OKRs help teams set objectives that can help teams determine what is expected of them and their performance. Everyone on the customer support team– whether they answer phone calls, respond to tickets, or answer queries– can help to reach service goals when their department utilizes OKRs.
We belong to the age where we can get digital feedback instantly, because of this, a customer support team can effectively determine the fate of a company. Regardless of if customers have complaints or kudos to give, a company must establish a strong platform to communicate with their audience and earn their trust.
The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.
Earning customers’ trust is a crucial thing. And no customer likes talking to the customer service department. If possible, they would avoid doing it altogether – but at this point, they do it because they have to.
Whenever a customer tries to contact the customer service, they expect a solution to their problem right away. The sooner an issue is fixed, the better the company’s reputation will be. For this reason, the customer service team is required to analyze the issue and fix it as quickly as possible. Because this is such an important aspect of any company, the average time taken for resolution should be calculated.
What is Time to Resolution?
Time management is one of the greatest skills that can be developed over time. Through trials and errors, you will be able to balance your strategic and operational initiatives. So, the Time to Resolution metric is one of the most important management metrics that must be constantly improved to the point of excellence.
Time to Resolution – also referred to as resolution time or Mean Time To Resolution (MTTR) – is the average time that it takes for an agent or a team from the customer service to resolve a problem.
Generally speaking, this factor is measured either in business hours or days – so if your team is off the clock, that time shouldn’t be counted towards this metric. Only the official working hours are taken into account.
MTTR Formula
In most cases, customer service managers will want to analyze the overall time to resolution in their team. This formula is generally applied to batches of cases. For example, you can find out the average time to resolution for a particular month by compiling all the data.
To find out the average time to resolution, you will have to take the sum of all times to resolution – which you divide by the total number of cases that have been resolved in that particular time. As a result, the formula will look like this:
This formula is not difficult to apply. All you will need is to keep a record of the cases – from there you can find out your average.
Why It Matters?
In most cases, customer service managers will want to analyze the overall time to resolution in their team. This formula is generally applied to batches of cases. For example, you can find out the average time to resolution for a particular month by compiling all the data.
The Time to Resolution correlates directly to the satisfaction of the customer. The quicker your customer service team reacts the faster the problems will be solved. If the Time to Resolution is long, it will tarnish the reputation of the company, as well as call into question the efficiency of the company. This will create dissatisfaction among customers which in turn will make them move to other domains in search of a better customer support team.
Knowledge is everything – so if you know that there is a recurring problem in your time to resolution, you will know it’s time to take action. Depending on the nature of the problem, you might want to implement in a new system, invest in a training course – or hire a new team altogether.
Final Thoughts
Timing is the key – and this applies to the world of customer service as well. If you want your support to be top-notch, you need to know exactly how long it takes for your team to solve a case, so build your time efficiently. Knowing this metric can lead to far better team efficiency.
OKRs can help organizations realize the potential of managing time effectively. By setting targeted key results to close a suggested number of tickets at a particular time, you can reduce the time you take for resolution. There is always room for improvement, so pick up the best performance and task management tool and strive hard to resolve customer issues as early as possible to close tickets and associate your brand with superior customer service.