Hello,

Looking into a bonus or incentive program to compliment a trouble ticket system being developed for RackNine's clients. A couple questions came up that from previous discussions here I'd imagine could be answered easily:

- How would you monetarily value a support ticket? Time, effort, length of response, quality, etc.?
- What's a good base price per ticket?
- What options should clients have to rate the service provided in a ticket?

Basically I'm trying to offer a good base salary to staff where if their ticket "commission" is greater at the end of any given month they'll be bonused the difference. Is this worthwhile? Do you do this and love/hate it? I'd appreciate the insight :)

Sincerely,

-Matt

How would you monetarily value a support ticket? Time, effort, length of response, quality, etc.?

I've heard that number of first contact resulotions in a one month period works as a nice performance metric. Measuring it can be tough, but well worth it in increased customer satisfaction.

You have to be careful what metric you choose because it can have a negative effect on customer satisfaction if the goal is to get the customer "out of the queue" rather than solving their problems.

What's a good base price per ticket?

Depends entirely on what the customer is paying you. For premium services, I'd look towards $25 per ticket, but only pay for tickets with first time resolutions. If it takes repeat tickets, can you really say that the technician did the job they were paid to do?

What options should clients have to rate the service provided in a ticket?

Any options you can provide for feedback or ratings are good. As management, it is key to your job to know how well your employees are servicing your customers.

Granted, some customers will take every opportunity to blast you for tiny things, but you can sometimes even learn from those customers too.

Eventually, you'll begin to recognize the repeat whiners that don't usually have valuable feedback and learn to pick out the useful feedback. There will always be a certain 'signal to noise' ratio that you'll get a feel for after awhile.

Basically I'm trying to offer a good base salary to staff where if their ticket "commission" is greater at the end of any given month they'll be bonused the difference. Is this worthwhile?

Worthwhile? Yes. However, the road to success for this task is riddled with the human factor. Jealousy, greed, laziness, and other negative factors can creep in with your employees if you're not up to the task of managing a complex compensation model. If you can make it work, the rewards are well worth it.

Do you do this and love/hate it? I'd appreciate the insight

I've discovered through 7 years of managing tech staff that tech people crave stability. Give them what they want: a salary with paid vacation. They'll be less likely to ignore a customer with a difficult problem that will take a long time to solve. My 2 cents. :)

Originally posted by advantagecom
Worthwhile? Yes. However, the road to success for this task is riddled with the human factor. Jealousy, greed, laziness, and other negative factors can creep in with your employees if you're not up to the task of managing a complex compensation model. If you can make it work, the rewards are well worth it.

I've discovered through 7 years of managing tech staff that tech people crave stability. Give them what they want: a salary with paid vacation. They'll be less likely to ignore a customer with a difficult problem that will take a long time to solve. My 2 cents. :)
Sadly my experiences have been quite different. RackNine's venture into webhosting necessitated the hiring of additional technical staff some of whom have really lost their drive to provide the best possible service to our clients. I'd be the first to slash and re-hire but would very much like to prevent this burnout from happening again with future employees.

Thank you for your insight.

Sincerely,

-Matt