The metrics worth tracking

  1. First Response Time (FRT). How long until a human acknowledges the ticket. The single biggest driver of customer perception.
  2. Resolution Time. Time to actually fix it. Track by priority; a P1 median and a P4 median tell different stories.
  3. CSAT. Per-ticket satisfaction. The closest thing to a direct quality signal.
  4. First Contact Resolution (FCR). Share of tickets resolved in one interaction. Higher FCR means lower effort and lower cost.
  5. Ticket Volume by Type. Not for staffing alone — it's your product-feedback pipeline.
  6. Backlog & Age. How many open tickets, and how old is the oldest. A growing backlog is an early warning.

Vanity metrics to deprioritize

  • Tickets closed per agent. Easy to game by closing fast and badly. Rewards quantity over resolution.
  • Average handle time in isolation. A low number can mean efficient or rushed. Pair it with CSAT and FCR or ignore it.
  • Total tickets received. Without segmentation it tells you nothing actionable.

Median, not mean

One ticket stuck for three weeks will wreck your average resolution time while your typical customer was served in an hour. Report medians (P50) and P90, never the mean — outliers lie.

Review cadence

  • Daily: backlog and SLA-at-risk tickets. Where do we need to act right now?
  • Weekly: FRT, resolution time, CSAT trend.
  • Monthly: volume by type (feed it to product), FCR, escalation rate.

The one question every metric should answer

For each metric on your dashboard, ask: "What decision does this change?" If the answer is "none," take it off the dashboard.