What are the key performance indicators and metrics for after-sales service and support?

1 Service revenue and profitability

One of the main goals of after-sales service and support is to generate revenue and profit from existing customers, either by selling service contracts, spare parts, upgrades, or other value-added services. Therefore, it is important to monitor how much revenue and profit you are generating from these activities, compared to your costs and investments. To measure service revenue and profitability, you can use metrics such as service revenue as a percentage of total revenue, service margin, and service contract penetration. The former metric indicates how much of your total revenue comes from after-sales activities and how well you are leveraging your installed base and customer relationships. Service margin reflects how efficient and effective your service and support operations are, while service contract penetration shows how successful you are at selling and renewing service contracts. All of these metrics provide valuable insights into the success of your after-sales activities.

2 Customer satisfaction and loyalty

Another key goal of after-sales service and support is to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, as they can affect customer retention, referrals, and repeat purchases. Therefore, it's important to measure how happy and loyal your customers are with your after-sales activities, and how they perceive the quality and value of your service and support. You can use metrics such as customer satisfaction score (CSAT), net promoter score (NPS), and customer effort score (CES) to determine this. CSAT shows how satisfied your customers are with a specific service or support interaction; NPS shows how likely your customers are to recommend your service or support; and CES shows how easy or difficult your customers find it to get their service or support issues resolved. This data can help you understand how well you are meeting or exceeding your customers' expectations, as well as how you can improve your service or support quality, increase word-of-mouth and referrals, and reduce customer frustration.

3 Service quality and performance

A third key goal of after-sales service and support is to ensure service quality and performance, as these can affect customer satisfaction, loyalty, and profitability. To measure how well you are delivering your service and support and how you can optimize your operations, there are a few metrics you can use. The first-time fix rate (FTFR) shows how often you are able to resolve service or support issues on the first attempt without needing a repeat visit or follow-up call. This metric indicates how effective and efficient your service or support technicians are, as well as how you can reduce costs and improve customer satisfaction. Additionally, the mean time to repair (MTTR) reveals how long it takes to repair customers' equipment or systems from the time they report a problem until they are back in operation. This metric demonstrates how responsive and reliable your service or support is, and how you can minimize customers' downtime and disruption. Lastly, the preventive maintenance compliance (PMC) indicates how well you are performing preventive maintenance on customers' equipment or systems according to the planned schedule and frequency. This metric shows how proactive and preventive your service or support is, as well as how you can prevent or reduce customers' service or support issues.

4 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?