Introduction for customer relationship KPIs

Customer retention and acquisition are two fierce grounds of enormous competition between business firms in the contemporary corporate world. An interesting fact cited by Semrush is that the probability of selling to an existing customer is around 50 percent more than selling to a new customer. This explains why businesses lay great emphasis on customer relationships and for that, they need to track their performance across customer service metrics. The key performance indicators that evaluate customer relationship management performance in the most comprehensive manner are listed below.

List of customer relationship KPIs with calculators

1. Customer Retention Rate

The customer retention rate is a direct measure of the number of loyal customers a company is able to generate. Customer retention is the ability of the company to turn customers into repeat buyers such that the customers make repetitive purchases of the company products against switching to the competitors. In quantifiable terms, it is the percentage of a company’s customers who stick with it because of factors like pricing, product, and customer service. The higher the customer retention rate the more thriving and successful a business will be.

Customer Retention Rate as a KPI

Companies integrate a number of customer retention strategies such as loyalty programs, loyalty programs, personalization, and many others. To gauge the success rate of the strategies for driving a high customer retention rate, it is an effective KPI. If the consumers feel connected to the company, the retention rate will increase.

How to calculate Customer Retention Rate?

To calculate the client retention rate, the following parameters are needed-

  • Existing customers at the beginning of the time period taken into consideration (S)
  • Total customers at the end of the time period (E)
  • Newly acquired customers in the corresponding time period (N)

Further, the client retention rate can be computed using the formula-

E-N x 100
S

Example

Existing customers at the beginning of a year (S)- 500

Lost customers - 70

New customers - 60 (N)

Number of customers at the end of the year- 490 (E)

The retention rate = 86 percent.

Customer Retention Rate Calculator

 

2. Average Number of Referrals Per User

The average number of referrals per user is the ratio of the total number of referrals extended by users or customers over the total number of users. A higher number of referrals per user is a positive measure for a company as it would imply a greater number of leads likely to be converted into sales. Customers refer other people for the products and services if they feel the product and the service is up to the mark and the company is not leaving any stone unturned.

Average Number of Referrals as a KPI

Companies around the globe focus on referrals as it is the easiest and cheapest way to increase revenue and customer base. According to marketing statistics, 80% of people trust referral advertisements. Thus, referrals are a game changer if implemented in the right way by a business. Various unique strategies for increasing referrals are used by business organizations. They offer benefits such as building relationships, excellent customer support, and many others in terms of success in customer service metrics. Thus, to measure the success of these strategies the companies can use the average number of referrals as a KPI.

How to calculate the average number of referrals per user?

The average number of referrals per user is yielded by the formula-

Total number of referrals made by all users/customers
Number of users

Example

The total number of referrals - 2000

Total users of the business- 400

The average number of referrals per user will come = 5

Average Number of Referrals Per User Calculator

 

3. Client Summit Attendance

Client summit attendance is the quantitative value of the number of customers or clients that attend client events organized by an organization. It is usually represented as a percentage of the targeted client attendance at a given event.

Client Summit Attendance as a KPI

Client Summit Attendance can be used as a KPI for a number of reasons as the companies invest heavily in making an event successful. The companies set up a target number of consumers that would attend the event and the average cost per attendee should be the least possible. So a number of strategies are implemented to increase the event strength and to measure the success of the event strategies Client Summit Attendance can act as a great measure.

How to calculate client summit attendance?

The client summit attendance is yielded by the following formula-

Number of client attendees x 100
Total number of clients invited

Example

Total number of clients invited- 400

Invitees turning up for the event - 150

The client summit attendance = 37.5 percent.

Client Summit Attendance Calculator

 

4. Customer Complaints

The proportion of customer complaints is a KPI that gives a company a clear idea of the effectiveness of its innovations that are aimed at optimizing customer experiences. It compares the number of customer complaints before the incorporation of a specific innovation and the frequency of customer complaints after the implementation of the innovation. A value less than 1 implies that a given innovation has been successful in enhancing the customer experience.

Customer Complaints as a KPI

If a company is having trouble with the customer complaints pouring in and as a result, there is an exodus of customers, certain things need to be done before this turns into a disaster. There are a number of ways the companies can innovate in customer experience, that are aimed to reduce the number of complaints and earn greater customer loyalty. These ways can be deploying new technology, setting up new communication channels, and so on. All these innovations will cost the company and to make sure that the innovation is successful, customer complaints KPI must be implemented.

How to measure the KPI related to customer complaints?

The variance in customer complaints before and after the execution of an innovation is given by the formula-

No. of customer complaints after innovation
No. of customer complaints before innovation

Example

Customer complaints after innovation is implemented - 40

Customer complaints before the implementation of innovation - 75

Rate of customer complaints- 0.53

Customer Complaints Calculator

 

5. Number of Social Media Followers

Today, social media has become an amazing platform for companies and consumer services. The number of social media followers gives an account of the number of people or users that are associated with a business through its social media handles on platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook. It depicts the magnitude of customer engagement and indulgence a brand has on social media platforms. To add, it facilitates a comparative analysis of the engagement rates in two consecutive periods.

Number of Social Media Followers as a KPI

Companies want organic growth and the best way to get organic traffic is to have a big chunk of consumers following your brand on social media platforms. There are a number of strategies to increase brand following and companies need to invest their time and money to acquire genuine followers. The success of these strategies is directly proportional to the increase in the number of brand followers and to measure the success of these activities, the “Number of Social Media Followers Ratio” can be used as a highly relevant KPI.

How to calculate the KPI related to the number of social media followers?

The measure of the social media engagement of a brand is given by the formula-

Increase in social media followers in current period
Increase in social media followers in last period

Example

The total increase in social media followers in the current period - 600

The total increase in the last period -450

The rate of increase in social media followers in these periods = 1.33

Number of Social Media Followers Calculator

 

6. Open Rate

Open rate is a crucial measure that helps companies understand if their email campaign or email marketing strategies have worked well to engage and attract customers. It takes into account the No. of total emails sent by a company to customers or potential customers and the number of emails actually opened.

Open Rate as a KPI

Most of the people in the world have a plethora of unopened emails, while companies spend a lot of effort in designing, drafting, and sending these emails. A number of strategies can be encompassed by the companies to increase open rate but in the case of email marketing, no fixed strategy can work for every company. Thus, companies need to implement a try and reject/accept method to choose the best strategy. To know the outcome of a particular strategy, the open rate KPI is the best tool that will determine whether the strategy is an accepted one or a rejected one.

How to calculate the open rate?

The value of the open rate is yielded by the following formula-

Number of emails opened
Total number of emails sent

Example

Total number of emails sent to customers and potential clients - 1200

Number of recipients who opened the emails- 800

Open rate = 0.66

Open Rate Calculator

 

7. Rate of Referrals Per Customer

This key performance indicator quantifies the level of satisfaction that a company’s customers have with its products and services, pricing, and the value offered to customers as part of their experience.

Rate of Referrals Per Customer as a KPI

Consumer referral is one of the most worthwhile and effective customer acquisition strategies. As said above, a number of strategies are used to increase referrals, and to know the success rate of these strategies, the most effective way is to check whether there is an increase in referrals per customer or not.

How to calculate the rate of referrals per customer?

The rate of referrals per customer is computed using the following two formulas-

1. Referrals per customer = Total No. of referrals in a given period
Total No. of customers
2. Referrals in a given time period = Total No. of referrals in a given period
Units of time in the given period

Example

The total number of customer referrals over a period of time-1500

The total number of customers in that period - 400

Rate of referrals per customer = 3.75

Rate of Referrals Per Customer Calculator

 

8. Number of Support Requests Per Product

This key performance indicator quantifies the ease or difficulty that customers of a company experience in terms of using their products. A higher number of support requests per product will signify that customers are facing complex challenges in using a product while a lower number of support requests per product will depict ease of product use.

Support Requests Per Product as a KPI

Support requests need resources such as finance, time, human resources, and at the same time, there is a chance that there will be an increase in the customer attrition rate. Companies need to make the customer journey as easy as possible marked by positive experiences. In order to do that, companies can invest in a number of ideas such as product information videos, content clusters, customer self-service tools, and many more. To know the success of these measures, the number of customer support requests as a KPI can be highly beneficial.

How to calculate the number of support requests per product?

The following formula can be used to obtain the number of support requests per product-

Total number of service requests
Total units of product sold

Example

The number of service requests received by a company for a product - 2000

Total number of units sold - 9000

Number of support requests per product = 0.22

Number of Support Requests Per Product Calculator

 

9. Number Of Customers Per Employee

This KPI gives a quantifiable measure of the magnitude of workload per employee and also determines how many customers are assigned to each employee on average. In other words, it quantifies the availability of a company’s employee bandwidth for each customer.

Number Of Customers Per Employee as a KPI

Human resource cost is a big factor in the total costs of the companies. Companies would like to use human resources as effectively as possible and at the same time would like to provide excellent service to the customers, such that an effective number of employees are employed to treat customers with ease. Employees sometimes need to put efforts to increase the number of customers they are serving and companies need to know if their customers are treated effectively by the employees or not. Both can be checked by knowing the number Of Customers Per Employee.

How to calculate the number of customers per employee?

The number of customers per employee is calculated by the formula-

Number of customers that an organization is dealing with
Number of employees serving the spectrum of customers

Example

The total number of customers served by a company - 220

The strength of the workforce is- 80

The value of customers per employee = 2.75

Number Of Customers Per Employee