So you have a Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) benchmark. How do you figure out if the benchmark you’re using is realistic? Benchmarking can be a very helpful exercise but, if done wrong, can hinder team performance by setting unrealistic goals or expectations.

According to KPMG, 58% of consumers say being able to shop 24/7 is the number one reason they shop online. Companies have international customer bases who are online round-the-clock, and that means a decent chunk of customers will be disappointed if they can’t receive help during off-hours. The Geckoboard Customer Support Experience Report 2021 found that 50% of customer support teams are only available during business hours Monday to Friday, and only 28% are available 24/7.

Customer support is demanding work: You’re on the front line handling queries, issues, and complaints all day. To motivate and retain support agents, companies need to acknowledge their work. Customer service recognition is when the customer service team’s hard work is seen, understood, and valued by the whole organization.

In 2020, Customer Support teams worked harder than ever before. Not only did most have to adapt to new ways of working but for many the pandemic lead to an increase in support requests. Geckoboard customer Ember described a situation where people were more readily available to contact Support but also expected agents to respond faster than usual. So how is the industry faring in 2021?

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) is one of the most widely used customer service metrics. Companies send short CSAT surveys after a support interaction—but these are tied to your customers’ most recent interaction with your company and can be skewed if they had an issue or poor experience. And because CSAT surveys are kept short to make it easy for customers to respond, they don’t tell you why customers feel the way they do.