Despite all the data that IT managers have access to, most of them cannot answer a very simple question: how well is my help desk performing?

Many managers are unaware of the essential role that key performance indicators (KPIs) can and should play in optimizing their services.

Here are 5 key ITSM metrics that IT service managers should monitor.

1 – Cost per ticket

Cost per ticket may be the best indicator of the effectiveness of an IT department’s services and support. It is calculated by dividing the total monthly operating expenses of a help desk by the monthly ticket volume.

Operating expenses include the following:

Salaries and benefits of support technicians
Salaries and benefits of other employees
Technology and telecommunications equipment expenses
Facilities expenses
Travel, training and office supply costs

2 – Customer satisfaction

Another good indicator of an IT department’s effectiveness is customer satisfaction. One of the goals of any IT department is to achieve the best possible quality at the lowest cost.

Cost per ticket and customer satisfaction must therefore be measured continuously. IT service managers must ask themselves how to improve satisfaction without inflating the cost per ticket to optimize department performance. Solutions to reduce the cost per ticket without lowering satisfaction level can also be implemented.

3 – First contact resolution (FCR)

First contact resolution (FCR) measures the percentage of contacts resolved during the first interaction with customers.

Nine times out of ten, customer satisfaction can be improved by increasing FCR ratio due to the strong correlation between these two metrics.

This is why leading IT support companies focus so much on this metric. They adopt a variety of tactics to continuously improve FCR, including technician training, knowledge management investments, and the use of advanced ITSM tools such as iTop.

4 – Technician productivity

ITSM consulting service experts can tell you that nearly 70% of all operating costs of an average IT support company are related to technician labour (salaries, benefits, etc.). Labour cost is therefore an ITSM metric to monitor to reduce cost per ticket.

If technician productivity is optimized, cost per ticket will be lower. On the other hand, if technician performance is subpar, IT managers will have to find solutions to better utilize their potential.

5 – Average resolution time

Average resolution time measures the average time elapsed between the opening and closing of a ticket. It is usually measured in business hours, not clock hours.

Most IT service management solutions can easily measure and track this metric. Reducing the average problem resolution time increases customer satisfaction, but the correlation is not as strong as with the FCR ratio.

SEI Team helps you monitor your ITSM metrics and improve your performance

In conclusion, when it comes to measuring IT service and support performance, you need to focus on the data that really matters. You can improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of your IT services simply by monitoring the five KPIs presented in this article and using them for diagnostic purposes.

At SEI Team, we can help you analyze your ITSM metrics and adapt your solution accordingly. As specialists of Combodo‘s iTop ITSM solution, we can configure and customize it to be fully operational and meet your IT service management needs.