8 Help Desk Performance Metrics That Matter

So, you're an MSP looking to improve the efficiency of your help desk to make your customers happier but don’t know where to start. 

You currently have a noisy, overwhelmed, and busy help desk that’s constantly inundated with customer requests.   

Your engineers are swamped, their task lists are full, and although you want to improve the customer experience, you simply don’t have the time or resources. 

Sound familiar? 

Whether you're a seasoned MSP or just starting out, we know that running an efficient help desk is no easy feat.  

However, with businesses losing 71% of [their] consumers due to poor customer service, there has never been a better time to ensure that you’re going above and beyond to exceed your customer’s expectations.  

And your help desk is going to help you do just that.  

Knowing the right metrics to track will help you make more informed, data-driven decisions and enable you to track how productive and efficient your help desk is, so you know where to make improvements. 

Let’s take a look at which metrics you should focus on to help you keep your customers happy.  

1. Ticket Volume: 

Ticket volume refers to the total number of support inquiries received through your help desk. 

It gives you an insight into your support team’s workload so you can manage increasing demands and continue to deliver effective customer support.  

By actively tracking this metric, you can determine patterns and trends in customer inquiries, which will enable you to take proactive measures and resolve recurring issues promptly. 

CloudRadial’s Unified Client Portal has unique reporting capabilities that give you a deeper understanding of volume trends and patterns so you can better allocate resources where they are needed and prioritize tickets based on urgency and importance. We cover more on this topic in our latest blog. 

2. Ticket by Channel:  

Ticket by channel tracks the origin of customer requests. Customers can communicate with you through various channels, such as social media, email, phone, or chat.  

By knowing which channel is the most popular, you can allocate your resources more efficiently and significantly reduce your ticket resolution times.  

Interestingly, your peers on Reddit are leaning towards implementing more chat options for customers. This is because chat is comparatively cheaper, and your help desk engineers can handle multiple requests at once.  

We recently launched CloudRadial Chat, which has been specifically built for MSPs to bring the power of AI to tier-1 support across Teams, Slack, Web, and SMS. Think “chatless” chat.

It’s also worth noting that MSPs who train their help desk engineers to handle tickets from multiple channels tend to have higher levels of customer satisfaction. 

3. First Response Time (FRT): 

First Response Time (FRT) is the time it takes a help desk engineer to respond to a ticket after it has been submitted. FRT can be calculated in minutes, hours, or even days.  

You know that when your customers submit a ticket, they want it to be resolved immediately. And in today's world, immediately means 10 minutes or less.  

And while that is not always possible, if you want your help desk to run efficiently you need to decrease the FRT rate. With CloudRadial in your corner, you can do just that.  

Our Smart Ticketing feature includes automated workflows that ensure tickets are triaged quickly and efficiently, enabling you to maintain low a FRT rate and resolve customer issues promptly.  

To calculate your FRT, use this simple equation: FRT = Total FRTs during a particular minute or hour / total number of resolved tickets. 

4. The Average Response Time: 

The average response time is how long it takes a help desk engineer to respond to a query within a specific timeframe.  

It's simple to calculate using this formula: Total time taken to respond during the selected time / the number of responses in the selected time. 

While surfing Reddit, you would have seen that the average response time varies from MSP to MSP. However, if you want to increase customer satisfaction, you'll want your average time to remain low. 

This metric is also incredibly useful when trying to improve help desk efficiency.  

You can use the average response time to determine your peak busy hours and ensure that you have enough staff to handle the workload. And if you don’t have the staff, why not try outsourcing? 

5. Ticket Resolution Rate: 

The Ticket Resolution Rate is a useful metric for evaluating your help desk engineers' performance. It compares the number of tickets they resolve within a specific timeframe with the number of tickets assigned to them. 

Since you're looking to improve efficiency and enhance customer satisfaction, you'll want to ensure that ticket resolution rates remain high. This demonstrates to your customers that you are effectively addressing their concerns, meeting Service Level Agreements (SLAs), and that you're committed to supporting their business needs. 

Here's the formula you'll need to use: Number of tickets solved by a help desk engineer / the number of tickets assigned x 100. 

6. First Contact Resolution Rate (FCRR) 

The FCRR measures the number of customer requests resolved during the initial interaction. And since Salesforce reported that 71% of consumers will stay loyal to companies that provide faster service, you'll want to pay close attention to your FCRR.  

However, improving FCRR doesn't just make customers happier; it also helps you cut costs and makes your help desk more efficient.  

Since you'll be resolving issues more quickly, you'll reduce individual customer service time and free up support to assist more customers in a short time frame. 

And when customers' problems are solved quickly and without hassle, they're more satisfied, which reflects positively on you. 

Plus, your team members benefit too – they don't have to deal with repetitive issues from the same customers, leading to higher morale and efficiency within your support team.