Learn about the most important Service Desk and Support KPIs

Key Performance Indicators or KPIs are measurable goals often tied to organizational goals. Most goals are achieved through the efforts of multiple people working in different teams across the organization.
Aligning these goals across multiple owners creates shared accountability.
Once these goals are properly defined and communicated, we need to develop indicators to understand where we are now compared to where we want to be, in this case, the goal.
These indicators are referred to Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Wait! there is a Problem.

 “If a measurement matters at all, it is because it must have some conceivable effect on decisions and behavior. If we can’t identify a decision that could be affected by a proposed measurement and how it could change those decisions, then the measurement simply has no value.” ― Douglas W. Hubbard

The problem is that there are hundreds and hundreds of KPIs; organizations and teams find it very hard to select the right ones for their business. The most common mistake is to measure and gather all the information that you possibly can and somehow fit them into KPIs that others are using. Soon they realize that the metrics generated are not being used for decision making.

Important KPIs for Service and Support Organizations

Over the years different KPIs have surfaced across support and service oriented organizations. However, most of them still agree that they some of the most important KPIs are still some of the most basic ones that can be easily captured using a good Service Management Tool. Some of the most widely used KPIs are:

  • 1. Cost per ticket or Time Spent per Ticket
  • 2. Customer Satisfaction – Measured often using Surveys
  • 3. First call Resolution Rate
  • 4. First Level Resolution Rate
  • 5. Agent Utilization

If we study the ways we can improve these KPIs for our teams, we quickly understand that improving one KPI often improves other KPIs too. For example, improving First Call Resolution Rate also Improves Customer Satisfaction, Improving agent utilizing rates reduces the cost per ticket etc.
A good IT Service Desk Solution like ServiceTonic can help agent utilization rates through automated assignment of requests based on agent availability or agent workload. Here, it is important to note that we should also take care in defining the right SLAs for service and support with internal and well as external users.

One other important metric!

One other important metric that is often overlooked by teams is the agent job satisfaction metric.
It is important, to not only communicate team success in achieving goals but also have plans in place to inspire, train and coach agents to see them grow in their careers.
It has been seen that increase in agent satisfaction can substantially drive up customer satisfaction.
Once you have defined these basic Metrics for your Service Desk you should move on to track and see trend in performance over time.
One highly recommended next step is to use bench marking your performance against that of industry peers to see where you stand.
From there you go ahead to find the performance gaps, underline the things you can improve and form a plan that is achievable.

“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” – Albert Einstein