# 12 key help desk metrics, KPIs, and how to calculate them

Explore how to measure help desk performance with 12 essential metrics and KPIs to enhance customer satisfaction and support efficiency.

Help desk metrics can give you answers to questions like how many inquiries your help desk receives per day, how long it takes for your team to resolve these issues, and how satisfied customers are with their experience. By measuring these metrics, you gain valuable insights into the performance and efficiency of your operations.

## Why is it important to measure help desk metrics?

Measuring help desk metrics holds immense value for your business and customer support strategy. By monitoring and analyzing these metrics, you can make well-informed business decisions and boost your help desk operations. Help desk metrics can help you quantify the success of your customer support efforts and identify areas where you excel and where improvements are needed.

Now, let’s talk about Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs for short. KPIs are specific measurable values that are used to evaluate the performance and progress of an organization.

## Response efficiency

Response efficiency focuses on how efficiently your service desk team responds to customer inquiries and resolves their issues. This service desk metric consists of three key components: first contact resolution rate, first response time, and average handle time.

### First contact resolution rate

The first contact resolution rate (FCR) measures the percentage of customer support tickets that are resolved by your team during the initial contact without the need for follow-up interactions.

**How do you calculate it?**

You can calculate your FCR rate by dividing the number of inquiries resolved on the first contact by the total number of inquiries received, and then multiplying the result by 100.

**FCR (%) = Number of inquiries resolved during the initial contact / Total number of inquiries x 100**

### First response time

First response time measures the average time it takes for your help desk team to respond to a customer inquiry after it has been received.

### Average handle time

Average handle time (AHT) measures the average amount of time it takes for a help desk agent to handle a customer interaction from start to finish.

**How do you calculate it?**

- **Average handle time for phone calls:**  
**AHT = (talk + hold + follow-up times) / total number of calls**

- **Average handle time for emails:**  
**AHT = total handle time / total number of emails**

- **Average handle time for live chat:**  
**AHT = talk time + follow-up time / total number of chats**

### Abandonment rate

The abandonment rate measures the percentage of customers who abandon their support tickets or inquiries before receiving a resolution or response.

## Ticket flow

Ticket flow tracks the management of all customer support tickets, their resolutions, and backlogs throughout the help desk system to analyze its efficiency.

### Ticket volume

Ticket volume is the total number of inquiries or support tickets received by the help desk within a given period of time.

### Ticket backlog

A ticket backlog represents the number of inquiries that are still awaiting a response or resolution.

## Resolution time

This service desk metric measures the time it takes for your team to completely resolve a customer inquiry.

**How do you calculate it?**

**Average resolution time = Total resolution time for all solved tickets / Number of solved tickets**

## Resolution rate

The resolution rate measures the percentage of customer inquiries or support tickets that are successfully resolved within a given period of time.

**How do you calculate it?**

**Resolution rate = Number of solved tickets / Total number of received tickets x 100**

## Escalation rate

This metric calculates the percentage of support tickets that need to be escalated to a higher level of support or a different department.

**How do you calculate it?**

**Escalation rate = Number of escalated tickets/ Total number of support tickets x 100**

## Agent utilization rate

Agent utilization rate reflects the percentage of time that agents are engaged in support-related activities compared to their total work time.

**Agent utilization (%) = (Total time spent on support-related activities / Total time spent on shift) x 100**

## Support effectiveness index

The support effectiveness index measures the overall effectiveness, efficiency, and quality of the support process.

## Self-service usage rate

The self-service usage rate evaluates how many users visit self-service platforms to find answers instead of contacting customer support representatives.

**Self-service usage rate (%) = Number of customer inquiries solved through self-service / Total number of customer inquiries x 100**

## Quality Assurance (QA) Score

A QA score can be used to assess the performance and quality of customer interactions handled by the support team.

**How do you calculate it?**

QA specialists evaluate customer interactions against predetermined criteria and assign scores accordingly.

## Conclusion

Measuring different help desk metrics is crucial for businesses that are looking to enhance their customer support processes. By monitoring and analyzing key metrics, businesses can make well-informed decisions and identify areas for improvement.