One of the most common questions IT service desk managers ask is, “How many calls should our help desk agents handle each month?”
As it turns out, they’re missing the point.
Number of calls is a common metric. But it doesn’t necessarily reflect the success of your IT help desk. Your agents could handle thousands of calls, but if those interactions don’t lead to resolution and customer satisfaction, your help desk isn’t truly effective.
Instead of measuring call volume, focus on IT help desk metrics that measure efficiency, effectiveness, and customer experience.
Here are the five help desk key performance indicators (KPIs) that matter most and how you can improve them.
Customer satisfaction is the cornerstone of any IT help desk. A high Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) signals that your team is meeting the needs of its users. CSAT is usually measured through post-interaction surveys, where customers rate their experience on a scale (e.g., 1-5 or 1-10). So in effect, CSAT is a lagging indicator of your help desk’s performance.
For an accurate CSAT, track the percentage of surveys completed versus those sent. If response rates are low, the survey may be too complex or too long, leading to unrepresentative results.
Your Customer Satisfaction Survey should be simple, typically five questions. Keep in mind, you need to be able to separate the satisfaction of the help desk with that of your Tier 2 and Tier 3 teams. When one of your questions is timeliness of the service and the ticket was handled slowly by Tier 2 or Tier 3 you can’t attribute a poor score to the help desk.
Industry benchmark: IT service desks should aim for a CSAT score of 90% or higher.
The best help desk interactions resolve the user’s issue in a single contact. A high First Contact Resolution (FCR) Rate shows you your agents are well-trained and equipped to handle common issues without escalating tickets.
Industry benchmark: Best-in-class IT help desks achieve an FCR rate of 70+%. While higher is better, if 30% of your calls are hardware-related, surpassing 70% may not be realistic.
Users have much better things to do than sit in a queue waiting to be answered or listening to hold music for ages while waiting for their agent to resolve the issue. Make them wait too long, and they’ll go elsewhere for their answers. If there is any possibility to solve the issue at the help desk find it. Once it leaves the help desk that user may be waiting hours if not days for a solution.
Average Response Time measures how long it takes for an agent to engage after a customer submits a request. This can be your average speed to answer a phone call or average response time on a portal or email ticket.
Average Time to Resolution measures how long the users wait for their issue to be resolved. This wait time often translates directly to lost productivity.
Industry benchmark: Leading IT help desks aim for an Average Response Time under 30 seconds for calls and under 60 seconds for live chats.
Keeping your IT help desk running smoothly without breaking the bank is all about balance.
That’s where Cost Per Ticket comes in. It’s a simple formula — just take your total service desk costs and divide them by the number of tickets processed (or resolved) in a given timeframe.
But the real challenge? Finding the sweet spot between keeping costs low and delivering top-notch support. Cut too many corners, and service quality suffers. Spend too much, and efficiency takes a hit. The key is optimizing resources without sacrificing customer satisfaction.
Industry benchmark: The average Cost Per Ticket ranges from $10 to $50, depending on the complexity of IT issues handled.
Tracking your total number of incoming requests or “contacts received” provides insight into team workload and plan resources accordingly. Additionally, by segmenting contacts by channel (phone, chat, email, etc.) and time period (per hour, per week, per season), you can identify patterns and anticipate demand.
Industry benchmark: Your number of contacts will depend on the size of your organization, industry, and complexity of support issues.
Focusing on the right help desk KPIs — CSAT, FCR, Response & Wait Times, Cost Per Ticket, and Contact Volume — helps your team deliver top-tier IT support while improving efficiency.
For help meeting industry standards for these metrics, check out our 10 Help Desk Challenges e-book or talk to our team of IT service desk experts today.