What are the key metrics for improving customer service in Telecommunication Services?

Measuring customer service metrics are very crucial to understand how well a Telco is meeting customer needs and expectations. Among the myriad of metrics, the CSAT, Net Promoter Score and First Call Resolution stand out for their prevalence and importance. CSAT measures customer satisfaction with a service or experience at a specific touchpoint or overall. It's usually obtained through surveys asking customers to rate their satisfaction on a scale.

Starting with more straightforward metrics before diving into more complex ones is a prudent approach. Here are some key metrics: Average Response Time: Lowering this value leads to higher satisfaction as customers appreciate prompt assistance. Average Handling Time: . Decreasing this value indicates efficient problem-solving and enhances customer satisfaction. First-Time Resolution (FTR): Increasing this percentage indicates that customers receive satisfactory solutions promptly, boosting satisfaction and loyalty. Repeated Faults: Lowering this percentage indicates improved service quality and problem resolution, leading to higher customer satisfaction.

1. Customer Satisfaction (CSAT): This is a commonly used Key Performance Indicator (KPI) to track how customers are satisfied with the products/services they are served with from Service providers. 2. Overall resolution rate: This is the rate at which a customer's complaint is resolved. This can be used to know the effectiveness of a service provider. Other metrics include; Net promoter score, Customer effect score, First response time.

This is the first time I have been asked this question by linkedin, with 15 years of experience on my back, most of the answers remain same the basic metrics for improving customer service/customer experience in the telecommunications industry is the first interactin point should resolve the customer query in First contact resolution. First Contact Resolution (FCR) Identification of problem should be correct and to the point. Average Response Time (ART) Average Handling Time (AHT) Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) Net Promoter Score (NPS) Customer Effort Score (CES) Churn Rate

Algumas métricas podem medir a satisfa??o do cliente, dentre elas podemos citar 3 tipos de métricas:- Relacionamento (Satisfa??o do Cliente CSAT, Esfor?o do Cliente CES e churn rate) - Desempenho e eficiência: Tempo médio de Espera TME, tempo médio de atendimento TMA, First call resolution) - Outras métricas podem ser Medir os canais de atendimento como mídias sociais e feedback dos clientes normalmente colhido por NPS ou pesquisas direcionadas. é importante lembrar que n?o existe uma única métrica que seja a mais importante para o atendimento ao cliente. O ideal é utilizar um conjunto de métricas que forne?am uma vis?o completa da experiência do cliente.

The use of verbatim analysis is a common approach to leveraging NPS data, however a common issue I've found is that sometimes the customer verbatim might not match their score (e.g. poor feedback but high score and vice versa) as the customer often responds to the survey with their overall experience in mind, rather than responding to the specific experience the NPS survey is asking for. E.g. I have sometimes observed customers complaining about their mobile phone connectivity in NPS surveys regarding their NBN connection. To properly leverage NPS data, organisations need to be able to connect NPS performance with Operational metrics. This will enable businesses to target the right operational improvements.

NPS is a great tool; though telcos need to increase reach of customer who gives that feedback. ideally its limited to customer who opens a ticket or have a issue and at end of resolution survey is taken but customers who are having hassle free experience tends to ignore the feedback and thus actual NPS view gets truncated

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a critical metric in assessing customer loyalty and advocacy in the Telecommunications Services sector. It measures the likelihood of customers recommending a service or product to others on a scale from 0 (not at all likely) to 10 (extremely likely). Customers are categorized as promoters (9-10), passives (7-8), or detractors (0-6). NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. This score offers insights into customer loyalty, retention, and the potential for market growth, providing a clear indicator of a company's position and its prospects for expansion.

NPS is a very relevant indicator of customer loyalty and satisfaction in telecom industry. In a highly competitive telco industry with commoditisation of products, customer churn can have significant impact on revenue. NPS offers valuable insights into how likely customers are to recommend a telecom service to others. For example, a telecom company with a high NPS is likely to experience better customer retention rates and more positive word-of-mouth than competitors with lower scores. Companies such as Verizon and T-Mobile often highlight their NPS achievements in earnings calls and marketing materials, using high scores to demonstrate superior customer service and network quality

NPS is over valued. Often the survey goes to someone who was not involved and too often the responses are not germane to the issue.

First Contact Resolution (FCR) is a pivotal metric for telecommunication service providers, gauging the efficiency of customer service agents in resolving issues or queries at the first point of contact, thereby negating the need for follow-ups or escalations. Calculated by dividing the number of queries resolved on the first attempt by the total number of contacts, FCR underscores the ability to minimize operational costs while simultaneously boosting customer satisfaction and loyalty. Furthermore, it serves as a benchmark for service quality and efficiency. By evaluating agent performance and pinpointing training needs, FCR facilitates the enhancement of overall service delivery.

With the evolution of AI, FCR is evolving to become even more impactful. AI technologies, such as chatbots and intelligent virtual assistants, are being integrated into customer service operations to provide instant, 24/7 support. AI systems can quickly analyze vast amounts of data to identify and resolve common issues without escalating to human agents, thereby improving FCR rates.

FCR means nothing in a complex network or structure. It is valid in an “on/off, test/no” scenario but in a network break fix often involves the engagement of multiple entities to resolve an issue or event

If AHT is used independently, I've found that is a poor measure of customer experience, especially when it is used as a KPI for contact centres. Setting an AHT target tends to motivate agents to close calls earlier in order to meet 'KPI' rather than focusing on solving customer concerns. AHT should mainly be used for resource optimisation instead, ensuring you have sufficient staff available to respond to customer calls.

Average Handle Time (AHT) measures the duration customer service agents spend on a customer contact, from start to finish, including hold, transfer times, and after-call work. Calculated by dividing total handle time by the number of contacts, AHT helps telecommunication service providers optimize resource allocation, enhance productivity, and increase profitability. It also monitors agent workload and stress, ensuring adherence to service level agreements and customer expectations. This metric is crucial for balancing efficiency with quality customer service.

AHT is commonly used in customer service and contact center environments to measure the average duration of customer interactions, including the time it takes to resolve an issue or answer a query. AHT is a valuable metric for monitoring and optimizing customer service operations, enhancing efficiency, and ultimately improving the overall customer experience.

The Customer Effort Score (CES) is a metric used to assess the ease with which customers can resolve their issues or queries with a company's product or service. Customers rate their effort on a scale from 1 (very low effort) to 5 (very high effort), and the average of these ratings forms the CES score. This metric enables telecommunication service providers to enhance customer experience, retention, and loyalty by minimizing the friction and frustration encountered during interactions. By identifying customer pain points and barriers, CES aids in designing solutions that simplify and streamline the customer journey, making it an essential tool for improving customer satisfaction.

The expectations set with customers when they first engage their telco provider is a major contributor towards their experience. A great lag metric to introduce is a '% Commitment Met" measure that allows the business to identify how often they met the obligations they set upfront with their customer. By matching this metric with NPS outcomes, it can enable businesses to easily identify whether the NPS outcome was driven by a poor engagement experience (which is what many of the measures above focused on) or if was driven by poor operational performance that prevented the organisation from meeting its commitment to the customer.

Total time to repair (TTR) is the critical metric. Customer doesn’t care what the Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) is. They care that they have been down for seemingly days and to them a supplier lack of urgency is contributing to their outage

Couple of other key considerations that has really worked for me when evaluating telco customer service performance- Customer journey analytics -Tracking interactions across the entire customer journey, not just single touchpoints, can reveal deeper insights into customer satisfaction and pinpoint areas for improvement across various channels and services. Social listening scores- Beyond direct feedback, social listening scores measure sentiment and discussions about your brand on social media and forums. This can capture unfiltered customer perceptions and emerging trends that might not be evident through traditional surveys.