Field notes · IT Service Management
What a good service desk measures
Ticket counts say little. Time to restore service, repeat faults and user satisfaction say much more.
In short: A good service desk measures time to restore service, broken down by type of site; repeat faults on the same asset; and satisfaction from the person who raised each ticket. Ticket counts and call volumes show activity, not whether users are being served well.
Service desk reports often lead with the number of tickets closed. That number rises when things go wrong and when tickets are split, so it says little about service quality.
Time to restore, by site type
What users care about is how long they were without a working service. Measure time from report to restoration, and break it down by site type: a metro office, a district branch, a rural school. Averages across all sites hide the locations that are poorly served.
Repeat faults on the same asset
A printer repaired three times in a month has not been fixed. Track repeat faults by asset and model. They point to deeper causes, such as a faulty batch, wrong configuration or poor environment, and show where replacement is cheaper than repair.
Feedback from the person who raised the ticket
- Ask one or two short questions when a ticket closes: was the problem solved, and how was the experience?
- Follow up on poor ratings personally.
- Report satisfaction by site and team, not only overall.
Other useful measures
First-contact resolution, the share of problems detected by monitoring before users reported them, and the backlog of ageing tickets all add useful detail. Keep the core set small and stable, so trends are meaningful.
Use measures to improve
Review results monthly with the client, agree on the two or three biggest causes of lost time, and track the actions taken.
Frequently asked questions
What KPIs should a service desk track?
Time to restore service, repeat faults per asset, user satisfaction, first-contact resolution and the share of issues found proactively.
Why are ticket counts a poor measure?
Because they rise with failures and with how tickets are logged, so a higher number does not mean better or worse service.
What is time to restore service?
The time between a user reporting a problem and the service working again for that user.