Success is a relative concept. It has always been. You cannot compare your beginning with someone’s end. So is the case with business. While a happy customer is often linked with the success of a business. Your business needs specific metrics using which you can measure the health of your company. We have put together the top 6 customer success KPIs that you must know about.
1. Customer Churn Rate
Customer churn is one of the significant customer success metrics with which you can gauge the customer success. It also applies to your customer representatives. As customer support is all about relationships, it is advisable to build an excellent rapport with the customers.
Calculating Customer Churn Rate
Before you start calculating the churn rate, decide the timeframe for which you will measure the data. It could be a year, a quarter, and even a week. Begin with the number of customers you had at the start of this time period and then see how many customers stopped using your product/service. Lastly, divide the number of customers who left you by the total number of customers who are still using your product/service. The result you get is the churn rate.
For instance, let’s say we had 1000 customers at the beginning of April, and by the month-end total of 55 customers churned. So the churn rate for our business would be 5.5% (55/1000 = .055 = 5.5%).
Note: While measuring the churn rate, ensure that you don’t add the new customers you acquired during the given duration. These customers can be considered in your next churn rate calculation.
2. Renewal Rate
If you have a SaaS business then Renewal Rate may be one of the most crucial client success metrics for you. As most of the SaaS businesses follow a subscription model, the business success naturally depends on people who sign up for your product.
A high renewal rate indicates that your customer success team is doing well. To the extent that customers are willingly renewing their subscription and want to stay loyal to your business.
Likewise, a low renewal rate can be alarming. It is the nudge you need to focus on creating a more delightful experience for users. Choosing the right customer success metrics gives your efforts a right direction.
How to measure Renewal Rate?
It is incredibly simple to calculate the renewal rate.
Renewal Rate = Total number of renewals/number of customers who were due for renewal. Click To TweetMultiplying this result with 100 will give you the renewal rate.
In case you don’t own a SaaS company, you can derive information from the product expiration dates. Simply go to your CRM to check when the customer purchased a product. Then note down when the product expires so that you can check whether the customer purchased from you again. This will give you an idea about the renewal rate.
Nowadays, customer support executives are going beyond simply assisting the customer. They are focusing on building relationships that last. Even after a sale is closed, the manner in which you treat them and take care of them matters. In fact, it can be a huge driving force in their renewal decision.
3. Net Promoter Score
Customer delight doesn’t depend on the customer’s opinion about the support executive alone. Their feelings about the brand as a whole and the product matter too. So Net Promoter Score is naturally one of the important customer measurement metrics. When customers are happy with your business they are more likely to keep coming back.
So what is a Net Promoter Score after all? It simply asks your customers if they will consider recommending your brand to others. When you are collecting NPS from customers, you can also ask them the reason for their score.
Chatbots for collecting Net Promoter Score
Collecting NPS is very easy. You simply have to ask the customers “How likely are you to recommend this product/service? (on a scale of 1 to 10)” and collect the response from users. The best part about chatbots is that it gathers lots of valuable information through simple conversations. Unlike any boring form which customers rarely fill, a chatbot makes the conversations interesting. While collecting NPS from users you can also ask them to explain their score so that you get active feedback.
4. Customer Retention Cost (CRC)
CRC is the sum of all expenses a company pays to retain their existing customers. You simply have to add everything that is necessary for customer engagement.
It is the sum of expenses a company undertakes usually in the form of technical support to keep and nurture its existing customers. Calculating CRC involves the addition of all the costs necessary for customer retention and engagement.
Include costs of Customer Success Team, Client Engagement Campaigns, Training costs for teams, and Account Management, Team.
Thus, when you add all these expenses, you can find out the average cost of customer retention with this formula.
Annual CRC for one customer = Sum of all customer retention expenses/Active Customers Click To TweetOne of the easiest customer success measurements, CRC gives you an idea about your expenses for retaining the existing client. With the help of it, you can set the right targets for your sales department.
5. Expansion MRR
One of the important KPIs to measure customer success, it is used to measure the additional recurring revenue obtained from existing customers through upselling, add-ons, and cross-selling.
Generating Expansion MRR is more profitable as it costs lesser than acquiring new customers. It shows that the product is being used avidly. To calculate MRR you should add all the additional revenue generated from current customers within that month or year.
A healthy Expansion MRR indicates a negative revenue churn rate. This is because the revenue generated from retained customers is more than the loss incurred due to churns.
6. Customer Health Score
Customer health score is one of the customer success KPIs that provide insights about the customer’s account. It can help you gauge the probability of a customer churning out. Measuring customer health score is a proactive way of taking the right steps to avoid churn.
However, there isn’t a standard customer health score out there as it depends on the type of business and individual goals. There is some level of experimenting needed when it comes to determining the best customer health score.
It usually depends on the company objectives and product usage alongside customer relationships. Some factors which can be included are the usage frequency, product loyalty, quality of customer relationship, and the average logging frequency. With these factors, you can design a program level customer success metric.
Thus, customer success metrics play an important role in determining the progress of a business. Our list comprises the top customer success metrics which you must know about. However, you should analyse whether they apply to the type of business you have. Pick the metrics that resonate with your offerings and evaluate your business growth. Click To Tweet
If you wish to get customer success insights then you can begin by incorporating a chatbot on your website. Ask customers about their valuable feedback through simple automated conversations! 😀
