Closely monitoring customer service KPIs is essential for any company that wants to improve the customer experience, gain clarity on team performance, and direct efforts in a truly strategic way.
In this guide, you will discover which KPIs to monitor and how to apply this data strategically to make more assertive decisions, improve the performance of your customer service team, and increase customer satisfaction levels.
What are customer service KPIs?
Customer service KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators, are metrics that help evaluate the efficiency of the support provided by the company and the quality of customer interactions.
Through this data, your company can gain a clear view of the impact of each strategy, facilitating adjustments to processes and allowing your team to make more accurate decisions to maintain consistent service that is aligned with public expectations.
Top 10 Customer Service KPIs
Below, you can check out the most important indicators for evaluating the efficiency of your customer service, as well as understand what each KPI is for:
1. Average Service Time (AST)
The TMA shows how long, on average, an operator takes to complete a service. When this number is above the ideal, it may signal slow processes, excessive steps, or lack of staff preparation.
On the other hand, a balanced AHT indicates operational efficiency and good call flow management, without compromising the quality of responses.
Formula: AHT = Total call time ÷ Number of completed calls
2. Average First Response Time (AFRT)
This KPI measures how long the customer waits to receive the first response from the team. The shorter the response time, the greater the perception of agility and promptness in service.
When TMR is high, there are usually bottlenecks in screening, lack of prioritization, or overload in call volume.
Formula: TMR = Sum of first response time ÷ Total number of calls
3. Average Wait Time (AWT)
TME represents the time a customer waits to receive service from your team. It is important to keep this number under control, as it directly influences the customer experience and reduces the risk of abandonment.
High values indicate that the demand for service is above the team’s capacity or that the flow is not well distributed.
Formula: TME = Total waiting time ÷ Number of calls
4. Resolução no primeiro contato (FCR)
Next, we have First Contact Resolution or FCR, a KPI that indicates the percentage of requests resolved on first contact. Unlike other indicators, a high index shows us that the team is prepared and able to resolve issues quickly, without the need for follow-up.
Formula: FCR (%) = (Cases resolved on first contact ÷ Total cases) × 100
5. Dropout Rate
The abandonment rate shows us how many customers give up before even being served by your team. High values are directly related to long waiting lines, delays in service, or staff unavailability.
Strategies to reduce this rate involve: adjustments to the work schedule, implementing automation for initial stages, and offering more efficient channels to absorb the volume of requests.
Formula: Abandonment rate (%) = (Abandoned calls ÷ Total calls received) × 100
6. Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)
CSAT allows you to accurately measure customer satisfaction immediately after service, and although simple, it is one of the most important indicators for better understanding immediate perceptions of support.
Low scores indicate communication failures, delays, or insufficient results.
Formula: CSAT (%) = (Number of positive responses ÷ Total responses) × 100
7. Índice de Recomendação Líquida (NPS)
You will also need to monitor NPS, which reveals how likely customers are to recommend your company to others. However, it is important to note that when NPS drops, it means that there are other problems throughout the customer journey, not just in customer service.
Formula: NPS = % Promoters — % Detractors
8. Índice de esforço do cliente (CES)
To measure the effort required by the customer to resolve a problem, we use the CES. High scores indicate an excess of unnecessary steps, while low scores are indicative of intuitive and efficient processes.
Formula: CES = Sum of effort responses ÷ Total number of responses
9. Volume of Services Provided
Recording the number of requests received in a given period is essential to understanding your customers’ actual demand and identifying peaks in ticket openings. This allows your company to adjust its workforce according to periods of higher volume, increasing efficiency and reducing unnecessary costs.
10. Resolution Rate
Finally, we have the resolution rate, which shows us the number of cases that were successfully resolved. When this rate is low, we can conclude that the processes are poorly structured or that your team does not have the necessary tools to resolve the cases.
Formula: Resolution rate (%) = (Resolved cases ÷ Total cases) × 100
How to choose the right KPIs for your business
In order to choose which KPIs to monitor, it is essential that you are clear about the goals and results you want to achieve. To make it easier, we have prepared a mini guide with the most important steps:
- Define the main objective: Some examples of goals are increasing sales, reducing costs, improving customer service, increasing retention rates, etc.
- Identify which actions impact your goal: Map out the points that most influence the results. For example, if your goal is to increase sales, monitoring traffic, conversion rates, and response times is essential.
- Choose measurable and actionable metrics: Good KPIs should be easy to measure, updated frequently, and point to possible areas for improvement.
- Ensure that KPIs are realistic and relevant: Use only metrics that really influence your business decisions, not those that just look good.
- Use tools that facilitate analysis and integration: Through intelligent solutions and tools, such as Jivo, you and your team can track customer service metrics in real time, including average response time, first response rate, post-service satisfaction, and much more.
How to improve your customer service KPIs in practice
Now that KPIs have been defined and monitored, it’s time to take action to improve each one. Here are some suggestions for quick and direct actions that will impact your results:
- Standardize customer service: Create clear scripts and flows to reduce average handling time and increase first contact resolution.
- Train your team regularly: Providing the right training for your team improves communication, increases agility, and, consequently, boosts customer satisfaction.
- Automate simple tasks: Implementing chatbots and using quick responses reduces wait times and speeds up service.
- Balance service distribution: This prevents staff overload, improves SLAs, and maintains stable quality.
- Reinforce a culture of feedback: Use customer praise and complaints to adjust processes and increase CSAT and FCR.
Have you learned what Customer Service KPIs are?
We hope our guide has helped you understand how customer service KPIs work, which indicators really matter, and how to use them strategically to improve your team’s performance and deliver a more efficient customer experience.