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Wednesday, February 23, 2005

How To Measure Customer Service?

Today, your customers want more of those things they value. If they value convenience or speed when they buy, they want it easier and faster. If they look for state-of-the-art design, they want to see the art pushed forward. If they need expert advice, they want you to give them more depth, more time, and more of a feeling that they’re the only customer.

The principle of caveat emptor, or buyer beware, has been with us at least since Roman times. For your business today, the more relevant principle might be caveat mercator - seller beware. Buyers have become pretty good at minding their own interests. Of course, they run some risk every time they make a purchase, but on the whole they learn from their mistakes, and when they get bad value, they rarely come back for seconds.

So, it is critical for your commercial survival to provide excellent Customer Service. At the very least, you need to monitor the underlisted key measures if you wish to ensure effective support of your customers:
  • Cost to Serve - The cost to serve a customer expressed in USD, or EURO, or local currency;
  • First Call Resolution - Number of customer support calls resolved expressed as a % of the total number of customer support calls received;
  • Customer Satisfaction Rate - A measure of the satisfaction of a customer with the support that is provided by your enterprise;
  • Complaints Rate - The number of complaints received expressed as a proportion of your total number of customers.


“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.”

Willa A. Foster