Introduction
In customer success, escalated calls are not merely challenges but rather opportunities to strengthen relationships and deliver exceptional experiences. These calls serve as a litmus test for the effectiveness of your customer success strategies and highlight areas where improvements are needed. As a crucial key performance indicator (KPI), the management and resolution of escalated calls can significantly impact customer satisfaction and loyalty. So as a call center agent, you must listen, resolve issues quickly and make the customer feel valued. So it is mandatory that customers feel satisfied with your resolutions and ideas, and it is totally in your hands to avoid negative incidents by simply escalating the call to the higher officials or a senior representative. While dealing with customer service, it is better to assign human agents who can optimize workflows and can go a long way in tackling call escalations. In this blog, we will explore the significance of the Escalated Calls KPI in customer success and share strategies to leverage it for transformative results.
Understanding the Significance of Escalated Calls KPIs in Customer Success
Escalated Calls KPIs are metrics used to track and evaluate the number and severity of customer calls that require escalation within the customer success team. These KPIs provide insights into the efficiency of your customer support processes, the complexity of customer issues, root cause analysis, and the overall health of your customer relationships. Moreover, escalated calls imply predetermining and identifying backup staff, using escalation tools, and automating redundant workflows.
Definition of Escalated Calls KPI
The term “Escalated Calls KPI” refers to a key performance indicator (KPI) used to measure and assess the performance of a customer service or call center operation in handling escalated calls. Escalated calls are often referred to as those that typically require additional attention or intervention from higher-level or specialized personnel due to their complexity, sensitivity, or unresolved nature.
Formula to Calculate Escalated Calls KPI
The total number of escalated calls is divided by the total number of solved tickets, and the result is multiplied by 100 to get a percentage.
For example, if there were 50 escalated and 500 total tickets in the last month, the escalation rate would be (50 / 500) x 100 = 10%.
Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.
Strategizing Escalated Calls KPI to Uplift Customer Success
Strategizing Escalated Calls KPI is crucial to uplift customer success for several reasons. It enables businesses to promptly address complex customer issues, ensuring swift resolution and minimizing customer frustration. It provides an opportunity to improve customer experience by showcasing attentive and personalized support during escalated calls. At the business level, it can help identify systemic issues and make necessary improvements, to measure the average customer satisfaction score and long-term success.
Benefits of Escalated Calls KPI
Define clear objectives
Clearly define the objectives you want to achieve with the Escalated Calls KPI. For example, your objectives could include reducing the number of escalated calls, improving the first contact resolution rate for escalated calls, or decreasing the average handle time for escalated calls.
To learn the ways to build ambitious objectives with OKRs and KPIs
Analyze root causes
Analyze the reasons behind escalated calls. Identify common issues, challenges, or patterns that lead to escalations. This could involve conducting a thorough review of call recordings, analyzing customer feedback, and involving your frontline staff in identifying the root causes.
Provide comprehensive training
Ensure that your customer service agents receive comprehensive training to handle a wide range of customer inquiries and issues. Focus on equipping them with the necessary skills, product knowledge, and problem-solving techniques to effectively handle complex or escalated calls.
Enhance frontline support
Strengthen the support available to frontline agents to handle escalated calls. This can include providing access to subject matter experts, supervisors, or specialized teams who can assist in resolving complex issues.
Implement quality assurance measures
Establish quality assurance processes to monitor and evaluate the handling of escalated calls. Regularly review call recordings, conduct call audits, and provide feedback to agents to identify areas for improvement. Use this information to refine training programs and identify coaching opportunities.
Foster collaboration
Encourage collaboration and knowledge sharing among customer service teams. Create forums or platforms where agents can share insights, best practices, and strategies for handling escalated calls. By following these steps and continuously refining your strategies, you can effectively address escalated calls and enhance the overall customer service experience.
If you are looking for ways to measure escalated calls and their effect on customer success, try using OKRs, if you want to bridge the gap between strategy and execution to build your business strategy.
Here is an example embedded for you to help you learn how you can start implementing customer success OKRs in your organization to measure Escalated Calls KPI.
OKR Examples
Objective: Reduce Escalated Calls Rate
Key Result 1: Decrease escalated calls by 20% compared to the previous quarter
Initiative: Implement knowledge base improvements and enhance agent training
Key Result 2: Increase First Call Resolution (FCR) rate from 70% to 80%
Initiative: Provide agent decision-making tools
Key Result 3: Decrease average call duration by 10% without compromising quality
Initiative: Optimize call scripts and guidelines, implement call analytics tools
Conclusion
Effectively managing escalated calls not only demonstrates a commitment to customer success but also improves agent efficiency and reduces costs associated with prolonged call durations or repeat escalations. By focusing on this KPI, call centers can cultivate a reputation for providing exceptional customer support, time to resolution, resolving complex issues promptly, and ensuring a positive customer journey from start to finish.