KPI Guides / Agent Touches per Ticket

How to calculate:
Agent Touches per Ticket

Tom Roberts  -  November 2nd, 2023

What is Agent Touches per Ticket?

Agent Touches per Ticket measures the average number of times a customer support agent interacts with a customer to resolve a ticket. Basically, it tells you how many times a customer has had to go back and forth with your support team to get an answer to their problem.

Why is Agent Touches per Ticket Important?

Tracking touches per ticket is critical as it helps to evaluate the quality of the support experience for customers.


A high number of agent touches per ticket may indicate that the support process is lengthy and complex, leading to frustrated customers and a negative support experience.

On the other hand, a low number of agent touches per ticket suggests that the support process is efficient and the support team is effective in resolving customer issues quickly.


As always, by measuring and optimising sensible metrics, organisations can ensure that their customers receive the best possible support experience.

Equation

Average Ticket Touches = Total number of agent replies on resolved tickets ÷ Total number of resolved tickets
For example, a help desk that recieved 70 tickets and needed 200 agent replies to close them would do: 200 ÷ 70 = 2.9. This means they on average they took about 3 replies to close each ticket.

Agent Touches per Ticket Benchmark

While there's little customers like more than a one touch resolution, this isn't always practical. The customer's request may not have all the information, or an agent may need to escalate the request to get it answered. Aim for a maximum of 3 touches as a minimum. This can be refined and improved as you gain experience communicating with your customer.

How to Improve Agent Touches per Ticket

Streamlining the support process

One of the primary ways to improve the 'Agent Touches per Ticket' metric is to streamline the support process and make it more efficient. This can be done by automating repetitive tasks, such as sending follow-up emails, so that support agents can focus on resolving customer issues.

Providing training and resources

The most important way to improve is to provide support agents with the necessary training and resources to handle complex issues. This can include access to relevant knowledge bases, customer information and regular training on common issues and what level of support is expected.

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