Service Industry Metrics

Who, Why, What, and How????

Dan Wilson

Agenda• Who is responsible for metrics?

• Why report metrics?

• What are the Key Industry Metrics• Formulas and definition

• How: Tools for Metrics

• Underlying Theme: Differences for Internal vs. External Support Centers (imbedded throughout this presentation)

Who?• Support Center Staff

• Creates data• Follows standards to ensure consistency

• Support Center Supervisor/Manager• Review data daily! (or at least weekly)• Learn the best practices – Gartner, HDI, SSPA, ITIL, etc.• Learn the definitions and how to calculate them• Benchmark - HDI Practices Survey (Member Averages)• Compete within team members and with the best practices• Teach staff metrics (empower them)

• Support Center Senior Management• Take involvement and ownership of the metrics• Publish metrics (may be done by Manager)• Explain the business meaning of the metrics to business partners• Benchmark with the industry and competition

Why?Why use Metrics?• Manage your business.

• You cannot manage what you cannot measure

• Service Level Adherence• Benchmarking• Trending Drives Real Business Decisions• Standards and Best Practices• Measure Competition (Team and Business)• Marketing• Required Deliverable• Good excuse to go to HDI Meetings

What?

Finding definitions of the Key Industry Metrics

• HDI

• ITIL

• SSPA

• Gartner

• Training Classes

• Google…..

Source: The Help Desk Audit: Blueprint for Success

What?What should you measure?• It depends.. (you know that was

coming)• External vs. Internal• Free vs. Pay for Service• Good vs. Bad image

• Look at your SLAs and OLAs• Call Management Metrics

• Call Volumes• Resolutions• Call Update Frequency

• Financial Metrics• Cost Per Call• Cost of Existing (relevant for

outsourcing)

Trend everything!!!!

• Staffing Metrics• Average Speed to Answer• Call Hold Time• Abandonment Rates• Calls per analyst• Customers per analyst• Time to Close• 1st Call Closure

• Overall Performance Metrics• SLA/OLA Metrics• Customer Satisfaction• PNL (external)

• Top 10’s• Customers/Departments• Problem/Resolution Codes• Equipment & Software

What? - System Calculated• ACD/Phone

• Abandonment Rates• Good Abandons• Bad Abandons

• Average Speed to Answer• Call Hold Time• Talk Time• # of Rings (phone call volumes)

• Email System• # of emails• Time to respond (email hold time)

• Website/Knowledge Base• # of Calls logged through the Web• Site/KB Hits• Rating of KB Articles

What? - Top 10’sTrack these to initiate projects and solutions• Problem & Resolution Codes

• Root Cause Analysis• Drilling into the other Top 10 Categories• Excellent for the Big Picture views

• Top 10 Customers & Departments• Meet with them to determine why they are calling. They may need

training, a new process, or it may be a technology bug

• Top 10 Make/Models• Trending may show that equipment models have the same issues, if you

see this you can proactively fix the issues

• Top 10 Software Applications• Users may need training• Could be a bug in the software• You may need to upgrade the software

What? - Some Assembly Required• SLA Adherence – Ratio of met vs. missed SLA Metrics• Time to Close – Average # of days/hours that the call

was open• Hours –Time Diff functions• Days – Date Diff or MS Excel’s NETWORKDAYS function

• Average Cost of Existing (Burdened)• 1.4* Σ(Staff Salaries) / Time Period• Note: Cost conscious/effective teams are less likely to be

outsourced. Manage and market your cost effectiveness!

• Cost Per Call • Cost of existing / # of calls• Make sure both numbers are in the same time period • Can be used for charge back models

What? - More Assembly Required

• 1st Call Closure - % of Calls closed on 1st contact with the customer. • Shows the effectiveness of your 1st level staff,

decreases time to close significantly

How?

Dan’s #1 Rule of Metrics

Know Your Database!

This enables you to know the data to capture/report and how to get the data out

for a report.

If you don’t know your database you will likely have difficulty with reporting.

How? - Tools

• Batch Reporting• Crystal Reports• MS Access• MS Excel - Pivot tables are your friend, learn them ASAP!!!• Other reporting software applications • Service Management System based reporting

• Dynamic Reporting - Anyone, anywhere, anytime

• Web Based – SQL reporting Services, PHP, CGI, & ASP• MS Excel• Service Management System based

reporting

• Examples

One Last Calculation

“Fully” Burdened Cost Per Call

Dynamic/Web Reporting Calculation

1.4 * Σ(Salaries) / # of work days * # of worked days

# of calls closed thus far in the year

•~250 Work Days/yr - 5 days/wk * 50 wks/yr (approx 10 holidays)

•$250,000 salaries for the year

•150 worked days

Closed 20,000 Calls

CPC = $10.50/call