The need for services and processes that optimize information and data traffic in companies is of great importance today. After all, IT covers countless aspects to provide intelligent systems and data/file pathways to create optimized systems, increasing productivity, profit margins, and the organization of corporate data control.
Therefore, it is essential that IT functions correctly and that complications arising from systems are resolved easily and within a short timeframe. Otherwise, the risk to the organization’s productivity is high. Thus, the Service Desk was created as the process that ensures problems in the IT universe are resolved in the most practical and ideal way possible.
Therefore, it is essential that the Service Desk is evaluated in the best possible way, thus establishing a standard of excellence in this process. To measure its effectiveness, Service Desk metrics and indicators are used.
Continue reading and get to know the most widely used ones!
Bonus: Complete guide to implementing a Service Desk in your company
First Call Resolution (FCR)
First Call Resolution, also known by the acronym FCR, is one of the best Service Desk indicators to evaluate the work performed and measure the incidence of major IT-related problems.
In this metric, the professional working in the Service Desk must create a table indicating the number of requests resolved with just one contact, that is, resolved during the call or moments after the indication.
Then, this number is compared to the number of requests where resolution did not happen with just a single ticket, thus creating an FCR percentage. The higher this percentage, the better the evaluation of the Service Desk in question. Rates above 70% represent quality figures.
This Service Desk indicator is very effective in identifying systems that need more specific and deep maintenance, the number of problems arising from all aspects covered by IT, and even in identifying Service Desk professionals who are facing difficulties in performing their service.
Cost per professional per minute
Calculating the cost per professional per minute is one of the best Service Desk indicators to measure the team’s results as a whole. After all, the minutes worked indicate the activity of the analyst team and also indicate the average time professionals spend on each call or ticket.
To calculate this metric, the following equation is used: (Total salary of the Service Desk team) / (Number of Service Desk resources) / (Minutes worked).
Cost per contact
Cost per contact is a metric that evaluates the cost per professional per minute and is used to measure the actual cost that each request contact is demanding.
The equation for this metric is: (Cost per analyst per contact) x (Time to resolve or close a ticket).
However, this metric must be analyzed within its context. After all, if your FCR metric is high, it doesn’t matter if the cost exceeds the average minutes worked. In other words, less working time may represent greater efficiency in resolving requests. Pay attention to the context to define the actual result of this Service Desk indicator.
Number of incidents and requests
This metric is primarily recommended for analyzing resource distribution. Although easy to apply, it requires careful analysis of all communication channels with the Service Desk.
In other words, it is necessary to identify which channels have a higher demand for requests and incidents, as well as on which days and hours of the week the number of requests increases.
With the result of this metric, it is possible to distribute human and financial resources more appropriately to avoid problems such as request congestion and an increase in unresolved issue rates — factors that result in negative points for the company.
Analyst commitment
It is necessary to control and analyze the time the Service Desk analyst is actually spending on work. Logically, this is the professional’s responsibility, but in reality, that is not always how things happen.
To measure this, it is important to pay attention to the number of pending requests, the time each request takes to be handled, and the number of requests the professional handles daily.
This attitude ensures that it is possible to measure the analyst’s commitment to the work to be performed, allowing actions to increase productivity to be studied and implemented.
Naturally, there are professionals who need a few minutes of rest to perform well in their duties, and this rest allowance policy depends heavily on the IT manager or director in question.
Common mistakes in measuring Service Desk results
Many managers encounter problems identifying results because they fail precisely in how they apply and use the available metrics. To prevent problems of this nature from occurring, it is wise to pay attention to the most common mistakes and ensure they do not happen in your team.
Check out some recurring failures in companies:
Failure to track trends
It is important for the IT manager to be aware of information and trends within their team, as well as aspects related to requests.
In other words, giving up on analyzing aspects that represent areas for improvement, such as team optimization during peak hours, failing to monitor the FCR rate, and ignoring issues in this regard, can result in a deficient Service Desk over time.
Limited contact with the team
It is important for the Service Desk analyst team to understand that the manager is not just a boss, but a leader and partner to help with day-to-day difficulties.
This mindset fosters greater commitment from all professionals and builds bonds of trust, which are crucial when delivering negative feedback and suggestions for correcting failures.
Failure to set goals
Setting goals is one of the main stages of management. After all, only with a consolidated goal plan is it possible to apply Service Desk indicators and know how to act to improve them, always pursuing a broader, previously established objective.
It is as if the team had a common destination; therefore, all measures for improvement are taken to reach that goal.
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