First Level Resolution The Key to Minimizing End-User Support Costs
About MetricNet
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Benchmarking is MetricNet’s Core Business
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Telecom
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Technology
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Service Desk
Desktop Support
Field Services
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Customer Satisfaction
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Meet a Sampling of Our Benchmarking Clients
MetricNet Conducts benchmarking for Service Desks worldwide,
and across virtually every industry sector.
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22 Years of Service Desk Benchmarking Data
More than 1,400 Service Desk Benchmarks
Global Database
30 Key Performance Indicators
Nearly 80 Industry Best Practices
First Level Resolution
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MetricNet’s Service Desk KPI’s
Cost per Contact
Price per Contact
First Level Resolution
Rate
Cost Productivity
Service Level
Quality
Call Handling Agent
Average Speed of Answer
(ASA)
Call Abandonment Rate
% Answered in 30 Seconds
Agent Utilization
Contacts per Agent per
Month
Agents as a % of Total
Headcount
Customer Satisfaction
First Contact Resolution Rate
Call Quality
Agent Satisfaction
New Agent Training Hours
Annual Agent Training
Hours
Annual Agent Turnover
Agent Tenure
Daily Absenteeism
Agent Occupancy
Schedule Adherence
Call Handle Time
Email Handle Time
IVR Completion Rate
% User Self-Service
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Cost of Resolution: North American Averages
Support Level Cost per Ticket
Vendor
Level 2: Desktop Support
Field Support
Level 3 IT
(apps, networking, NOC, etc.)
Level 1: Service Desk
$471
$196
$85
$62
$22
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As the Level 1 resolution rate increases, the cost per contact for Level 1 increases
But the total cost per contact, including Level n costs, declines
The cost of resolution at level n is typically 2X to 10X greater than at Level 1
LOWER
HIGHER
COST HIGHER
Total Cost per Contact
FIRST LEVEL
RESOLUTION RATE
Total Cost of Ownership
Level 1 Cost per Contact
Total Level n Cost
CO
ST
PE
R
CO
NTA
CT
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First Level Resolution Defined
Gross First Level Resolution =
Net First Level Resolution =
First Level Resolution ≠ First Contact Resolution
All Tickets Resolved at Level 1
All Tickets Logged at Level 1
All Tickets Resolved at Level 1
All Tickets Resolvable at Level 1
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What is a Carve Out?
The term “Carve Out” is commonly used in the industry to refer to a contact type that
is carved out of the denominator when calculating the Net First Level Resolution
In general, carve outs are tickets that cannot physically be resolved at Level 1
Typical Carve Out’s include hardware break/fix, and move’s/add’s/change’s
Some Carve Out’s, however, have the potential to be resolved at Level 1 but are not
resolved at Level 1 for various reasons
Lack of access rights to certain systems may prevent resolution at Level 1, and result in
Carve Out’s
Outsourcing contracts may specify that certain ticket types are to remain off-limits to the
outsourcer for security reasons, and result in Carve Out’s
The denominator of the Net First Level Resolution ratio is “All Tickets Resolvable at
Level 1”
The denominator is also equal to (All Tickets Logged at Level 1 – Carve Outs)
Net First Level Resolution is always greater than Gross First Level Resolution
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Our Baseline Service Desk
7,000 voice calls
1,500 emails
750 web chats
500 voice mails
250 walk/fax-ins
Monthly Contacts
10,000
Monthly Tickets
8,000
Monthly Incidents
5,000
Monthly Service
Requests
3,000
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Tickets, Incidents, and Service Requests
Incident Volume + Service Request Volume = Ticket Volume
Tickets
Incidents Service Requests
Unplanned work
Often high urgency
Hardware break/fix
Software break/fix
Software “how to”
Device failure
Connectivity failure
Password reset
Planned work
Often requires a physical touch to one or more devices
Move/Add/Change
Hardware or software upgrade
Issue new ID or security clearance
Device set-up or refresh
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Our Baseline Service Desk (continued)
Estimated Operating Cost
8,000 Tickets X $22 per Ticket = $176,000 per month, or $2.11 million per year
Ticket Description Ticket Type
Monthly
Volume
Password Reset Incident 2,250
Software "How To" Incident 1,500
VPN Connectivity Incident 600
Application Failure Incident 150
Hardware Failure Incident 500
5,000
Move/Add/Change Service Request 1,600
Printer Replacement Service Request 950
Laptop Replacement Service Request 450
3,000
8,000
Incident Total
Service Request Total
Ticket Total
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Ticket Resolution Rates
Level 1Level 2
Desktop Level 3 IT Field Support Vendor Total
Password Reset Incident 2,250 1,750 100 300 100 2,250
Software "How To" Incident 1,500 900 300 200 75 25 1,500
VPN Connectivity Incident 600 300 200 50 50 600
Application Failure Incident 150 75 25 25 10 15 150
Hardware Failure Incident 500 0 300 75 75 50 500
Move/Add/Change Service Request 1,600 0 1,200 400 1,600
Laptop Replacement Service Request 950 0 700 250 950
Blackberry Upgrade Service Request 450 0 175 275 450
8,000 3,025 3,000 650 1,235 90 8,000
100.0% 37.8% 37.5% 8.1% 15.4% 1.1% 100.0%Percent of All Tickets
Resolved AtMonthly
VolumeTicket TypeTicket Description
Total
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Calculating the Gross First Level Resolution
Gross First Level Resolution = All Tickets Resolved at Level 1
All Tickets Logged at Level 1
Gross First Level Resolution = 3,025
8,000 = 37.8%
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Calculating the Net First Level Resolution
Password Reset Incident 2,250 2,250 1,750 500
Software "How To" Incident 1,500 1,500 900 600
VPN Connectivity Incident 600 500 300 200
Application Failure Incident 150 125 75 50
Hardware Failure Incident 500 0 0 0
Move/Add/Change Service Request 1,600 0 0 0
Laptop Replacement Service Request 950 0 0 0
Blackberry Upgrade Service Request 450 0 0 0
8,000 4,375 3,025 1,350
100.0% 54.7% 37.8% 16.9%
Resolvable at
Level 1
Actually
Resolved at
Level 1
Escalation
DefectsTicket Description Ticket Type
Monthly
Volume
Total
Percent of All Tickets
New Metric: % Escalated Level 1 Resolvable
For this Service Desk the % Escalated that Could Have Been Resolved at Level 1 was 16.9%
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Net First Level Resolution
Net First Level Resolution = All Tickets Resolved at Level 1
All Tickets Resolvable at Level 1
Net First Level Resolution =
Total Tickets – Carve Outs = Tickets Resolvable at Level 1
8,000 – Carve Outs = 4,375
Carve Outs = 8,000 – 4,375 = 3,625 (Cannot Physically be Resolved at Level 1)
3,025
4,375 = 69.1%
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69% Net First Level Resolution: Good or Bad?
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50% 55% 60% 65% 70% 75% 80% 85% 90% 95% 100%
Net First Level Resolution Rate
Num
ber
of D
ata
Poin
ts
Average ------ 73.9%
Max 98.9%
Min 24.0%
Median 75.0%
> 95% Net FLR 2.0%
Industry Average Net FLR Statistics
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How Do the Escalation Defects Impact TCO?
Escalation Defects are costing $140,455 per month, or $1.7 million per year!
Level 2
Desktop Level 3 IT Field Support Vendor Total
Password Reset Incident 500 100 300 100 500
Software "How To" Incident 600 300 200 75 25 600
VPN Connectivity Incident 200 100 50 50 200
Application Failure Incident 50 20 15 10 5 50
Hardware Failure Incident 0 0
Move/Add/Change Service Request 0 0
Laptop Replacement Service Request 0 0
Blackberry Upgrade Service Request 0 0
1,350 520 565 235 30 1,350
$62 $85 $196 $471 N/A
$32,240 $48,025 $46,060 $14,130 $140,455
Escalation Defects Resolved At
Total
Level n Cost per Ticket
Cost of Defects
Ticket Description Ticket Type Defects
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So, How do We Maximize Net First Level Resolution?
1. Agent Training Hours
2. Remote Diagnostic Capability
3. Knowledge Management
4. FLR Performance Target
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Initial Agent Training Hours vs. Net First Level Resolution
0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
60.0%
70.0%
80.0%
90.0%
100.0%
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450
New Agent Training Hours
Net
Fir
st
Level
Reso
luti
on
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Annual Agent Training Hours vs. Net First Level Resolution
0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
60.0%
70.0%
80.0%
90.0%
100.0%
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Annual Agent Training Hours
Net
Fir
st
Level
Reso
luti
on
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The Effect of Remote Diagnostic Software
0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
60.0%
70.0%
80.0%
90.0%
100.0%
Net
Fir
st
Level
Reso
luti
on
Remote Diagnostic Software No Remote Diagnostic Software
Average = 77.8% FLR
Average = 61.4% FLR
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The Effect of a Mature Knowledge Base
0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
60.0%
70.0%
80.0%
90.0%
100.0%
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
KBase Maturity
Net
Fir
st
Level
Reso
luti
on
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Some Final Thoughts
Net First Level Resolution is a critically important metric to track and trend
in the Service Desk
It is a proxy for Total Cost of Ownership
Maximizing the Net First Level Resolution Rate on your Service Desk is the
key to minimizing Total Cost of Ownership
The path to maximizing First Level Resolution is fairly straightforward
Increased agent training hours
Effective remote diagnostic tools
A functional knowledge base
An FLR target that increases over time
World-Class performance for Net First Level Resolution is 95% or above
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