A whopping 91% of customers said improvements in service and support are “very” or “somewhat needed,” according to the fourth edition of Salesforce’s State of the Connected Customer.
Businesses must be able to measure the outcomes of service and support to evolve their services and meet customer standards. By introducing key performance indicators (KPIs) for the technology your service and support teams use, your company will have concrete data to analyze and make better decisions to improve customer service and enhance agents’ experience and productivity.
Salesforce Service Cloud already allows the monitoring of some indicators. When considering IT solutions as a whole within an organization, Sue Ellen Correa, Project Director at OSF Digital, highlights four KPIs that can measure the level of customer service and support:
- Service Level Agreement (SLA)
The support SLA defined between your organization and your service partner makes the service level tangible for the support service. This establishes criteria for classifying calls, the time of resolution for each type of request, and the solutions or penalties if agreed service levels are not achieved, among others. In addition to considering good industry practices, it is essential to understand the organization’s context when constructing the SLA in a clear, objective and measurable way.
- First Call Resolution
One of the main indicators of quality of service measures the number of calls made and resolved during the first contact with the support team through channels with dynamic and real-time interactions, such as phone, chat and WhatsApp. A high index of this KPI indicates the strength and maturity of the service team as it shows that customers are served quickly and effectively.
- Backlog Age
This indicator is significant, as it assesses the age of the calls still in negotiation with the team. It is counted from the creation of the request to its closing. To facilitate the follow-up, tickets are grouped in ranges (from 0–2 days, 3–7 Days, 8–15 days, 16–30 days and > 30 days). The higher the range the call falls within, the greater attention that needs to be given to it. The focus is on resolving the customer’s request, even if the SLA has already been violated. The customer experience must be differentiated and prioritized.
- Effective Resolution Rate
This KPI evaluates the percentage of cases completed with the validation and approval of the customer. It is directly linked to the evaluation of the support service experience. Just analyzing the case without feedback from the customer who requested help may result in another request (and more work for the team) and the guarantee of customer dissatisfaction.
Other metrics can be considered, depending on your organization and its needs. The importance is having KPIs in place to maintain a high level of quality service. Different thought leaders have approached this topic in similar ways: “what is not measured cannot be managed” or even those “who have many indicators but do not have control, in short, do not have any.”
To get help with your support strategy, visit OSF Digital’s Support & Maintenance Services page.
