This free 60-page eBook is an introduction to Insourced IT Service Desk KPIs including definitions, formulas, information on the importance of each metric & key correlations for 48 Insourced IT Service Desk metrics. A brief overview of each metric is listed below.
Channel Mix Metrics
Live Voice % of Total is the percentage of total contacts (including IVR-contained contacts) that originate in the voice channel.
Live Chat % of Total is the percentage of total contacts (including IVR-contained contacts) that originate in the chat channel.
Voice Bot % of Total is the percentage of contacts that are contained within the voice bot or IVR, and resolved without the assistance of a live agent. A user who opts out of the IVR to connect with a live agent does not count as part of the Voice Bot % of Total because the user did not resolve the issue before contacting a live agent.
Chat Bot % of Total is the percentage of total inbound contacts that are resolved or substantially handled by an automated chat bot before reaching a live agent.
Email and Voicemail % of Total is the percentage of total contacts that originate in the email channel.
Web Submit % of Total is the percentage of total contacts that originate in the web-ticket channel.
Self-Help % of Total is the percentage of total support demand resolved through self-help, website, knowledge-base, or portal interactions without agent assistance.
Walk-Up % of Total is the percentage of total support demand resolved through the walk-up channel.
Cost Metrics
Average Cost per Live Voice Contact is the total annual operating expense of the voice channel divided by the annual contact volume of the Service Desk originating in the voice channel. Operating expense includes all voice-related employee salaries, overtime pay, benefits, and incentive compensation, plus all contractor, facilities, telecom, desktop computing, software, training, travel, office supplies, and miscellaneous expenses.
Average Cost per Live Chat Contact is the total annual operating expense of the chat channel divided by the annual number of chats handled. Operating expense includes all chat-related employee salaries, overtime pay, benefits, and incentive compensation, plus all contractor, facilities, telecom, desktop computing, software, training, travel, office supplies, and miscellaneous expenses.
Average Cost per Email Contact is the total annual operating expense of the email channel divided by the annual number of email contacts handled. Operating expense includes all email-related employee salaries, overtime pay, benefits, and incentive compensation, plus all contractor, facilities, telecom, desktop computing, software, training, travel, office supplies, and miscellaneous expenses.
Average Cost per Web Submitted Contact is the total annual operating expense of the web-ticket channel divided by the annual number of web tickets handled. Operating expense includes all web-ticket-related employee salaries, overtime pay, benefits, and incentive compensation, plus all contractor, facilities, telecom, desktop computing, software, training, travel, office supplies, and miscellaneous expenses.
Average Cost per Walk-Up Contact is the total annual operating expense of the Walk-Up channel divided by the annual contact volume of the Service Desk originating in the Walk-Up channel. Operating expense includes all Walk-Up - related employee salaries, overtime pay, benefits, and incentive compensation, plus all contractor, facilities, telecom, desktop computing, software, training, travel, office supplies, and miscellaneous expenses.
Average Cost per Agent-Assisted Contact is the total annual operating expense of all agent-assisted contact channels, including voice, chat, and web ticket/email, divided by the annual inbound agent -assisted contact volume of the Service Desk. Operating expense includes all employee salaries, overtime pay, benefits, and incentive compensation, plus all contractor, facilities, telecom, desktop computing, software, training, travel, office supplies, and miscellaneous expenses.
Average Cost per Contact (All Channels) is the total annual operating expense of the Service Desk, divided by the annual inbound contact volume of the Service Desk, including IVR-contained contacts. Operating expense includes all employee salaries, overtime pay, benefits, and incentive compensation, plus all contractor, facilities, telecom, desktop computing, software, training, travel, office supplies, and miscellaneous expenses. Annual inbound contact volume includes contacts from all sources: live voice, voicemail, email, web portal, chat, walk-in, IVR, etc.
Average Cost per Minute of Agent-Assisted Handle Time is the average operating cost for each minute agents spend handling voice, chat, email, or related after-contact work.
Average Cost per Outsourced Contact is the total annual price paid to outsourcer, divided by the annual inbound outsourced contact volume of the Service Desk.
Net First Level Resolution Rate is the number of incidents actually resolved at the Service Desk, divided by the number of incidents that could potentially be resolved at the Service Desk. Any incident that is pushed out to another support level (Desktop Support, Level 2 IT support, vendor support, etc.) is, by definition, not resolved at Level 1. Incidents than cannot be resolved at Level 1, such as a hardware break/fix, do not count in the denominator of the Net First Level Resolution Rate.
Handle Time Metrics
Voice Handle Time is the average time (in minutes) that an agent spends on each call, including talk time, hold time, and after-call work time.
Chat Handle Time is the average time (in minutes) that an agent spends on each chat, including chat time and after-chat work time.
Email Handle Time is the average time that an agent spends handling each email contact.
Web Submit Handle Time is the average time that an agent spends handling each web ticket.
Walk-Up Handle Time is the average time that an agent spends handling each Walk-Up ticket.
Average Handle Time (All Contacts) is the weighted average handling time across agent-assisted contact types, including voice, chat, email, and after-contact work.
Quality Metrics
Customer Satisfaction is the percentage of customers who are either satisfied or very satisfied with their Service Desk experience. This metric can be captured in a number of ways, including automatic after-call IVR surveys, follow-up outbound (live-agent) calls, email surveys, etc.
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is based on the idea that every organization’s customers can be divided into three categories: Promoters, Passives, and Detractors. By asking one question (How likely is it that you would recommend our service to a friend or colleague?), you can track these groups and get a clear measure of your support organization’s performance from the customer’s perspective. Customers respond on a 0-to-10-point rating scale.
First Contact Resolution Rate applies only to live contacts. It is a percentage, equal to the number of inbound contacts that are resolved on the first interaction with the customer, divided by all contacts that are potentially resolvable on first contact. Calls that involve a customer callback or are otherwise unresolved on the first contact for any reason, do not qualify for Net First Contact Resolution.
Call Quality is no consistent methodology for measuring Call Quality in the Service Desk industry, most Service Desks have developed their own scoring system for grading the quality of a call. Most will measure call quality on a scale of zero to 100%, and evaluate such things as agent courtesy, professionalism, empathy, timeliness of resolution, quality of resolution, adherence to the script, etc.
Productivity Metrics
Agent Utilization is the average time that an agent spends handling customer contacts per month, divided by the number of work hours in a given month. (See the more thorough definition on the following page.)
Contacts per Agent per Month is the average monthly inbound call volume divided by the average full-time equivalent (FTE) voice-agent headcount. Voice-agent headcount is the average FTE number of employees and contractors handling voice, chat, and email contacts.
Agents as a % of Total Service Desk Headcount is the average Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) agent headcount divided by the average total Service Desk headcount. It is expressed as a percentage, and represents the percentage of total Service Desk personnel who are engaged in direct customer-service activities. Agents as a % of Total Service Desk Headcount includes both employees and contractors.
Service Level Metrics
Average Speed of Answer is the total wait time that callers are in queue, divided by the number of calls handled. This includes calls handled by an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system, as well as calls handled by live agents. Most Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) systems measure this number.
Call Abandonment Rate is the percentage of calls that were connected to the ACD, but were disconnected by the caller before reaching an agent or before completing a process within the IVR.
Agent Metrics
Annual Agent Turnover is the average percentage of agents that leave the agent role in the Service Desk, for any reason (voluntarily or involuntarily), in a year. New agents who leave during their initial training period should not be included in the numerator when calculating turnover.
Daily Agent Absenteeism is the average percentage of agents with an unplanned absence on any given day. It is calculated by dividing the number of unplanned absences in a given period of time by the total number of scheduled agent-workdays during the same period.
Agent Schedule Adherence measures whether agents are in their seats ready to accept calls as scheduled. That is, it measures how well a Service Desk’s agents are “adhering” to the schedule. Agent Schedule Adherence is equal to the actual time that an agent is logged in to the system ready to accept calls as scheduled, divided by the total time the agent is scheduled to be available to accept calls.
Agent Occupancy is a percentage, equal to the amount of time that a voice-support agent is in his or her seat and connected to the ACD and either engaged in a call or ready to answer a call, divided by the agent’s total number of hours at work (excluding break time and lunch time).
New Agent Training Hours is somewhat self-explanatory. New Agent Training Hours is the number of training hours (including classroom, computer-based training, self-study, shadowing, being coached, and on-the-job training) that a new agent receives before he or she is allowed to handle customer contacts independently.
Annual Agent Training Hours is the average number of training hours (including classroom, computer-based training, self-study, shadowing, etc.) that an agent receives on an annual basis. This number includes any training hours that an agent receives that are not part of the agent’s initial (new-agent) training. But it does not include routine team meetings, shift handoffs, or other activities that do not involve formal training.
Agent Tenure is the average number of months that each agent has worked in your Service Desk.
Agent Job Satisfaction is the percentage of agents in a Service Desk who are either satisfied or very satisfied with their jobs.
Workload Metrics
Contacts per User per Month is simply the total number of monthly contacts logged by the service desk divided by the number of users supported by the service desk.
AI Metrics
AI Deflection Rate is the percentage of inbound tickets that begin in an AI channel rather than being routed directly to a service desk agent. AI channels include voice bots, chat bots, virtual agents, and AI-assisted self-service such as automated password resets and knowledge articles surfaced by a customer copilot.
AI Resolution Rate is the percentage of inbound tickets that are resolved in an AI channel without any assistance from a service desk agent, for example a password reset completed by a virtual agent. A ticket that begins in an AI channel but is later escalated to an agent does not qualify.
AI First Contact Resolution (AI FCR) is the percentage of inbound tickets that are resolved on the first interaction within an AI channel, without a follow-up contact and without escalation to a service desk agent. Tickets that cannot be resolved on first contact for reasons outside the service desk's control, such as a hardware replacement, are excluded from the denominator.
AI Customer Satisfaction is the percentage of users who are either satisfied or very satisfied with their AI channel experience. It is captured the same way as Customer Satisfaction, but is measured specifically for tickets handled by a voice bot, a chat bot, a virtual agent, or AI-assisted self-service.
% Agent Copilot Assisted Resolution is the percentage of tickets resolved by a service desk agent that are assisted by an agent copilot. An agent copilot is an AI capability that supports the technician during the ticket, for example by surfacing knowledge articles, suggesting troubleshooting steps, or drafting ticket notes.
% Customer Copilot Assisted Resolution is the percentage of self-service tickets in which the user receives copilot assistance. A customer copilot is an AI capability that guides the user through self-service, for example by interpreting the request, walking the user through a password reset, or completing an access request.