Service desk KPIs: a comprehensive guide

Looking to improve your IT service desk's performance step by step? Service desk KPIs will help you achieve just that. In this blog, we’ll explain exactly what service desk KPIs are and how you can use them to make informed decisions to improve your IT services.

What are service desk KPIs?

KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator. Within the context of an IT service desk, KPIs refer to the metrics that tell you exactly how effective and efficient your IT operations are. They provide a snapshot of the performance of your helpdesk and whether or not you're meeting your objectives.

Service desk KPIs are different from more general service desk metrics in that they align specifically with your business and organizational goals, while general metrics simply measure certain service desk data, like the average response time or the total incident volume. Crucially, KPIs are not just numbers; they show you which area of your service delivery can be improved and help you make informed decisions that make sure your IT team delivers consistent IT services.

Common service desk KPIs

There are no one size fits all service desk KPIs: they vary depending on many factors, such as the business goals and focus industry of your organization or the maturity of your IT team. Nevertheless, these are some of the most common service desk KPIs and metrics:

First-contact resolution (FCR)

First-contact resolution, also known as first-call resolution, is a key performance indicator that shows the percentage of incidents that are completely resolved in one go, no matter the type of contact with the service desk. Or, as Gartner puts it: the ability to successfully resolve a customer's issue during their first interaction with an organization.

How to calculate first-contact resolution (FCR)

The first-contact resolution rate can help you assess the efficiency and effectiveness of your IT support: it indicates whether your service desk is able to address and resolve incidents as they come in, without needing to escalate to second-tier support.

To calculate FCR rate (FCRR), divide the number of incidents resolved on the first contact by the total number of incidents, and then multiply by 100 to get the percentage.

The equation can be written as:

FCRR = (F/T) * 100

FCRR = First Contact Resolution Rate

F = Number of incidents resolved on the first contact

T = Total number of incidents

Besides the traditional three-tiered IT support model we’ve just described, there are a few alternative models for IT support, like swarming. Find out what swarming is and how it benefits your service desk.

Cost per contact (CPC)

Cost per contact is a KPI that can be used to analyze how cost-effective your IT support is. Unlike key performance indicators cost per ticket or cost per incident that focus solely on the costs related to specific tickets or incidents, CPC gives you a broader overview of your cost-efficiency by looking at all contacts made with your service desk.

To calculate CPC, you divide the total costs of your IT service desk (including software and hardware-related costs as well as salaries of staff and potential overhead) by the total number of contacts made with the service desk over a specific time frame. The result? A number that tells you exactly how much it cost to address each contact made with the service desk within that period.

The equation can be written as:

CPC = TC / N

CPC = Cost per contact

TC = Total costs of your IT service desk

N = Total number of contacts made with the service desk over a specific time frame

Example of cost per contact in ITSM

Tracking cost per contact can help identify opportunities to improve the cost-efficiency of your IT service desk. For example, Gartner’s 2019 Customer Service and Support Leader poll found that live channels such as phone, live chat and email cost an average of $8.01 per contact, while self-service channels such as company-run websites and mobile apps cost about $0.10 per contact. Numbers like these can underscore the case for using self-service and a knowledge base for resolving issues.

Customer satisfaction score (CSAT) and KPIs

Customer satisfaction KPIs indicate how well your IT team is meeting the needs and expectations of their end users. An example of such a KPI is the customer satisfaction score or CSAT.

How to measure your customer satisfaction score

To measure your CSAT score, you need to ask your end users to rate their interactions with IT support on a scale of 1-5 or 1-10. High customer satisfaction scores indicate that your IT service desk is delivering high-quality support, whereas lower customer satisfaction scores signal customer experience can be improved.

There are two main ways to measure your CSAT score:

• Transactional surveys

• Periodic customer surveys

Transactional surveys: When carrying out a transactional survey, you ask end users to give immediate feedback on their experiences with IT.

Periodic surveys: Another way to measure customer satisfaction is through periodic surveys, which you can send out on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis. These provide information on how end users feel about the overall IT support instead of in specific situations.

To get a good overview of how your service desk is performing in terms of customer satisfaction, you need both transactional and periodic surveys.

Employee satisfaction KPIs

Next to measuring customer satisfaction, keeping track of employee satisfaction is crucial for maintaining smooth IT services.

Employee satisfaction KPIs provide insight into how happy and engaged your team members are.

High employee satisfaction leads to lower turnover rates and higher productivity, which ultimately all impact your IT service quality. In fact, data shows that combining employee experience with customer experience can increase revenue by up to 50%.

How to measure employee experience

But how do you measure employee experience? Common employee satisfaction KPIs include employee turnover rate, absenteeism rate, or the employee net promoter score (eNPS), which measures how likely employees are to recommend your organization as a great place to work.

Implement the 5 tips in this blog to improve employee experience and watch those employee satisfaction KPIs start moving.

Reopened incident rate

The first-contact resolution rate mentioned above is a good indicator of how well-equipped your IT service desk is to handle incidents as they come in, without escalating to the next tier.

The reopened incident rate gives you more insight into the quality and accuracy of your IT services.

The name speaks for itself: this KPI shows the percentage of reopened incidents against your total number of incidents within any given period. Typically, this period is measured monthly.

How to calculate reopened incident rate

Calculate the reopened incident rate by reviewing the percentage of incidents that are reopened after being marked as resolved.

The equation can be written as:

P = (R/T) * 100

P = percentage of reopened incidents R = number of reopened incidents in a month T = total number of incidents created that month

How to analyze reopened incident rate

If your first-contact resolution rate is high, but so is your reopened incident rate, it can signify that your IT service desk is applying short-term solutions to problems instead of digging deeper and trying to fix the underlying problem at hand.

This means it might be time to look into problem management or even problem management software to prevent incidents from happening, and to minimize the impact of incidents that cannot be prevented.

Want to learn more about problem management? Read industry expert Stephen Mann’s blog on 10 practical ITIL problem management tips that help you get started with problem management.

How to set service desk KPIs

Setting good service desk KPIs (ones that are aligned to the goals of your organization) is an important step in making your IT team successful and showcasing how exactly your IT service desk contributes to the business.

But you can't set realistic and achievable targets without first understanding how you're currently performing. That's why it's crucial to establish a baseline measurement of the KPIs you're considering. Once you know what your current cost per contact is, for example, it's easier to determine what number you want to aim for in the coming weeks, months or even years.

Once it's clear how you’re performing now, it’s time to see how your service desk measures up to the industry standards on certain key metrics. Checking out benchmarks for service desk performance puts your targets into perspective and gives your team something inspiring to work towards.

When setting targets, make sure you strike a good balance between what's feasible and what's motivating. Aim for targets that are challenging yet realistic, and make sure your IT team understand how they can achieve them. In general, it's good to keep in mind that your KPIs need to be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound.

How to track and analyze service desk KPIs

Once you've set your service desk KPIs and targets, you need to think about how to track these KPIs. One way to do this is by manually recording and tracking KPI data over time, for example with a service desk KPI dashboard in excel or other dedicated tracking documents. However, we should note that this method requires a lot of manual work and can thus be a time sink, not to mention it being more prone to errors.

Luckily, modern IT service management tools like TOPdesk's ITSM software can take the heavy lifting of tracking KPIs off your shoulders. Automated data collection, real-time insights and customizable dashboards show you exactly how your IT service desk is performing against your key metrics.

But merely tracking your KPIs and monitoring your performance isn't the end game. The real benefit lies in using this data to identify your service desk's areas of improvement and tackle those step by step.

Improve your IT services with Best Practice Service Management

Remember, KPIs are more than just numbers – understanding service desk KPIs and how you can use them helps you lay the groundwork to improve your IT services.

Monitoring specific service desk KPIs might make you realize some of the processes you currently have in place don't actually do much for your service desk's performance or worse - don't actually help you meet your customers’ needs. In that case, you could benefit from Best Practice Service Management (BPSM).

BPSM is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: delivering services based on best practices, which will help your IT department become more efficient and more customer-focused – all at the same time.

It’s based on three simple principles:

1. Using services as your starting point
2. Using as few processes as possible
3. Using customer needs as your guiding principle

Ready for customer-focused IT services and iterative improvement? Download our Best Practice Service Management e-book to get started with BPSM in just 5 simple steps.