Metrics
Definitions | Key Performance Indicators | Measurement Strategies | Benchmarks
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Why Can’t You Close More Cases at First Contact?
What percent of cases can your Support team close at first contact? The industry average rate across all customer segments and product types is 53.7%. Some support groups close cases at higher rates while other groups close cases at first contact at far lower rates. The question every support team should be asking is “Can we close more cases at first contact? If not, why?”
This article introduces the top inhibitors to closing case at first contact.
read moreBeyond Service Metrics – Focus on What Really Matters
If you are an executive at an information technology company you have a lot to think about on a day to day basis, but there are 5 more things that you need to be aware of.
Your service organization is an incredible source of metrics and measurements that describe ongoing interactions with your customers. They can tell you about the top concerns of your customers, the challenges they face using your products and the features they want to see in the future.
Service interactions with customers offer a wealth of insights into how to sustain and grow customer relationship value and create opportunities to differentiate your products. Of all the metrics your service team tracks there are 5 important areas that you should key a close eye on.
read moreFirst Contact Resolution (FCR) Benchmarks
The industry average first contact resolution rate is 53.7%, an interesting yet meaningless number for determining what your FCR performance level should be. This article provides industry average FCR rates organized by common product characteristics including: The type of product; product complexity; type of customer supported, product price level; and the quality of the product as measured by defect rates. Leverage these benchmarks as a guideline to establish your optimal FCR performance level.
read moreThree Critical Metrics to Retain and Grow Customer Relationship Value
If you inventory all the metrics used by your customer-facing organizations – Sales, Marketing and Service – you will find an impressive collection of data elements that describe how you interact with your customers. Marketing metrics describe the ability to reach and influence customers; Sales metrics provide insights into the time and efficiency to book revenue; and Service metrics describe the volume, timeliness, and effectiveness of interacting with them. Add to this, insights provided from customer satisfaction assessment efforts. As an industry we have a lot of customer data, but does it tell us everything we need to know about how to engage and sustain long term profitable relationships?
read moreFirst Contact Resolution (FCR) Defined
First Contact Resolution (FCR) is a common metric used throughout the technology services and broader customer services industries. While widely used the underlying inputs and assumptions that makeup FCR vary widely. A consistent definition of FCR is essential to identify opportunities to improve customer satisfaction with case management activities and to increase support efficiency and effectiveness. This article provides a consistent and comprehensive definition and approach for measuring First Contact Resolution.
read moreService Renewal Metrics: Definitions and Benchmarks
Service renewal metrics indicate the level of performance for sustaining service relationships and retaining recurring revenue. Tracking both service contract renewal and recurring revenue retention is essential to help identify the factors that lead to customer and revenue retention and attrition and provide important indicators about the overall state of customer relationship health.
read moreService Revenue Generation Metrics
The ability to accurately track the effectiveness of Service Revenue Generation activities is essential to maximizing revenue from new and existing customers. There are three primary opportunities to capture service revenue including the sale of new contracts at the time of the initial product sale (Attach); renewal of existing service contracts (Renew); and as reinstatements (Win Back) of contracts that have been previously cancelled by customers. This article presents a consistent set of metrics and definitions to help companies measure the overall of service sales and renewal policies, programs and personnel.
read moreFive Characteristics of Highly Effective Service Organizations
Five Characteristics of Highly Effective Service Organizations The start of a new year is a time when many service organizations embark on new initiatives to improve the effectiveness of service operations. Delivery strategies, systems, programs, organizational...
read moreMeasuring the Return on Knowledge Management
For knowledge management to yield maximum benefit the organization must properly fund and support the initiative. The lack of support is the primary reason for the failure of knowledge management projects.
read moreBad Attach? Is There Such a Thing?
If you only care about the first-year revenue from support and maintenance contracts, then any attach is a good attach. If you want to maximize revenue from the support annuity , then contract attach followed by a successful renewal is essential.
read moreStemming Maintenance Contact Attrition
When achieving industry-average renewal performance the percent of customers under contract erodes to 46% of the original relationships at the end of a five-year period. Here are suggestions for moving beyond industry average performance.
read moreBeyond Deflection – What to Do with Your “Savings”
Self-help and service automation (e.g. chatbots) provide a means to save money and lower the overall costs of service delivery. Consider however that savings from deflection represents an opportunity to reinvest to improve service outcomes by reallocating staff to high value activities (e.g. onboarding, adoption, retention, expansion, etc.). This article introduces the top opportunities to reinvest in service.
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