Manage What You Measure

A popular business axiom states you can only manage what you measure, and nowhere is that more true than in the realm of legal helpdesk (also often referred to as the service desk) support. Measuring service levels, ticket volumes, total incidents, and user satisfaction is only of value if the available data is compared to other metrics, and most importantly, acted upon. While gaining access to such data assumes a certain level of internal (or outsourced) helpdesk reporting technologies and software, there's no excuse for turning your back on benchmark data.

“The Guru's Guide for Helpdesk and Deskside Support,” a panel discussion recently featured at ILTA's 2010 educational conference, drilled down on some mainstream helpdesk statistics and broader support metrics. The session, co-hosted by Tony Hartsfield and Franklin Steven of Bryan Cave, focused on ways of keeping the helpdesk motivated, increasing user service levels, and using call tracking and reporting to enhance the overall helpdesk experience. A substantial collection of firm data ' spanning 200,000 helpdesk tickets across a variety of law firm sizes, locations and technology configurations for a six-month period ' was made available to help session attendees compare and contrast available helpdesk metrics to their own.

Measuring Up

One of the most popular and basic helpdesk measurements has always been related to ticketing volumes and specific ticketing application categories. In the aforementioned data collection, roughly 46% of all service desk tickets resolved were specific to various versions of Microsoft Office, including Word, Excel and Outlook. Document Management System-specific resolved support calls came in second with 15%, followed by questions related to document conversions, remote access and Microsoft Operating Systems. Comparatively, tickets opened and resolved by legal IT as opposed to dedicated helpdesk staff or outsourcers, were primarily focused on deskside, hands-on application or hardware issues. In fact, the most common issue resolved was related to printers/MFDs (toner, ink, paper, etc.), which historically has been the biggest resource drain of any IT department and the most strategic area to outsource.

Impact of Conversions on
Firm Staffing and Service Quality

Conversions cause a significant increase in volume and add additional strain to existing resources and systems. Most firms prudently staff to “maintenance” levels, not “project” levels, and require additional support to properly service their user community during upgrades. Based on recent data from large law firm helpdesks (average firm size 700 users), call volumes typically increased by 42% during firm-wide software upgrades. The impact this has on staffing is significant and illustrated the difficulties firms face in recruiting and training a team familiar with new software while maintaining support for the existing applications.

The aggregate data in Figures 1 and 2 below illustrates what might happen with helpdesk service levels if firms assume they can absorb upgrade-related volume increases with existing staff. As expected, if relying on pre-conversion staffing to handle increased conversion volume, response times to end users, quality of support, and staff morale are all significantly impacted. Overall, this “make do” approach reduces the live rate by 25% (comparing “calls answered” before and after conversion) and significantly increases user hold times, abandon rates, and maximum queue times ' all contributing to helpdesk frustration and a dissatisfied user experience.

[IMGCAP(1)]

[IMGCAP(2)]

Contacting the Helpdesk: Best Practice

“Tickets by Origin” is a common helpdesk metric used to track how end users originally contacted the helpdesk. In this study, 200,000 tickets were analyzed to determine the following data: Almost 70% of contacts were made via phone, while e-mail produced 28% of total contacts. Three percent “Other” include in-person visits or phone and e-mail contacts made to other members of the IT staff. (See Figure 3 below.) e-Mail is the fastest growing origin with most firms averaging less than 10% just five years ago.

[IMGCAP(3)]

While e-mail continues to rapidly grow as a helpdesk contact method, the question of whether users are actually receiving better service remains. Case in point: The data indicates that, on average, tickets created via e-mail have a lifespan six times longer than those originated by telephone. This is typically due to the user's inability to troubleshoot their situation or clearly describe the need they have in their original request, often requiring an additional e-mail exchange or callback.

Location, Location, Location ' Even in Helpdesk Support

Measuring the effectiveness of support across locations is an important gauge on how successful an IT organization is at reaching all of its users and determining if centralized procedures are paying dividends. A simple graph by location, with percentage of users, tickets and unique users (specific users compared to all users in one location requesting support) will provide invaluable information often provide clarity to any issue which may be in need of review. See Figure 4 below.

[IMGCAP(4)]

For example: While the graphed New York office represents 51% of total firm users, it accounts for 67% of total call volume. Why the discrepancy? Could that location be going through an upgrade, have unaddressed networking issues or simply need more helpdesk support? Along the same lines, why are Chicago's unique users much lower than in other locations? Are local IT representatives fielding requests that normally should go to the help desk and as a result are not being logged?

Measuring User Satisfaction:
Don't Be Afraid

Providing the law firm user community the opportunity to rate each and every interaction with the helpdesk is critical in effectively managing that function. Having ticket-specific reporting vs. annual or occasional surveys allows for action to be taken whether the issue might be specific to a particular analyst, a lack of team-wide training, or require an adjustment of user expectations.

Measuring user satisfaction is vital. If users aren't happy with helpdesk service levels, they will find alternatives for support in the form of a co-worker or possibly discover the answer for themselves. Both of these alternatives can create non-productive time, while never addressing root-cause issues and/or sharing knowledge with others.

Take surveys seriously and reward users for voicing their opinions. With that said, it is imperative that once survey information is collected, any negative feedback be addressed immediately. This can be accomplished by setting up a workflow where poor surveys automatically reopen, their priority changes to emergency status, and the ticket is escalated to a member of management. Regardless of how this is handled, never allow a complaint to go unanswered.

Measuring helpdesk-specific statistics and data is an important component to effectively managing the function, and above all providing high quality service to law firm end users. Combined with staffing competent and collaborative analysts as well as using volume and usage statistics to make service level adjustments, the law firm helpdesk can once and for all shed it's “help-less” stigma.

A popular business axiom states you can only manage what you measure, and nowhere is that more true than in the realm of legal helpdesk (also often referred to as the service desk) support. Measuring service levels, ticket volumes, total incidents, and user satisfaction is only of value if the available data is compared to other metrics, and most importantly, acted upon. While gaining access to such data assumes a certain level of internal (or outsourced) helpdesk reporting technologies and software, there's no excuse for turning your back on benchmark data.

“The Guru's Guide for Helpdesk and Deskside Support,” a panel discussion recently featured at ILTA's 2010 educational conference, drilled down on some mainstream helpdesk statistics and broader support metrics. The session, co-hosted by Tony Hartsfield and Franklin Steven of Bryan Cave, focused on ways of keeping the helpdesk motivated, increasing user service levels, and using call tracking and reporting to enhance the overall helpdesk experience. A substantial collection of firm data ' spanning 200,000 helpdesk tickets across a variety of law firm sizes, locations and technology configurations for a six-month period ' was made available to help session attendees compare and contrast available helpdesk metrics to their own.

Measuring Up

One of the most popular and basic helpdesk measurements has always been related to ticketing volumes and specific ticketing application categories. In the aforementioned data collection, roughly 46% of all service desk tickets resolved were specific to various versions of Microsoft Office, including Word, Excel and Outlook. Document Management System-specific resolved support calls came in second with 15%, followed by questions related to document conversions, remote access and Microsoft Operating Systems. Comparatively, tickets opened and resolved by legal IT as opposed to dedicated helpdesk staff or outsourcers, were primarily focused on deskside, hands-on application or hardware issues. In fact, the most common issue resolved was related to printers/MFDs (toner, ink, paper, etc.), which historically has been the biggest resource drain of any IT department and the most strategic area to outsource.

Impact of Conversions on
Firm Staffing and Service Quality

Conversions cause a significant increase in volume and add additional strain to existing resources and systems. Most firms prudently staff to “maintenance” levels, not “project” levels, and require additional support to properly service their user community during upgrades. Based on recent data from large law firm helpdesks (average firm size 700 users), call volumes typically increased by 42% during firm-wide software upgrades. The impact this has on staffing is significant and illustrated the difficulties firms face in recruiting and training a team familiar with new software while maintaining support for the existing applications.

The aggregate data in Figures 1 and 2 below illustrates what might happen with helpdesk service levels if firms assume they can absorb upgrade-related volume increases with existing staff. As expected, if relying on pre-conversion staffing to handle increased conversion volume, response times to end users, quality of support, and staff morale are all significantly impacted. Overall, this “make do” approach reduces the live rate by 25% (comparing “calls answered” before and after conversion) and significantly increases user hold times, abandon rates, and maximum queue times ' all contributing to helpdesk frustration and a dissatisfied user experience.

[IMGCAP(1)]

[IMGCAP(2)]

Contacting the Helpdesk: Best Practice

“Tickets by Origin” is a common helpdesk metric used to track how end users originally contacted the helpdesk. In this study, 200,000 tickets were analyzed to determine the following data: Almost 70% of contacts were made via phone, while e-mail produced 28% of total contacts. Three percent “Other” include in-person visits or phone and e-mail contacts made to other members of the IT staff. (See Figure 3 below.) e-Mail is the fastest growing origin with most firms averaging less than 10% just five years ago.

[IMGCAP(3)]

While e-mail continues to rapidly grow as a helpdesk contact method, the question of whether users are actually receiving better service remains. Case in point: The data indicates that, on average, tickets created via e-mail have a lifespan six times longer than those originated by telephone. This is typically due to the user's inability to troubleshoot their situation or clearly describe the need they have in their original request, often requiring an additional e-mail exchange or callback.

Location, Location, Location ' Even in Helpdesk Support

Measuring the effectiveness of support across locations is an important gauge on how successful an IT organization is at reaching all of its users and determining if centralized procedures are paying dividends. A simple graph by location, with percentage of users, tickets and unique users (specific users compared to all users in one location requesting support) will provide invaluable information often provide clarity to any issue which may be in need of review. See Figure 4 below.

[IMGCAP(4)]

For example: While the graphed New York office represents 51% of total firm users, it accounts for 67% of total call volume. Why the discrepancy? Could that location be going through an upgrade, have unaddressed networking issues or simply need more helpdesk support? Along the same lines, why are Chicago's unique users much lower than in other locations? Are local IT representatives fielding requests that normally should go to the help desk and as a result are not being logged?

Measuring User Satisfaction:
Don't Be Afraid

Providing the law firm user community the opportunity to rate each and every interaction with the helpdesk is critical in effectively managing that function. Having ticket-specific reporting vs. annual or occasional surveys allows for action to be taken whether the issue might be specific to a particular analyst, a lack of team-wide training, or require an adjustment of user expectations.

Measuring user satisfaction is vital. If users aren't happy with helpdesk service levels, they will find alternatives for support in the form of a co-worker or possibly discover the answer for themselves. Both of these alternatives can create non-productive time, while never addressing root-cause issues and/or sharing knowledge with others.

Take surveys seriously and reward users for voicing their opinions. With that said, it is imperative that once survey information is collected, any negative feedback be addressed immediately. This can be accomplished by setting up a workflow where poor surveys automatically reopen, their priority changes to emergency status, and the ticket is escalated to a member of management. Regardless of how this is handled, never allow a complaint to go unanswered.

Measuring helpdesk-specific statistics and data is an important component to effectively managing the function, and above all providing high quality service to law firm end users. Combined with staffing competent and collaborative analysts as well as using volume and usage statistics to make service level adjustments, the law firm helpdesk can once and for all shed it's “help-less” stigma.