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.