Every business with an IT support team wants to ensure they’re providing an excellent support experience, but how can they know for certain? Multiple factors can contribute to or indicate a positive experience, so tracking each is vital.
Fortunately, it’s possible to track IT support KPIs to see what’s working well and where there’s room for improvement. With that in mind, let’s explore the top KPIs for IT support, what they can tell you, and why they matter.
What are IT KPIs?
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are metrics that indicate how well an organization, employee, or team is performing. These are measurable, trackable data points related to various success factors, providing clear, data-driven insights into overall performance.
KPIs for IT support typically relate to success rates, satisfaction, speed, and ticket volume, although those can also be broken down into more specific numbers. This is essential for measuring the performance and efficiency of IT support, as it shows clear, measurable metrics.
Key Benefits of Monitoring IT Support KPIs
Monitoring and measuring your key performance indicators for IT support is essential to track success and identify areas for improvement.
Tracking IT KPIs can identify top performers and find areas for growth, thus increasing accountability. The metrics also help managers make smart, data-driven decisions, improving the overall service quality.
In short, by monitoring the various metrics to see what’s working well and what’s not, IT teams can find areas for growth, improve their issue resolution, and ensure their resources are being properly allocated.
List of Essential KPIs for Effective IT Support Management in Remote Environment
Of course, the key to tracking IT support KPIs is to know what metrics to look for.
In this case, we can take the top 15 KPIs for IT support and break them down into five categories: performance metrics, productivity metrics, customer satisfaction metrics, efficiency metrics, and financial metrics. From there, we can look at the various data points therein and explore why they matter.
Performance Metrics
First are the metrics that track your IT team’s overall performance. These show how quickly your agents resolve issues, how many calls it takes, and if any tickets go unresolved, so they’re vital metrics for any contact center to understand.
1. First Contact Resolution (FCR) Rate
The First Contact Resolution (FCR) rate identifies how many tickets are resolved on the first try compared to those that require follow-ups and multiple tickets. If the FCR rate is high, it means agents are effectively handling the requests they receive, whereas a low FCR rate is a sign that there are operational inefficiencies or training deficits that should be addressed.
2. Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR)
The Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR) is the average time it takes for an agent to resolve an issue. A low MTTR means that IT agents are efficient and quick (or at least that the average query is something easily addressed), but a higher MTTR is a sign that issues are slowing down your IT agents.
Of course, there will always be outliers, ranging from complex issues to “the employee forgot to plug in their monitor,” but the average time still provides a solid idea of how quickly tickets are being closed.
3. Average Handle Time (AHT)
The Average Handle Time (AHT) is similar to the Mean Time to Resolution but distinct enough to be tracked separately. While the MTTR tracks the time an agent takes to resolve an issue, the AHT is focused on the length of a customer’s call. This includes both talk times and time spent on hold, so you can see how long customers are kept on the phone until their issues are resolved.
4. Ticket Resolution Rate
Ideally, every IT support ticket should be resolved quickly, efficiently, and in less time than it takes for more tickets to come in. However, that can’t always be the case. The Ticket Resolution Rate tracks how many IT tickets are resolved in a given period compared to the amount of tickets received in that time.
The lower the rate, the greater the backlog, which could mean some inefficiencies need addressing or there’s a greater influx of tickets than your team can keep up with, and it’s time to add new agents.
Productivity Metrics
Next are the productivity metrics, which indicate how efficiently your IT support team manages the tickets they receive. These can often indicate if you need to hire more agents or use another tool to help reduce ticket volume.
5. Ticket Volume
How many tickets are your IT agents receiving each day? Ticket volume tracks the number of tickets your IT department receives so you can understand the overall demand placed on your IT workforce and if any underlying issues are leading to an increase in volume.
6. Backlog of Tickets
Are your agents able to handle all the tickets they receive? The backlog indicates the number of tickets sitting and waiting in the queue that must be addressed. If a backlog grows too large, that’s a sign that either your IT team is understaffed or inefficiencies are slowing them down.
7. Agent Utilization Rate
IT agents only have so much time to handle tickets each day. The Agent Utilization Rate refers to the time agents spend on call-related tasks, including the calls themselves, research, and after-call work. If your utilization rate is low, it might mean that you have more agents active at a time than you need, but if it’s too high, it could be a sign that agents are being overworked.
Customer Satisfaction Metrics
Customer satisfaction is a vital metric for an IT support team. After all, if customers are frustrated and dissatisfied with their support, they’re unlikely to return.
8. Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
An IT team’s Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) Score measures how happy customers are with their service. The higher the score, the happier the customer is, which means they’re more likely to remain loyal and the agents are performing admirably.
CSAT is traditionally measured with after-call surveys, although those tend to have a very low response rate and typically only from the extreme ends of either the happiest or angriest customers. As such, many organizations have begun adopting AI-powered sentiment analysis tools, which listen for contextual clues and statements to measure customer satisfaction on every call without needing a survey.
9. Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a metric that measures how likely a customer is to recommend your business to their friends, family, and colleagues. Word of mouth is important for any business — customers trust their friends’ recommendations, and it costs the company nothing.
If you have a high NPS, that means customers like you enough to recommend your business. On the other hand, a low NPS means there’s room to improve.
10. Customer Effort Score (CES)
IT and customer support should be easy and painless for the customer, but it rarely is. The Customer Effort Score (CES) measures how much effort a customer has to apply to get an issue resolved or a request fulfilled. The more work the customer has to do, the more frustrated they’re likely to become.
Efficiency Metrics
Efficiency metrics, as the name suggests, track how efficient your IT team is. If an agent is constantly having to escalate calls or if you’re not in compliance with an SLA, that’s a big warning sign to watch out for.
11. Service Level Agreement (SLA) Compliance
Companies often have Service Level Agreements (SLAs) detailing the services they provide, typically including uptime, support availability, and so forth. Organizations must ensure they’re abiding by their end of the SLA, so monitoring any relevant metrics, such as the speed and tier of support customers receive, is incredibly important.
12. Escalation Rate
How often do IT tickets and calls have to be escalated? If certain agents frequently have to escalate calls, they should be able to manage themselves; that’s a sign that they likely need more training. Similarly, if there’s a recurring issue that often needs escalation, it’s a sign that the IT department may need more training, guidance, or resources to manage it.
Financial Metrics
Last but certainly not least, the financial metrics track how well your IT budget is utilized and if you’re getting your money’s worth. These KPIs let you know if money is being well-spent or if you’re losing money on each interaction.
13. Cost Per Ticket
Every IT call and ticket has a cost. Companies pay their IT agents a salary, and the more tickets an agent can resolve per hour, the lower the overall cost per ticket becomes. When looking at financial metrics, consider how much each ticket costs your company overall and see if there are ways to improve productivity so you’re getting more value each day.
14. Return on Investment (ROI)
On the opposite end of the cost per ticket, there’s the return on investment (ROI) or the value gained from your IT agents and software investments. If, for example, you invest in a remote support solution like Splashtop, then its benefits can outweigh the cost of the solution — this is a positive ROI, as it creates more value than it costs.
15. Support Budget Adherence
No company has an unlimited budget, and IT departments, in particular, can have tight budgetary needs. As such, it’s important to measure the cost and value of each of your investments and make sure you’re staying within your budget, and you’re getting the most value for the best price.
How to Start Tracking and Managing IT Support KPIs
Given the importance of these metrics, organizations must know how to track their KPIs and understand what they can indicate.
The first step is to identify and define your objectives — what do you want your IT team to achieve, and what KPIs correlate to those goals?
There are a few key steps to keep in mind while tracking and managing IT support KPIs. First, establish a baseline to see where your IT department currently stands on each of these metrics. Then, regularly review the data and see how the metrics change as you implement improvements and provide more training.
Be sure to communicate the results and find new ways to improve until your IT teams hit all their goals.
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