Customer Service and Experience
Service as a conversion and retention lever
Customer experience spans pre-purchase (findability, product answers, delivery clarity), purchase (checkout friction, payment options, error handling), and post-purchase (confirmation, tracking, delivery, returns, support). Self-service - order status, tracking, returns portal, FAQ, chatbot with human escalation - deflects the highest-volume contacts so agents handle judgment calls.
Metrics: FCR (first contact resolution), CSAT (satisfaction with a specific interaction), NPS (likelihood to recommend, relationship-level), CES (customer effort), AHT (average handle time), SLA response and resolution times, backlog, contact rate per order, and cost per contact. Retention and repurchase are the outcomes service actually moves.
Traps: treating AHT as a goal rather than a cost input - cutting AHT often raises repeat contacts; comparing NPS across companies using different survey methods and timing; treating CSAT and NPS as interchangeable; assuming faster is better when a quick wrong answer produces a second contact and a chargeback.
Rule of thumb: reduce contact rate before optimizing handle time. When contacts are high-volume and low-complexity, deflection beats speed.
Worked example: 50,000 orders at a 12% contact rate = 6,000 contacts at $6 each = $36,000. Adding tracking self-service drops the rate to 9% = 4,500 contacts = $27,000, saving $9,000 while improving CSAT because customers get answers without waiting in a queue.