The more service desk agents on hand to tackle tickets, the faster issues get resolved, right? Maybe not. Over 13 months, we analyzed over 2,000 global SolarWinds® Service Desk IT service management (ITSM) customers to produce the SolarWinds State of ITSM Report 2024, revealing some surprising results.
Little Correlation Between Agent Numbers and Ticket Resolution
Our data showed an average IT service-desk incident resolution time of 21 hours. However, the different times taken to resolve a ticket across companies were vast: some customers achieved resolution times of under an hour per ticket, while others averaged an extensive 100 hours. Data points showed the education industry had the highest average resolution time of 33 hours per ticket and the financial sector 14 hours. These numbers highlight the significant variability in service desk performance across organizations, but why such polarized results? As we delved deeper, we noticed that the more incidents each agent handled, the faster they tended to fix them. Significantly, increasing the ratio of service desk agents to employees had little effect on the average incident resolution time—so theoretically, more agents don’t necessarily resolve more issues.
Why Do Fewer Agents Solve More Tickets?
Why doesn’t increasing agent headcount necessarily increase efficiency? One theory that may explain the findings is Parkinson's Law, which states that work will expand to fill the time allotted for completion. In other words, you might take longer than necessary if you have more time to do a task. Conversely, people tend to be more focused and efficient when time is limited. In ITSM terms, if an agent has one hour to close three tickets, they’ll work hard to ensure they achieve this goal. If an agent has one hour to close one ticket (as may be the case in an organization that employs more agents), the agent will likely take the full hour to close the ticket. Of course, the downside is that increased demands on a smaller number of agents leave the door open to stress, fatigue, and burnout.
The Dangers of Agent Burnout
The pressure on service desk employees to close more tickets faster demands more focus and harder work. Managing a high volume of repetitive incidents at top speed in a pressurized environment can lead to band-aid solutions draining time and efficiency. Traditionally, haste makes waste, and quality of service reflects more in speed-driven work. Also, employee burnout is common in these environments and bears a financial cost to firms. Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2023 Report says burnout accounts for 9% of global GDP, a loss of USD 8.9 trillion in the global economy. An ‘always-on’ culture, applicable particularly to the service ethic of ITSM, contributes to more work intensity, potentially compromising the cost of quality. Automation offers robust solutions by taking over these tasks, enabling teams to focus on higher-value work for significant impact.
The Power of Automation in Supporting Fewer Agents
The report found that implementing automated processes and protocols reduces average ticket resolution time by over three hours. Strategies like automatic ticket routing, incident identification and categorization, centralized knowledge articles, AI enhancements, and smart notifications can greatly boost efficiency and user satisfaction. The report also revealed that automation helps cut missed service-level agreements (SLAs) in half and that industries embracing automation are seeing faster resolution times across the board. The modern service desk solution has features designed to maximize productivity and accelerate resolution with lightning-fast time-to-value. Artificial intelligence (AI) takes the guesswork out of deciding the right resolution by generating recommended steps for the agent to follow. These steps help agents resolve or troubleshoot the issue based on the initial request and comments within the ticket. Organizations that invest in these solutions can give even small teams of agents the support they need to close a significant volume of tickets.
How Self-Service Portals Drive a Culture of Independent Problem-Solving
Could a culture of independent problem-solving among non-tech staff contribute to fewer tickets? Some organizations may invest in elevated training for their agents, but how does this relate to fewer agents? Fewer agents mean less demand when company culture encourages people to solve problems themselves. Implementing knowledge-base (KB) articles is a proven strategy for reducing average resolution times. They’re a crucial asset for users and service desk agents in a concept known as ticket deflection. In one click, service agents can attach KB articles to a ticket. Stay tuned to Orange Matter for the next article in our State of ITSM series, where we’ll dive even deeper into why self-service ITSM really works.
IT Optimization Has More Impact than Agent Headcount
The findings suggest that service desk efficiency does not depend primarily on headcount but on IT optimization. If your organization is struggling with its ITSM workload, investing in refining processes may yield better results than simply hiring more agents.
Read the SolarWinds State of ITSM Report for further insights.
