, CEO of Rippling, make the bold decision a few years ago with his team to unveil their support metrics publicly. Rippling took the step to publish its data for all to see — providing a picture of the speed, quality, and resolution times its support team was achieving. When Rippling shared its own data, it created a call to arms for other companies to follow suit.
⚡Watch a conversation featuring Mathilde Collin and Parker Conrad on taking your metrics public.
Front’s Support Report
One year later, Front took the same bet. We created our own Support Report: a live report that refreshes daily and shows how our support team scores across chat average response time, email average response time, and CSAT. We’re proud to see our team outperforming benchmarks for these core metrics and continually setting the bar high.
Front customers now have the opportunity to publish and promote their own support metrics (no coding required!). Showcase your performance, build trust with leads and customers, and make exceptional service your competitive advantage.
“The thing we’re often most afraid to do is the thing that will help us grow the most. I would have published our Support Report live sooner if I could do it over again and pushed harder internally versus waiting for the ‘perfect time.’ ” — Kenji Hayward, Head of Support at Front
More on metrics: Making metrics a support team priority
You can’t improve what you can’t measure. And with companies today competing on customer experience, superior support teams that track performance closely are a make-or-break differentiator. The right metrics empower teams to benchmark against competitors, optimize resource allocation, and measure the impact of technologies, continually raising the bar for excellence.
Importantly, maintaining high standards of customer service through metrics can be a team effort. Encourage collaboration by involving teams across the organization in customer interactions — whether through a round-robin NPS survey response initiative or cross-functional support programs. At Front, we even have a “Hop in the Support” queue, where team members join live sessions to assist with customer inquiries.
Eager for more insights on how to raise the bar for your team? Subscribe to Top-Tier Support, a biweekly newsletter from Front’s head of support, Kenji Howard. Subscribe here.
More resources for providing exceptional support
There’s a lot more to learn on how to keep your support team a well-oiled machine. Other resources ⬇️