Metrics That Matter Presented by: Pete McGarahan
WHY? Consistent measurement/tracking provides an important feedback loop for continuous improvement Defining/reporting consistent metrics forces the Help Desk to deal with weaknesses in the organization and to identify gaps in service coverage Determine Business Impact of technology on employee productivity Continue to evaluate demand/supply/performance for non-traditional service metrics: Implementing new access channels (e.g., e-mail, self-service, & Web chat) for contacting the HD Implementing new support automation tools (e.g., self-help, self healing and self-diagnostics)
What s in a Number?
The Basis for Metrics Why are metrics important? Performance Team Individual Benchmarking Industry Continuous Improvement Financial Budgeting Pay/Incentive Programs Marketing Within the organization Self promotion Balance and Value
Common Metrics Misconceptions Silver Bullet reporting One report to solve all support answers Flawed Data No validation that report data is correct Does not serve intended purposes Create the wrong behavior Too many reports Analysis Paralysis All reports require action Some reports simply validate Are objective Reporting can be subjective By sending them People actually read and understand them
How is a Help Desk Metric Represented? Can be presented in various forms: Whole number (Total contacts received) As a percentage (SLA abandon) Dollar figure (Return on investment) As an average (Average speed of answer) Combined with other numbers (Utilization) In a Story format with highlights as to what happened, why it happened and what you are doing to prevent it from happening again
Setting the Bar for Your Help Desk Metrics Who are you measuring up to? Best-in-Class Standards Industry (Vertical) Specific Standards Your own organizational standards A budget number stating that you can perform at this SLA level for this cost
Who Should See Your Help Desk Metrics? EVERYONE!! Executives (CEO, CIO, CFO) Executive Summaries Management Team Utilization and efficiency reports Support Team Individual and Team performance Your Customers Market World Class levels of support Know your audience and present pertinent metrics/value/story for desired results!
How Often Should You Report? Regularly Report specific: ACD metrics Case Based Metrics Customer Satisfaction Call Elimination Self-Service Usage Costing Benchmarking Trending Business Impact (Outages)
Three Critical Effects of Reporting Cost Savings/Reduction/Avoidance (ROI) Utilization of Personnel and Technology Call Elimination and Deflection Improved Service Levels Average Speed of Answer High First Contact Resolution Higher customer productivity Reduced Time to Problem Resolution Self Service Solutions
Typical Help Desk Metric Lifecycle Market Metric Trend Metric Validate Metric Produce Metric Information Gap Determine Metric source Metric Required Qualify Metric Quantify Metric
The Importance of Benchmarking Who should benchmark? Help Desk Director Help Desk Manager Help Desk Team Lead Why benchmark? Need to set baseline Help Desk performance Comparison of your performance against the industry Prepare a Help Desk road map for success Measure success through benchmarking
Benchmarking SLA metrics Average speed of answer Abandonment rate First Contact Resolution Utilization and professional efficiency Talk time Case resolution Knowledge Base utilization Knowledge article usage Business Value Metrics Determine what is important to your organization
Benchmarking inter-related metrics 120% 100% Actual First Call Resolution 80% 60% Projected SLA First Call Resolution 40% 20% 0% Knowledge Base Resolution January February March April May June Avg. Ticket Session Time (min)
Evolution of Metrics First contact resolution rate Average call length Abandonment rate Average queue time CSD CSD CSD Top 25% Average % Bottom 25% 70 7.8 7 33.9 66 8.7 7.5 67 60 11.3 8 131.8 Source: Gartner
Essential Problem Management Data/Reports Field/Data requirement Case Categorization Case Assignment Date & Time stamp Case Information Case Details Knowledge Capture Case Work Effort Customer/Location Detail Report Root Cause Analysis Total Contact Ownership Aged Trending of Cases Customer Satisfaction Quality Assurance Knowledge Utilization Mean Time To Resolve Root Cause Analysis
Top 10 Industry Standard Reports 1. First Contact/Level Resolution 2. Cost per Contact 3. Customer Satisfaction 4. Average Time To Resolve 5. Aged Trending Case Reports 6. Average Speed to Answer 7. Abandonment Rate (Positive and Negative) 8. Contacts per Professional (Utilization Rate) 9. Average Talk Time 10. Knowledge Management Utilization
Reducing Cost Per Solution LEVEL-0 LEVEL-1 LEVEL-2 LEVEL-3 $100 + $50 - $75 On-site support Cost $0 Call Elimination $2 - $12 Automated self-service service $15 - $30 First contact resolution z Escalated call Cost savings, SLA & Cust. Sat improvements Mean time to resolution Categorize Call Types in Level they are Resolved in
Business Reporting Scorecard Source: STI Knowledge
Typical Business Report Style Morning Reports Snapshot of previous day s support activity Business Impact Report Weekly summary of support Monthly Executive Summary Monthly review of support business to leaders Quarterly Trend Reporting Market progress and continuous improvement Report Generated on 6/1/01 9:35:35AM XYZ Company Calls for For 5/21/01 through 5/26/01 SLA Answer/Abandon Rate Total Calls Received Metric Answered SLA Abandoned Non-SLA Abandoned Total 229 % SLA Answer Time Total Calls Answered Metric Overview Calls Received and Tickets Created For 5/21/01 through 5/26/01 Total 204 % SLA Abandon Time Total Calls Abandoned Metric 204 89 Average Wait Time 0:22 Minutes Average Abandon 9 4 9 4 In 30 Seconds or Less 167 82 15 Seconds or Less Total 0:48 6 18 % Minutes 31 to 60 Seconds 16 8 16 to 30 Seconds 3 17 Voice Mail 7 3 Total Talk Time 770 Minutes 31 to 60 Seconds 3 17 Tickets For 5/21/01 through 5/26/01 SLA Call Logging Ratio Total Calls Answered 204 Metric Total % Tickets Created 112 55 ACKNOWLEDGED 6 5 CLOSED 99 88 RESOLVED 3 3 TRANSFERRED 4 4 Closed Same Day 73 65 Ticket Status as of 6/1/01 only. Snapshots Tickets Aging Total Tickets Open Metric Total % Average Talk Time 3:46 Minutes 61 Seconds or More 6 Tickets by Status 33 1.) < 24 Hours 7 21 2.) 24 - < 72 Hours 3 9 3.) 72 Hours - < 1 Week 4 12 4.) > 1 Week 19 58 All Tickets as of 6/1/01 only. SLA Tickets Transferred Ratio Tickets Created 112 Metric Total % Transfer to Technician First Contact Resolution Average Transfer* 33 79 6:14:20 * Average Time between ticket creation and transfer. 33 33 29 71 hh:mm:ss A full report explanation is available that includes definitions used in this report. Contact your Help Desk Manager to request a copy. All numbers are for the period, that is, the date range in the report heading. The period is specified at the time the report is run and may be daily, weekly (week ending on Sunday), and monthly. Reports should be e-mailed to Help Desk Team members daily with weekly reports e-mailed on Mondays and monthly reports e-mailed the first working day of each new month. MR612001
At The End of the Day, Does Your Reporting Determine Success/Failure? Tell a story or Paint a picture? Validate beliefs or assumptions? Measure performance? Determine your organizational worth? Trend analysis? Measure Business Impact?
Thank you! pete@mcgarahan.com