Customer Service Productivity Metrics

When customer service agents are inundated with busy work, it can negatively impact their productivity, as well as your bottom line. A 2022 Formstack report found that 51% of workers spend at least two hours per day on repetitive tasks, costing companies up to $1.3 million a year. To combat this, service leaders need to identify and optimize the right customer service productivity metrics to give their support center more consistent structure.

Luckily, identifying areas to increase operational efficiency in a support center while equipping agents with time-saving resources is not only possible, but it’s also easier than you might think.

Below, we review the most common productivity metrics for support teams, which will help you to gain visibility into areas for improvement and start a journey toward building a more agent-empowered workplace.

1. Average Handle Time

Average handle time (AHT) is one of the most common customer service productivity metrics, measuring the entirety of an agent’s time spent working on a single customer interaction — from starting a conversation to closing the task.

Formula: (Conversation time + hold time + additional work time) / total # of customer conversations

If your AHT score is high

High AHT isn’t necessarily a sign of poor interaction, especially if your goal is to provide careful, hands-on, dedicated customer service that would naturally drive up time spent per conversation. But, consistently high AHT could be a sign that agents are dealing with redundancies when completing simple tasks.

Improving average handle time (AHT)

Gladly offers People Match technology that automatically connects a customer with the best agent suited to address their unique needs based on previous interactions or the channel they reached out on. Our workforce management tool also lets leaders staff and organize their teams to ensure agents are placed in the best possible scenarios to succeed and resolve customer issues at top speed.

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2. Conversation Abandonment Rate

Conversation abandonment rate (CAR) is the measurement of how frequently customers leave a conversation before you can help them reach a solution. CAR applies across channels to measure how often customers are dropping off.

Formula: (# of conversations abandoned / total # of conversations] × 100

If your CAR score is high

When CAR is high, customers are feeling frustrated by the support process — either because it’s taking too long to speak to an agent, or that agent is taking too long to find a solution.

Improving conversation abandonment rate (CAR)

Abandonment can happen when customers find that agents lack the information or resources to solve their specific issues. Gladly provides a centralized knowledge base that lets agents quickly reference product or service information on the fly to achieve a solution fast.

3. First Contact Resolution

First contact resolution (FCR) measures the amount of support requests resolved within the first point of contact, rather than after multiple followup conversations.

Formula: (Conversations resolved on first contact / total # of conversations) x 100

If your FCR score is high

Solving customer issues during a first contact might not always be feasible, but agents should strive to reach a solution every time. If too many interactions require multiple follow-ups, second opinions, or long conversations, something is amiss.

Improving first contact resolution (FCR)

When agents are aware of a customer issue before the conversation even begins, they’re more likely to solve it within the first contact. Our customer details page shows each unique customer’s history, from past purchases to previous conversations, all from an accessible, single source.

4. Replies Per Resolution

Similar to FCR, replies per resolution (RPR) goes more granular within each conversation to uncover how much back and forth is required to solve an issue.

Formula: (Total # of replies on resolved conversations / total # of resolved conversations) x 100

If your RPR score is high

Even if FCR is low, you could still be dealing with inefficiency issues if RPR is high. Using this metric is key to uncovering an often overlooked area of productivity, giving you a target for eliminating talking points that are unnecessarily repeated by returning customers.

Improving replies per resolution (RPR)

Numerous replies in a conversation could mean customers are starting off by asking basic information that wastes both their time and the agents’ time. Better self-service could cut down on excessive RPR by letting customers find a lot of simple answers on their own before involving a live agent. Our self-service tools incorporate detailed information from a centralized knowledge base that updates across your digital presence, ensuring customers can get the quick answers they need no matter how they reach out.

5. Concurrency

Concurrency measures the number of conversations an agent can handle at once, indicating their efficiency.

If your concurrency is low

High concurrency means your agents have the ability to oversee numerous conversations across channels. Lower concurrency indicates your support center forces agents to focus on one thing at a time, rather than multitask.

Improving concurrency

Support centers with good concurrency rates give agents greater access to conversations in a single dashboard, letting them jump in and out of individual communication channels without skipping a beat. Our conversation-driven system harnesses the power of visibility, empowering agents to take in multiple conversations across channels and navigate solutions for each with minimal friction.

Where Efficiency Meets Agent Happiness

When shoe brand KURU needed to consolidate its support efforts and create a more accessible, efficient system for its agents, the company turned to Gladly to provide a centralized platform for a dominant omnichannel customer experience. KURU quickly became more effective at engaging customers throughout their sales journey and achieved a 3x reduction in CAR in less than three months.

Want the same productivity upgrades that KURU and numerous other brands have achieved? Try a demo of Gladly to see how you can start putting your efficiency findings into practice.

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