{"id":24620,"date":"2021-11-16T10:00:19","date_gmt":"2021-11-16T10:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/?p=24620"},"modified":"2024-02-21T16:01:30","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T16:01:30","slug":"support-metrics-evolving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/support-metrics-evolving\/","title":{"rendered":"From cost center to value driver: How support metrics are evolving"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the not-too-distant past, customer support was viewed as a cost center \u2013 a necessary, but non-profitable, part of a business.<\/p>\n

Today, more and more businesses are realizing the true bottom-line value that incredible customer service brings to a business \u2013 customer loyalty<\/a>, retention<\/a>, and advocacy to name but a few. In fact, customers don\u2019t just seek out higher quality service \u2013 they\u2019re willing to pay more for it.<\/a><\/p>\n

With this shift in mindset, the key question becomes: \u201chow can we measure the value<\/em> of support and set metrics that drive meaningful <\/em>change?\u201d Rather than solely monitoring costs, support leaders are turning their attention to tracking the quality, speed, and long-term business impact<\/a> of their customer experience.<\/p>\n

We talked with support leaders at several customer-centric companies \u2013 including Zapier<\/a>, Wistia<\/a>, and InVision<\/a> \u2013 to get insight into how their support metrics have evolved, and why.<\/p>\n

From operational costs to bottom-line growth (\ud83d\udc4b retention)<\/h2>\n

Gone are the days of tallying up costs and solely looking inward at operating overheads. To understand the true measure of support success, today’s modern support leaders are looking at the overall health of the business. And the metric that makes one of the biggest impacts on your business health is how well you\u2019re able to retain your customers.<\/p>\n

It’s no surprise then, that our study<\/a> of almost 600 support leaders revealed that 30% of support teams planned to measure customer retention<\/a> and 25% planned to do the same for renewals in the next year.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Leading companies like Zapier are increasingly monitoring bottom-line metrics like customer retention and expansion to determine whether or not their support efforts are paying off. Zapier’s VP of Customer Support & Success Pam Dodrill says her teams are doing this by looking at long-term usage:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

After all, what good is a single positive interaction if the customer runs into another issue and churns two days later? By tracking retention, Zapier can identify whether or not their efforts are actually helping their customers find success with the product a month, year, or decade later.<\/p>\n

Recent research from ProfitWell<\/a> backs up this approach. Their study found that companies \u201cwith some sort of customer success function\u201d see a 10% boost in net retention when compared to those without. If any<\/em> business with a customer success function can boost their retention, imagine the competitive advantage you can gain by providing a world-class customer experience<\/a> with the goal of retention as your North Star.<\/p>\n

“Support teams are increasingly co-owning critical business goals and partnering with cross-functional teams to drive growth”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From siloed org to cross-functional success<\/h3>\n

Until recently, many support teams worked in isolation, tracking siloed metrics tied to operational costs. Today, forward-thinking businesses are bringing support into the cross-functional fold<\/a>. It takes a village \u2013 every team from support, to product, to marketing, to sales \u2013 to improve bottom-line business metrics like customer retention, renewals, and loyalty. Support teams are increasingly co-owning these critical business goals and partnering with cross-functional teams to drive growth.<\/p>\n

“It’s really, really important to have that customer mindset and ensure that, every step of the way, there’s an opportunity to connect the teams together and have the right conversations at the right times”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Delivering an exceptional customer experience that exceeds expectations is a challenge that everyone, including support, needs to tackle together. Instead of thinking \u201cour team is doing fine \u2013 just look at our CSAT score\u201d or \u201cthat\u2019s not our job,\u201d support, sales, and customer success teams should look to sync up and ensure they have visibility over the customer history through their tools and systems.<\/p>\n

Leandra Fishman, Intercom’s Chief Revenue Officer, uses the analogy of baton passing. “We’re all in a relay and the customer is the baton,” she says<\/a>. “You can think about that in terms of processes \u2013 making sure customers don’t fall through the cracks or get frustrated in the process. It’s really, really important to have that customer mindset and ensure that, every step of the way, there’s an opportunity to connect the teams together and have the right conversations at the right times.”<\/p>\n

Improving the product and customer journey with data<\/h2>\n

Empowered support teams can help drive improvements across the entire customer journey. How? By sharing qualitative and quantitative customer data. It’s no secret that your support team is deeply familiar with your customers\u2019 pain points, issues, and goals. They’re better placed than anyone else in your organization to:<\/p>\n