When it comes to customer service and success metrics, First Call Resolution (FCR) and Customer Effort Score (CES) often steal the spotlight. Both metrics focus on different aspects of customer interaction: FCR tracks the ability to resolve issues in a single touchpoint, and CES measures how easy it is for customers to achieve their goals with the brand. However, there’s another powerful metric that deserves more attention: Contact to Order (CTO).
CTO measures the number of interactions, or the amount of time, it takes to turn a customer inquiry into a completed sale. It highlights how efficient a company is in converting leads into paying customers, making it an invaluable metric in the modern customer experience (CX) landscape.
In today’s convenience-driven market, consumers expect fast, seamless interactions. The fewer steps required to make a purchase, the better the experience—and the higher the likelihood of securing a sale. CTO plays a vital role in quantifying this efficiency. Businesses that consistently minimize the number of touchpoints needed to convert a lead into a sale enjoy higher conversion rates, better customer satisfaction, and ultimately, greater revenue.
Efficiency isn’t just about reducing steps; it’s about ensuring that every interaction moves the customer closer to making a purchase. The faster a company can guide a customer through the journey—from initial inquiry to checkout—the less likely they are to lose the customer to friction or competitor offers.
A lower CTO reflects streamlined operations and empowered customer service agents who are well-equipped to handle inquiries and close deals quickly. Research suggests that 91% of customers expect to be able to pick up where they left off without having to re-explain their issue during multiple interactions with a company. This expectation highlights the importance of seamless, well-connected touchpoints, a key factor in reducing CTO.
A low Contact to Order ratio indicates that a company is providing a smooth and straightforward experience. Each interaction with the customer should be purposeful, informative, and should move them closer to completing their purchase. By reducing unnecessary steps, businesses can keep customers engaged, prevent them from abandoning the purchasing process, and ultimately improve satisfaction.
Companies that focus on reducing friction in the customer journey, whether through effective automation, empowered agents, or streamlined service processes, are better positioned to deliver a positive experience. This is where Contact to Order plays a pivotal role: it provides an actionable insight into how well a business is managing customer interactions in the journey toward conversion.
While First Call Resolution (FCR) and Customer Effort Score (CES) are valuable in their own right, CTO complements these metrics by focusing specifically on sales efficiency. FCR emphasizes the ability to resolve issues quickly, but it doesn’t necessarily measure whether that resolution leads to a sale. Similarly, CES measures ease of experience, but doesn’t track whether the customer ultimately made a purchase.
Contact to Order is unique in that it measures how efficiently inquiries are converted into sales, making it a key metric for revenue generation. It enables businesses to identify where they may be losing potential customers in the sales process, whether due to long response times, complicated checkout processes, or poorly trained customer service agents.
Reducing CTO requires a focus on proactive service and empowering agents with the right tools and information. Proactive service means anticipating customer needs before they arise and addressing them early in the customer journey. Companies that can predict customer behaviors, offer relevant information, and resolve inquiries swiftly will naturally see their CTO decrease.
Empowered agents are also critical. When customer service teams are equipped with the information and autonomy to make decisions quickly, they can guide customers through the purchasing process with fewer touchpoints. This might mean enabling agents to offer discounts or solutions on the spot, reducing the need for additional follow-up interactions.
According to Salesforce, 79% of consumers expect to interact with a company through multiple channels before making a purchase . Inconsvice across these channels—whether it’s email, chat, or phone—can lead to increased interactions and a higher CTO. This is why companies need to ensure their agents are well-trained and capable of handling inquiries across different platforms.
Many forward-thinking companies are turning to Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) providers to streamline their workflows and reduce CTO. BPOs can assist businesses in a variety of ways, such as:
Alta, a leader in BPO solutions, is an example of a company that has successfully integrated CTO into its customer success strategy. Alta focuses on streamlining workflows and empowering agents with the right tools to reduce the number of touchpoints required to close a sale. By leveraging AI-driven analytics and proactive service models, Alta has helped businesses shorten their CTO, leading to increased conversion rates and higher customer satisfaction.
Alta’s approach demonstrates that CTO is not just a metric for tracking efficiency but a strategic tool for improving the overall customer experience and driving revenue growth. By incorporating CTO alongside CES and FCR, companies can ensure that their customer service is both effective and efficient.
In a world where convenience and efficiency are paramount, the Contact to Order (CTO) metric stands out as an essential tool for evaluating how well businesses convert customer inquiries into sales. While metrics like First Call Resolution (FCR) and Customer Effort Score (CES) focus on customer satisfaction and issue resolution, CTO zeroes in on the most critical outcome for businesses: driving revenue.
By focusing on reducing the number of interactions required to complete a sale, businesses can optimize their processes, empower their customer service teams, and deliver seamless customer experiences. Whether through proactive service, automation, or working with a BPO provider like Alta, companies that prioritize CTO will see improvements in conversion rates, customer satisfaction, and overall business performance. As the customer experience landscape continues to evolve, those businesses that adopt CTO as a key success metric will be well-positioned to thrive in an increasingly competitive market.
