Top Customer Support Metrics That Matter for 2025

Level Up Your Support Game with the Right Metrics

Want to deliver outstanding customer support and boost your bottom line? You need to track the right metrics. This listicle covers eight key customer support metrics that will help you pinpoint areas for improvement, optimize processes, and enhance customer satisfaction. Learn how to measure Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), Net Promoter Score (NPS), First Contact Resolution (FCR), Average Resolution Time, Customer Effort Score (CES), Customer Retention Rate, Average Handling Time (AHT), and Agent Turnover Rate. We'll also show you how a video support solution like Screendesk can help you excel in each area.

1. Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) is a fundamental metric for measuring how happy your customers are with a specific interaction, product, or service. It's a transactional metric, meaning it focuses on individual experiences rather than the overall customer relationship. Typically, CSAT is gathered through short surveys presented to customers immediately after an interaction, such as a support call, online chat, or purchase. These surveys usually ask customers to rate their satisfaction on a numerical scale, commonly 1-5 or 1-10, with higher scores indicating greater satisfaction. The final CSAT score is calculated as the percentage of respondents who selected the top satisfaction ratings (usually 4 and 5 on a 5-point scale).

CSAT deserves a place on this list because it offers immediate, actionable insights into specific areas of your customer experience. Its simplicity and directness make it easy to implement, understand, and act upon. By pinpointing specific issues and successes, CSAT enables targeted improvements to enhance customer satisfaction and, ultimately, drive business growth.

Features and Benefits:

• Simple to implement: Short, targeted surveys are easy to create and deploy across various channels.
• Provides immediate feedback: Real-time data allows for quick identification of problems and opportunities.
• Easily understood: Both customers and staff can readily grasp the meaning of CSAT scores.
• Segmentable: Data can be analyzed by channel, agent, or issue type to isolate specific areas for improvement.
• Direct measure of satisfaction: CSAT provides a clear indication of how customers perceive individual interactions.
• Easy to collect and analyze: Survey responses are easily quantifiable and readily analyzed.
• Helps identify immediate service issues: Low scores can pinpoint specific problems within the customer journey.
• Can drive tactical improvements: Actionable insights enable targeted improvements to processes and services.

Pros:

• Direct measure of customer satisfaction
• Easy to collect and analyze
• Helps identify immediate service issues
• Can drive tactical improvements

Cons:

• Subject to response bias: Extremely satisfied or dissatisfied customers are more likely to respond.
• Measures satisfaction at a single point in time: Doesn't reflect the overall customer relationship.
• Cultural differences can impact how people rate satisfaction: Interpretations of rating scales can vary across cultures.
• Doesn't necessarily correlate with customer loyalty or retention: High CSAT scores don't guarantee long-term customer loyalty.

Examples of Successful Implementation:

• Apple: Tracks CSAT for every support interaction and maintains scores above 90%.
• Zappos: Uses CSAT to maintain their reputation for exceptional customer service.
• Amazon: Follows up purchases with simple CSAT surveys to track satisfaction with their products and delivery.

Tips for Effective CSAT Use:

• Keep surveys short and sweet: Ask only what's necessary to avoid survey fatigue.
• Ask for feedback immediately after interaction: This captures the experience while it's fresh in the customer's mind.
• Include an open-ended question: Qualitative feedback provides valuable context and insights.
• Analyze trends over time: Focus on patterns rather than individual scores to identify systemic issues.
• Act quickly on negative feedback: Proactive outreach to dissatisfied customers can help recover potentially lost customers.

When and Why to Use CSAT:

CSAT is particularly useful when you want to:

• Measure the effectiveness of specific customer service interactions (e.g., support calls, chat sessions).
• Gauge customer satisfaction with particular products or features.
• Identify areas for immediate improvement in your customer service processes.
• Track the impact of changes you've made to your service or product offerings.

CSAT is a valuable tool for understanding the customer experience at a granular level. By leveraging this metric effectively, businesses can identify and address customer pain points, improve service quality, and ultimately boost customer satisfaction. While not a perfect measure of overall customer loyalty, CSAT offers invaluable real-time insights that can drive tactical improvements and enhance the customer journey. Tools like Salesforce Service Cloud and Zendesk offer integrated CSAT survey functionality, making implementation and analysis even easier. While Fred Reichheld popularized CSAT, he later developed the Net Promoter Score (NPS) as an alternative focusing on customer loyalty, highlighting that while valuable, CSAT alone doesn’t tell the whole story.

2. Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a widely used metric for gauging customer loyalty and their likelihood to recommend your company, product, or service. It boils down to a single, straightforward question: "On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend [your company/product/service] to a friend or colleague?" Based on their responses, customers are categorized into three groups: Promoters (9-10), Passives (7-8), and Detractors (0-6). Your NPS is then calculated by subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters, resulting in a score ranging from -100 to +100.

NPS deserves a place on this list because it provides a powerful, yet simple, way to understand customer sentiment and predict future growth. Its simplicity makes it easy to implement across various touchpoints and understand at all levels of your organization. This single metric can act as a valuable compass, guiding your efforts towards improving customer experience and, ultimately, boosting your bottom line. Features like its one-question format and readily available industry benchmarks make it an accessible and effective tool for businesses of all sizes.

Companies like Apple and Discover Financial Services have demonstrated the impact of prioritizing NPS. Apple consistently maintains high NPS scores, reflecting their strong customer loyalty, while Discover Financial Services directly attributed revenue growth to their focused efforts on improving NPS. Similarly, Enterprise Rent-A-Car leveraged NPS to identify areas for improvement in their customer experience, leading to enhanced customer satisfaction.

Pros:

• Strong correlation with business growth: A high NPS often translates to higher customer retention, increased referrals, and ultimately, greater revenue.
• Simple to implement and understand: The single-question format makes it easy to administer and interpret the results.
• Acts as a leading indicator of customer behavior: NPS helps predict future customer actions, such as churn or repeat purchases.
• Widely adopted, allowing for competitive benchmarking: You can compare your score against industry averages to understand your position in the market.

Cons:

• Doesn't provide specific reasons for scores without follow-up questions: While the score itself is valuable, it's essential to understand the "why" behind the rating.
• Cultural biases can affect scoring patterns: Response patterns can vary across different cultures, making direct comparisons challenging.
• Single metric may oversimplify complex customer relationships: Relying solely on NPS can overlook nuanced aspects of customer experience.
• Sensitive to timing of survey administration: External factors, such as recent interactions or promotions, can influence responses.

Tips for effective NPS implementation:

• Always include a follow-up question: Ask customers to explain the reasoning behind their rating. This qualitative data provides valuable insights for improvement.
• Survey strategically: Implement both transactional NPS (after specific interactions) and relational NPS (periodically) to gain a holistic view of customer sentiment.
• Close the loop with detractors: Have managers personally follow up with detractors to address their concerns and turn negative experiences into positive ones.
• Share NPS results widely within the organization: Transparency promotes a customer-centric culture and encourages everyone to contribute to improving the customer experience.

You can learn more about Net Promoter Score (NPS) and its applications. By understanding and actively managing your NPS, you can build stronger customer relationships, drive business growth, and gain a competitive edge. Remember that NPS is most effective when combined with other customer feedback mechanisms and used as a starting point for ongoing dialogue with your customers.

3. First Contact Resolution (FCR)

First Contact Resolution (FCR) is a crucial customer support metric that measures the percentage of customer issues resolved during the initial interaction, without the need for follow-up. A high FCR signifies an efficient and effective support team capable of addressing customer needs comprehensively the first time around. This eliminates the frustration of repeated contacts for the customer and frees up valuable agent time. It's a powerful indicator of customer satisfaction and operational efficiency, earning it a well-deserved spot on this list of important customer support metrics.

How FCR Works:

FCR tracks the support team's ability to provide complete and accurate solutions on the first try. It can be measured through various methods, including post-interaction customer surveys (asking if their issue was fully resolved) or internal tracking within the support system. It’s applicable across all communication channels, including phone, email, chat, and social media. The goal is to identify and address the root cause of the customer's issue efficiently, preventing them from having to contact support again for the same problem.

Why FCR Matters:

FCR directly impacts both customer effort and satisfaction. When customers have their issues resolved quickly and efficiently on the first try, they are more likely to be satisfied with the support experience. This, in turn, can lead to increased customer loyalty and positive word-of-mouth referrals. Furthermore, a high FCR reduces operational costs by minimizing repeat contacts, freeing up agents to handle other inquiries. Conversely, a low FCR can highlight areas for improvement, such as agent training needs, knowledge gaps, or process inefficiencies. Learn more about First Contact Resolution (FCR)

Features and Benefits:

• Tracks Resolution Efficiency: Provides a clear picture of how effectively your team is resolving issues on the first contact.
• Multi-Channel Applicability: Can be measured and applied across phone, email, chat, and other support channels.
• Correlation with Customer Satisfaction: High FCR typically translates to higher customer satisfaction scores.
• Cost Efficiency: Reducing repeat contacts leads to lower operational costs.
• Identifies Training Opportunities: Low FCR rates can pinpoint areas where agents require additional training or resources.

Pros and Cons:

Pros:

• Directly impacts customer effort and satisfaction.
• Reduces operational costs by minimizing repeat contacts.
• Identifies training opportunities and knowledge gaps.
• Highlights process inefficiencies when rates are low.

Cons:

• Can incentivize quick but incomplete resolutions if not managed carefully.
• Difficult to measure accurately across all channels, requiring consistent tracking methods.
• Some complex issues legitimately require multiple interactions, making FCR less relevant in those cases.
• Determining what constitutes 'resolved' can be subjective and requires clear internal definitions.

Examples of Successful Implementation:

Several companies have seen significant improvements by focusing on FCR:

• TD Bank: Improved FCR from 80% to 92%, resulting in substantial cost savings and improved customer satisfaction.
• Comcast: Implemented changes to boost FCR, leading to a 20% reduction in repeat calls.
• American Express: Achieved 90%+ FCR rates by empowering agents with better technology and training.

Tips for Improving FCR:

• Define Clear Criteria: Establish a clear definition of what "resolved" means within your organization.
• Dual Perspective Measurement: Measure FCR from both the company's and the customer's perspective to gain a more holistic view.
• Root Cause Analysis: Analyze the reasons behind repeat contacts to identify systemic issues and areas for process improvement.
• Balanced Approach: Balance FCR with other key metrics like customer satisfaction to avoid rushing resolutions and potentially compromising quality.
• Invest in Training and Knowledge: Equip your agents with thorough training and readily accessible knowledge bases.

Popularized by organizations like the Service Quality Measurement Group (SQM), the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI), and thought leaders like Jeff Rumburg of MetricNet, FCR remains a vital metric for any organization striving to provide excellent customer support.

4. Average Resolution Time

Average Resolution Time (ART), also known as Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR), is a key customer support metric that measures the average time it takes to resolve a customer issue from the moment it's reported until it's fully resolved. This includes the entire lifecycle of a support ticket or case, encompassing any transfers, escalations, and waiting periods. It provides a valuable overview of your support operation's efficiency and directly impacts customer satisfaction.

ART is a critical metric because it reflects the overall customer experience. A long resolution time can lead to frustrated customers, negative reviews, and ultimately, churn. Conversely, a consistently low ART demonstrates efficiency and a commitment to customer satisfaction. This metric deserves its place on this list because it provides a quantifiable measure of support effectiveness, allowing teams to identify areas for improvement and track progress.

Key Features and Benefits:

• Comprehensive Time Measurement: ART covers the entire process, from the initial contact to the final resolution, providing a holistic view.
• Breakdown Capabilities: You can segment ART by issue type, support channel (e.g., email, phone, chat), or team, enabling targeted analysis.
• Inclusion of Wait Times: ART accounts for both active working time and any periods where the customer is waiting for a response or action, highlighting potential bottlenecks.
• Impact on Customer Perception: Resolution time directly influences how customers perceive the quality of your support.

Pros:

• End-to-End Visibility: Gain a clear understanding of the customer journey through the support process.
• Bottleneck Identification: Pinpoint specific stages or processes causing delays.
• Setting Expectations: Establish realistic expectations for both support staff and customers.
• Resource Allocation: Inform workforce planning and resource allocation decisions.

Cons:

• Quality vs. Speed: Prioritizing speed over quality can lead to incomplete resolutions and recurring issues.
• Complexity Variations: Complex issues inherently require more time, making comparisons across issue types challenging.
• Outlier Impact: Extremely complex or unusual cases can skew the average.
• Premature Closure Risk: Agents might be tempted to close tickets prematurely to improve ART, leading to unresolved issues.

Examples of Successful Implementation:

• Shopify: Reduced their ART by 60% by implementing robust self-service options, empowering customers to resolve issues independently.
• IBM: Improved resolution times by 35% through the use of AI-assisted support tools, automating routine tasks and providing agents with relevant information.
• Buffer: Publicly shares their ART as part of their transparency initiative, fostering trust and accountability.

Actionable Tips for Improvement:

• Segment by Complexity: Categorize issues by complexity and set appropriate benchmarks for each category.
• Focus on Wait Times: Prioritize reducing customer wait times rather than rushing agent work.
• Automate Routine Tasks: Utilize automation for repetitive tasks like ticket routing and information gathering.
• Monitor Customer Satisfaction: Track the correlation between ART and customer satisfaction scores to ensure a balanced approach.
• Consider Business Hours: For B2B support, measure resolution time based on business hours rather than calendar time.

When and Why to Use ART:

ART is a valuable metric for any organization that provides customer support. It's particularly useful for:

• Tracking overall support performance: Monitor trends and identify areas for improvement.
• Benchmarking against competitors: See how your ART compares to industry averages.
• Improving customer satisfaction: Identify and address bottlenecks that contribute to long resolution times.
• Optimizing support processes: Streamline workflows and improve efficiency.

By actively monitoring and managing ART, businesses can significantly enhance the customer experience and build stronger relationships.

5. Customer Effort Score (CES)

Customer Effort Score (CES) measures how much effort a customer has to put in to get their issue resolved, a question answered, or a need met. It shifts the focus from exceeding customer expectations to simply making things easy. Instead of aiming for "delight," CES champions a frictionless experience. This is often measured by asking a simple question like, "How easy was it to get your issue resolved today?" on a scale, typically from 1 (very difficult) to 5 or 7 (very easy). The underlying principle is that reducing customer effort is a more effective driver of loyalty than exceeding expectations.

Why CES Matters:

This metric deserves a spot on this list because it directly correlates with customer loyalty and future behavior. It provides a clear indication of where your customer journey is causing friction and frustration. By pinpointing these pain points, you can prioritize improvements that have the biggest impact on customer retention and repeat business. While traditional satisfaction metrics can offer insights, CES is often more predictive of actual customer behavior.

Features and Benefits:

• Focus on Ease and Convenience: CES moves away from emotional metrics like satisfaction and focuses on the practical aspect of how easy it is to interact with your business.
• Scalable Measurement: The simple scale (usually 5 or 7 points) makes it easy to collect and analyze data.
• Targeted Application: You can measure CES for specific interactions (like a support call) or gauge the overall relationship.
• Predictive Power: CES is a strong indicator of customer loyalty and repurchase intention.
• Identifies Friction Points: Low CES scores highlight areas where customers are struggling, allowing you to target improvements effectively.

Pros and Cons:

• Pros:

  • Directly correlates with customer loyalty.
  • Identifies friction points in the customer journey.
  • More predictive of customer behavior than satisfaction alone.
  • Helps prioritize process improvements.

• Cons:

  • Relatively newer metric with less readily available historical benchmark data.
  • May not fully capture the emotional aspects of customer experience.
  • Variations in scale and question wording can make benchmarking challenging.
  • Doesn't always pinpoint specific actions for improvement, requiring further investigation.

Examples of Successful Implementation:

• Amazon's 1-Click ordering: This dramatically reduced the effort required to make a purchase, significantly contributing to their growth and customer loyalty.
• Slack: The platform's intuitive and user-friendly design, focusing on a low-effort experience, played a key role in its rapid adoption.
• T-Mobile's Team of Experts model: By assigning customers a dedicated team, they reduced effort by eliminating the need for transfers between departments.

Actionable Tips for Using CES:

• Timely Measurement: Ask the CES question immediately after an interaction while the experience is fresh in the customer's mind.
• Qualitative Follow-up: Combine CES with open-ended questions (e.g., "What could we have done to make this easier?") to understand the specific drivers of effort.
• Customer Journey Mapping: Map out the entire customer journey to identify high-effort touchpoints.
• Process Simplification: Focus improvements on reducing the number of steps, eliminating repetition, and simplifying processes.
• Channel Optimization: Compare CES across different channels (e.g., phone, email, chat) to optimize your channel strategy.

Popularized By:

The concept of CES was popularized by Matthew Dixon, Karen Freeman, and Nicholas Toman (authors of The Effortless Experience), CEB (now Gartner), and the Harvard Business Review article "Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers." While a direct website link isn't readily available for the overall concept, searching for "The Effortless Experience" will provide numerous resources.

By focusing on reducing customer effort, you can build stronger customer loyalty and drive repeat business more effectively than by simply aiming for customer satisfaction. CES provides a practical framework for identifying and eliminating friction points, ultimately creating a smoother and more enjoyable experience for your customers.

6. Customer Retention Rate

Customer Retention Rate (CRR) is a crucial metric that measures the percentage of customers who stick with your business over a specific period. It's a direct reflection of your company's ability to keep customers engaged, satisfied, and ultimately, loyal. For customer support teams, CRR provides valuable insights into how effectively your support function contributes to overall customer loyalty and the ongoing health of your business. It essentially answers the question: how good are we at keeping our customers coming back?

CRR is calculated with the following formula:

((Number of Customers at End of Period – Number of New Customers Acquired During Period) / Number of Customers at Start of Period) * 100

For example, if you started the quarter with 1000 customers, acquired 200 new customers, and ended the quarter with 1100 customers, your CRR would be ((1100 – 200) / 1000) * 100 = 90%.

This metric deserves a place on this list because it's a powerful indicator of long-term success. While other metrics might show short-term gains, CRR provides a broader view of customer relationships and the overall impact of your support efforts.

Features and Benefits:

• Measures long-term success: CRR provides a valuable perspective on the health of your customer relationships over time.
• Regular Calculation: Typically calculated monthly, quarterly, or annually, allowing for consistent tracking and trend analysis.
• Segmentation: Can be segmented by customer type, value tier, or product line to identify specific areas for improvement.
• Direct Revenue Impact: CRR has a direct impact on company revenue and profitability. Retaining existing customers is significantly more cost-effective than acquiring new ones.

Pros:

• Tied to Revenue and Growth: CRR is directly linked to revenue growth and overall business success.
• Long-Term View: Provides a long-term perspective on the effectiveness of your customer support strategies.
• Cost-Effective: Acquiring new customers is 5-25x more expensive than retaining existing ones, making CRR a key indicator of cost efficiency.
• Quantifies ROI: Helps quantify the return on investment (ROI) of support initiatives and justifies budget allocation.

Cons:

• Lagging Indicator: CRR is a lagging indicator, meaning it doesn't provide immediate feedback on recent changes.
• External Influences: It can be influenced by factors outside of customer support, such as product quality, pricing, and competition.
• Difficult to Isolate Support Impact: Pinpointing the exact contribution of support activities to CRR can be challenging.
• Varying Retention Patterns: Different customer segments naturally exhibit different retention patterns.

Examples of Successful Implementation:

• Apple: Achieves impressive retention rates, partially attributed to their excellent customer support through the Genius Bar.
• Salesforce: Maintains high retention by investing heavily in customer success and support programs.
• Netflix: Closely monitors retention rates and correlates them with support interactions to identify areas for optimization.

Actionable Tips:

• Analyze retention patterns following support interactions to identify positive and negative impacts.
• Implement proactive outreach programs to engage at-risk customers and prevent churn.
• Segment retention analysis by support issue types to pinpoint problem areas and optimize processes.
• Calculate the lifetime value impact of retention improvements to justify support investments and demonstrate value.
• Consider implementing a "save desk" specialized in retaining customers who are attempting to cancel their service or subscription. Learn more about Customer Retention Rate

When and Why to Use This Approach:

CRR is essential for any business, but it's particularly crucial for subscription-based businesses and SaaS companies that rely on recurring revenue. Monitoring CRR allows these businesses to identify churn risks, improve customer lifetime value, and ultimately, drive sustainable growth. The importance of retention metrics was popularized by thought leaders like Frederick F. Reichheld, author of The Loyalty Effect, and the rise of the SaaS industry with its focus on Customer Success models has further cemented the importance of CRR.

7. Average Handling Time (AHT)

Average Handling Time (AHT) is a key metric for understanding the efficiency of your customer support operations. It measures the average duration of a single customer interaction, from start to finish. This includes the time spent actively talking to the customer, any hold time, and the necessary "wrap-up" work after the interaction ends, such as updating records or scheduling follow-ups. While traditionally a call center metric, the principles of AHT are applicable across all support channels, including email, chat, and social media. It essentially tracks how long it takes to fully resolve a customer's issue, regardless of the communication method.

Why AHT Matters:

AHT deserves a place on this list because it provides valuable insights into operational efficiency and resource allocation. By understanding how long interactions typically take, you can better predict staffing needs, optimize schedules, and identify bottlenecks in your support processes. This can lead to significant cost savings and improved customer experience.

Features and Benefits:

• Total Interaction Time: AHT encompasses the entire customer journey, including pre- and post-interaction tasks.
• Granular Breakdown: AHT can be analyzed by channel, agent, team, or even specific issue type, offering granular insights.
• Workforce Planning: Accurate AHT data allows for effective scheduling and resource allocation.
• Process Improvement: Analyzing AHT can highlight areas where processes can be streamlined for greater efficiency.
• Capacity Planning: Understanding AHT helps predict future staffing needs and resource requirements.

Pros and Cons:

• Pros:

  • Clear indicator of operational efficiency.
  • Aids in workforce planning and scheduling.
  • Identifies opportunities for process improvement.
  • Supports capacity planning and resource allocation.

• Cons:

  • Overemphasis on AHT can lead to rushed interactions and decreased customer satisfaction.
  • Focusing solely on AHT can negatively impact resolution rates and quality.
  • Different issue types naturally require varying handling times, making a blanket AHT target problematic.
  • Using AHT as the primary agent performance metric can create perverse incentives.

Successful Implementations:

• Zappos: Famously removed AHT targets to prioritize exceptional customer service, resulting in stronger customer relationships and increased loyalty. One call reportedly lasted over 10 hours!
• Amazon: Leverages AI and machine learning to optimize AHT without sacrificing quality, allowing for efficient and effective customer support.
• American Express: Balances AHT with quality metrics to ensure a consistent and positive customer experience.

Actionable Tips:

• Set Realistic Targets: Establish different AHT targets for various interaction types (e.g., password resets vs. complex technical issues).
• Operational Metric, Not Agent KPI: Primarily use AHT as an operational metric rather than a direct agent performance indicator.
• Empower Your Agents: Invest in robust agent tools, knowledge bases, and training to empower them to resolve issues quickly and effectively.
• Monitor Customer Satisfaction: Track the correlation between AHT and customer satisfaction to ensure efficiency isn't achieved at the expense of quality.
• Streamline Processes: Focus on eliminating unnecessary steps in the support process rather than pressuring agents to rush interactions.

When and Why to Use AHT:

AHT is valuable for any organization providing customer support, especially those dealing with high volumes of inquiries. It's particularly useful for:

• Identifying areas for process improvement: If AHT is consistently high for a specific issue type, it indicates a potential bottleneck that needs addressing.
• Optimizing staffing levels: Understanding AHT allows for more accurate forecasting of staffing needs and efficient scheduling.
• Improving overall efficiency: By analyzing AHT trends, you can identify opportunities to streamline processes and reduce handling times.

While AHT is a powerful metric, it shouldn't be the sole focus. Remember to balance efficiency with quality to ensure a positive customer experience. By focusing on streamlining processes and empowering agents, you can optimize AHT without sacrificing customer satisfaction.

8. Agent Turnover Rate

Agent Turnover Rate is a crucial metric for understanding the health and stability of your customer support team. It measures the percentage of agents who leave your organization within a specific time period, typically calculated monthly or annually. A high turnover rate can significantly impact service quality, increase operational costs, and lead to a loss of valuable institutional knowledge. This metric deserves its place on this list because it provides a direct link between employee well-being and customer experience.

How It Works:

The Agent Turnover Rate is calculated as follows:

(Number of agent departures / Average number of agents) × 100

For example, if you had 100 agents at the start of the year, 110 at the end, and 20 agents left during the year, your average number of agents is (100+110)/2 = 105. Your annual turnover rate would be (20/105) × 100 = 19%.

It's also beneficial to segment turnover into voluntary (agent chooses to leave) and involuntary (agent is terminated) to gain a more granular understanding of the reasons behind agent departures.

Why It Matters:

High agent turnover often signals underlying issues within the support organization, such as:

• Poor management: Lack of support, ineffective communication, or inadequate leadership can drive agents away.
• Difficult working conditions: High stress, excessive workload, or lack of flexibility can lead to burnout and attrition.
• Inadequate compensation and benefits: Agents may leave for better opportunities elsewhere if they feel undervalued.
• Insufficient training: Lack of proper training can leave agents feeling unprepared and frustrated, leading to higher turnover.

Features and Benefits:

• Identifies potential problems: High turnover rates highlight areas needing improvement, like management practices, compensation, or training programs.
• Predicts future needs: Understanding turnover trends helps forecast hiring and training requirements.
• Calculates the true cost of turnover: This includes not only hiring costs but also the cost of lost productivity, training new hires, and transferring knowledge.
• Correlates with customer satisfaction: High turnover often leads to inconsistent service quality and decreased customer satisfaction.

Examples of Successful Implementation:

• Costco: Known for its low turnover rates, Costco invests in its employees through above-market compensation and a supportive work environment.
• Southwest Airlines: Their culture-first approach prioritizes employee well-being, resulting in turnover rates significantly lower than industry averages.
• Zappos: Offers new hires $2,000 to quit after training, a seemingly counterintuitive strategy that ensures only committed employees stay, ultimately reducing long-term turnover.

Pros and Cons:

Pros:

• Highlights issues in management, working conditions, and compensation.
• Directly correlates with support quality and knowledge retention.
• Helps forecast hiring and training needs.
• Enables calculation of the true cost of turnover.

Cons:

• Some turnover is inevitable and can even be healthy, bringing in new perspectives and skills.
• Doesn't automatically distinguish between high and low performers leaving.
• By itself, doesn't identify the root causes; further investigation is required.
• Industry benchmarks vary widely, making comparisons difficult.

Actionable Tips:

• Calculate the full cost of turnover: Consider all associated expenses, including hiring, training, lost productivity, and knowledge transfer.
• Conduct thorough exit interviews: Identify patterns and recurring reasons for departures.
• Focus on first-year retention: Improve onboarding and mentoring programs to support new hires.
• Monitor team-specific turnover: Identify potential management issues within specific teams.
• Track correlations between turnover and customer satisfaction: Understand the impact of agent turnover on customer experience.

Popularized By:

• Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)
• Contact Center industry research firms like ICMI
• McKinsey's service operations practice

By actively monitoring and managing your Agent Turnover Rate, you can create a more stable, productive, and engaged support team, ultimately leading to improved customer satisfaction and business outcomes.

8 Key Customer Support Metrics Comparison

Metric	Implementation Complexity (🔄)	Resource Requirements (⚡)	Expected Outcomes (📊)	Ideal Use Cases (⭐)	Key Advantages (💡)
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)	Simple survey-based setup	Minimal – quick post-interaction surveys	Immediate satisfaction feedback for tactical improvements	Evaluating individual interactions and service quality	Direct measure of satisfaction; easy to analyze
Net Promoter Score (NPS)	Very simple one-question format with optional follow-up	Low to moderate – basic survey with follow-up analysis	Indicates customer loyalty and willingness to recommend	Benchmarking overall customer loyalty and growth	Widely applicable; strong growth indicator; competitive benchmarking
First Contact Resolution (FCR)	Moderate – requires tracking and clear resolution definitions	Moderate – relies on internal tracking or surveys	Improved efficiency and cost reduction through issue resolution	Assessing support efficiency and agent performance	Reduces repeat contacts; highlights resolution effectiveness
Average Resolution Time	Moderate – involves detailed time tracking	Moderate – requires comprehensive data collection	Identifies process bottlenecks and areas for operational improvement	Evaluating end-to-end support processes; planning resources	Provides visibility of the support lifecycle; aids workforce planning
Customer Effort Score (CES)	Simple – survey-based measure	Minimal – quick measurement using a scale	Reveals friction points impacting customer loyalty	Assessing ease of service and reducing customer effort	Directly correlates with loyalty; identifies friction in processes
Customer Retention Rate	Moderate – requires longitudinal tracking	High – relies on integrated customer data analysis	Reflects long-term loyalty and revenue retention impact	Evaluating overall customer relationship health	Direct connection to revenue; measures long-term success
Average Handling Time (AHT)	Moderate – needs integrated time-logging systems	Moderate – data from all contact channels needed	Provides insight into operational efficiency and staffing needs	Managing call centers and multi-channel support environments	Identifies process improvements; supports resource allocation
Agent Turnover Rate	Low to moderate – tracked via HR systems	Moderate – based on HR and operational data	Measures team stability and its effect on service quality	Monitoring support team health and retention risks	Highlights management and training issues; quantifies turnover costs

Putting Customer Support Metrics to Work

From Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) and Net Promoter Score (NPS) to First Contact Resolution (FCR) and Customer Effort Score (CES), understanding and actively monitoring these key metrics is paramount to delivering exceptional customer support. This article has highlighted eight essential metrics that provide a holistic view of your team’s performance, pinpoint areas needing improvement, and empower your agents to excel. Remember, optimizing metrics like Average Resolution Time and Average Handling Time (AHT) can significantly impact customer satisfaction and retention, while also reducing agent turnover. To effectively improve customer support, tracking and analyzing key performance indicators (KPIs) is crucial. For a comprehensive guide on essential customer service KPI examples and how to leverage them, explore this resource from TriageFlow's blog, "Essential Customer Service KPI Examples: A Comprehensive Guide for Optimizing Support Performance."

Mastering these concepts and consistently applying these approaches allows you to build a customer-centric support organization that fosters loyalty and drives business growth. By focusing on the metrics that matter, you are not only improving individual interactions but also shaping a positive brand reputation and strengthening customer relationships for long-term success.

Ready to transform your customer support and see measurable improvements in your key metrics? Explore how Screendesk, with its powerful suite of video tools for screen recording, live video calls, and video message libraries, can empower your team to boost FCR, enhance communication, and ultimately drive customer satisfaction.