Metrics should be established so that the performance of the service desk can be evaluated at regular intervals. This is important to assess health, maturity, efficiency, effectiveness and any opportunities to improve service desk operations.
Metrics for service desk performance must be realistic and carefully chosen. It is common to select those metrics that are easily available and that may seem to be a possible indication of performance; however, this can be misleading. For example, the total number of calls received by the service desk is not in itself an indication of either good or bad performance and may, in fact, be caused by events completely outside the control of the service desk – for example, a particularly busy period for the organization or the release of a new version of a major corporate system.
Example service desk metrics: