{"id":18177,"date":"2020-10-14T20:40:28","date_gmt":"2020-10-14T19:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/?p=18177"},"modified":"2023-10-24T17:48:07","modified_gmt":"2023-10-24T16:48:07","slug":"how-to-keep-kpis-meaningful-for-your-customer-support-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/how-to-keep-kpis-meaningful-for-your-customer-support-team\/","title":{"rendered":"How to keep customer support KPIs meaningful for your support team"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it,\u201d as Peter Drucker<\/a> put it. But that approach doesn\u2019t just apply to your supply chain management, revenue<\/a> or churn rates<\/a> \u2013 most fundamentally, it also applies to people and our performance.<\/p>\n

People are all unique, and our performance can vary from hour to hour, never mind from day to day. Measuring that is inherently messy and difficult, which is why crafting effective KPIs for people\u2019s performance is so challenging.<\/p>\n

What are Customer Support KPIs?<\/h2>\n

Customer support KPIs are a series of measurements which allow a company to track the success of their operations in relation to achieving their goals or objectives. Key Performance Indicators help managers evaluate how their employees are doing, the value they bring to a team and how their work (and the customer experience) can be improved.<\/p>\n

But KPIs carry the risk of seeming impersonal. When I first started to work at Intercom as a Customer Support Representative (CSR), KPIs were completely foreign to me. I had previously worked in the television and film industry, where there was an entirely different metric \u2013 either I delivered high quality work on time or I didn\u2019t, and I was out. Now, as one of the managers of a global support<\/a> team that is quickly scaling, I can completely understand not only the necessity but the benefits of tracking KPIs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Measuring performance is inherently messy and difficult”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Amid those benefits, however, it can be easy to lose sight of the bigger picture, especially when you’re trying to offer personalized, conversational support \u2013 how do you make sure your KPIs create the right incentives for your CSRs, so that they don\u2019t make the mistake of prioritizing their own KPIs ahead of the customer? How can you ensure that you don\u2019t lose the human in the numbers?<\/p>\n

What customer support KPIs should you track?<\/h2>\n

There are all kinds of metrics<\/a> you can measure when it comes to assessing your customer support<\/a>, and while they will change from industry to industry and from business to business, they will usually seek to measure some blend of quality, speed and customer satisfaction. Some examples that you might want to consider include:<\/p>\n