The subscription economy changes everything. Like in the SaaS industry, the only way to scale and retain is by tracking the right metrics—especially in customer support, where every ticket has a direct line to retention. SaaS companies rely on CX metrics to drive retention and growth, using these insights to improve customer satisfaction and overall performance.
Therefore, along with customer support, product teams and revenue teams must align. There should be no room for a disjointed view of the customer experience. In seven out of ten cases, consumers expect anyone with whom they engage with to have a complete understanding of their situation. That also makes for a high customer satisfaction score which then paves the way for customer loyalty.
This post will break down the top CX metrics that SaaS businesses must keep an eye on in 2025. These are metrics that might look familiar to other business models, but behave differently in SaaS. Let’s dive in.
The top 5 SaaS CX metrics that matter
How do you know if you’re winning when it comes to customer experience? How do you assess the performance of your customer success team? You don’t guess. You measure. And you measure the right metrics. Each CX metric serves as a key performance indicator for SaaS companies, helping to track and improve customer experience. Here are the top SaaS CX metrics that matter.
1. CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score)
CSAT is a snapshot of how a customer feels immediately after any of these scenarios: interacting with your support team, using a new feature, or completing a SaaS onboarding step. The Customer Satisfaction Score is a measure of satisfaction across the entire customer journey—from free trial to feature adoption to renewal conversations.
It starts by asking “How satisfied are you with [specific interaction/product/feature]?” and provides a rating scale. The most common scale is 1 to 5 (1 = Very Dissatisfied, 5 = Very Satisfied).
How to compute:
CSAT = (Number of satisfied customers / Total number of survey responses) × 100
Sample computation:
Let’s say your SaaS company sends out a customer satisfaction survey after every support chat. Out of 500 responses:
- 100 customers rated 1 (Very Dissatisfied)
- 50 customers rated 2 (Dissatisfied)
- 150 customers rated 3 (Neutral)
- 120 customers rated 4 (Satisfied)
- 80 customers rated 5 (Very Satisfied)
Number of Satisfied Customers (typically 4 or 5 on a 5-point scale) = 120 + 80 = 200
Total Number of Responses = 500
CSAT = (200/500) x 100 = 0.4 × 100 = 40%
Example of application:
As per the sample, your CSAT score for support interactions is 40%. Feedback from those lower scores revolves around a common theme: customers are frustrated with the slow response time, and agents are often closing tickets prematurely. Now you can implement stricter SLAs for chat response times and provide additional training to agents on proper ticket resolution.
2. NPS (Net Promoter Score)
NPS measures the possibility of your existing customers recommending your SaaS to others. NPS specifically measures customer loyalty by asking about the likelihood to recommend your product or service. It’s relational (measuring overall customer sentiment), so it helps measure customer loyalty and decrease churn risk. In a way, it also reflects customer happiness—satisfied customers are happy customers and they will gladly refer you to potential customers.
How to compute:
Like CSAT, this starts by asking: “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend [Your SaaS] to a friend or colleague?” Based on their answer, customers are categorized:
- Promoters (9-10): Customers who will keep buying and refer others, fueling growth.
- Passives (7-8): Satisfied customers but vulnerable to competitive offerings.
- Detractors (0-6): Unhappy customers who can damage your brand through negative word-of-mouth.
NPS= %Promoters − %Detractors
Sample computation:
You send out an NPS survey to 1,000 active users.
- 600 users responded with a 9 or 10 (Promoters)
- 200 users responded with a 7 or 8 (Passives)
- 200 users responded with a 0-6 (Detractors)
%Promoters= (600/1000) x 100 =60%
%Detractors= (200/1000) × 100 =20%
NPS= 60% − 20% = 40
Note: NPS is expressed as an absolute number between -100 and +100, not a percentage.
Example of application:
An NPS of 40 is decent. It indicates a healthy base of loyal customers, but also a significant segment of Passives and Detractors that represent churn risk or missed advocacy opportunities.
3. CES (Customer Effort Score)
CES measures how much effort a customer had to exert to complete a specific task or resolve an issue. High effort means friction, which means higher customer churn risk. In SaaS, high effort scores are the strongest predictor of churn—even stronger than customer satisfaction scores.
How to compute:
You ask, “How easy was it to [complete a specific task—’resolve your issue,’ ‘find the information you needed,’ ‘set up the integration’]?” The common scale is typically a 1 to 7 Likert scale (1 = Very Difficult, 7 = Very Easy).
CES = Sum of all effort scores / Total responses
Sample computation:
After customers reset their passwords in your SaaS application, you trigger a CES survey.
You get 100 responses on a 1-7 scale:
- 10 users rated 1
- 5 users rated 2
- 15 users rated 3
- 20 users rated 4
- 25 users rated 5
- 15 users rated 6
- 10 users rated 7
Sum of all scores = (10×1)+(5×2)+(15×3)+(20×4)+(25×5)+(15×6)+(10×7)
= 10 + 10 + 45 + 80 + 125 + 90 + 70 = 430
Total Number of Responses = 100
CES = 430/100 = 4.3
Note: Some companies use the inverse scale or calculate it as a percentage of low-effort scores.
Example of application:
A CES of 4.3 sounds good—but in context, it depends. If your previous month was 4.6, this is a negative trend. Or if your CES for chat is 4.7 and for email is 3.9, now you know where friction lives. And a drop in CES, even with solid CSAT, signals problems (like customers may feel support is nice, but the product requires too much effort to navigate).
4. FCR (First Contact Resolution)
FCR measures the percentage of customer issues or inquiries that are completely resolved on the first interaction. This means no follow-up emails, no second calls, no internal escalations for the same issue. This contributes to improving the overall customer experience—so your goal is to keep this percentage high.
How to compute:
FCR = (Number of issues resolved on first contact/Total number of eligible issues (excluding complex issues requiring multiple touchpoints by nature)) × 100
Sample computation:
Your SaaS support team handles 1,000 tickets in a month. After reviewing ticket logs and customer feedback, you determine that 750 of these tickets were resolved in the first interaction without further follow-up from the customer or internal escalation for the same issue.
FCR= (750/1000) × 100 = 75%
Example of application:
An FCR of 75% is solid. But how about the 25%? So, you can analyze those that weren’t resolved on the first contact. Therefore, you must identify the common reasons for this and try to keep the follow-ups at a minimum.
5. TTR (Time to Resolution)
Often referred to as Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR), this metric measures the average duration from the moment a ticket is opened until it is completely resolved and closed. This metric is a crucial indicator of your support team’s efficiency, your internal processes, and your ability to minimize customer downtime and frustration.
How to compute:
TTR = Sum of all resolution times/Total number of resolved tickets
Sample computation:
Over the week, your support team resolves 200 tickets.
- 50 tickets resolved in 1 hour each
- 100 tickets resolved in 3 hours each
- 30 tickets resolved in 5 hours each
- 20 tickets resolved in 10 hours each
Sum of all resolution times = (50×1)+(100×3)+(30×5)+(20×10)
=50+300+150+200 = 700 hours
Total number of resolved tickets = 200
TTR = 700 hours/200 tickets = 3.5 hours
Example of application:
Your average TTR is 3.5 hours. To improve this, you will need to dig into the tickets that took significantly longer to resolve. Find out if there are handoff issues between departments (example: support to engineering) or implement clear guidelines for prioritizing tickets based on severity and customer impact. This may also be a good opportunity to explore automation strategies that can work alongside human support agents.
Secondary metrics to keep an eye on
Now, don’t stop at CSAT, NPS, CES, FCR, and TTR. Here are additional metrics that tell you why your primary metrics are moving the way they are.
Ticket backlog and volume trends
Let’s define both first. The ticket backlog is the total number of open tickets currently waiting for a response or resolution. Volume trends, on the other hand, indicate the number of tickets received over a specific period (daily, weekly, or monthly) and how that number changes over time.
If your backlog is showing no signs of slowing down, it means your customers are waiting longer. Your CX operation isn’t keeping pace. So, it’s likely that customer satisfaction levels are about to take a dip. So if you notice your CSAT scores are on a downward trend, it’s a sign to check your backlog and volume trends.
Channel-specific satisfaction
Each channel delivers a different experience, and treating them all the same is a mistake. Additionally, different customer segments have different channel preferences, too. So, measure customer satisfaction specifically for each channel you offer support on:
- How satisfied are customers with responses received via email?
- How’s their satisfaction with real-time chat interactions?
- How happy are customers after a phone call with your team?
Agent performance by responsiveness and resolution quality
Your agents directly interact with your customers. Therefore, track how individual agents (or teams) perform not just on response time, but on resolution quality—meaning how effective, accurate, and complete their resolutions are. Because speed without quality is useless (and vice versa).
Tip: Pair quantitative agent stats with qualitative coaching. Sit down, listen to calls, read chat transcripts, and understand why those numbers are what they are.
Tracking and reporting tools to get the most out of these metrics
To get a full view of your customer satisfaction and customer experience, make it a practice to measure the SaaS CX metrics. To do this effectively, you will need a good set of tools.
Top CX platforms (2025)
- Zendesk: A leading customer support platform that combines ticketing, customer communication, and analytics in one place.
- Freshdesk: Its analytics include pre-defined and customizable real-time dashboards that track key metrics such as response times, customer satisfaction, and agent availability.
- HubSpot Service Hub: Great if you’re already in the HubSpot ecosystem (CRM, Marketing, Sales). This provides a tightly integrated view of the entire customer journey across all touchpoints.
How to connect CX metrics to business KPIs
Facts only: satisfied customers spend more and stay longer. They conduct repeat purchases. They provide you with a good CSAT score. These simple examples show how metrics align with certain business outcomes. And this must be applied throughout.
What do we mean by this? Do not simply measure metrics for the sake of it. Measure CX metrics and align them to your goals—revenue, churn, and growth. Rate measures, such as churn and retention rates, provide valuable insights into customer behavior and overall business health.
Example:
- Good CSAT scores or NPS lead to lower churn. You can literally quantify this by looking at churn rates for customers with high vs. low CSAT/NPS scores.
- High FCR boosts operational efficiency. If your team is solving issues quickly and completely the first time, you need fewer agents to handle the same volume of tickets. This then provides guidance on hiring and recruitment.
- Positive support interactions drive upsells/cross-sells for increased MRR. A customer who has a great support experience might be more open to buying another product or upgrading their plan.
Using dashboards for transparency and accountability
Dashboards aren’t just for your Monday standup. They’re visual displays of your most important CX metrics—updated in real-time or near real-time—built for easy consumption so everyone sees the same numbers.
We’re talking about the support team, product, and revenue teams. When agents can track their performance alongside the team’s, it creates shared responsibility and accountability. The visibility drives action.
Moving beyond numbers: interpreting and acting on metrics
This is where data turns into decisions and actionable insights. They’re no longer just numbers. The real game is knowing what those numbers are trying to tell you, then building workflows that turn insights into action.
What poor scores actually indicate?
A poor score has multiple contributing factors. A low CSAT rating, for example, might be due to a combination of
- slow response times
- negative experience of a few customers
- an agent who lacked empathy
- and a complex product or service issue.
It’s also smart to segment your data (specific channel, product feature, certain hours, customer segment). The more you segment, the clearer the picture becomes.
Creating workflows for feedback loops and coaching.
If you got poor CX scores, you need a structured way to address them. Here’s a framework you can use:
- Trigger: Metric threshold is hit (e.g., CSAT scores are <75% for a week)
- Investigation: Review conversation transcripts, customer feedback, ticket tags, agent notes
- Debrief: Quick team huddle or async Loom recap
- Action: Coaching session, process update, or product ticket logged
- Re-measure: Watch the dashboard for improvement of customer experience metrics next week
Benchmarks to aim for across industries
Seeing how you stack up against others can motivate your team or confirm you’re on the right track. So, here’s a 2025 cheat sheet for SaaS CX leaders with key industry benchmarks based on the latest data:
- CSAT: Scores in the high 70s stand out in B2B SaaS customer satisfaction benchmark—measured via post-interaction surveys
- NPS: The average NPS score for the SaaS industry is +36
- CES: critical for SaaS usability and retention, so lower is better.
- FCR: SaaS teams aim for 70-80%+ because it keeps customers happy, lowers churn risk, and reduces support load.
Important note: Never chase a benchmark blindly. Focus on what makes your customers happy, meet or exceed customer expectations, and focus on what drives your business results.
Trends in 2025: Where metrics are heading
Those who embrace these trends will not only survive but thrive in the competitive landscape.
Predictive analytics and sentiment detection
We’re moving beyond measuring if customers are happy. We’re moving towards predicting what they’ll do about it, with customer sentiment velocity tracking that provides valuable feedback on how fast emotions change rather than just current mood.
Personalized CX performance dashboards
Generic dashboards are dead—the future is adaptive performance systems that customize metrics based on agent experience level, customer segment, and individual goals. New agents see learning curve metrics and confidence builders, while senior agents track key performance indicators, business impact, and leadership effectiveness—with each dashboard evolving as the person grows.
AI-based support scoring systems
This is about objective, scalable quality assurance and continuous learning. AI models that analyze multiple facets of an interaction (sentiment, adherence to best practices, resolution quality, efficiency) to assign a comprehensive quality score to each interaction, or even to an agent’s overall performance.
Summary and recap of how these metrics impact business decisions
Consistent measurement of the right SaaS CX metrics is how you protect your revenue. It’s how you catch churn before it happens. How you align support, product, and revenue—keeping existing and new customers sticking around for the long haul. The simple key? Be relentless in acting on your data every single day.
Here’s a table of key metrics and their business relevance.
| Key Metrics | What It Tells You (Customer Perspective) | Business Relevance (Why Leadership Cares) |
| Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) | Overall satisfaction of customers with specific interactions. | Access to CSAT data helps businesses decide how to improve retention, drive loyalty, and reduce customer churn. In terms of reputation, CSAT scores can also impact word-of-mouth. |
| Net Promoter Score (NPS) | How likely customers are to recommend your product or service | Tracking this data helps measure growth by predicting advocacy, referrals, and future revenue. |
| Customer Effort Score (CES) | How easy it was for customers to get their issue resolved. | It measures efficiency of service experience: Lower effort = higher satisfaction, less friction. It also helps improve loyalty by building long-term relationships with existing and new customers. |
| First Response Time (FRT) | How quickly customers get an initial acknowledgment. | Expectation management: Sets the tone for customer engagement and interaction. Volume impact: Efficient initial touch can prevent additional and too many follow-ups. |
| First Contact Resolution (FCR) | Was the issue resolved on the very first interaction? | Efficiency: Reduces repeat contacts and lowers operational cost. Satisfaction levels: High FCR correlates strongly with CSAT. |
| Ticket Backlog & Volume Trends | Current workload, incoming demand. | Staffing & resource allocation: Informs hiring and scheduling concerns, Product/process health: Indicates underlying issues that may impact customer lifecycle management and overall customer experience |
| Channel-Specific Satisfaction | How well each support channel is performing. | Channel optimization: Guides proper decision-making and investment in specific channels. Customer preference: Meeting customers where they are. |
| Individual Agent CSAT, FCR, Reopen Rate | Agent effectiveness, quality, and problem-solving. | Training & coaching: Pinpoints areas for development. Productivity & morale: Drives individual and team performance |
It’s time to own your SaaS CX metrics
Your next step? Obsess over your entire customer experience—both quantitative and qualitative data. Start by assessing your current metrics framework and updating your tracking systems.
If you need professional help to show you where your current setup gap is, LTVplus is here. Book a call.
