Why You Need a Metrics Review HDI Philly July 2014 Roy Atkinson 7/15/2014 2013 HDI. All rights reserved.
About the Presenter Senior Writer / Analyst, HDI UBM Tech Chapter Advisor, HDI NNE (www.hdinne.org) Experience in help desk, service desk, desktop support, business consulting HDI Conference faculty Advanced Management Strategy, Freeman School of Business, Tulane University Twitter: @HDI_Analyst @RoyAtkinson
Random Sample What do you consider your most important metric? How do you pull the information, and from where? How often do you report it? To whom do you report it? Why is it important?
Background "Many of the most common contact center metrics and numbers are about the center s 'availability' not the impact on the customer experience. Metrics like service level, average speed of answer, abandon rate, et. al., are all important measures, but they don t have much to do with quality or 'value' from a customer standpoint. Tim Montgomery, CEO Cooney Solutions Group
This Isn t Easy Things that are easily measured very rarely get us to what we really want. Steve Hultquist, in SupportWorld
Quick show of hands How many of you have conducted a full metrics review with stakeholders in the last More than 1 year 6 Months to a year Quarter Month
Quick show of hands When was the last time you made any major changes to either the metrics or the way the are reported? 1 Year or more 6 Months 1 year Last quarter Last month
What do you think? Has the world of IT and/or technical support changed at all in the last 2 years? Will change continue?
Pressure Source: HDI Research September 2013
Why Think About Changing? Source: 2013 HDI Support Center Practices & Salary Report
The Why of Metrics What job are we doing? What are we doing well? Where do we need improvement? How well are we supporting our organization?
Flow of Information Strategic Tactical Operational Focused internally Based on The Definitive Guide to IT Service Metrics by McWhirter and Gaughan
Metrics Are Related If you Shift-Left (drive more difficult technical work to the front line and beyond [Level 0]): Average Handle Time will increase (at least at first) Speed to Answer will go up i.e., become longer (at first) First level resolution rate (FLRR) should go up* (that s the point) Mean time to repair/resolve (MTTR) should decrease* Customer satisfaction (CSAT) will go up* *(but maybe not right away)
Increased Number of Tickets In 2010, cost per ticket for phone was $20. In 2013, cost per ticket for phone was $17. Percentage of support centers that say the number (volume) of tickets (all channels) has increased: 2009 70% 2010 67% 2011 68% 2012 66% 2013 66% Have costs really decreased?
How Metrics Affect Each Other Fully-burdened cost per ticket (Total costs Total number of tickets) Total costs = $1.3M/yr Total # tickets = 52,000/yr $1.3M 52,000 Fully burdened cost per ticket = $25 Total costs = $1.3M/yr Total # tickets = 76,000/yr $1.3M 76,000 Fully burdened cost per ticket = $17 Cost itemization calculator available to HDI members at ThinkHDI.com
More Qualitative % vs. targets set in SLA Level Zero Solvable The difference in MTTR between tickets resolved at L1 vs. Escalated Escalated vs. L1 Solvable for everything
Sidebar: Level Zero Solvable The red dashed line indicates when self service went live. From What Is LZS? By Rick Joslin
What if we posted Days without any Interrupted User Minutes (IUM) IUM = number of affected users duration of interruption (min.)
Change of Focus Quantitative Qualitative How many times are we? How well are we? Activities Outcomes We resolve tickets. We help produce business results.
Metrics That Make Sense Support Business Growth: Efficiency, effectiveness, capacity Improve customer service: MTTR, IUM; CSAT, NPS or CES Improve efficiency: AHT, FCRR, Quality scores Reduce costs: Cost per ticket / user; IUM, CoD Expand services: Capacity (volume), utilization, value
Perform a Metrics Review Understand the desired business outcomes Determine which metrics most closely reflect the desired outcomes Work with senior management to ascertain the who, when and how of metrics reporting Revise and refine Schedule periodic reviews
Science of Metrics Further reading: Metrics for the New World of Support