Understanding SLA metrics: Time to resolution, time to first response, and more

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As we have written in other publications, an SLA is “a contract between a service provider and a client. It is used to define the scope, cost, and quality of services to be provided by the vendor or an internal IT service management (ITSM) team.”

In this article, we'll go over the SLA metrics you should be looking at to positively impact your IT team's productivity and your working relationship with your customers. 

Guaranteed Service Uptime

It's critical for businesses to keep their IT systems up and running 24/7, without exception. Regardless of what the IT team or the vendor needs to do, the main thing is that there are no interruptions in daily operations.

Usually, the uptime specified in the SLA is 99.999%. This does not mean that you will be blamed for lowering this figure in the event of a natural disaster that damages the server center. However, IT teams and vendors will not meet SLA requirements if they fail to provide backups or adhere to maintenance schedules.

Response time

Response time, also known as Response SLA, is one of the most important metrics for an IT team or vendor.

When (internal or external) customers encounter an IT problem and the self-service options provided do not help, they submit a support ticket because they need professional IT help to resolve it.

The ideal first response time according to the SLA metric is to respond to requests within the first business day. If not, it should be within the first 24 hours after the request is submitted. The situation changes when customers call the IT or vendor teams; however, in most cases, requests still need to be entered into the system so that the ITSM can resolve the issue and confirm that it is resolved within the SLA.

Average response time is a key metric for SLA performance. However, there are more important metrics that we'll look at next.

Average Handling Time

The next metric is the Average Handling Time (AHT), which refers to the time from submitting a support ticket to marking it as “resolved” or “closed”.

Speed is critical in business. IT problems slow down organizations because individuals, teams, and even entire companies cannot operate without working IT systems.

ITSM or third-party providers must ensure that these systems, software and hardware are functioning properly. IT teams with fast AHT create more value for their organization by solving problems faster, allowing your staff to get back to work. AHT is an important SLA performance metric and one that every IT team should measure.

Number of Successful Self-Resolutions vs. Total Support Requests

Providing tools and information for self-service problem solving is one of the most effective ways to reduce the number of support tickets and thus the cost of ITSM support.

Self-service solutions also allow IT teams to focus on more serious issues, rather than repeated requests such as “I forgot my password again,” and include investments in digital transformation projects.

IT managers should see a difference in the number of support requests coming to their team after implementing self-service tools. The volume of requests should decrease, and more customers should be able to solve problems on their own. You can use analytics to see how many people are using these tools and referring to this content, and then compare that to the volume of support tickets.

Number of Resolved Tickets

Another important SLA metric for IT help desk that is included in every SLA is the number of resolved tickets. It doesn't matter if it's level 1, 2, or 3, the main thing is to achieve resolution within the timeframe set by the SLA.

With the right IT help desk software, you can measure whether your team is resolving tickets faster and in higher volume. If so, the team becomes more efficient in resolving customer issues, and this has a positive impact on the productivity of the IT team.

Tracking resolved support tickets and the types of tickets coming in from customers also shows whether new information needs to be added to self-service solutions. When your team is seeing the same issues repeatedly, and when there are easy-to-implement solutions that customers can use on their own, it's time to update your self-service tools.

Tickets Resolved Within SLA vs. Outside SLA

Comparing the number of tickets resolved within the SLA with tickets resolved outside of the SLA is another important metric. The majority of tickets should be resolved within the SLA parameters, otherwise your team is not meeting the minimum standards by which they are being evaluated.

You need to explain why requests are being resolved outside of the SLA. Make sure that reports are attached to SLA and KPI metrics so that senior management can see if more serious issues require additional investment to resolve.

If too many support tickets are being resolved outside of the SLA, it's a sign that the team needs additional training. Or that additional tools or resources are needed for self-service resolution to improve response and closure rates.

Percentage of First Resolution 

Another critical SLA performance metric is the percentage of first resolution. This means the number of requests resolved on the first contact.

This metric is widely used across many sectors and business types, including B2C and B2B customer service contact centers.First-time resolution has also penetrated the IT world and is included in the KPIs and SLAs of most ITSM teams.

Escalation levels of requests

Finally, another important metric to track in an SLA is the number of support tickets that need to be escalated to a higher-level manager or IT team member. Not everything can be resolved at level 1 or on first contact.Some issues are more complex and require the intervention and expertise of a more experienced IT professional or technology specialist.Using cloud-based IT service desk or ITSM software, you can track the number of tickets that are resolved within the SLA on first contact and the number of tickets that are escalated to a higher level due to their complexity.

IT managers should also ensure that more complex issues are resolved within the SLA. However, more complex problems have longer resolution times due to the difficulty of fixing them.

Of course, every business and organization is unique. The content of the SLA depends on the technologies, hardware, and software that the company uses, as well as the workflows associated with the use of these solutions by customers.

That's why many organizations have a wider range of performance metrics in their SLAs. The metrics in this list are a useful starting point.We hope you found this article useful!

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