Customer service audit
The strategy says the customer comes first, but no metric confirms it. We check how customer service really works and set up ways to measure it.
“We say the customer comes first. How do we know?”
Note for decision-makers
- Service metrics with assigned owners, response time standards and a way of handling cases that works day to day, without quarterly rescue operations.
- Customer service is written into the strategy but has no owner, no metric and no budget.
- Nobody intends to make decisions based on metrics. A metric without a decision is just the cost of a report.
- What issues do customers come with most often? We start with the list of issues; the tool is chosen at the end.
What you get
- A catalogue of the issues customers come with, with a rough count for each. Specifically: “where is my order”, “why doesn't the invoice match”, “I want a refund”. A general “customer service” measures nothing.
- Metric definitions: what we measure, what level is good and who is responsible for it.
- A named person for each metric.
- Response time standards for each type of issue.
- A model in which one person handles a case from report to closure, instead of passing it between departments.
- A metric for cases moving from expensive channels to cheaper ones, for example from phone to app.
Where the difference lies
We start with what the organisation does not measure but should. A tool chosen before the metrics are set imposes its own. A year later it turns out that what gets measured is what is easy to count.
The second question is: which of the data currently collected has not yet been used for any decision? The answer says a lot about how the organisation really works.
How the work proceeds
We list the issues customers come with and estimate their numbers.
We check what is measured today and who uses it.
We design metrics, standards and owners.
We establish how results go back to the team after each cycle.
At the end we choose a tool, if the current one is not enough.
What you can count on
A way of measuring service and a way of working that the organisation maintains on its own. Satisfaction and retention levels follow from the decisions taken on that basis.
What the price depends on
The size of the organisation and the number of customer contact channels. The state of current measurement. Whether the work ends with designing the metrics or also covers implementation and preparing the team. Whether a model with one person handling each case is needed, which usually requires organisational changes.
Let's talk about your case.
The shortest route is one sentence about what you are trying to decide. We will get back to you on whether and how we can help.
Tell us which customer issues stay stuck in the company the longest.
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