Providing top-notch customer service is crucial for any business wanting to succeed these days. But let’s be honest – “great service” can feel incredibly vague and almost impossible to measure objectively, right? This is where setting clear, realistic customer service goals and metrics comes to the rescue.

With solid goals and metrics in place, your team can focus on what matters most to your business and customers. You’ll also be able to easily track progress, quickly spot areas needing improvement, and clearly demonstrate the impact great service has on your bottom line.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll chat about:

 

• • Why proper goal setting is so critical for customer service success

• • The main types of customer service goals you should think about

• • How to pick metrics that truly align with those goals

• • Setting achievable targets that will motivate (not discourage) your team

• • Tips for tracking progress and making changes when things aren’t going to plan

• • Best practices for setting truly effective customer service goals

Sound good? Let’s dive in!

Why Setting Goals Matters 

It’s easy for customer service teams to feel scattered without clearly defined goals. With competing priorities and limited resources, agents may struggle to know what they should be working towards.

Setting specific, measurable goals brings several benefits:

Provides Focus

Well-defined goals give customer service teams a clear direction. With goals set, agents will know exactly what’s expected of them. There’s no question about what they should prioritize.

Aligns Efforts

Individual agents, teams, and even entire departments can align their efforts around shared goals. This coordination leads to better outcomes.

Enables Benchmarking 

Goals establish targets that you can use for benchmarking performance over time. You can set goals around service quality, efficiency, and satisfaction for continuous improvement.

Motivates Employees

Goals give employees something specific to strive towards. This leads to greater engagement across the customer service team.

Demonstrates Value

Documenting goals also allows you to demonstrate the value of customer service to the wider business. You can connect goals to metrics and show concrete business impact.

In short: Setting goals provides the entire framework for managing, tracking, and improving customer service performance. It’s a foundational step no team should skip.

Types of Customer Service Goals to Set

Customer service teams should set goals that align with the organization’s broader mission and values. While each business is unique, there are three general categories of customer service goals to consider:

Quality Goals

These goals relate to providing excellent, accurate service to customers. Example quality goals:

– Achieve 90% first contact resolution rate

– Maintain customer satisfaction (CSAT) score above 80% 

– Decrease callback rate year-over-year  

Efficiency Goals

These goals focus on speed and productivity. Common efficiency goals include:

– Answer 80% of calls within 60 seconds

– Maintain average handle time under 5 minutes for tier 1 inquiries

– Reduce average resolution time for email tickets by 10%

Customer Satisfaction Goals

These goals measure how satisfied customers are with the service experience. Satisfaction goals can tie to metrics like:

– Achieve 4 out of 5 star customer rating 

– Increase Net Promoter Score by 30% year-over-year

– Reduce customer effort score by 20%

We’ll explore how to choose the right metrics for each goal later in this guide.

Choosing the Right Metrics

An effective goal requires a well-matched metric to track progress. When setting goals, you must identify:

1. The objective (e.g. improve response times)

2. How you’ll measure it (e.g. average first reply time) 

3. The target result (e.g. first reply within 1 hour)

The metric should tie directly to the goal and be something you can realistically track.

Here are top metrics for common customer service goals:

Quality Metrics

– First contact resolution (FCR): Percent of inquiries solved in first interaction 

– Callback rate: Percent of cases requiring additional contact from customer

– Case reopens: Percent of closed cases that get reopened

– Customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores: Survey ratings on service quality

– Net Promoter Score (NPS): Likelihood a customer will recommend you

– Customer effort score: Ease of getting an issue resolved

Efficiency Metrics  

– Average handle time (AHT): Average time spent resolving each customer inquiry 

– Average first reply time: How long until first response to a customer query

– Backlog: Number of pending, unresolved cases      

– Adherence to schedule: Percent of shifts worked as scheduled

Satisfaction Metrics

– CSAT: Customer satisfaction survey scores

– NPS: Likelihood to recommend

– Customer effort score: Ease of service

– Churn rate: Percent of customers who stop doing business with you

– Number of complaints: Counts of registered complaints

Take time to identify the best metrics to motivate the outcomes you want.

Setting Achievable Targets 

With goals and metrics chosen, it’s time to set targets. This requires aligning ambitions with realistic capabilities. There are three key factors to consider:

Know Your Starting Point

Understand current performance levels across each metric before setting targets. If your NPS is 20, aiming for 80 next quarter is likely unrealistic. Set incremental targets instead for steady improvement.

Consider Capabilities and Resources 

Do staffing levels, skills, and tools support the targets you hope to achieve? Stretch goals can motivate, but overly ambitious targets will just frustrate teams.

Prioritize Goals

Try not to set more than 3 to 5 top customer service goals at once. This keeps efforts focused on what matters most right now.

Let’s look at an example goal with realistic targets:

Goal: Improve first contact resolution rate 

Starting point: Current FCR is 55% 

Target: Increase FCR to 75% within 6 months

The target is achievable based on capabilities. It also gives a clear benchmark for demonstrating improvement.

Tracking Progress and Adapting 

With goals set, customer service leaders need to closely monitor performance. Track progress against targets weekly or monthly. If metrics start slipping, intervene with coaching and support. 

You may also need to adjust targets over time. For example, if agents hit the 75% FCR goal in just three months, raise the target higher. Or if progress stalls, lower the goal temporarily while working to improve capabilities. 

Consistent tracking ensures goals stay relevant. Review them completely every six months and adjust as needed. The right goals keep teams challenged but not demoralized.

Tips for Setting Effective Goals

Follow these best practices when creating customer service goals:

Get input from agents: Frontline teams know capabilities and challenges best. Involve them in goal setting.

Tie goals to customer needs: Focus on the outcomes customers value most like quality, speed, and care.

Limit number of goals: Pick 3 to 5 elevated priority goals to focus on at once. Fewer, more strategic goals have most impact. 

Use SMART framework: Goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

Re-align as needed: Review goals quarterly. Adjust targets and metrics as capabilities and business needs evolve.

Reward success: Recognize teams and individuals for hitting goals. Incentives boost engagement.

Review periodically: Conduct annual offsite workshops to revisit customer service strategy and goals.

Conclusion

Setting clear, measurable customer service goals is crucial for focusing efforts, aligning teams, and improving performance. Goals provide targets to rally around and benchmarks to track progress.

With the right goals in place, customer service teams can elevate operations. They’ll deliver consistent, quality service tailored to customer needs. But remember, goals only work when they reflect realistic capabilities. Set incremental targets based on starting performance.

Regularly review goals and be agile in adapting to evolving needs. When done right, goal setting powers continuous improvement across the entire customer service organization.