7 service desk KPIs to live by
Today’s service desk technologies and reporting packages make it easy to capture copious amounts of performance data, which is great. But…where does that get you? Or more to the point, how can that data help you improve your team’s performance?
It all starts with establishing what success looks like for your company. And once that’s defined, you can build key performance indicators (KPIs) that can then be used to measure your company’s success.
By knowing what your success looks like, you’ll be able to tell whether it’s good or bad if your abandonment rate goes up, but your cost per contact goes down. And you’ll be able to answer important questions like: Is my service desk performing better this month than it did last month?
Believe it or not, despite all the data at our fingertips, the average service desk manager still can’t answer the simple question: How is my service desk performing?
Even worse than that is the fact that service desk managers are unaware of the critical role—beyond mere measurement—that KPIs can play in the service desk. Well-defined KPIs can give you the ability to:
- Track and trend performance
- Identify, diagnose, and correct performance problems
- Establish performance goals and accountability
That may sound like a lot of work, but it’s not as hard as you might think. Many progressive service desks are realizing that when it comes to measuring performance, less really is more—quality over quantity.
In fact, the effective application of just seven KPIs is all that’s required for measuring, managing, and continuously improving your service desk performance.
Seven essential service desk KPIs:
- Cost per contact
- Customer satisfaction
- Agent utilization
- First contact resolution rate
- First level resolution rate
- Agent satisfaction
- Aggregate service desk performance
By just committing to measuring the seven areas list above, you can dramatically improve your service desk performance. Focus on what matters: delivering the highest possible quality at the lowest possible cost. That’s what the seven essential service desk KPIs help you achieve—greater value at a lower cost.
Two major service desk KPI mistakes to avoid:
- Tracking too many metrics
- Failing to exploit the full potential of performance metrics as diagnostic tools
Get your service desk on the fast track to success by harnessing the data in your platform to measure KPIs, then take action on the reporting. Only by understanding how your service desk is doing today can you make measurable strides toward greater efficiency and cost effectiveness.