7 Important Metrics Every Ecommerce Should Monitor

All companies want to increase their profit margins and attract more consumers while keeping existing clients.

But to gauge the effectiveness of their strategies in chasing these objectives, retailers must rely on some pointers— no wonder key performance indicators are becoming increasingly important to SMBs.

To attract and keep customers, businesses study some key metrics to gauge how well they are achieving the above targets.

Customer service performance indicators, for instance, can help you weigh the effectiveness of your strategies.

Performance Indicators to Measure the Quality of Your Customer Services 

These pointers help retailers to measure the quality of services. Indicators are in the form of scores or values, which makes it easy for a business owner to gauge the efficiency of the Techniques.

So you can use these clues to gauge the improvements in your customer service crew in meeting specific goals.

Indicators of performance are also an excellent way to evaluate the progress of your teams to; streamline activities and trim down expenses.

The Indicators of Performance to Monitor in Customer Service 

These metrics or customer data matter because they are the basis of decision-making that can; increase client fulfillment, streamline business ops, retain customers, uphold the brand reputation, and so on. 

  1.  CSAT or Consumer satisfaction score.

Gauging fulfillment or contentment levels in your audience can be challenging. But this metric can help you determine how “happy” your clients are.

A retailer can measure this indicator using a small survey asking users their feeling towards a service or product. Other times, a merchant uses a straight question.

Shoppers show their satisfaction levels by picking an answer from the multi-choice options, which can be emoji or star-ratings.

Calculate your CSAT by working the average of the answers. But it is essential to understand that the final score should be determined by the two highest levels in your choices.

  1. Shopper Churn Rate. 

Shopper Churn is a pointer that can give signs on repeat business and customer lifetime value. Customer churn rate works out the rate of clients, in percentage, that lost interest from your business within a specific window.

Work out customer churn rate using this formula

Churn Rate =  No. of clients who lost interest within the specific window     X 100

No. of clients you had at the start of the specific window

  1. First Contact Resolution (FCR). 

This indicator, FCR gauges the rates of grievances and concerns from your clients, in percentage, that your support agents resolved at the first interaction.

These are issues that you support crew dealt with straight away by live chat or through telephone— and never escalated into further discussion.

So by the end of a call or session, the customer must have found a satisfying response to their queries or problems.

The same also applies to other contact points.

Use this formula to work out your first contact resolution;

FCR = Number of Customer support problems solved at once    X 100

Number of All Issues That Should Fall Under FCR

The denominator refers to issues that you should have otherwise solved at first contact if not for unanticipated problems like when a customer gives wrong info to the support team.

This metric matters because shoppers are happier with an immediate first-time resolution than a sluggish one.

  1. Average Resolution Time (ART) 

This metric measures the estimated amount of time your customer support team takes to fix shopper issues.

Again shoppers are time-sensitive. If your FCR or first-time resolution rates are not okay, then you must struggle to excel at ART because failing at the two will translate to unhappy customers.

  1. Resolution Rate. 

Resolution rate works out customer complaints addressed by a customer support crew with regard to the total tickets count. This performance indicator serves gauges the efficiency and productivity of each agent plus that of the entire department.

Here’s how to calculate the resolution rate;

Resolution Rate =      No. of resolved issues            X 100

Total ticket count received

  1.  Retention Rate. 

This indicator of performance measures the rate at which you retain or keep the customers coming to your business.

To retain more clients, a retailer must push the buttons that matter most to a buyer. On top of creating an excellent product, you must work to maintain a seamless shopping experience, be innovative with your offerings, and offer exceptional customer support.

Here’s how to calculate the rate of shoppers that have remained with your brand over a given window.

You’ll need these three values

CS = No. of clients at the start of the window

CE = No. of clients at the end of the window

CN = No. of new clients attract within the window

Retention Rate = (CE – CN) CS ×100

  1.  Net Promoter Score (NPS). 

NPS helps a retailer learn how loyal clients are to their firm and how likely they are to refer their product or service to another prospect.

NPS is usually calculated by asking customers to state their chances of advocating for your brand on a scale that runs from 0 to 10 where

  • 0 – Never
  • 1 to 10 – Very Likely
  • 0 to 6 – Detractors
  • 7 & 8 – Passives
  • 9 & 10 – Promoters

NPS = % of Promoters – % of Detractors

A high positive digit is a sign that more clients are willing to advocate for you while negative digits are a sign your customer-base is not loyal.

Monitor these Metrics from Time to Time 

Because it is important to track and understand progress from time to time, you will need to monitor these metrics on a regular basis.

On top of these regular studies, you can also conduct an in-depth analysis of one or more of these performance indicators for strategic customer service improvement purposes.

However, space your researches reasonably and work to improve your customer services bases on your latest result. Avoid many meaningless studies and around in circles in the name of making data-driven decisions.

Train your team, leverage technologies like live chat and help desk systems, reduce friction in your customer journey, upgrade your product or service, and strive to resolve customer issues in the shortest time possible. All these and more can help improve the quality of services in your ecommerce store.

Final Words 

Making data-driven decisions is a good idea because you are not using guesswork to target customers. Always keep an eye on these seven indicators of performance.