Negative Response Rate (NRR)

Negative Response Rate (NRR) shows how many negative customer responses an agent receives vs positive responses as a percentage. It is the inverse of an agent’s CSAT score (e.g. If an agent’s weekly CSAT score is 60%, their NRR will be 40%). Agents should aim to have as low an NRR score as possible.

*As a rule of thumb: NRR% + CSAT% always = 100%*

NRR= negative customer responses ÷ all customer responses

🧮 How do we calculate this? 

An agent’s NRR is calculated weekly based on their involvement with the resolution of a case. There are 3 actions an agent can complete to be involved:

1. Leaving a public comment 
2. Creating an internal note
3. Solving or resolving a case

If an agent completes one of these actions in the timeframe between when a case is opened and a rating (positive or negative) is left by a customer this will impact their NRR (and CSAT) score.

If the action completed is in between a case being opened and a positive customer response, the agent will receive a 100% CSAT for this case and a 0% NRR and vice versa. 

This score is then added to the total weekly pool of negative and positive scores an agent accumulates over a week to create an average weekly NRR score.

*If multiple agents complete an action within the same timeframe (between an action and a customer rating), all agents involved will receive the same NRR/CSAT score for this case*

⚠️ Correcting Negative Ratings ⚠️

Any negative rating that an agent receives from a customer can be corrected and overturned by a Team Lead or any team member that has been assigned this permission.

To learn how to correct negative ratings click here.

If an agent's negative rating for a case is overturned this means that their NRR score will be 0% for this particular case.

Why allow negative rating corrections?

There are multiple reasons negative rating corrections can be overturned: 

• The agent is not always at fault in the situation. The customer may be unreasonable or have negative feelings towards the company in general not the agent's service.
  
  
• The agent is unable to satisfy the customer's needs due to limitations from customer policy.
  
  
• Non-customer-facing agents who leave internal notes may not be to blame for a negative rating. 

💡 Examples

When looking at examples of how NRR can be calculated there are 3 typical scenarios:

1. Single agent w/ single customer response (most common)

2. Multiple agents w/ single customer response (less common)

3. Multiple agents w/ multiple customer responses (rare)

Single agent w/ single customer response

The vast majority of scenarios involve one agent answering a case with a single customer rating. For example:

• An agent opens a case that involves an unhappy customer asking for a refund for a product they purchased.
  
  
• The agent then leaves a public comment saying that there is nothing they can do, returns aren’t part of company policy.
  
  
• The customer leaves a bad rating.
  
  
• The agent receives a 100% NRR for this case, which is added to his/her cumulative average NRR score for the week.

Multiple agents w/ single customer response

Sometimes, multiple agents will work together to resolve a single case. Perhaps an agent doesn’t have time to resolve it and a colleague will take over, or perhaps they ask for some assistance to work collaboratively. For example: 

• Agent 1 opens a case that involves an unhappy customer asking why the product they ordered hasn’t yet arrived.
  
  
• Agent 1 is new to the job so he/she asks Agent 2 to leave an internal note to give some guidance on how to solve the issue.
  
  
• Agent 2 leaves an internal comment.
  
  
• Agent 1 then leaves a public comment to try to resolve the issue.
  
  
• The customer is unimpressed and leaves a bad rating.
  
  
• Both agents receive a 100% NRR for this case, which is added to their cumulative average NRR score for the week.

Multiple agents w/ multiple customer responses

Whilst it rarely happens, there can be scenarios where multiple agents will work on a case that receives more than one rating from the customer. 

Any action that is completed by the agent in a negative time frame will delegate 100% NRR and any action in a positive timeframe will receive 100% CSAT. In the scenario that an agent completes two actions, 1 in a negative timeframe and 1 in a positive, they will receive 50% NRR and 50% CSAT for this case, For example:

• Agent 1 opens a case that involves a customer asking for an extension on his free trial.
  
  
• Agent 1 isn’t sure about the protocol for extending trials so he sends a public comment asking the customer to wait while he confers with his colleague.
  
  
• The customer leaves a bad rating.
  
  
•  Agent 2 intervenes and leaves an internal note to provide Agent 1 saying he may offer the client an extra 1 week on their trial.
  
  
•  Agent 1 leaves a public comment offering the customer the 1 week extra.
  
  
• The customer is pleased and leaves a good rating.
  
  
• Agent 1 receives 50% NRR as he/she was involved in 1 positive and 1 negative timeframe. Agent 2 receives 100% CSAT as he/she was involved only in a positive timeframe.

🙋 So what does this mean for me?

Agents should aim to achieve as low an NRR % as possible. As this metric is the inverse of CSAT, having a low NRR indicates that an agent is providing a high level of service that is satisfactory to customers.

📊 How do we use this in your Dojo?

Whilst all metrics contribute to an agent's skill points in their personal Dojo, some metrics reward more or less for certain skills. This is how Negative Response Rate is distributed towards an agent's Quality, Productivity, and Speed points.

Negative Response Rate

Quality: -71%

Productivity: -29%

Speed: 0%