Support Leaders need a reliable way to connect the effort of Support teams to the value they deliver to the business.
Introducing the Support Contribution Index, a method to quantify the value of Support by connecting the level of Support effort to tangible business outcomes.
The objective of this Index is to quantify the impact of Support’s efforts to help customers and move beyond measures focused on the volume and speed of cases closed.
The Support Contribution Index provides a basis to quantify how Support contributes to tangible business focused outcomes including:
- Retaining customer relationships (and revenue).
- Keep customers happy (and referenceable).
- Identify opportunities to expand and grow relationships.
Although Support may not specifically “own” these outcomes, it certainly can contribute significantly to help companies achieve these goals.
We have created an institutionalized belief that volume of transactions, speed of closure, and satisfaction are the extent of Support’s contributions to the business.
This is not enough.
To measure Support’s Contribution, consider the extent to which Support delivers the following benefits:
OBSTACLES REMOVED
Cases resolved resulting in customers’ unimpeded path to full adoption.
RISK MITIGATED
Support actions taken to put customers at a lower risk of operational disruption caused by security, performance, or reliability issues.
RELATIONSHIP HEALTH IMPROVED
Support actions taken to improve the overall health of the relationship.
ADOPTION ACCELERATED
Support actions taken to accelerate product use (license consumption and feature consumption).
INSIGHTS APPLIED
Actionable feedback from support interactions applied to nurture relationships, make better products, and drive expansion.
You can include or exclude other benefits that align to the unique nature of your business.
How to Feed the Support Contribution Index
- Train your support team to capture the nature and result of a closed case. Have them indicate what benefit they delivered to the customer.
- Leverage voice of the customer initiatives. Go beyond asking about satisfaction and level of effort and ask them how you helped them.
- Extract value delivered from unstructured customer interactions. Leverage text extraction and data analytics tools. AI tools excel at this, put them to work to find the value in your unstructured digital support interactions.
The Bottom Line
- Quantify tangible Support value delivered.
- Connect Support efforts to what the business values.
- Communicate Support’s contributions to others across the business.
- Do it efficiently.
Ready to Evolve Your Support Metrics?
If you’re interested in transforming your Support metrics to demonstrate true business value, Contact ServiceXRG to request access to the NextGen Support Benchmark Toolkit through our website, online chat, or by e-mail.
To Learn more about NextGen Support Metrics read the full report – NextGen Support Metrics for 2025 and Beyond.
