50 Help Desk Statistics and Why You Should Watch Them

If you think the answer to meeting the ever-growing customer expectations is limited to a low price or a fantastic product, think again.

Customer service has become a key player when it comes to offering a wholesome experience to customers. Within the last decade, how businesses assist their customers has undergone a complete revolution. 

From recording customer problems manually to managing all customer service channels under the same roof with a help desk system, we have surely come a long long way. 

By adopting the best help desk software, more and more businesses are able to find light at the end of the tunnel. But, just before you get comfortable and think you have figured it all out, there are plenty of helpdesk statistics and trends that you just can’t afford to miss. 

When we bring our attention to the current help desk market and the overall customer service landscape, we realize that a formidable amount of research has been conducted to date. 

To save you from the pain of scanning through never-ending infographics and reports, we have created a comprehensive list of the top help desk statistics. 

To save you from the pain of scanning through never-ending infographics and reports, we have created a comprehensive list of the top help desk statistics. Let’s check them out. 

1. Help Desk Industry Watch

2. Help Desk Automation Statistics

3. Help Desk Customer Experience Statistics

4. Help Desk Challenges

5. Help Desk Communication Channels

It’s time to explore the stats that speak a thousand words. 

Help Desk Market Watch Statistics

1. The market for help desk software solutions is expected to reach USD 11 billion by 2023. (Source: Transparency Market Research)Tweet this

2. Help desk employees who receive consistent training and are made to engage in career-path planning are more satisfied in the workplace. (Source: MetricNet)Tweet this

3. 37% of organizations provide their service desk employees with performance-based raises. Another 27% provide inflation-based raises. (Source: SDI) Tweet this

4. IT service desks capitalizing on machine learning enhanced technologies will free up to 30% of support capacity. (Source: Gartner )Tweet this

5. Only 24 percent of respondents think that existing ITSM best practices have kept up with the changing IT and business landscapes. (Source: ManageEngine)Tweet this

6. Cost-per-ticket for support teams ranges from $2.93 to $49.69. Whereas the average ticket cost accounts for $15.56. The average cost per minute for handling a ticket is $1.60.(Source: MetricNet)Tweet this

7. Most support teams measure their performance through customer satisfaction survey results (48%) and number of tickets resolved (39%).(Source: SDI)Tweet this

8. For growing companies, improving the customer experience (55% of respondents) and increasing operational efficiency (53% of respondents) are the top initiatives driving IT investments.(Source: State of the CIO 2020) Tweet this

9. 44% of businesses have already started a digital-first approach to customer engagement.(Source: Clickz.com) Tweet this

10. A mere 19% of companies have employed a dedicated customer experience team that helps bridge gaps in the business.(Source: Genesys) Tweet this

11. Over the next two years, 56% of companies will have a significant proportion of their support team working from home.(Source: Deloitte) Tweet this

Help Desk Automation Statistics

12. Around 32% of major businesses around the world have adopted AI customer service technologies, the second most common use of AI after IT. (Tata Consultancy Services)Tweet this

13. More than half of executives surveyed (53%) believe that moving aspects of their contact center capabilities to the cloud is an impeccable technology strategy. (Source:Deloitte) Tweet this

14. Less than 60% of organizations use automated alerts and reporting in their service desk. This means that outages are either reported by other groups or by affected customers.(Source: HDI) Tweet this

15. 25% percent of customer service and support operations will integrate virtual customer assistant (VCA) or chatbot technology across multiple engagement channels by 2020.(Source: Gartner) Tweet this

16. About 75% of companies plan to invest in automation technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and process automation. (Source: Deloitte)Tweet this

17. Customer service agents who work along with AI have experienced a 69% improvement in their satisfaction. (Source: Forrester) Tweet this

18. The cost of manually handling a help desk ticket is $22. However, with the help of automation, 22% of total service desk tickets can be resolved at practically no cost. (Source: BMC) Tweet this

19. Around 70% of cloud contact center users cite security and compliance as the biggest reasons to invest in cloud technology. (Source: Aberdeen) Tweet this

20. More than one in three companies say customers and prospects prefer to complete a purchase or resolve service issues without speaking to a human agent, if possible. (Source: Oracle) Tweet this

21. Chatbots and natural language processing will save businesses more than $8 billion per year by 2022. (Source: IBM) Tweet this

Help Desk Customer Experience Statistics

22. Customers are willing to spend 17% more with a company that offers outstanding customer service. (Source: American Express) Tweet this

23. About 30% of respondents believe that the most crucial aspect of customer service is speaking with a knowledgeable and friendly agent. (Source: Microsoft) Tweet this

24. Around 77% of customers will be willing to recommend a brand to a friend or family after having a single positive experience. (Source: Temkin Group) Tweet this

25. 68% of customers say that a brand’s perception becomes positive when they send proactive customer service notifications to them. (Source: Microsoft) Tweet this

26. According to 62% of customers, service insight and knowledge is key to a good customer service experience. (Source: American Express) Tweet this

27. 52% of customers revealed that they have made an additional purchase from a company after a positive customer service experience. (Source: Dimensional Research) Tweet this

28. Businesses that offer delightful customer experiences, drive revenues 4% to 8% higher than those of their competitors. (Source: Bain) Tweet this

Help Desk Challenges

29. Overall, 84% of customers say that being treated like a person, not a ticket, is very important to winning their business. (Source: Mediapost) Tweet this

30. 71% of Americans say the communications they receive from brands never, rarely, or only sometimes feel personal. (Source: PR Newswire) Tweet this

31. 67% of customer churn is preventable if brands resolve customer issues in the first contact itself. (Source: Ameyo) Tweet this

32. According to 31% of global respondents, the need to repeat their information multiple times is the most frustrating aspect of their customer service experience. (Source: Statista) Tweet this

33. 20% of global respondents consider the difficulty in reaching a live human agent as the most frustrating part of contacting a business for support. (Source: Statista) Tweet this

34. Six in 10 people who interacted with a chatbot said they knew they were communicating with one due to the robotic and artificial nature of the responses. (Source: Media Post) Tweet this

35. One in three customers (33%) say they will walk away from a brand after just once poor experience. (Source: PWC) Tweet this

36. 49% of American customers switched companies last year due to poor customer service. (Source: New Voice Media) Tweet this

37. 75% of companies believe themselves to be customer-centric, however, only 30% of customers agree. (Source: Capgemini) Tweet this

Help Desk Communication Channels

Email Support Statistics

38. The number of global email users is expected to grow to a whopping 4.48 billion users by 2024. (Source: Statista) Tweet this

39. 54% of customers used email for customer service last year, making it the most used digital channel for customer service. (Source: Forrester) Tweet this

40. 57% of customers are more likely to contact businesses via digital media such as email or social media rather than use voice-based customer support. (Source: Ameyo)Tweet this

Live Chat Statistics

41. Companies that scored 90% or higher for customer satisfaction over live chat had an average wait time of just 46 seconds.(Source: Forbes) Tweet this

42. Live chat is the most favored customer support channel for shoppers aged between 18 to 49. (Source: Gartner) Tweet this

43. 30% of American consumers rate chatbot interactions as “very effective” in dealing with customer service requests or issues. (Source: Microsoft) Tweet this

Knowledge Base Statistics

44. 40 percent of customers prefer self-service over human contact. (Source: Forbes)Tweet this

45. A significant proportion of customers prefer knowledge bases over all other self-service channels. (Source: Forrester) Tweet this

46. 91% of customers would use a self-service knowledge base if it were available and tailored to their needs. (Source: Social Media Today) Tweet this

Social Media Statistics

47. Around 48% of customers expect a brand to respond to their social media questions and complaints within 24 hours. (Source: Statista) Tweet this

48. 33% of respondents aged 18-34 have contacted a company’s customer service team via social media. (Source: Microsoft) Tweet this

49. 31% of customers report reaching out to a business via Twitter. (Source: Forrester) Tweet this

50. The average service desk spends 68.5% of its budget on staffing costs and only 9.3% on technology. (Source: MetricNet). Tweet this

Help Desk Statistics- Numbers that Never Lie! 

In today’s hyper-competitive business environment, it’s important to know what your customers want and the possible consequences of not living up to their expectations. 

Whether it is about the rising popularity of social media channels or the rapid adoption of automation, the stats discussed above will help you make the most of your help desk software. 

On one hand, we see that amazing technology in the form of chatbots, self-service portals are catching customer’s attention. On the other hand, most customers still crave a personal support interaction that has a human touch.