Key service level agreement metrics
to track

In today's data-driven world, it's often easy to drown in a never-ending sea of information. Thankfully, with the right tools, resources, and analytics, you can measure almost everything an
IT service desk team does. And, evaluating how well they are meeting their service level agreement (SLA) targets should be one of the measurements.

In this article, we will look at some of the key SLA metrics that your service desk team should keep proper tabs on to improve SLA adherence and service delivery.

What are SLA metrics?

SLAs act as a crucial element for any service-based relationship as they set clear expectations for both the service delivery teams and the end users.

However, setting clear expectations is just the beginning. How do you measure whether those expectations are being met? How do you know that your end users are truly satisfied
with what you offer?

It is a challenge and that's a given, but this is where SLA metrics come into play. SLA metrics are quantifiable standards that help measure the service provider's performance against the outlined service level targets. These metrics help ensure that the agreed-upon service level expectations are being met by providing a basis for monitoring, reporting, and improving service delivery.

Essential SLA metrics to keep tabs on

Let's then look at some of the key SLA metrics that you should be monitoring.

SLA violations

When a ticket exceeds the SLA's target time, it is considered a breach or violation. It often isn't the case that SLA breaches can be attributed to only one specific factor. Which is why you need to have holistic end-to-end insights across various aspects that could lead to such violations.

To achieve this, consider adopting a multi-dimensional approach. Analyze data against potential areas from where these breaches can arise.

Here are some of the areas you can gauge:

• Violations by technicians
• Violations by departments or groups
• Violations by ticket priority levels
• Violations by categories

This gives you granular insights and transparency into where exactly your SLAs are falling short, enabling you to identify bottlenecks and nip them in the bud before they can escalate into
bigger challenges.

SLA compliance trends

SLA compliance trends provide insights into how well your agreed-upon service levels are being met over time.

Analyzing compliance trends over a particular period can help you identify patterns and the subsequent areas for improvement. For instance, upon tracking SLA compliance, say you notice a recurring trend where most breaches occur for the requests raised on Sundays. This observation prompts further investigation into the causes behind this pattern. Possible explanations could include reduced staffing on weekends, increased workload due to unresolved tasks from weekdays, or inefficiencies in handling weekend requests. By leveraging these insights and addressing the challenges identified, you can proactively enhance your service delivery capabilities, mitigate risks of further SLA breaches, and ultimately improve overall user satisfaction.

Response and resolution times

Response time and resolution time are two distinct performance metrics within
service level agreements.

When trying to to uphold your SLAs, it's never a good idea to keep your end users in the dark. That's why it is critical to monitor whether the specified response time targets outlined in your SLAs are being met.

First response time (FRT) measures the time elapsed between an end user raising a ticket and a service desk agent initially responding to it. This metric gives you an idea of how long your users have to wait before receiving an initial acknowledgement from the support agent. Calculate the average FRT for a defined period to assess the speed and efficiency of your service desk in meeting the defined service level expectations.

As crucial as it is to acknowledge and respond to end users, it is also important to provide them with timely and effective resolutions, which bring us to our next metric.

Time to resolution (TTR) helps evaluate the time it takes for a support agent to work on a ticket, from the time it was created until it is marked as resolved or closed.

TTR is a metric that is closely tied to user satisfaction because the faster the resolution, the sooner your end users can get back to work. However, if your tickets are closed rapidly without proper attention to the quality of resolution, this metric can produce skewed results as the data may appear favorable despite end users being dissatisfied with the service.

Therefore, a good approach to tracking resolution times would not only include assessing whether the resolution target times are being fulfilled but also how satisfied end users are with the resolutions they receive, bringing us to our final metric: customer satisfaction score (CSAT).

Customer satisfaction score

Customer satisfaction is at the heart of SLA compliance. It is easy to get caught up in your own standards and be overly focused on your own criteria and expectations. But ultimately, your users are the ones who define the success of your service.

CSAT helps measure the level of contentment your end users have with the services that you provide. It is typically measured through periodic user satisfaction surveys or other feedback mechanisms where users are asked to rate their satisfaction on a numerical scale or provide qualitative feedback.

You should let your users' experiences and satisfaction be your guide, making sure that your offerings match their needs and preferences. By regularly monitoring user satisfaction scores and listening to user feedback, you will not only build stronger user relationships but also provide services that truly meet their expectations.

Falling prey to the watermelon effect

It's easy to get caught up in the numbers, in meeting targets. Focusing solely on the efficiency of your service desk without considering user experience or the consequent outcomes can lead to what we often call the watermelon effect.

Take, for example, your organization's email service. The SLA may boast a 99% uptime target, and on paper, it looks like smooth sailing. However, imagine if that 1% downtime occurred during a critical communication period, like a time-sensitive project update. This phenomenon, often referred to as the watermelon effect, is when the metrics results appear green on the outside but are red on the inside—indicating that while the metrics may look good, the actual end-user experience tells a different story.

Which is why when tracking these metrics, ensure to look for trends, drill down into where exactly you're falling short, and most importantly, prioritize user experience alongside efficiency.

Choose your metrics wisely

Every business is different, and there's no one-size-fits-all set of metrics that you can track. What's included in an SLA will vary significantly, depending on the services you provide and the users you cater to.

In this article, we've outlined a few metrics that service desk teams should stay on top of to get a holistic view of how their SLAs are performing. However, as always, remember that metrics in any case would have to be treated with caution because it is easy to fall prey to skewed data when there is a lack of a comprehensive approach to tracking them.

Build your own SLA dashboard with ServiceDesk Plus

In ServiceDesk Plus you can create response and resolution SLAs for various ticket types and ticket priorities. You can also foster transparency and keep a check on potential SLA breaches by configuring escalation rules to notify the relevant stakeholders.

Once you've established well-defined SLAs tailored to your specific needs, consistent monitoring becomes key. With ServiceDesk Plus you can build comprehensive dashboards with the thoughtful dashboard widgets and reports that are available out of the box, as well as get a real-time view of KPIs by automatically refreshing your service desk data at desired intervals, and seamlessly monitor SLAs to evaluate your organization’s success in meeting SLA targets.

To know more on how you can achieve all of this, request a free demo with our product experts today!