3 Misleading Customer Support Metrics

Examining your customer support metrics is essential when trying to provide the very best experience for your clients. They can expose bottlenecks in your process and help you realign your support team with your overall business goals. However, with so much information at your fingertips, it may be hard to determine what you should be looking at.

When viewing a data report for your customer support operation, there’s always a chance you may be misled by certain statistics. In an industry where interaction happens on both the client’s and support team’s end, it’s possible some numbers may not tell the whole story. Let’s go over three commonly misunderstood support metrics.

Average Amount of Tickets Closed Per Day

Many people feel the number of tickets closed each day is one of the best ways to evaluate each support agent’s workload. However, this metric can be misleading and even cause internal problems. If a support team knows management is looking at this statistic, it may cause some reps to only work on tickets they can close quickly. This is referred to as “cherry picking.” This practice can cause conflict within a support team and lead to a decrease in morale. Instead, stop including this metric on your data report and look at customer feedback when gauging the performance of your team. This not only provides more insight into the quality of an agent’s service, it deters unhealthy competition.

First Contact Resolution

It seems like you’d always want your first contact resolution numbers to be as high as possible. However, while this appears to be an indication of an extremely efficient support team, there may be problems under the surface. Clients like to know they matter to a company and their opinions are being heard. If your team is always resolving issues upon first contact, there’s a good chance they’re not looking at the big picture. The eagerness to resolve issues quickly could result in related problems being ignored. Your clients may start to feel they’re getting shuffled through the support process too quickly. Make sure you look deeper into this metric.

The Number of Tickets Sent Per Day

When your visual reporting tool is showing a low number of daily tickets being sent, it’s natural to feel like things are running smoothly. This is great for your support team, as their workload is more manageable. However, it turns out that a steady stream of tickets is actually a good thing. It shows that your clients are maintaining healthy interaction with your product. It also justifies the need for a support department equipped with configurable customer support software. A growing business will continue to receive more and more tickets on a daily basis. On the other hand, a decrease in the number of tickets being sent could be an indication of dissatisfaction among your clients.

PhaseWare understands the importance of knowing exactly how your B2B support team is operating. That’s why we provide a number of reporting tools within our configurable customer support software. For more information, contact us today.

Scroll to Top