1. The Information Component: Help Desk Performance Measures
A Guide to Help Desk Concepts, Second Edition
Chapter 6

2. Information as a Resource
Information is data organized in a meaningful way
Data are raw facts that are not organized in a meaningful way
Help desks that recognize information as a resource are more proactive than reactive
A reactive help desk simply reacts to events that occur each day, while a proactive help desk uses information to anticipate and prevent problems and prepare for the future
Chapter 6

3. Information as a Resource
Proactive help desks rigorously analyze data and use the resulting information to justify other resources such as people, processes, and technology
Chapter 6

4. Information as a Resource
Help desks are not, however, all reactive or all proactive
Many help desks are highly reactive but demonstrate proactive tendencies
Help desks cannot move from a reactive state to a proactive state overnight
The amount of data a help desk captures is determined by
how much access to information management wants
what tools the help desk has
Chapter 6

5. Data Categories Captured by Help Desks
Help desks that capture information divide that information into various data categories
These data categories tend to be similar from help desk to help desk because most help desks perform similar processes
This data, typically captured through fields in the help desk’s incident tracking or problem management system, enable help desks to track problems and requests; measure team, individual, and process performances; and perform trend analysis
Chapter 6

6. Customer Data
Customer data are identifying details about a customer, including the customer’s name, telephone number, department or company name, address or location, customer number, and employee number or user ID
These data are stored in fields
All of the fields that describe a single customer are stored in a customer record in the incident tracking or problem management database
A field is a location in a database that stores a particular piece of data
A record is a collection of related fields
Chapter 6

7. Incident Data Incident data are the details of a problem or request
They include incident type, channel used to submit, affected component or systems, symptom, date and time incident occurred, date and time incident was logged, analyst who logged incident, incident owner, description, and severity
These data are stored in fields, and all of the fields that describe a single incident are stored in an incident record in the incident tracking or problem management system
Chapter 6

8. Sample Trend Report
Chapter 6

9. Status Data
Status data are details about an incident that are used to track incidents not resolved at level one
Status data include incident status, the person or group assigned, date and time assigned, and priority
Chapter 6

10. Resolution Data Resolution data describe how an incident was resolved
It includes the fields required to track service level compliance and perform root cause analysis, such as the person or group who resolved the incident, resolution description, date and time resolved, customer satisfaction indicator, date and time closed, and root cause
Chapter 6

11. Team Performance Measures
Team performance measures assess characteristics such as:
Efficiency – How quickly services are delivered
Effectiveness – How completely and accurately services are delivered
Quality – How well services meet customer expectations
Chapter 6

12. Help Desk Goals
Help desk goals are measurable objectives that support the help desk’s mission
Most organizations establish specific goals each year in an effort to clarify what analysts are supposed to focus on, eliminate conflicting goals, and encourage analysts to produce the desired results
Chapter 6

13. Service Level Agreements
A Service Level Agreement (SLA) is a written document that spells out the services the help desk will provide to the customer, the customer’s responsibilities, and how service performance is measured
Senior management representatives from the help desk and from the customer community typically negotiate the terms of SLAs
A number of different help desk tools are used to create SLA metrics, including the automatic call distributor (ACD) as well as the incident tracking and problem management systems
Chapter 6

14. Customer Satisfaction Surveys
Customer satisfaction surveys are a series of questions that ask customers to provide their perception of the support services being offered
The two most common customer satisfaction surveys are event-driven surveys and overall satisfaction surveys
Event-driven surveys are a series of questions that ask customers for feedback on a single, recent service event
Overall satisfaction surveys are a series of questions that ask customers for feedback about all calls they made to the help desk during a certain time period
Chapter 6

15. Benchmarking
Benchmarking is the process of comparing the help desk’s performance metrics and practices to those of another help desk in an effort to identify improvement opportunities
Benchmarking services can be quite costly
Companies benefit most from benchmarking when they identify opportunities for improvement rather than simply compare metrics
Chapter 6

16. Individual Performance Measures
The goals of measuring individual performance are to:
Set performance expectations
Reward positive performance
Set up a plan to improve weak performance
Measure changes in performance throughout the year
Document when an improvement plan is successful and when it is unsuccessful
Chapter 6

17. Individual Performance Goals
Individual performance goals are measurable objectives for analysts that support the help desk mission
These goals are communicated to analysts at the time they are hired and during performance reviews
Certification is a document awarded to a person who has demonstrated that he or she has certain skills and knowledge about a particular topic or area
Chapter 6

18. Employee Service Level Agreements
An employee Service Level Agreement (employee SLA) is a document that clearly describes an analyst’s performance requirements and individual improvement objectives
Employee SLAs are most effective when analysts are given the tools—in this case, reports—they need to monitor their daily performance
Chapter 6

19. Monitoring
Monitoring occurs when a supervisor or team leader listens to a live or recorded call or watches an analyst take a call in order to measure the quality of an analyst’s performance during the call
Used properly, monitoring is an excellent quality metric
Monitoring is an excellent training technique because supervisors and team leaders can give analysts specific feedback on how they could have handled a call better and how they can handle similar calls in the future
Used properly, monitoring encourages analysts to put themselves in the customer’s shoes and objectively assess the quality of their service from the customer’s perspective
Chapter 6

20. Skills Inventory Matrix
A skills inventory matrix is a grid that rates each analyst’s level of skill on every product, system, and service supported by the help desk
A skills inventory matrix is an excellent tool that management can use to determine hiring needs, develop training and cross-training plans for both individual analysts and the help desk team, and establish and measure how well analysts are attaining their improvement goals
Chapter 6

21. Skills Inventory Matrix
Chapter 6

22. Individual Contributions to Team Goals
Although management directs most of the performance metrics analysts must meet, energetic analysts can suggest additional metrics, and supply other information that further demonstrates their contribution to the team’s goals
Management appreciates summarized information and can make decisions more quickly and in a less arbitrary manner when they have facts
Chapter 6