10 Important Help Desk KPIs to Track
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are essential to the success of a help desk or service desk. They serve as measurable quantifiers that indicate how well a help desk is operating and meeting its goals. It’s important to track these KPIs to ensure that the help desk is running optimally and providing the best customer service possible. And, of course, customer service KPIs, service desk KPIs and customer service KPIs can all reflect employee experience as well as “customer experience.”
The most important help desk KPIs and service desk KPIs
These KPIs are important for a variety of reasons. They don’t just tell you how you’re doing now; they also tell you how you’re faring over time.
First Response Time
This KPI measures how quickly a help desk responds to customer queries, and it’s one of the most important KPIs to measure. It’s critical to ensure that customers receive a timely response. Sometimes a high-resolution time won’t matter as long as you can respond quickly. But you also don’t want people feeling as though they’re spinning their wheels.
Average Resolution Time
The average resolution time KPI measures how long it takes for the help desk to resolve a customer issue or query. It’s important to maintain a low-resolution time to provide excellent customer service.
First Contact Resolution Rate
This KPI measures the rate at which issues are resolved on the first contact with the help desk. It’s important to maintain a high first-contact resolution rate to provide excellent customer service and ensure customer satisfaction.
Customer Satisfaction Rate
The customer satisfaction rate measures how satisfied customers are with the help desk services they receive. This KPI is critical for gauging customer experience, as it measures how well the help desk delivers on its promises.
Abandonment Rate
The abandonment rate KPI measures how often customers who contact the help desk abandon their query without resolving their issue. A high abandonment rate can indicate that customers cannot get the help they need quickly and easily or are not satisfied with the help they receive.
Repeat Contact Rate
The repeat contact rate KPI measures how often customers contact the help desk for assistance with the same issue. A high repeat contact rate can indicate that customers are unable to find the answers they need or that they’re not satisfied with the resolution of their issue.
Staff Utilization
The staff utilization KPI measures how effectively your staff is utilizing their time. It’s important to ensure that employees are efficient in their work and aren’t spending too much time on tasks that could be handled more quickly.
Cost per Contact
This KPI measures the cost of providing help desk services, including personnel and other related expenses. It’s important to track this KPI to ensure that you’re providing help desk services cost-effectively and efficiently.
Average Wait Time
The average wait time KPI measures how long it takes for customers to get a response from the help desk. It’s important to maintain a low average wait time so that customers don’t feel as though their query is being ignored.
Inquiry Volume
The inquiry volume KPI measures how many inquiries the help desk receives over a given period. This KPI can tell you how popular your help desk services are and how well they meet customer needs.
Typical mistakes with help desk KPIs and service desk KPIs
When measuring help desk KPIs and service desk KPIs, it’s important to be aware of some common mistakes. Raw numbers cannot produce results unless they’re the right numbers for you. And KPIs should not be treated as goals.
For instance, many organizations prioritize response time over resolution time, leading to customer frustration when the issue isn’t resolved quickly. Additionally, some organizations focus too heavily on cost-related metrics, such as cost per contact, without considering customer satisfaction. And you may need to track KPIs tier by tier; obviously, more complicated requests take longer.
Finally, many organizations fail to measure KPIs related to customer experiences, such as the abandonment rate or average wait time. By measuring these KPIs, you can ensure that your help desk is providing excellent service and resolving customer queries quickly and effectively.
Above all, you want a positive experience for everyone. Don’t get too wrapped up in industry specifics.
How to improve your KPIs
Help desk KPIs and service desk KPIs are important metrics that measure the performance of your help desk. By tracking these KPIs, you can ensure that your help desk is delivering quality customer service, responding quickly to inquiries, and resolving issues efficiently.
Additionally, measuring customer satisfaction metrics (which, as noted, may also be seen as employee satisfaction metrics), such as the abandonment rate, will indicate whether your system is successful.
So, what if your KPIs aren’t where you want them to be?
The advantage of managing your metrics is that you know how to improve them. Standardized, thorough metric management is exactly what you need to increase your KPIs and improve your operations. If your inquiry volume is increasing, then system instability is increasing. If your cost per contact is too high, you must manage your expenses.
The first step is always to start tracking your KPIs reliably and ensure that they are accurate. And an MSP can help.
Improve your help desk KPIs and service desk KPIs
MSPs can help your organization manage its KPIs by providing superior help desk and service desk experiences. By using modern help desk software, your organization can track customer inquiries and responses in real-time. Additionally, MSPs can help you manage operational costs by providing managed IT services and helping to reduce expenses. If you have a huge number of tickets, you have system-wide issues to fix. Your MSP can help you increase your operational efficiency and better manage your help desk and service desk, along with establishing best practices.
MSPs have resources that your organization would find prohibitively expensive, both in terms of human capital and software tools. At Red River, we specialize in designing help desk and service desk solutions that are custom-fit for you. Connect with us today if you want help setting up, maintaining, or improving your help desk KPIs.
