Managing an IT service delivery team presents constant challenges: endless requests meeting finite resources. Small teams can track everything informally, but scaling requires data-driven management.
SLA (Service Level Agreement)
Start tracking SLA compliance as an internal metric before publishing external commitments.
Average Time to Acknowledgment
The first response matters critically. Acknowledgment is when a human responds to a user via phone or email to set expectations for service. Auto-responders don’t count.
Effective communication extends deadline flexibility significantly. Users accepting end-of-day service when notified within 30 minutes would otherwise generate multiple follow-ups.
Industry benchmarks:
- Best in class: 15-30 minutes
- Typical: 1-2 hours
- Problematic: Beyond 4 hours
Average Time to Resolution
Resolution time measures active work hours, not elapsed calendar time. PSAs typically track work time rather than total ticket age, since user delays shouldn’t inflate resolution metrics.
Industry benchmarks:
- Best in class: 30-60 minutes
- Typical: 1-2 hours
- Problematic: Beyond 4 hours
Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)
Use one-click CSAT systems rather than surveys; these generate 15-40% feedback rates versus sub-5% for link-based approaches. Target greater than 85% positive feedback. Industry leaders exceed 95%.
Negative feedback should trigger outreach, demonstrating attentiveness and building goodwill.
Kill Rate Percentage
This measures ticket closure versus ticket creation rates, typically daily. Backlogs crush performance and team morale. Counterintuitively, increasing kill rates often requires reducing low-value work rather than simply working harder.
Daily completion targets:
- Tier 1 technicians: 10-20 tickets
- Tier 2 technicians: 5-10 tickets
- Tier 3 technicians: ~5 tickets
Average Tickets Per Seat
This metric identifies noise sources and resource consumption per client. Target approximately 1 ticket monthly per managed endpoint.
Benchmarks:
- Best-in-class: 0.5 tickets per seat
- Typical: 1.5 tickets per seat
- Concerning: 4+ tickets per seat (warrants investigation)
Non-standardized client environments typically generate excessive tickets.
Aged Tickets
Distinguish between SLA time and actual ticket age. Weekly reviews of tickets exceeding 30 days help maintain workflow smoothness. Older backlogs may require ruthlessly closing stale items.
Stale Tickets
Tickets receiving no updates for 3-4 days should trigger technician accountability checks. Technicians shouldn’t carry more than 20 active tickets simultaneously; excess assignments prevent adequate updates.
There are few things people hate more than the unknown. If they go weeks without hearing an update on their ticket, they are rightfully annoyed.
Expensive Tickets
Reducing per-ticket support costs significantly impacts profitability. Industry best in class is about 30 minutes per ticket or less. Reactive tickets exceeding 4 hours require weekly review and resolution planning.
The Power of Numbers
Service management complexity increases with team growth. KPI-based management replaces hands-on oversight, enabling managers to identify trends and manage exceptions at scale.