We’re all familiar with traditions of setting goals, resolutions or intentions for the New Year in our personal lives—but what about for our work or businesses? Setting goals at the start of a new year, quarter or season is important to continue to take your business to the next level.
Of course, knowing where you want to go is important, but knowing how to get there is even more essential. In this article, we’ll cover both the what and the how—what customer service goals you should be focusing on in 2023 as well as how you can achieve them.
Providing exceptional customer service is crucial for business success in today’s competitive landscape However, many companies struggle to consistently deliver top-notch service The key is setting clear, targeted customer service goals and objectives to guide your team’s efforts.
In this comprehensive guide, we will explore 15 powerful examples of customer service goals and objectives to ignite success We will also look at tips for developing SMART goals and aligning them with wider business objectives. Let’s dive in!
Why Customer Service Goals and Objectives Matter
It’s easy for customer service to become an afterthought, taking a backseat to sales, marketing or product development goals. But customer service is equally vital for driving growth, retention and referrals.
Setting specific, measurable goals keeps customer service as a strategic priority. Customer service goals also:
- Provide a roadmap for agents to deliver consistent, high-quality service
- Allow managers to track progress and identify areas needing improvement
- Motivate team members by giving them targets to strive towards
- Demonstrate the value of customer service in achieving business objectives
When setting customer service goals and objectives, make sure they are:
Specific – clearly defined measurable targets.
Measurable – metrics to track progress.
Achievable – realistic based on resources and capabilities.
Relevant – aligned with wider business goals.
Time-bound – with clear deadlines.
Let’s look at 15 examples across key areas:
15 Customer Service Goals and Objectives Examples
1. Improve Customer Service Quality
This broad objective underpins all customer service activities. Some ways to define and measure it include:
- Decrease customer complaints by 15% within 3 months
- Increase positive feedback scores by 10% in 6 months
- Reduce number of repeat inquiries about the same issue by 20% in 1 quarter
2. Increase Customer Satisfaction
Happy customers are loyal, promote your brand and spend more. Ways to boost satisfaction include:
- Achieve over 90% customer satisfaction rate based on CSAT surveys within 1 year
- Reduce customer effort score by 15% in 9 months
- Increase number of 5 star reviews by 25% within 6 months
3. Reduce Customer Wait Times
Nothing frustrates customers more than waiting. Some objectives include:
- Decrease average speed of answer to under 1 minute within 3 months
- Reduce email backlog by 50% within 2 weeks
- Ensure chat inquiries are answered within 30 seconds at least 80% of the time
4. Reduce Customer Churn
It costs more to attract new customers than retain existing ones. Churn fighting goals include:
- Decrease customer cancellation rate to under 5% in 1 year
- Conduct quarterly surveys to identify at-risk customers
- Save 60% of customers planning to churn through retention offers
5. Offer an Omnichannel Experience
Channels like email, chat, social media and self-service options should provide a unified experience. Goals could be:
- Launch live chat and integrate with existing channels in 2 months
- Ensure average response time under 5 minutes across all channels
- Reduce channel switching by customers by 30% in 6 months
6. Respond to All Feedback
Interacting with customer insights shows you care. Objectives around feedback include:
- Respond to 90% of reviews, social mentions and survey comments within 1 week
- Conduct quarterly analysis of feedback themes to guide service improvements
- Decrease negative feedback by 30% within 9 months
7. Improve Customer Service Skills
Well-trained agents provide better service. Training goals could include:
- Develop core curriculum covering top query types within 1 month
- Schedule monthly refresher courses on new products/services
- Ensure agents spend minimum 5 hours per quarter on continuing education
8. Boost First Contact Resolution
Solving issues on the first interaction leaves customers happy. Some potential goals:
- Increase first call resolution rate to over 80% within 6 months
- Implement chat monitoring software and achieve 70% first chat resolution rate in 3 months
- Ensure agents have resources to resolve 60% of email inquiries without escalation within 1 year
9. Improve Self-Service Usage
FAQs, help centers and chatbots reduce calls. Goals around self-service include:
- Launch chatbot handling 30% of common inquiries within 3 months
- Update FAQs and help site content quarterly based on top customer questions
- Reduce call volume by 20% within 6 months through self-service improvements
10. Update Outdated Resources
Outdated information undermines service quality. Goals around improving resources could be:
- Audit help site content monthly and update as needed
- Review scripts quarterly and revise to mirror current business processes
- Ensure knowledge base search results reflect newest content within 1 week of publication
11. Recognize Team Achievements
Celebrating wins boosts engagement. Goals around recognition could include:
- Implement peer-to-peer reward system within 1 month
- Celebrate team successes in monthly newsletter and meetings
- Send handwritten thank you notes to top performers quarterly
12. Cultivate Customer Loyalty
Loyal customers become brand advocates. Some loyalty goals include:
- Develop VIP program for high-value customers within 2 months
- Survey long-time customers quarterly to identify opportunities to delight
- Achieve 60% repeat purchase rate among customers in loyalty program within 1 year
13. Increase First-Year Customer Lifetime Value
Maximizing customer value means more profit long-term. Goals around CLV include:
- Increase first-year customer value by 10% in 1 year through onboarding program
- Conduct quarterly analyses of high vs low lifetime value cohorts
- Achieve 80% retention rate of high CLV customers through loyalty incentives
14. Boost Referral Rates
Referred customers have higher lifetime value. Referral goals include:
- Increase refer-a-friend signups by 15% within 6 months
- Ensure 50% of new customers join referral program at onboarding
- Achieve referral rate of over 20% in 1 year
15. Align Customer Service with Company Values
Values-driven service differentiates your brand. Goals include:
- Audit policies and scripts monthly to ensure alignment with core values
- Train agents quarterly on conveying brand values through service delivery
- Increase customer sentiment alignment with brand values by 20% within 1 year
Turning Goals into Wins
The examples above demonstrate how thoughtful customer service goals and objectives can drive growth, retention, loyalty and advocacy. But simply setting goals is not enough – you need processes to achieve them.
- Get leadership buy-in – Connect goals to wider business objectives.
- Involve your team – Encourage insights from agents during goal-setting.
- Map out plans to reach targets – Outline tasks, timelines and departmental coordination needed.
- Implement necessary tools – Ensure staff have technology to enable success.
- Analyze required skills and resources – Identify any training or hiring needed.
- Regularly track and measure – Use clear metrics to monitor progress.
- Communicate and celebrate achievements– Keep momentum going.
- Learn from setbacks – Failure to reach goals provides learnings for the future.
Exceptional customer service doesn’t happen by accident. Defining powerful customer service goals and objectives provides a blueprint for your team to deliver outstanding experiences. This drives customer loyalty, fueling sustainable business growth. Align goals to wider business objectives, make sure they meet SMART criteria, and put plans into action. Your customers will thank you!
Consistently gather customer feedback
Some goals for your customer service team may be more qualitative than quantitative—for example, consistently gathering customer feedback. While this is an essential tactical goal for customer service teams—particularly if you’re not already doing so—it can be a difficult one to measure.
However, you can still measure this goal and growth in this area. For example, you can measure:
- how much feedback you’re receiving
- a certain number of items to action or implement each quarter
- a certain amount of feedback to collect
- a new type of feedback to be gathered
For example, you might set a goal such as, “Collect 120 customer feedback responses and analyze them to find the most common themes. Implement 1 change by the end of Q2 based on the most common theme.”
This goal keeps customer feedback at the forefront of your team’s focus, and also helps ensure you do something actionable with the feedback you’re collecting. The type of feedback you’re collecting can vary greatly based on your customers, goals, resources and business model—you might consider measuring CSAT or NPS, average review ratings (or overall number of reviews), sending specific surveys or feedback requests, analyzing post-call or post-experience surveys and so on.
Increase your self-service options and automation
One of the biggest trends for 2023 in customer service is self-service and automation—and for good reason! Not only is automation and AI becoming more effective and “intelligent,” but customers are becoming more accustomed to it, and in some cases, even favoring it over live agents. For example:
- 69% of customers say they’ll try to resolve their issue on their own first before contacting the company directly.
- 81% of customers say they want more self-service options available as less than a third of companies offer self-service options.
- 90% of customers say that an “immediate response” is important when they have a customer service question.
Increasing your team’s automation options can help you improve many aspects of customer service, so this is a good goal to focus on that will be a lever for other goals, such as decreasing response time or improving customer satisfaction. As a more tactical goal, make sure that you have an outcome in mind that is measurable and specific.
When setting goals around self-service options or automation, you might want to track metrics like:
- chatbot analytics
- knowledge base pageviews
- customer feedback (especially pop-up “was this page helpful?” surveys and other on-page feedback)
- live chat ticket volume and handle time
- time saved on specific tasks after introducing automation
Increase your self-service options by:
- working with an expert to design and implement AI or chatbot solutions.
- using feedback from web pages or interactions to further improve your self-service options and responses.
- updating web pages to direct customers with simple questions to chatbots instead of live customer service
Customer Service Goals
FAQ
What are the 5 goals in customer service?
What are the three main goals of customer service?
What are the five primary objectives of customer service?
What are the SMART goals for customer service?
What customer service goals can lead a business to success?
Utilize self-service and automation One of the most important customer service goals that can lead a business to success is the utilization of self-service options and automation. This goal is crucial in the modern business landscape, where customers demand quick, efficient, and personalized service.
What are Customer Service department goals?
Customer service department goals should be directly related to the goals of the wider organization. They should be easily trackable and frequently discussed within the team. Every individual can contribute to these goals, so ensuring that the entire team is on board is crucial to achieving them. 1. Increase customer satisfaction
Do customer service objectives align with business goals?
However, without setting customer service objectives that align well with the business mission, visions, and values, teams may struggle with conflicting priorities on the best way forward. Therefore, you must establish a set of well-defined targets that follow the best customer service strategies.
What are customer service objectives?
What are objectives of customer service? Customer service objectives are specific, measurable targets set by organizations to ensure they consistently meet or exceed customer expectations. These customer service objectives serve as a roadmap, guiding customer service teams in their efforts to provide exceptional experiences for customers.
