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Research

Steering Customer Service through COVID: 2020 Function Benchmark

Marketing and Sales leaders provided information on their customer service organizational structure and changes amid COVID-19 in functional and call volume.

A few of the key findings of this study: 

  • Three-quarters of survey respondents report that customer service sits within their commercial organization, not in operations, with nearly half fall under sales specifically.
  • A majority of customer service functions are organized in teams co-located in a few locations. 
  • Nearly half of responding companies have customer service reps graduating into an inside or outside sales position.
  • Call volume, response & resolution rates, and time per call are the most common metrics to measure effectiveness.
  • The metric most teams wish they were tracking is lost sales opportunities.

COVID Implications

  • Although 79% of companies have more than half their teams working remotely, many plan to bring most of their teams back in office post-COVID.
  • Many COVID-related systems and operational enhancements are likely to continue post-pandemic.
  • Most organizations made long-term changes to responsibilities rather than creating new roles. This includes inside sales activities, primary point of contact for customer, and more collaboration with inside sales.

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