Top Service Desk Reporting Metrics to Drive Success

Improving your service desk’s effectiveness and efficiency is like baking a cake – you need the right ingredients to make it perfect, and those ingredients are your key performance indicators (KPIs). Just as you wouldn’t bake without flour or sugar, running a service desk without tracking KPIs is a recipe for disaster. The significance of KPIs in maintaining a high-functioning service desk is underscored by research from the Service Desk Institute, which revealed that 90% of service desks actively measure their performance in some way. This widespread practice underscores the critical role that KPIs play in ensuring service desk operations are both effective and efficient.

Service desk metrics come in a variety of flavours, each designed to shine a light on different aspects of your service desk’s performance. For efficiency, you might track metrics like first response time or resolution time, ensuring that issues are handled promptly. Performance metrics could include ticket closure rates or agent utilisation, giving you insight into how well your team is functioning. Progress metrics help you gauge improvement over time, while quality metrics assess how well your service desk meets standards and resolves issues. Lastly, customer experience metrics are all about understanding how satisfied your users are with the support they receive. The Service Desk Institute outlines a comprehensive list of around 39 metrics to monitor, making sure you’re covering all the bases. For a deeper dive into these metrics, check out their report. With the right metrics in hand, you’ll be well-equipped to enhance every facet of your service desk’s performance.

The Power of User-Focused Metrics

When evaluating your service desk’s success, it’s easy to get caught up in metrics that spotlight business growth, such as ticket volume or revenue impact. However, if you’re not paying attention to user-focused metrics, you might be overlooking crucial insights. User-centric KPIs, like customer satisfaction scores and resolution times from the user's perspective, are essential for truly understanding and addressing the challenges your end-users face. By concentrating on these metrics, you’re not just optimising operational efficiency but also ensuring that your service desk is genuinely meeting user needs. This approach not only helps smooth out the user experience but also enhances overall satisfaction and effectiveness.  In essence, prioritising user-focused metrics  transforms your service desk into a dynamic force that excels in both user satisfaction and operational excellence.

Key User-Focused Metrics to Track

• Customer satisfaction (CSAT) - A direct measure of how satisfied your users are with the service they receive.

Why it matters: Happy users are productive users. By measuring CSAT, you get immediate feedback on how well your service desk is performing from the user’s perspective. This can help you identify areas for improvement and celebrate successes.

• First touch resolution rate - The percentage of issues resolved on the first interaction.

Why it matters: Users love quick solutions. A high first touch resolution rate indicates that your service desk is effectively addressing issues without the need for multiple follow-ups, leading to happier users and more efficient service.

• First level resolution rate - The percentage of issues resolved by the first level of support without escalation.

Why it matters: This metric shows how well your front-line staff are trained and how effectively they can handle common issues. High first level resolution rates mean users get faster resolutions and your service desk operates more efficiently. Average response time

The best service desks go beyond business metrics and place the user at the heart of their operations. By doing so, you ensure your team is not only meeting business objectives but also consistently exceeding user expectations. Keep these KPIs in mind, and you’ll be well on your way to running an outstanding IT service desk that sets the standard for excellence.

Other Crucial Service Desk Metrics

In addition to user-centric metrics, there are many other essential metrics related to efficiency, performance, progress, and quality. These include:

• Average cost per incident: This metric helps you understand the financial impact of incidents on your service desk. Lowering this cost means more efficient problem-solving processes.
• Average cost per service request: Similar to the cost per incident, this metric provides insight into the efficiency of handling service requests.
• Knowledge usage: Tracking how often your knowledge base is used and the most viewed articles can indicate its effectiveness. High usage suggests that your knowledge base is a valuable resource for both users and service desk staff.
• Number of incidents: Keeping track of the total number of incidents can help you identify trends and areas that need improvement.
• Escalation of incidents: Monitoring the rate at which incidents are escalated can reveal training gaps and the complexity of issues being reported.

By understanding and implementing these industry standard service desk metrics, you’ll not only enhance your reporting but also improve your overall service desk operations. From user satisfaction to operational efficiency, these metrics are your guide to driving success and setting new standards for excellence in IT service management.

Achieving Reporting Excellence with Sunrise

At Sunrise, we take pride in being one of two vendors acknowledged for achieving the SDI reporting compliant best practice standard. SDI’s Service Desk Reporting Compliance Audit proves that our IT service desk tool complies with the requirements of SDI’s Global Best Practice Standard for Service Desk. To achieve compliance, vendors must demonstrate how their tool reports on SDI’s prescribed performance measures, ensuring quick and efficient display of performance results data in a clear and concise way. With Sunrise, you can rest assured that your reporting will give you everything you need to know.

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