How can you determine the best KPIs for your complaint management process?

1 Step 1: Define your complaint management objectives

Before you choose your KPIs, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with your complaint management process. Do you want to reduce the number of complaints, resolve them faster, increase customer satisfaction, or prevent them from recurring? Your objectives should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) and aligned with your overall customer service strategy and vision.

2 Step 2: Choose relevant and meaningful KPIs

Once you have your objectives, you need to select the KPIs that will help you monitor and evaluate your progress and performance. KPIs are quantifiable metrics that reflect how well you are doing in relation to your goals. For example, if your objective is to improve customer loyalty, you could focus on the Net Promoter Score (NPS) and complaint recurrence rate. If your objective is to optimize complaint handling efficiency, you might look at complaint volume and resolution time. Other common KPIs for complaint management include the complaint rate (percentage of customers who complain out of the total number of customers), complaint resolution rate (percentage of complaints that are resolved satisfactorily), customer satisfaction score (CSAT) (average rating of how satisfied customers are with the complaint resolution), and average time it takes to resolve a complaint. You should choose the KPIs that are most relevant and meaningful for your complaint management objectives and your customer service context.

3 Step 3: Set realistic and challenging targets

After you have your KPIs, you need to set targets that will indicate whether you are meeting or exceeding your expectations. Targets are numerical values that you aim to achieve or surpass for each KPI. For example, you might set a target of reducing your complaint volume by 10% in six months, or increasing your CSAT by 20% in one year. Your targets should be realistic and challenging, meaning that they are attainable but not too easy or too hard. You can use historical data, industry benchmarks, and customer feedback to help you set your targets.