Determining the cost per call or cost per contact for help desk or remote teams can be challenging, especially when staff split their time between phone support and in-person work.
So, that’s why we asked our LinkedIn community: “Do you have a good formula for calculating cost per call or cost per contact for a help desk or remote team?” Here are some highlights from the conversation. 
Rethinking the Purpose of Cost Per Call Metrics
Matt Beran, IT industry analyst at InvGate, offers a straightforward formula: “Total costs / # of calls or contacts = cost per call or cost per contact.”
However, he emphasizes that the real question lies in the purpose of this calculation.
“It's not hard, but why do you want this? What is the decision you will make based on this information? What are your priorities? Because if the cost of good support seems expensive, wait until you see how much it costs you to stop.”
Tracking Time Across Multiple Activities
For teams that split their time between different tasks, tracking time accurately is essential. Daniel Guinto, U.S. service desk senior manager at CIBC US, suggests a more detailed approach.
“We track hours either in the ITSM ticketing system under ‘time spent,’ ‘time worked,’ ‘time researched,’ and/or using tools like Planview or Replicon,” Guinto says. “This allows our managers to track and review the 40 hours or more desktop or onsite teammates work when not taking calls. This gives opportunities to help realign your team based on what is being reported. If you need to report to the business leaders, you'll have your supportive data.”
The Importance of Context in Metrics
Barclay Rae, senior advisor – ITIL at PeopleCert, cautions against relying too heavily on cost per call metrics alone.
“There are many ways this can be calculated based on a few assumptions, as well as taking operating model and organization strategy into account,” Rae says. “However, like most of the ITSM metrics that we can use, it’s a meaningless figure on its own, and should be viewed ‘in the round’ with other related metrics. There are many variables associated with this, and It should not be used on its own, out of context, to make or support any key decisions.”
Considering Cost-Based Accounting Principles
Taking a more critical stance, Simon Lara, vice president of technology at SPS PoolCare, argues against the traditional approach to cost per call calculations.
“This might be one of the worst metrics you can even bother to measure,” Lara says. “Are you really dividing the number of tickets/calls by the wages of your staff or the time they spend on tickets? And then telling someone that this is your ‘cost per ticket?’ If you are, please stop.”
Lara advocates for a more nuanced approach based on Cost Based Accounting principles.
“Cost per ticket is based on the rules of Cost Based Accounting in relation your company’s revenue and the impact it has on your company,” Lara says. “These can be considered incremental costs (or variable costs) per your technology’s effectiveness and efficiency in your revenue chain. Your ServiceDesk Analysts’ salaries are fixed costs and should be accounted as such to understand your DOL (Degree of Operating Leverage). It’s this real financial number that drives your budget on staff or technology improvements on availability, reliability or capability.”
PS: What do you think? Join our discussion on LinkedIn!