A Guide to Service Desk Concepts chapter 6
Critical Success Factor (CSF)
A measurable characteristic that must exist for something - such as a process, project or team - to be viewed as successful.
cost per contact
Historically called cost per call; the total cost of operating a service desk for a given period (including salaries, benefits, facilities, and equipment) divided by the total number of contacts (calls, e-mails, faxes, Web requests, and so on) received during that period.
Average speed to answer (ASA)
The average time it takes an analyst to pick up an incoming call
exit poll
a measurement technique that, on the internet, combines questions such as " was this information helpful for you" yes and no buttons.
Baseline
a metric used to show a starting point.
incident record
all of the fields that describe a single incident.
customer record
all the fields that describe a single customer.
time idle
average length of time an analyst was idle during a given period of time
skills inventory matrix
grid that rates each analyst's level of skill on every product, system, and service supported by the service desk
service desk goals
Measurable objectives that support the service desk's mission
Key performance indicator (KPI)
A key metric used to manage a process.
abandoned call
A call where the caller hangs up before an analyst answers.
CompTIA A+
A certification that measures a technician's knowledge of hardware and operating system technologies and concepts, along with topics such as security, safety and environmental issues, and communication and professionalism.
application of training investments
A comparison of an analyst's resolution percent before and after attending training.
overall satisfaction survey
A customer satisfaction survey that asks customers for feedback about all contacts with the service desk during a certain time period.
event-driven survey
A customer satisfaction survey that asks customers for feedback on a single, recent service event.
employee performance plan
A document that clearly describes an analyst's performance requirements and individual improvement objectives.
customer satisfaction survey
A series of questions that ask customers to provide their perception of the support services being offered.
reactive service desk
A service desk that simply responds to events that occur each day
status data
Details about an incident that are used to track the incident throughout its lifecycle, including incident status (such as assigned, awaiting parts, resolved, closed), the person or group assigned, date and time assigned, and priority
resolution data
Details that describe how an incident was resolved
customer data
Identifying details about a customer, including the customer's name, telephone number, email address, department or company name, physical address or location, customer number, and employee number or user ID.
individual performance goals
Measurable objectives for analysts that support the service desk mission
wrap-up time
The average length of time an analyst was in wrap-up mode during a given period of time.
Average Call Duration
The average length of time required to handle a call.
Average Wait Time
The average number of minutes a caller waits for an analyst after being placed in the queue by an ACD; also known as average queue time.
incident data
The details of a incident or request, including incident type (such as an incident or request), channel used to submit (such as telephone, e-mail, or Web request), category (such as hardware or software), affected component or system (such as a printer or monitor), symptom, date and time incident occurred, date and time incident was logged, analyst who logged the incident, incident owner, description, and priority.
response time
The length of time a customer waits for a reply to a fax, email, or web request.
Abandon Rate Percent
The percentage of abandoned calls compared to the total number of calls received.
level one resolution rate percent
The percentage of incidents resolved at level one, but not necessarily during the customer's initial telephone call.
incidents resolved within target time percent
The percentage of incidents resolved within a target resolution time
cost per unit
The total cost of operating a service desk for a given period (including salaries, benefits, facilities, and equipment) divided by the total number of units (such as devices and systems) supported during that period.
page hit
Web page visit
record
a collection of related fields.
Certification
a document awarded to a person who has demonstrated that he or she has certain skills and knowledge about a particular topic or area.
field
a location in a database that stores a particular piece of data.
Effectiveness
a measure o f how completely and accurately services are delivered.
Efficency
a measure of the time and effort required to deliver services in relation to their cost.
reopen percent
percentage of incidents an analyst opens back up compared to the total number of incidents that analyst closed during a given period of time
resolution percent
percentage of incidents an analyst resolves compared to the total number of incidents that analyst handled during a given period of time
proactive service desk
service desk that uses information to anticipate and prevent incidents and prepare for the future
availability
the length of time an analyst was signed on to the ACD compared to the length of time the analyst was scheduled to be signed on.
first contact resolution rate percent
the percentage of contacts resolved during a customers initial contact compared to the total number of contacts received at the service desk for a given period of time.
Monitoring
when a supervisor or team leader monitors an analysts interactions with customers in order to measure the quality of performance.