Contact Rate Calculator
Support contacts per hundred orders, what each contact and each order costs in support, and the agents that load needs.
Contact rate is the support measure that scales with the shop: contacts per hundred orders.
How the contact rate calculator works
Contact rate is the support measure that scales with the shop: contacts per hundred orders. Multiply it by the handling time and the hourly cost and it becomes a cost per order that belongs in the margin alongside packaging and postage.
"Where is my order?" contacts are usually the largest single reason, and the most avoidable — proactive shipping updates remove a share of them. Enter their share and the calculator prices halving it.
Formula: contact rate = contacts ÷ orders × 100; cost per contact = handling minutes ÷ 60 × hourly cost; agents = ⌈contacts × handling minutes ÷ 60 ÷ productive hours⌉
Worked examples
| Inputs | Contact rate | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Growing shop | 18 per 100 orders | 18 per 100; 4.00 per contact; 3,600 per month |
| Low-touch category | 5 per 100 orders | 5 per 100 |
| Delivery problems | 35 per 100 orders | 35 per 100 |
FAQFrequently asked questions
What is a good contact rate?
Under ten contacts per hundred orders is comfortable for most online shops; twenty or more means the buying or delivery experience is generating questions. Track it monthly: the rate moves before the support bill does.
Why price the "where is my order?" contacts separately?
They are usually the largest single reason for contact and the easiest to prevent — dispatch and delivery notifications with tracking remove a large share. Pricing half of them shows what that notification work is worth.
What handling time should I use?
The full time an agent spends on a contact, including reading the history and writing the reply, not just the conversation. Ticket systems report it; if yours does not, sample a day.
How does this become a cost per order?
Contact rate × cost per contact ÷ 100. At 18 contacts per hundred orders and four per contact that is 0.72 per order — a cost that belongs in the unit economics beside packaging and postage.
Where these figures come from
- APICS / ASCM — inventory management terminology — the turnover, safety stock and reorder point definitions used here
- Australian Competition and Consumer Commission — the Australian consumer law regulator
Last checked: September 2026. These are standard retail and inventory-management definitions.