I just read a wonderful, simple book about statistics that inspired me to think, once again, about support metrics. The book is The Numbers Game by Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot, two British economist and journalist that set out to de-mystify statistics bandied about by politicians, mostly, but much of their clear and often funny advice can be used in many other contexts, including the one that we all care about, technical support.
 
1. Know what you are counting
 
Are “cases per day” incoming (new) cases? Closed cases? “Resolved” cases (we gave the customer the solution, but s/he has not confirmed it’s working yet)? Cases that were “touched” or worked? Make sure each concept is carefully defined so everyone can measure the same thing. The people who write the reports will thank you, and you’ll get much better trust in the metrics from the entire organization.
 
Read the entire CustomerThink article.