Help Desk Software Help Desk Metrics and KPIs 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What does 'cost per ticket' KPI measure in help desk operations?
- The price customers pay per support incident
- The total support operating cost divided by the number of tickets handled (Correct answer)
- The agent's salary per hour
- The licensing cost of the ticketing software
Correct answer: The total support operating cost divided by the number of tickets handled
Cost per ticket divides total help desk expenses by ticket volume to show how efficiently the support operation uses its budget.
Question 2: What is agent utilization rate in help desk performance tracking?
- The percentage of time agents spend on billable work versus total available time (Correct answer)
- The number of tickets an agent closes per day
- The ratio of agents to customers served
- Agent satisfaction with workload
Correct answer: The percentage of time agents spend on billable work versus total available time
Utilization rate measures the proportion of an agent's working time spent actively handling tickets versus idle or administrative time.
Question 3: What does 'average handle time' (AHT) measure in help desk operations?
- Time spent waiting in a queue
- The average total time an agent spends on a ticket including work and follow-up (Correct answer)
- Maximum time allowed per ticket
- Time from ticket creation to first escalation
Correct answer: The average total time an agent spends on a ticket including work and follow-up
AHT captures the total time an agent invests per ticket — active work, hold time, and after-contact wrap-up — as a measure of efficiency.
Question 4: What is a Net Promoter Score (NPS) used for in help desk contexts?
- Measuring network performance
- Gauging how likely customers are to recommend the company's support to others (Correct answer)
- Tracking ticket resolution speed
- Evaluating agent technical skills
Correct answer: Gauging how likely customers are to recommend the company's support to others
NPS asks customers how likely they are to recommend the service on a 0–10 scale, providing a high-level loyalty indicator for the support team.
Question 5: What does escalation rate indicate about a help desk team?
- How busy the team is
- The proportion of tickets that first-tier agents cannot resolve and must send to higher support levels (Correct answer)
- The number of tickets resolved after business hours
- How often customers contact the help desk
Correct answer: The proportion of tickets that first-tier agents cannot resolve and must send to higher support levels
A high escalation rate suggests Tier 1 agents may lack sufficient knowledge or tools to resolve issues independently, pointing to training or knowledge base gaps.
Question 6: What is the purpose of a service desk dashboard in real-time monitoring?
- To display employee schedules
- To give managers and agents live visibility into queue size, SLA status, and team performance (Correct answer)
- To generate end-of-month billing reports
- To publish the knowledge base publicly
Correct answer: To give managers and agents live visibility into queue size, SLA status, and team performance
A real-time dashboard aggregates live metrics so managers can immediately spot SLA risks, queue overloads, and individual agent performance issues.
Help Desk Software Help Desk Metrics and KPIs 2
What does 'cost per ticket' KPI measure in help desk operations?