ITS Help Desk Annual Report 2012

ITS Help Desk Annual Report 2012 Contents Executive Summary... 1 Scope of the ITS Help Desk... 1 Status of ITS Help Desk Priorities... 2 Metrics... 3 Service Levels... 3 Number of Incidents Tracked... 4 First Call Resolution (FCR) Rate... 5 Calls Received... 6 Average Speed to Answer (ASA)... 7 Abandon Rate... 8 60 Second SLA Compliance... 9 Customer Service Index Score... 10 Customer Kudos... 10 ITS Help Desk Priorities for 2013... 11 Key Performance Indicators... 11 Executive Summary This report provides a summary of metrics describing the performance of the ITS Help Desk in 2012. Included are volume metrics, key performance indicators, customer feedback, and related commentary. In 2012, the ITS Help Desk confronted many challenges including a large increase in customer demand. Despite this, the ITS Help Desk still managed to improve many of its metrics, improve customer service scores, started offering a unified Service Desk to campus, and completed a thorough review and update of publicly-available support documentation. The ITS Help Desk has learned from these challenges and has implemented safeguards to mitigate these risks in the future. Scope of the ITS Help Desk The University of Texas at Austin has an annual enrollment of approximately 51,000 students and a continuing education enrollment of 300,000 students plus 24,000 faculty and staff and approximately 1

450,000 alumni. In addition, over 5 million UT EIDs are in circulation and being used by university affiliates, contractors, job applicants, prospective students, library patrons, retirees, and various other populations who conduct business with the university. Because the ITS Help Desk provides central support for the University of Texas Electronic Identifier (UT EID) and the UTmail electronic mail service, every one of those 5 million+ EIDs is a potential customer. Support for these customers is provided by 40 part-time student employees, 15 full-time employees, and 2 managers. Status of ITS Help Desk Priorities In 2012, the ITS Help Desk encountered a number of challenges with a lot of disruptive potential, but managed to weather these issues and continue to provide excellent service and support to the university community. 2012 challenges included: Supporting the retirement of a major service (the University Mailbox Service UMBS) Physical construction in the ITS Help Desk work space Higher than anticipated employee turnover Absence of one of the ITS Help Desk managers for two months Resignation of User Services senior manager Despite these challenges, the ITS Help Desk fielded 19.12% more trouble tickets and 11.7% more phone calls than the previous year and was able to increase its First Call Resolution (FCR) Rate by 8.85%, lower its call abandon rate by 1.37%, and increase its Customer Service Index (CSI) score by 1%. In August 2012, the ITS Help Desk s Walk-in Service was combined with the Information Desk to create the Service Desk, a one-stop shop for customers computing needs. Now, when customers visit the Flawn Academic Center (FAC) they can approach one unified desk in order to: Receive support for technical issues and central IT services Check out loaner laptops Turn in media for secure destruction Receive general information and directions for the building and campus Receive help with ID-related concerns Since its inception, the Service Desk has received a lot of positive customer feedback and consistently received top marks for overall customer experience. Documentation on the ITS website has kept up with all the changes in 2012. Working with service owners and Tier III ITS staff the ITS Help Desk has been responsible for updating and maintaining 99 individual service sites (3-5 pages each on average). As part of an ongoing effort to keep customerfocused self-help content up-to-date and accurate, 452 pages on the Help & Support site have been edited and improved with cooperation of Tier III ITS staff. The most up-to-date screen shots have been added throughout the Help & Support site and a full content review and edit has been conducted on all 2

1,171 pages in the site. In addition, the ITS Help Desk has been responsible for assisting with maintenance of 7-10 small project sites that ITS uses to keep the university community informed of what is being worked on. Metrics In 2012, the ITS Help Desk answered: 67,517 trouble tickets (+19.12%) 54,332 phone calls (+11.7%) 12,752 walk-up customers (+96.79%, due to the Service Desk and improved tracking methodology) This translates into 227 days, 15 hours, 37 minutes, and 32 seconds of continuous talk time (+52%). On average, a call lasted 6 minutes and 2 seconds (+2%). Service Levels In 2011, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) were identified and measured to track the success of the ITS Help Desk. Metric 2011 2012 Change Goal Incidents 59,638 71,043 +19.12% N/A First Contact Resolution (FCR) Rate 69.93% 78.78% +8.85% 80% Total Calls 48,637 54,332 +11.7% N/A Average Speed to Answer (ASA) 58.57 seconds 69.2 seconds +10.63 sec 30 seconds Abandon Rate 9.12% 7.75% -1.37% 5% 60 Second SLA Compliance Rate 80.27% 79.29% -0.98% 75% Customer Service Index (CSI) Score 4.63 / 5 4.69 / 5 +1.01% 4.5 / 5 These KPIs indicate that despite a 19.12% increase in ticket volume and an 11.7% increase in call volume, our First Call Resolution (FCR) Rate improved by 8.85%, our 60 Second SLA Compliance Rate improved by 0.98%, and our Customer Service Index (CSI) Score improved by 1%. As expected, greatly increased call volume without a commensurate increase in staffing resulted in slightly lower Average Speed to Answer (ASA) and Abandon Rates. In August 2012, the ITS Help Desk experienced a higher-than-anticipated rate of employee turnover. This fact, combined with an abnormally high number of incoming calls, had a negative impact on metrics during fall rush (August September) as illustrated in Figure 3: Total Calls. The lack of adequate staffing simply could not support the unexpected volume of customer calls. Customer feedback during fall rush confirms this, indicating that while customers thought the service was excellent, they were frustrated by long wait times. After determining the root cause, the ITS Help Desk was approved to proactively overstaff in order to mitigate consequences of unexpected turnover in the future. 3

Number of Incidents Tracked 9000 8000 7000 Number of Incidents 6000 5000 4000 3000 2000 1000 0 2011 2012 Figure 1: Number of Incidents Figure 1: Number of Incidents shows the number of incidents recorded in the ITS Help Desk tracking system in 2011 and 2012. Whereas tracking compliance was not strong in 2011, the number of tickets tracked in 2012 is consistent with the number of calls received in Figure 3: Total Calls, indicating that overall tracking compliance is reliable. 4

First Call Resolution (FCR) Rate First Call Resolution Rate 85% 80% 75% 70% 65% 60% 55% 50% 45% 2011 2012 Goal Industry from HDI (2011) Higher Ed Target (2011) Figure 2: First Call Resolution (FCR) Rate Figure 2: First Call Resolution (FCR) Rate captures the percentage of customer contacts that are resolved without the customer needing to call or write back to the ITS Help Desk. This KPI is considered one of the most important customer satisfiers. The gains realized in 2011 have been maintained and improved upon. The ITS Help Desk continues to beat the 2011 industry average and the 2011 higher education target as reported by the Help Desk Institute (HDI). Despite a 19.12% increase in tickets, the FCR increased by 8.85%. The ITS Help Desk has an ambitious FCR goal of 80%, which was achieved several times during 2012. 5

Calls Received 8000 7000 6000 5000 Calls 4000 3000 2000 1000 0 2011 2012 Figure 3: Total Calls Figure 3: Total Calls illustrates the number of calls received on our Automated Call Distributer (ACD). This graph reflects an overall 11.87% increase in call volume. In particular, fall rush (August September) saw an unusually high number of phone calls when compared with the previous 21 months. 6

Average Speed to Answer (ASA) 250 Average Speed to Answer (in seconds) 200 150 100 50 0 2011 2012 Industry from HDI (2011) Figure 4: Average Speed to Answer (ASA) Figure 4: Average Speed to Answer (ASA) reflects, in seconds, the average time a customer must wait on hold in order to speak to an ITS Help Desk consultant. Despite an overall ASA of 53.8 seconds for 2011-2012, the ITS Help Desk has an ambitious goal of an ASA of 30 seconds. 7

Abandon Rate 30% 25% Abandon Rate 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% 2011 2012 Goal Figure 5: Abandon Rate Figure 5: Abandon Rate shows the number of customers who decided they no longer wished to wait on hold and hung up before speaking to a consultant. Our target is to have no more than 5% of callers abandon their attempts to speak with us. Changes to staffing policy should make this goal attainable in 2013. 8

60 Second SLA Compliance 100% 90% 80% 70% Compliance Rate 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 2011 2012 Goal Figure 6: 60 Second SLA Compliance The ITS Help Desk s Service Level Agreement (SLA) states that 75% of our calls will be answered within 60 seconds. As Figure 6: 60 Second SLA Compliance illustrates, after the ITS Help Desk realignment, this SLA was met, even during the busy fall rush period. Despite aforementioned challenges, the rate of answering phone calls within 60 seconds only decreased by 0.98% when compared with 2011. The ITS Help Desk continues to exceed its SLA goal. 9

Customer Service Index Score 4.90 4.80 4.70 CSI Score 4.60 4.50 4.40 4.30 2011 2012 Goal 10 Figure 7: Customer Service Index (CSI) Score After contacting the ITS Help Desk, customers receive a survey and are asked to rate their experience on a five-point scale. The goal is to have an average CSI of 4.5 out of 5. As Figure 7: Customer Service Index (CSI) Score shows, the ITS Help Desk has been able to maintain and improve upon customer service gains realized last year, resulting in an overall 1% increase in the CSI score. There were no months where this goal was not met. A review of customer feedback in August and September revealed that the drop in customer scores was due primarily to long wait times before speaking to an ITS Help Desk consultant. Customer Kudos Here are some highlights from customers regarding their experiences with the ITS Help Desk. I speak 5 languages, but computerese is definitely not one of them! I am grateful for the patient, well-informed and efficient response to my problem. It s been a VERY long time since I have needed to contact UT for anything. I was SO impressed with the professionalism and courtesy by those that assisted me this evening!! So refreshing!! KUDOS!!!!

Excellent response to my question. The helpdesk responder downloaded the version of the software that I was using and helped troubleshoot the problem over the phone while performing the same steps together. Very fast and very good. The analyst helped me resolve the issue quickly and found the information I needed. Thank you. Excellent service. Very patient. Very detailed. The best experience ever. Every interaction, whether by phone or email or walkup, that I had with the ITS staff this semester was outstanding. People listened to my bumbling attempts to explain problems and helped me resolve them. I know that people (especially faculty) are quick to complain. I wanted to take a moment to say THANK YOU. You folks deal with a lot of crap, and you deserve a round of applause. ITS Help Desk Priorities for 2013 In 2011 we took a baseline measurement of key performance indicators, implementing foundational changes, and measuring the success of those changes against the performance indicators. In 2012, we sought to maintain and improve upon those metrics while also supporting a large influx of customer contacts without increasing our staffing numbers. Key Performance Indicators Metric 2012 Goal Incidents 71,043 N/A First Contact Resolution (FCR) Rate 78.78% 80% Total Calls 54,332 N/A Average Speed to Answer (ASA) 69.2 seconds 30 seconds Abandon Rate 7.75% 5% 60 Second SLA Compliance Rate 79.29% 75% Customer Service Index (CSI) Score 4.69 / 5 4.5 / 5 Our most aggressive goal for 2013 is to reach a First Contact Resolution (FCR) Rate of 80%. According to the Help Desk Institute (HDI), in 2011 the average industry FCR was 68% and the target set by help desks in higher education was 74%. Research available online shows that the FCR is one of the most important customer-facing metrics because it represents a customer getting an issue resolved with a minimum amount of effort on their part. Anecdotally, FCR also benefits Information Technology Services (ITS) since resolving issues at the ITS Help Desk frees up time for developers and system administrators to perform their core functions. Our other major aggressive goal is an Average Speed to Answer (ASA) of 30 seconds. While our ASA in 2013 increased by 10.63 seconds, we still feel that the ASA is incredible important. From a customer perspective, a lower ASA represents less time they have to wait on hold before speaking to a human 11

being. A low ASA would also represent quicker call resolution times and would result in a lower abandon rate. We are already meeting our 60 Second SLA Compliance Rate and our Customer Service Index (CSI) Score goals. 12