How do you track customer service improvements?

1 Define your goals and standards

Before you can track your customer service improvements, you need to establish what you want to achieve and how you will measure it. You can start by defining your customer service vision, mission, and values, and aligning them with your business goals and customer feedback. Then, you can set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) objectives for your customer service team and individual agents. For example, you can aim to increase your customer satisfaction (CSAT) score by 10% in six months, or reduce your average handle time (AHT) by 15% in three months. You also need to define the standards and expectations for your customer service quality, such as response time, resolution rate, professionalism, empathy, and accuracy.

2 Choose your metrics and tools

Once you have established your goals and standards, you need to choose the metrics and tools that will help you track customer service improvements. Customer satisfaction (CSAT), net promoter score (NPS), customer effort score (CES), first contact resolution (FCR), average handle time (AHT), and customer retention rate (CRR) are all metrics that can be used to measure different aspects of customer service. To collect and analyze these metrics, you can use customer service software, surveys, analytics, reports, and dashboards. It's important to choose tools that are compatible with your systems, easy to use, and provide accurate and actionable insights.

3 Monitor and evaluate your results

After you have chosen your metrics and tools, you need to monitor and evaluate your results regularly and consistently. You can do this by setting up a schedule and frequency for tracking your customer service improvements, such as daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly. You should also compare your results with your goals and standards, as well as with industry benchmarks and best practices. You should look for trends, patterns, gaps, and opportunities in your data, and identify the strengths and weaknesses of your customer service performance.

4 Communicate and celebrate your achievements

Tracking your customer service improvements is not only important for measuring your progress, but also for communicating and celebrating your achievements. You should share your results and feedback with your customer service team and other stakeholders, such as your management, employees, and customers. You should also recognize and reward your customer service agents for their efforts and contributions, and celebrate your milestones and successes. This will help you boost your team morale, motivation, and engagement, and foster a culture of continuous improvement.

5 Implement and test your improvements

Finally, tracking your customer service improvements is not enough if you don't implement and test your improvements. You should use your data and insights to create and execute action plans for improving your customer service processes, policies, and practices. You should also test and measure the impact of your improvements, and make adjustments as needed. You should involve your customer service team and customers in your improvement initiatives, and solicit their feedback and suggestions. You should also keep learning and innovating, and stay updated on the latest trends and best practices in customer service.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?