cx-cost-to-servelisted

# Cost to serve Cost per contact is the number that unlocks budget and justifies automation, which is exactly why it is usually built to reach a conclusion. The two failure modes are a denominator chosen to flatter and a savings claim that counts money nobody will stop spending. ## Build the cost base explicitly State what is in and what is out. The number varies by a factor of two or more depending on this, so a cost per contact quoted without its basis is not comparable to anything. - **Fully loaded agent cost** — salary, employer taxes, benefits, and the paid time not spent on contacts (training, meetings, breaks, absence). Using base salary alone understates by a large margin. - **Supervision and support** — team leads, QA, workforce management, training. Typically a meaningful share and usually forgotten. - **Technology** — helpdesk, telephony, per-seat licences, AI or bot spend. - **Facilities and equipment**, or the remote-work equivalent. - **Vendor fees** for outsourced volume, on whatever basis the contract uses — which is often per-contact or per-hour and therefore not directly comparable to internal fully-loaded cost. Normalise before mixing. Say which are included. "Agent cost only, excluding supervision and technology" is a fine basis; an unstated basis is not. ## Get the denominator right - **Count customer contacts, not tickets.** Transfers and reassignments create records, not contacts. If one customer issue produced three tickets, the cost