Source: Customer Success Metrics You Need to Track in 2021 — Blog Banner (canva.com)
Customer success is the measure of how much your product offers value. Take an example of a SaaS software company that builds custom software for a logistics firm. The number of successful delivery orders fulfilled will be an indicator of the success of the software company.
According to a survey, 93% of respondents believe that customer intelligence is the secret to customer success, while 70% of site data capture challenges to be massive. So, you need a reliable analytical solution for all your customer intelligence needs.
Since the pandemic impacted the world economy, businesses are trying to offer resilience to economic downslide. However, there is no denying the fact that customer success can be critical in times of uncertainty. So, you will have to configure a way to optimize resources for tremendous customer success.
If you want to maximize conversions and help improve customer success, monitoring key performance indexes or KPIs is essential. However, you will have to pre-define each metric that needs monitoring before analysis. So, here we are with some of the top customer success metrics that you need to track.
#1. Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)
Monthly Recurring Revenue is a basis of how much revenue your organization earns each month. This is a crucial metric to measure not just for financial purposes but also to improve the conversion rates. MRR allows organizations to leverage financial forecasting, planning of revenue sources, growth measurement, and momentum.
Take an example of planning a B2B sales appointment setting. It is a fundamental activity for any organization’s sales team, yet calculation of MRR can help them understand the need for an increase in the intensity of efforts.
You can calculate MRR by,
Monthly Average Revenue per User (ARPU) X Total Number of Monthly Users = MRR
It is a business-performance metric that helps measure the product’s ability to impact customer success through revenue generation. However, MRR is dependent on the average revenue per user or ARPU.
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#2. Average Revenue Per User(ARPU)
ARPU or Average Revenue Per User is also known as the Average Revenue Per Unit. It is a measurement of how much revenue an organization generates from each user. SaaS-based organizations, telecommunication companies, and digital media firms use ARPU as crucial customer success metrics.
ARPU can help you gain essential data regarding,
- Capacity to generate profit
- Customer needs
- Forecasting financial gains
- Competitor analysis
Calculation of ARPU depends on specific factors like total revenue, time for which the sale is considered, and an average number of user interactions.
Total Revenue / Average Users = Average Revenue per User
Here, for calculation of ARPU, many organizations consider the time monthly due to the subscription model of revenues. ARPU also relates to the churn rate, considering the average number of users for calculations.
#3. Churn Rate
Customer churn rate is the measure of how many users you have lost. These customers don’t use your services and products anymore. This is the reason why it is also known as the customer attrition rate. Churn rates are one of the most significant customer success metrics.
According to a report, a SaaS company can have a churn rate of about 5–7% annually; at the same time, a small business may have to deal with 58%. There are several indicators to an increase in the churn rate,
- Subscription cancellation
- Accounts getting closed
- Recurring value loss
- Contractual losses for recurring business
If you want to calculate the churn rate for your business, you need to divide the total number of customers churned during a specific time by a total number of users.
Total churned customers/total no. of all customers = Customer Churn Rate.
Churn rates are closely associated with the detractors and promoters, leading to another vital customer success metric- Net Promoter Score(NPS).
#4. Net Promoter Score
NPS is a business metric that helps you gauge customer relationships. When you want to measure NPS, there are two types of customers: a detractor and the other is the promoter. A detractor is an unhappy customer that is unlikely to buy or experience your product again. At the same time, a promoter is a loyal customer.
Source: 15 Business Metrics Essential to Your Growth (appsumo.com)
However, some passive customers may or may not rebuy your product. To calculate the net promoter score, you need to subtract the percentage of detractors from promoters. It will help you understand the level of customer attrition and the reasons for higher numbers of detractors. Another critical factor that can help you determine detractors and promoters is customer satisfaction.
#5. Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
NPS is a measure of how your customers may or may not promote your services; at the same time, a customer satisfaction score can help you understand how satisfied they are. It is one of the easiest customer successes that you can track through several touchpoints across the user’s journey. In addition, it offers feedback on parameters that you need to improve on for customer satisfaction.
For CSAT, you can use short surveys that offer ratings from customers regarding your product or services. The survey can be sent through different channels of interactions like emails, chats, social media messengers, etc.
First, you need to divide the positive responses by the total number of responses you receive and then multiply by 100 to get the rate in percentage.
All these customer metrics are a great way to understand the bottlenecks in your products or services. However, once you find these issues, there are several ways to improve on them. One of the most effective approaches is to use a chatbot. A chatbot is a computer program that can help you mimic the human to human conversations for enhanced user experience and customer interactions.
Chatbots are a great way to simultaneously improve your content marketing efforts and business performance through users’ rich experience. For example, you can employ chatbots that target customers based on their position in the sales funnel and improve conversions. This way, it can enhance your CSAT, reduce the churn rate, and increase NPS.
Conclusion
Customer success is a major aspect of any business performance. It means that your customer’s success is directly proportional to your organization’s performance. Tracking these metrics will help you gather vital data related to product performance which you use to improve your offerings.
At the same time, advanced technologies like chatbots, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning can help you aggregate customer success data, analyze it, and offer intelligent recommendations.
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Customer Success Metrics You Need to Track in 2021 was originally published in Chatbots Life on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.