8 KPIs that every IT help desk needs to know - KPI 4: Ticket volume trends
Definition: The total number of tickets handled by the IT help desk, and this number's patterns within a given time frame
Goal: To optimize the number of incidents and service requests and to prepare the IT team to handle the ticket load
What can you do with ticket volume trends?
Identify peaks and troughs to optimize resource management and technician workload.
Create a better staffing model.
Design training sessions for your IT help desk team.
Analyze service request patterns and plan ahead for purchases of assets and licenses.
Validate any additional resource requirements.
IT help desks should keep an eye out for a few trends when it comes to ticket volumes, such as discrete spikes and gradual, continuous upward trends. These will be discussed below.
Discrete spikes

Case study: Fall intake leads to ticket spike at a university

An upward trend can occur for any of the following reasons:
An increase in the organization size
Initiatives to support more business functions
As IT starts supporting more business functions, the volume of both incidents and service requests rises. To manage this, it is important to understand the requirements and expectations of the end users and equip the IT help desk team to handle the increase in tickets.
A decrease in infrastructure stability
If you have any questions, please feel free to post them in the comments section below. In the next blog, we will discuss the next KPI, first call resolution rate. In the meantime, if you are looking for an end-to-end IT service management solution, we encourage you to check out ServiceDesk Plus, the IT help desk software trusted by over 100,000 help desks worldwide.
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