Understanding response and resolution times in context with customer satisfaction
First response and request resolution times are the fundamental metrics to evaluate the efficiency of your help desk. Here's a brief: First response time is the time taken by the technician to reach out to the customer/end-user for the first time since the request was raised. Now this may not necessarily involve request resolution, however it does provide the customers assurance that the technician is working on their case. Resolution time on the other hand is the time taken by the technician to resolve the request to the complete satisfaction of the end user.
It's important for help desk managers to focus on response and resolution times in-line with customer satisfaction, and strike a balance between fast resolution times and quality of response in order to keep the customer satisfied. A fast resolution time wouldn't mean much if the end uses are not happy with the quality of the solution provided. Users will end up re-opening or escalating their requests.
The solution is to watch out for such things early on. A simple pivot, like the one given below comparing the average first response and request resolution times against the percentage of tickets that were escalated and reopened provides can help you do just that. Now, I'd recommend looking at individual support groups because this will help me narrow down my problem area to a particular support group rather than simply provide an overarching picture of the problem.
A higher percentage of request reopens and escalations for a specific support group indicates that the technicians in that specific group aren't resolving requests properly, leading to dissatisfied customers. This report can help mangers to,
1. Estimate whether they need to provide additional training or solution guides to technicians
2. Drill deeper and asses if requests pertaining to that support group are complex and require additional manpower or time to resolve
3. Take stock of your technicians' skill set and experience and make sure your support group is a mix of experienced technicians and freshers
4. Analyze skill set of individual technicians in that support group to see if they are better suited for a different group
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Here are some of our earlier articles on response and resolution times:
Here's a 90-second video explaining why it's important to track first response times: