We offer you a behind-the-scenes look at a remote engineer’s role on our IT helpdesk support team. Our helpdesk technicians want to resolve problems quickly, so people can get back to work with minimal disruption. In this blog, you can follow along the process of an IT support ticket with the helpdesk, identifying the metrics of a successful helpdesk request.
Managed services end users can contact the IT helpdesk in many ways, including email and directly on the client portal. Our helpdesk teams have set procedures for resolving each type of incoming ticket. Because phone calls are the most common means of contact, we’ll focus on call-in requests…
4 Rings to Reach Helpdesk Technicians
NetGain picks up most IT helpdesk calls within four rings. The industry average for a helpdesk reply is 15 minutes. It may not seem like that much time, but it’s a notable delay in your issue even reaching the attention of support. NetGain’s highly qualified helpdesk engineers are available to answer calls as quickly as possible, resolve the issue, and allow you to go about your day. We don’t like people waiting for us, and we understand that everyone’s time is valuable.
NetGain’s helpdesk runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, including holidays. Smaller MSPs might not have the staff size or bandwidth to run a full helpdesk team with support during the night and weekends. Their response times can be anywhere between 1 to 4 hours, which could be a significant delay if your IT issue is halting business operations. The quicker you can connect with the helpdesk, the sooner your issue can be addressed and resolved.
20-Second Average Hold Time 
NetGain’s average hold time for our helpdesk is 20 seconds. Some helpdesk teams can take up to 24 hours to respond! Hold time can vary between MSPs and depends on how well staffed and experienced their response team is. NetGain’s standard hold time is a premier level of service we pride ourselves in delivering to clients. The quicker we can take your call, the sooner we can understand the issue and determine the best method for resolving things. The longer it takes the helpdesk to reach your ticket, the longer you’re waiting for a fix. Holds times are a significant KPI (key performance indicator) that many MSPs track. Understanding your MSPs helpdesk KPIs can give you an understanding of the services they aim to deliver to your employees.
No one wants to sit on-hold for an extended period of time. NetGain strives to respond quickly to clients calling our helpdesk, and our clients appreciate that! Our client satisfaction scores sit steadily at 99%. That score weighs heavily on how well clients feel their IT issues are responded to and resolved.
12 Minutes to Triage the Issue
We assume every ticket is a Priority 1 until we diagnose, or triage, it! When our clients reach out to us for help, we diagnose how to resolve the issue within 12 minutes. During this time, we gather information about the client and the challenge they are having, especially its level of complexity. We also determine how long it could take to resolve the issue, which can determine prioritization.
Our ticket triage process includes:
- Ticket logging once the client submits their issue to the helpdesk
- Categorization of the ticket and prioritization
- Ticket assignment to the correct POD and engineer
- Assigned engineer receives the ticket for management and resolution
- Involvement of other POD members and escalation depending on ticket complexity
15 Minutes of IT Support Troubleshooting
We’ve resolved more than 2-million IT support tickets, for hundreds of clients, during our 40-plus years as a world-class managed IT services provider. We’ve refined our support processes to be efficient and thorough.
Incoming calls become tickets for our PODs to respond to quickly. Once a ticket is active, our team works directly with the client to determine their issue and fix the problem. Our PODs are teams of engineers dedicated to each client. Your POD will work diligently to resolve your issue on the first point of contact. The POD team will take 15 minutes to attempt resolving your issue. Issues we typically solve in 15 minutes could be anything from a password reset, a software update on an employee’s work terminal, or even network connectivity troubleshooting.
Anything beyond 15 minutes is escalated directly to a more senior engineer. Depending on the issue, escalation can involve remote support, or we may even come onsite to fix the issue. These kinds of issues might be more complex in nature or could involve a more experienced engineer or security team. An example of a higher-level ticket could be resolution of a security related issue. Some MSPs provide security helpdesk support as a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP). This security focused team can respond to and remediate your security challenge in a timelier fashion than most MSPs, who don’t hold and higher level of security expertise.
4% Escalation Rate
Okay, 15 minutes is a good goal—but how often do callers’ issues require additional attention?
The average “managed IT” helpdesk resolves somewhere between 60% and 70% of support calls, and the industry standard for escalation is somewhere around 30%. The NetGain Technologies helpdesk technicians strive for a better customer experience. We guarantee 85% of tickets to be resolved within that first 15 minutes, and our internal goal for escalation percentage is 4%. A ticket might be escalated if an engineer uncovers more challenges behind the initial issue. For example, a simple software update that unveils a more complex issue with the users workstation. Or, it could be escalated if it’s determined another helpdesk team member with hardware/software specific expertise needs to be brought in to resolve the issue faster.
That 4% escalation goal means that means for every 100 calls to our team, we want the first engineer on the issue to resolve it. And we’re succeeding! We also aim for a large majority of our helpdesk tickets be resolved remotely. This level of IT service desk support is good for the end user as we’re able to fix issues much quicker. Sending technical support onsite can be necessary at times, but it means the issue can take a bit longer to solve.
Wonder why we don’t target 100% of calls for remote support? Some issues—like hard drives that fail permanently—are simply impossible to solve without onsite visits. That’s why we staff seven regional offices with the best field engineers in the industry.
70% First Contact Resolution Rate
A metric similar to escalation rate is first contact resolution (FCR) rate. This statistic measures the ability of a helpdesk ticket to be resolved with the first helpdesk engineer it’s handed to. The level of accuracy of an MSP’s triage process will impact this rate. If a ticket can be correctly categorized and assigned to the right engineer initially, then the first contact resolution rate will be higher. A high FCR rate means the helpdesk team has a strong ticket management and assignment process in place.
FCR is a significant metric many MSPs track to measure overall helpdesk performance. Industry standards place a good FCR somewhere between 70-79%. NetGain strives to maintain a high FCR score, at above this industry standard. We monitor our first contact resolution performance across all of our POD teams, on a weekly basis.
100% Recording and Call Quality Audits
We record every call that comes in to NetGain’s IT helpdesk. We regularly review our engineer’s calls for quality assurance. Across the team, and individually by technician, we identify areas for training so our calls are faster and smoother for clients. Altogether, we collect and analyze the data for every helpdesk contact and ticket. We reference our service desk metrics constantly to improve the process.
Customer Satisfaction Surveys
After every IT helpdesk request, we share a short survey with the client to gauge satisfaction with the process and the issue resolution. This process is the best way for an end user to communicate back to NetGain. Whether clients send kudos to a technician, or suggest improvements, the IT support desk loves feedback! Constructive comments about response times, engineer communications, and general thoughts about support help us continually improve our service. If a client isn’t happy with their helpdesk service, we analyze their feedback and support ticket to understand how we can deliver better service in the future.
NetGain uses a simple survey tool, SmileBack, to gauge whether the client is unhappy, satisfied, or happy with our services. Our company goal is 95% satisfaction. We raised our Operations team’s goal to 97% client approval rate, and in practice we have hit 98% to 99% scores month after month.
Performance Penalty for Missing SLAs
Within our Technology OneSource Services Packages, we have a performance penalty for not hitting our goals.
Technology OneSource is our world-class managed IT services program. Our contracts identify several service level agreements (SLAs) that guarantee high standards for the services we provide. For example, SLAs may institute requirements on how quickly we must respond to service requests and begin working on the ticket.
The performance penalty promise is simple. If we don’t do what we say we’re going to do, we’ll provide a credit back to you on your next agreement invoice. If our helpdesk doesn’t respond to your tickets efficiently or effectively, we miss our SLA for timely resolution. Effectively, if we miss our SLAs, you receive a price break. You might not see this with other MSPs—we’re a rare team that offers it.
WOW Factor
We’ve all heard the gushing stories about top retailers with great customer service, like Apple and Costco. NetGain Technologies endeavors to be known for this same high level of customer approval. Our Google Business ratings provide great examples of client feedback about our services. We endeavor to WOW our clients with every interaction, whether it’s daily helpdesk support or an annual business review. NetGain’s POD engineering teams and Client Success Managers (CSMs) are trained to ensure that when you call us, you think, “WOW—they did a great job for me!”.
We create WOW experience by going above and beyond expectation, from project work to our ticket resolution times. Our SLAs, client appreciation events, referral programs, SLAs, and elite helpdesk services are a few things we do differently (and better) than the average MSP.
If you’d like to learn more about how we can bring this elite level of service and support to your company, schedule a chat with us today.
