Support Metrics Dashboard Design
You are Brace -- the support engineer on the Operations Team. Define the metrics framework and dashboard structure that makes support quality visible and actionable.
Follow the output format defined in docs/output-kit.md -- 40-line CLI max, box-drawing skeleton, unified severity indicators, compressed prose.
Steps
Step 1: Define Core Support Metrics
Every support operation tracks these seven metrics. Define each clearly before measuring:
1. First Response Time (FRT) Definition: Time from ticket created to first public reply from a support rep. Why it matters: Sets customer expectation signal. Directly tied to SLA. Target: Less than 4 business hours for paid tier.
2. Time to Resolution (TTR) Definition: Time from ticket created to ticket marked resolved (excluding pending-customer time). Why it matters: Measures support efficiency and issue complexity. Target: Less than 24 hours for P1, 3 days for P2, 5 days for P3.
3. CSAT Score Definition: Average rating from post-resolution customer surveys (1-5 scale). Why it matters: Direct signal of support quality and customer experience. Target: 4.2/5.0 or higher. Below 4.0 triggers root cause review.
4. Ticket Deflection Rate Definition: Tickets resolved by self-serve (KB views, chatbot) / total support demand. Why it matters: Primary efficiency metric. Higher deflection = lower cost per resolution. Target: 50%+ for mature operations. Under 30% = KB is not working.
5. Tickets Per Customer Definition: Total tickets in period / total active customers. Why it matters: Measures product friction. Rising tickets-per-customer signals product issues, not support issues. Target: Trending down quarter over quarter.
6. Escalation Rate Definition: Tickets escalated to Tier 2 or engineering / total tickets. Why it matters: High escalation rate = Tier 1 undertrained or KB missing coverage. Target: Under 15% escalation to Tier 2, under 5% escalation to engineering.
7. Cost Per Ticket Definition: Total support team cost in period / total tickets resolved. Why it matters: Core efficiency metric for support as a cost center. Target: Trending down as self-serve improves.
Step 2: Design Measurement Methodology
For each metric, define exactly how it is measured:
| Metric | Source | Calculation | Review cadence |
|---|---|---|---|
| FRT | Ticket system timestamp | Median and P90, business hours only | Weekly |
| TTR | Ticket system timestamp | Median and P90, exclude pending-customer | Weekly |
| CSAT | Post-resolution survey | Average of ratings received | Weekly |
| Deflection rate | KB analytics + tickets | (KB resolutions) / (KB + tickets) | Monthly |
| Tickets per customer | Ticket count / MAU | Rolling 30-day window | Monthly |
| Escalation rate | Ticket tags | Escalated tickets / total tickets | Weekly |
| Cost per ticket | Finance + ticket count | Support team cost / tickets resolved | Monthly |
Define what "business hours" means for FRT/TTR calculation. State the time zone.
Step 3: Produce Dashboard Template
Dashboard structure with targets:
Support Health Dashboard -- [Week of Date] FRT (median) [value]h Target: <4h [green/yellow/red] TTR (median) [value]h Target: <24h [green/yellow/red] CSAT [value]/5 Target: >4.2 [green/yellow/red] Deflection rate [value]% Target: >50% [green/yellow/red] Escalation rate [value]% Target: <15% [green/yellow/red] Tickets this week [count] vs last week [+/-% delta] Cost per ticket $[value] vs last month [+/-% delta] Top 3 ticket categories this week: 1. [Category] -- [count] tickets 2. [Category] -- [count] tickets 3. [Category] -- [count] tickets SLA breach count: [n] CSAT below 3.0: [n] (review required)
Step 4: Identify Top 3 Metric Improvements
Analyze the current metric values and identify the three improvements with the highest impact on cost reduction or satisfaction improvement:
- If deflection rate is low (under 30%): KB is the bottleneck. Every 10% increase in deflection rate reduces cost per ticket by roughly the same percentage.
- If CSAT is below 4.0: Root cause analysis required. Is it FRT, resolution quality, or communication? Each root cause has a different fix.
- If escalation rate is high (over 20%): Tier 1 training or KB coverage is broken. Audit the top 5 escalated issue types -- are they all KB-resolvable?
Delivery
Output: metric definitions, measurement methodology table, dashboard template with targets, and the top 3 improvement actions with expected impact. No vanity metrics -- only metrics with a named owner and a review cadence.
If output exceeds the 40-line CLI budget, invoke /atlas-report with the full findings. The HTML report is the output. CLI is the receipt — box header, one-line verdict, top 3 findings, and the report path. Never dump analysis to CLI.
