Top customer service metrics and rating scales explained
Learn how to measure customer service and get the most out of your data. Ready to start collecting customer feedback? Use a template to create and send a survey in minutes.
According to our SurveyMonkey 2023 State of CX Report, 90% of consumers say customer service and support are important for the brands they like.
In fact, more than half (57%) say they’d stop doing business with a company after a poor experience. Scary, right? The good news is that customer service is one channel you can control and measure more easily than others, like social media or word-of-mouth.
And customer service makes a difference. Only 2% say customer service and support aren’t important at all.
So, how can you meet (and even exceed) customer expectations? The first step is to make sure you’re paying attention to the customer service metrics that matter.
In this article, you’ll learn about customer service metrics companies use to evaluate success. You’ll also see customer service rating scale examples that enable reliable data.
Customer service vs. customer experience
When professionals talk about the customer experience (CX), they talk about the entire customer journey, from brand discovery to purchase and beyond. It’s every interaction a customer has with your organization across every channel—and their overall impression of your brand.
Customer service is one piece of the customer experience. It’s how your organization directly supports both prospective and current customers. The goals of a customer service team are to answer customer questions and solve issues quickly, efficiently, and with care.
Organizations use customer experience metrics to proactively track brand loyalty, customer satisfaction, consumer sentiment, and more. Some of these metrics are specific to customer service, which is more reactive versus proactive.
Related reading: Your guide to running a customer feedback program
Top customer service metrics
There are two types of metrics you can use to understand your customer service performance. First, you can collect customer feedback by sending customer satisfaction surveys to customers after they interact with your support team. The feedback you collect is subjective, even if it yields quantifiable data.
The second type of customer service metrics you can track are your input metrics, like how long it takes your service agents to respond to customer requests. These inputs can help you draw conclusions between your objective performance and the feedback you’re getting from customers.
Here are the different types of customer feedback metrics and inputs that customer service teams use to evaluate their performance.
Different types of customer service feedback metrics
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
You might know of the Net Promoter Score® (NPS) question: “How likely would you recommend this company to a friend or colleague?” Customers choose a number from 0 (not at all likely) to 10 (extremely likely). Your results show how loyal customers are to your brand.
You can send a Net Promoter Score survey at any point in the customer experience. The NPS question works well in different contexts because it’s usually not tied to one specific event.
When you ask the NPS question in a customer service feedback survey, you’re able to understand how your support may impact customer loyalty to your brand.
How to calculate NPS
When you send a SurveyMonkey survey that includes the NPS question, your score is calculated for you. If you need to calculate your own score, you can use an NPS calculator. Here’s how it works:
- Customers who choose 0 to 6 are detractors. Their opinions may harm your brand image.
- Customers who choose 7 or 8 are passives. They’re satisfied but may not stay loyal to your brand.
- Customers who choose 9 or 10 are promoters. They’re the most satisfied and may recommend you to others.
- Passives aren’t included in your NPS. Figure out the percentages of promoters and detractors you have from your total number of respondents, then use the formula % of promoters - % of detractors = NPS.
- Your NPS can range from -100 to +100, and NPS customer service benchmarks differ by industry. For example, the average score for the ecommerce industry is 62, while it’s 4 for internet and software services. See how you compare to others in your industry with Net Promoter Score benchmarks.
- NPS provides a quick snapshot of your team's performance. It’s one number you can easily track over time. If you see the number consistently decreasing, it’s time to dig into the data.
- Include an open-ended survey question asking customers why they gave you a particular rating. For example, if someone gives you a 6, include the follow-up question: “What changes would this company have to make for you to give it an even higher rating?” You can look at individual responses or use a powerful text analysis tool to quickly understand data trends.
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
While you should use NPS to understand your team’s impact on customer loyalty, you need the Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) to measure how well your team is supporting customers. (Read more about when to use NPS vs. CSAT.)
There are many different examples of customer satisfaction questions. For a customer service survey, ask a question like: “How satisfied were you with the response time of our customer support team?”
Customer satisfaction survey answers are usually on a scale of 1 (extremely dissatisfied) to 3, 5, or 10 (extremely satisfied). To get your CSAT score, you only consider customers who are satisfied with your customer service.
How to calculate Customer Satisfaction Score
Calculate CSAT by dividing the number of satisfied customers by the total number of respondents and multiplying by 100.
- You can rely on customer satisfaction survey templates to get reliable results. If people aren’t taking your surveys, it could be because you’re not following customer satisfaction survey best practices.
- What’s a good CSAT? The American Consumer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) measures customer satisfaction across the US economy. In 2022/2023, the overall US Customer Satisfaction Score was nearly 76%. However, CSAT differs by industry, so you’ll want to check yours against ACSI benchmarks.
- Use the data from your CSAT surveys to prove the ROI of customer satisfaction.
Customer Effort Score (CES)
Our research shows that 91% of consumers will likely recommend a company after a positive, low-effort experience. The Customer Effort Score (CES) measures how easy or difficult it is for customers to achieve tasks when interacting with your product or service.
For example, in a Customer Effort Score survey, you could ask: “How easy was it for you to resolve your recent issue with our customer support?” Answer choices can range from “Much easier than I expected” to “Much more difficult than I expected.”