The Seven Most Important Service Desk Key Performance Indicators

How Does YOUR Service Desk Stack Up?

Part 2:  Service Desk Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

The Seven Most Important Performance Indicators for Service Desks

Introduction

Today’s Service Desk technologies and reporting packages make it easy to capture copious amounts of performance data.  Most Service Desk managers can tell you everything from last month’s average speed of answer to yesterday’s average handle time.  But what does it all mean?  If my abandonment rate goes up, but my cost per contact goes down, is that good or bad?  Is my Service Desk performing better this month than it was last month?

Despite all the data that Service Desk managers have at their fingertips, most cannot answer a very basic question: How is my Service Desk performing?  Perhaps worse, many Service Desk managers are unaware of the critical role – beyond mere measurement – that Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) can and should play in the Service Desk.  This includes the ability to track and trend performance, identify, diagnose, and correct performance problems, and to establish performance goals and assign accountability for achieving the goals.

An increasing number of progressive Service Desks recognize that when it comes to performance metrics, less really is more!  They have discovered the 80/20 rule as it applies to Service Desk performance measurement.  These world-class Service Desks have learned that the effective application of just seven KPI’s is all that is required for measuring, managing, and continuously improving their Service Desk performance.

In this article, MetricNet (www.metricnet.com), a leading source of online benchmarks and a pioneer in Service Desk benchmarking, identifies and defines the seven most important performance metrics for end-user Service Desks.  They provide benchmark ranges for these metrics, and offer a creative approach for combining these metrics into a single, all-inclusive measure of Service Desk performance.