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What makes Enterprise IT end-users happy?

The Happiness Score™ report provides insights on the state of Enterprise IT Experiences across all IT touchpoints, based on almost 1.151.269 responses between 1. July 2021 and 31. Dec 2021.

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The Happiness Score™ Report H2/2021

Introducing the Global IT Experience Benchmark.

The H2/2021 report now includes data and insights across all touchpoints with IT.

The report is based on continuous data collection through the HappySignals Experience Management Platform for IT.

In total, there were 1,151,269 end-user responses from our Enterprise customers between July 2020 to Dec 2021.

IT Experience Management Scores

Results reflect success of people-centric IT Service Management

When reading the report, keep in mind that the results reflect the success of IT teams that have chosen to focus on people first.
Our customers have aligned with business stakeholders to put end-user happiness as the primary indicator of success in service delivery.

People Process Technology

Contents of the report

Overall IT Experience

Insights about the global IT experience for Enterprise end-users across different touchpoints.

  • End-users in the Digital Workplace
  • Workforce size impact on happiness
  • ROI of IT Service and Support
  • Industry insights
  • Reassignments and productivity
  • Outsourcing IT for an improved experience in big companies

IT Service Management

  • Measure and prove the value of IT
  • Country-specific differences
  • Cost of lost time with IT incidents
  • IT Incidents
    • Positive factors
    • Neutral factors
    • Negative factors
    • Support Channels
    • Reassignments
  • IT Requests
    • Covid-19 impact on IT requests
    • Positive factors
    • Neutral factors
    • Negative factors
    • Support Channels
    • Reassignments
  • IT Support user profiles
    • Share of different profiles
    • Changes during Covid-19
    • Common factors for happiness

Remote work

  • Introduction
  • Perceived efficiency of remote work
  • Positive factors
  • Neutral factors
  • Negative factors
  • Unhappy remote workers in happy countries
  • Evolution of remote work happiness

HappySignals terminology

Download Report as PDF

   

Overall IT Happiness

What makes end-users happy with IT?

The Digital Workplace requires a holistic and people-centric approach to ITSM

IT-Happiness-Across-Measurement-Areas

Collaboration with IT

In the collaboration with IT the most important factor seems to be whether end-users are clear about who to contact for IT-related issues. That is the second most important factor for end-user happiness and the biggest reason for dissatisfaction.

Most people (58%) feel it is nice to work with IT. On the other hand, 24% have encountered attitude problems during collaboration with IT.

Service Portals

Service portals are being used more and more. When looking at experience scores around portals, it is important to understand how end-users rate portal as a tool vs rate the service experience that started in a portal. 

Portal as a tool gets the lowest score of all IT touchpoints -26 points.

When a ticket-based interaction starts in portal, the scores are not very different from other channels: 76 for incidents and 79 for requests. However, those scores reflect the service experience that IT provides and are not representative of the score end-users would give the portal from a user experience point of view. 

Enterprise applications

With applications the range of scores between different types of applications and across different customers is quite large. It is not uncommon to have applications that receive a negative score (the score becomes negative if there are more people rating their experience with 0-6 than those rating it 9-10). Further, even the highest scores for applications are not even close to the average of the scores for support services.

The complaints about applications are more often about the speed of the application or the speed of application-related development. Many also feel that applications are not helping them enough to be efficient.

Some positive feedback about applications are that they are modern and easy to use, the content is up to date, and people are happy with the support they receive from that application.

Laptops and/or computers

For laptops and/or computers, the main negative feedback is related to speed of the device. The second biggest reason for dissatisfaction is short battery life, followed by malfunctioning device. The fourth biggest pain point is the mandatory settings and software that decreases device efficiency.

From those people who rated their device with 9s or 10s,
- 70% said their device is fast enough
- 66% said their device is always reliable
- 55% that the software is up to date

Mobile devices

Unsurprisingly, with Mobile devices the battery life is the most annoying thing for end-users. This is followed by limitations caused by the device model, functionality of the device or subscription.

On the positive side, employees appreciate the efficiency boost they get from their phone. Other aspects like roaming, speed of the subscription, or getting the model that an employee wants all influence satisfaction to similar degrees.

Office Environment

Due to the present Covid situation, we don’t have enough data to reveal the score for this area yet. But if you want to understand if the office environment needs of end-users in your organisation have changed, don’t hesitate to contact us and start to measure this area as well with HappySignals.

The bigger the company, the harder it is to please IT end-users

If a company has less than 5000 employees, their happiness is on average about 12 points higher than companies with more than 20,000 employees.

bigger-company-unhappy-people

Based on 423,510 responses for IT incidents

Why is it harder to please a bigger workforce? 

In this report, we are only analysing data from HappySignals customers. Keeping that in mind, among our customers, the bigger the organisation, the more likely it is that it has outsourced their IT service desk. Specifically, only 33% of companies which have less than 5000 employees have outsourced their service desk, but up to 73% of companies which have more than 5000 employees have outsourced their service desk. 
 
Interestingly it seems that in companies with more than 5000 employees, outsourced service desks are preforming better than internal ones. We believe that this makes a lot of sense, as outsourced service desks are more likely to be able to provide services globally at the correct time zone. They also have greater capability to implement efficient channels.
 
Understanding how Support Services can better match end-user expectations can have a great impact on overall happiness. 
 
According to Jeff Rumburg at Metricnet.com, the direct salary costs of IT Support Services represent on average only 4% of the total IT budget. Considering how small that share of the budget is, there is clearly great value for money when investing in Support Services! 
Support Services-2

* The average 4% budget is defined as including the dedicated personnel for IT Service and Support

Included Not included
Level 1 Service Desk Vendor Support
Self help, self service portal Level 3 IT Support
Field services  
Desktop support  

 

Which industry has the happiest IT end-users?

The difference in IT end-user happiness between the happiest and unhappiest industries is marginal – only 12%.

industries-2

Based on 423,510 responses for IT incidents

This is the first report in which we are releasing any information about the differences between industries. We still do this with caution because we have learned that there are so many other factors apart from industry that can influence happiness.

The scores are established by creating a weighted average that eliminates variations due to country specific differences in rating happiness.

Before we can release comparisons across more industries and more exact scores for different industries, we have to account for the impact of company size and whether the service desk is internal or outsourced.

It appears that in Finance and the Public Sector, it is slightly easier to make end-users happy. These industries have stricter regulations, making them more stable in their ways of working. That could be a factor that impacts how IT can match end-user expectations in their interactions. 

The fact that end-users in IT companies are the most demanding is not a huge surprise.

Employees in IT companies are likely to be more technically-skilled Doers who already solve the simpler IT issues by themselves.

IT support is likely to see less of easy "know-how incidents" and receive more complex problems that IT company employees were not able to solve by themselves.

Every Reassignment leads to productivity losses

The perception of lost time increases by roughly +1.5h every time a ticket is reassigned

The faster you can get the ticket to a team or individual that can solve the ticket, the better is the end-user experience.

ticket-reassign-2

Based on 423,510 responses for IT incidents

Outsourced Service Desks are catching up with internal ones

One reason is that External IT providers often have better processes for using experience data in their daily work.

As a result, external IT Service Desks have almost caught up with internal ones in overall happiness.

outsourced-service-desks

Based on 423,510 responses for IT incidents

What is the right time to outsource IT Service Desk?

It makes sense for companies with more than 5000 employees

Also the fact is that at least in our customer base the bigger the organisation it is more likely that the organisation has outsourced their service desk. In this report we are always analysing results based on all our customers. In that group if company has less than 5000 employees only 33% have outsourced their service desk, but if the company has more than 5000 employees, as many as 73% have outsourced their service desk.

External IT works well in larger enterprises

In bigger companies with more than 5000 employees, the outsourced IT Service desk is just as good or better than an internal service desk.

Read more about internal vs outsourced IT
Big-vs-small-company-MSP

Based on 395,500 responses for IT incidents

When companies have more than 5000 employees, outsourced service desks are preforming better than internal one.

We believe that makes lot of sense because the outsourced Service Desk is better suited to provide services globally without limitations due to time zones among other strengths in service delivery - being solely focused on a specific aspect of IT.

   

Service Management

Happiness with IT Support Services is up!

During the Covid-19 year, the happiness of end-users with IT Support Services has continued to increase.

The average end-user happiness among HappySignals customers in May 2021 is at a record high of +75, a 13% increase from Q4/2020.

IT-Happiness-Up-13

Based on 423,510 responses for IT incidents

How can IT measure and prove its value in 2021?

A look at the factors influencing happiness and productivity

One of the most valuable aspects of the HappySignals IT Experience Management platform is its ability to draw links from Happiness and Productivity to different reasons causing end-users' happiness or dissatisfaction. We call these reasons factors of happiness.

End-users' assessment of these factors are surveyed when they receive the resolution email. This makes the information about different factors very pertinent, as it is assessed at the moment of the closing of an incident or request ticket.

Different factors are presented to end-users to choose from, depending on the overall happiness rating they give (out of 10). For example, scores from 0-6 are classified as a negative experience, so end-users are asked to select from a list of factors tailored for negative experiences. The same goes for scores from 7-8 (neutral experience), and 9-10 (positive experience). Certain personnel-related factors are included in all three scenarios.

End-users can select as many factors as they wish from the options available.

 

Using benchmark data to help decipher cultural differences

End-users rate services in ways that reflect their cultural context. Having benchmark data can help us understand what the real IT performance level is in a country-specific context. That can help with resource allocation and prevent a few gray hairs.

countries

Countries with highest scores

+92 Peru (+2)
+92 Ukraine (+2)
+89 Russia (+5)
+88 Philippines (+3)
+88 China (+5)

Countries with lowest scores

+56 Germany (+2)
+56 Belgium (+2)
+57 Netherlands (+5)
+62 Switzerland (+3)
+63 Italy (+5)

Country-specific differences in happiness, but influencing factors are stable 

We have learned that globally, factors are extremely stable! And they should be, because they reflect the real reasons why people are liking or hating the service they get.

But for our customers, the important actionable insight is that if their score deviates from the global benchmark by more than 5%, they are either doing something extremely well or have areas for improvement.

Speed of Service
We have been investigating the correlation between end-users' perceived experience and traditional SLA’s.

Some SLA's measure time to resolution by pausing the clock outside of business hours, or while the ticket is in another way in a transition state. 

From our comparison between happiness and speed of service, the only time that really matters to end-users is the time from the moment they submitted a ticket, to the moment the ticket is solved. 

This is often referred to in the SLA's as calendar time. That is the time measurement that most accurately reflects how end-users understand Speed of Service. 

You can not stop time from ticking from an end-user point of view.

My ticket was not solved
This is the single biggest reason for end-user dissatisfaction. And yes, this is the biggest reason even after tickets are closed. An end-user might select this one because several reasons:

  • Employee contacted the wrong service desk (instructions and/or the structure of IT support is poor)
  • Employee knows that the root cause of the problem has not been solved
  • Service Desk closes the ticket before a resolution
  • Service Desk closes the ticket but opens another one, just to keep to the SLA

I had to explain my case several times
This reason correlated almost directly with reassignments of the ticket. But sometimes, the reason was also due to SLA's that are overly tight about first response time. Because the SLA of first response is so tight, the original explanation from the employee is sometimes not read properly by the service desk personnel. Instead they send an additional question to the employee, even if the answer could have already been found in the first email.

Service Personnel
From these factors, you notice that great service desk personnel is needed to make end-users happy. However, the negative feedback is rarely caused primarily by the attitude of service personnel.

Proactivity and ability to teach end-users
In the last year, the proactivity and ability teach end-users while providing the support service have both increased by 2%.

Happiness is good business

What would your end-users think about 26% less time lost?

At an hourly rate of 50€, the perceived productivity loss equals 142€ in business value.

P.S. End-users do not stop the clock while waiting!

Average lost work time

Based on 423,510 responses for IT incidents

IT Incidents

Subheader_IT Incidents

Top Positive Factors

When end-users give IT incident resolutions a high score (9-10 out of 10), the top reasons are the speed of service and human aspects related to the service agent's attitude and skills.

IT-incident-positive-factors-h1-2021

Based on 423,510 responses for IT incidents

IT incidents, positive factors contributing to happiness

Results are based on HappySignals customers' data, rolling 6 month average ending at the end of the indicated period.

Positive Factors Q4/'19 Q1/'20 Q2/'20 Q3/'20 Q4/'20 H1/'21 H2/'21
Speed of Service 30 % 30 % 29 % 28 % 28 % 27 % 27%
Service personnel's attitude 21 % 21 % 21 % 20 % 20 % 20 % 20%
Service personnel's skills 19 % 18 % 19 % 18 % 18 % 18 % 18%
I was informed about the progress 12 % 12 % 12 % 12 % 13 % 13 % 13%
Service was provided proactively 10 % 11 % 11 % 12 % 13 % 13 % 13%
I learned something 8 % 8 % 9 % 9 % 9 % 9 % 9%

 

Data set contains xM+ end-user responses between 2019-2021

Top neutral factors

Speed of service is by far the most cited factor when end-users give a neutral score (7-8 out of 10).

IT-incident-neutral-factors-h1-2021

Based on 423,510 responses for IT incidents

Neutral factors, historical data, IT incidents

Results are based on HappySignals customers' data, rolling 6 month average ending at the end of the indicated period.

 

Neutral Factors Q4/'19 Q1/'20 Q2/'20 Q3/'20 Q4/'20 H1/'21 H2/'21
Speed of service 46 % 48 % 48 % 46 % 46 % 46 % 45%
I had to explain my case several times 16 % 16 % 16 % 18 % 18 % 17 % 17%
It was difficult to know where to start 10 % 10 % 9 % 9 % 10 % 10 % 10%
I wasn't informed about the progress 9 % 9 % 8 % 9 % 9 % 9 % 8%
Service personnel's skills 8 % 7 % 7 % 7 % 7 % 6 % 7%
Instructions were hard to understand 6 % 6 % 6 % 6 % 6 % 7 % 6%
Service personnel's attitude 6 % 5 % 5 % 5 % 5 % 5 % 6%


Data set contains xM+ end-user responses between 2019-2021

Top negative factors

When end-users give negative scores (0-6 out of 10), the factors are often linked to the resolution process.

Ticket not being solved and having to explain the case several times may hint at ticket reassignments and prematurely closed tickets.

factors-negative-incidents (1)

Based on 423,510 responses for IT incidents

Negative factors when rating IT incidents

Results are based on HappySignals customers' data, rolling 6 month average ending at the end of the indicated period.

Negative Factors Q4/'19 Q1/'20 Q2/'20 Q3/'20 Q4/'20 H1/'21 H2/21
Service was slow 28 % 28 % 28 % 28 % 25 % 26 % 28%
My ticket was not solved 26 % 25 % 26 % 26 % 27 % 27 % 26%
I had to explain my case several times 17 % 17 % 17 % 17 % 18 % 17 % 17%
I wasn't informed about the progress 10 % 10 % 10 % 10 % 9 % 9 % 9%
Service personnel's skills 7 % 7 % 7 % 7 % 7 % 7 % 7%
Instructions were hard to understand 4 % 4 % 4 % 4 % 5 % 5 % 5%
It was difficult to know where to start 4 % 4 % 4 % 4 % 4 % 4 % 4%
Service personnel's attitude 4 % 4 % 4 % 4 % 4 % 5 % 4%


Data set contains 3M+ end-user responses between 2019-2021

 

Incidents: Channels used

Results are based on HappySignals customers' data, rolling 6 month average ending at the end of the indicated period.

  Q4/'19 Q1/'20 Q2/'20 Q3/'20 Q4/'20 H1/'21* H2/'21
Chat 8% 7% 8% 8% 9% 8% 9%
Email 20% 19% 18% 17% 17% 16% 15%
Phone 28% 28% 28% 27% 27% 25% 27%
Portal 34% 37% 37% 37% 36% 39% 38%
Walk in 4% 4% 3% 2% 2% 2% 4%

*1.12.2020-31.5.2021

Incidents: Channel Happiness

Results are based on HappySignals customers' data, rolling 6 month average ending at the end of the indicated period.

  Q4/'19 Q1/'20 Q2/'20 Q3/'20 Q4/'20 H1/'21* H2/'21
Chat 62 61 64 68 70 74 75
Email 67 66 68 73 73 75 77
Phone 69 70 74 76 75 78 79
Portal 62 64 68 71 71 73 73
Walk in 90 89 90 91 90 92 92

*1.12.2020-31.5.2021

Incidents: Channel Lost Time

Results are based on HappySignals customers' data, rolling 6 month average ending at the end of the indicated period.

  Q4/'19 Q1/'20 Q2/'20 Q3/'20 Q4/'20 H1/'21* H2/'21
Chat 2h 40min 3h 10min 3h 15min 3h 4min 2h 36min 2h 29min 2h 54min
Email 4h 00min 3h 55min 3h 43min 3h 32min 3h 35min 3h 44min 4h 10min
Phone 2h 25min  2h 30min 2h 27min 2h 19min 2h 10min 2h 3min 2h 8min
Portal 4h 20min 4h 34min 4h 33min 4h 28min 4h 9min 3h 59min 3h 50min
Walk in 1h 11min 1h 13min 1h 30min 1h 49min 1h 37min 1h 53min 1h 39min

*1.12.2020-31.5.2021

Incident Reassignments: Frequency

Results are based on HappySignals customers' data, rolling 6 month average ending at the end of the indicated period.

The numbers do not add up to 100% as there is a small percentage of tickets that get reassigned more than 4 times. 

Reassignment count Q4/'19 Q1/'20 Q2/'20 Q3/'20 Q4/'20 H1/'21* H2/'21
0 56% 55% 56% 56% 56% 52% 51%
1 29% 27% 27% 27% 27% 30% 31%
2 7% 7% 7% 7% 7% 8% 9%
3 2% 2% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3%
4 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 2%

*1.12.2020-31.5.2021

Incident Reassignments: Happiness

Results are based on HappySignals customers' data, rolling 6 month average ending at the end of the indicated period.

Reassignment count Q4/'19 Q1/'20 Q2/'20 Q3/'20 Q4/'20 H1/'21* H2/'21
0 72 73 75 78 78 81 81
1 63 64 67 70 70 75 77
2 53 54 58 62 62 66 68
3 44 46 50 53 52 56 60
4 38 41 44 46 47 51 50

*1.12.2020-31.5.2021

Incident Reassignments: Lost time

Results are based on HappySignals customers' data, rolling 6 month average ending at the end of the indicated period.

Reassignment count Q4/'19 Q1/'20 Q2/'20 Q3/'20 Q4/'20 H1/'21* H2/'21
0 2h 17min 2h 26min 2h 18min 2h 10min 2h 2min 1h 58min 1h 52min
1 3h 41min 3h 55min 3h 58min 3h 55min 3h 36min 3h 17min 3h 27min
2 5h 51min 6h 10min 6h 5min 5h 49min 5h 27min 5h 8min 5h 10min
3 7h 21min 7h 52min 7h 48min 7h 35min 7h 15min 6h 22min 6h 45min
4 8h 20min 8h 42min 9h 21min 9h 15min 8h 2min 7h 49min 8h 24min

*1.12.2020-31.5.2021

IT Requests

Subheader_IT Requests

Requests increased by 15% when companies went remote

Now in H1/2021, one year after companies going remote, the number of requests have returned to pre Covid-19 levels

requests-record

Based on 218,941 responses for IT requests

Record highs regarding IT Requests 

Highest results in both quantity and happiness

The number of requests went up by nearly 15% during the first half of 2020 when companies transitioned to remote work. 

Despite the increased demands on Enterprise IT teams, the happiness decreased below pre Covid-19 levels. In fact, the happiness kept slowly going up by about 1 point per quarter, and has now reached a record high 80 points on average. 

The results could be the result of IT end-users seeing how flexible and adaptive the IT Services were when faced with radical change, leading to a newfound appreciation for IT. 

Another reason for rising scores could be the experience focus that HappySignals customers are pursuing. 

In a rapidly changing environment, having real-time experience data does make it much easier for IT to match stakeholder expectations regardless of how circumstances and needs change.

Top Positive Factors

When end-users give IT request resolutions a high score (9-10 out of 10), the top reasons cited are speed of service, service personnel’s skills and attitude.

Factors IT Requests_Positive

Based on 218,941 responses for IT Requests

Positive factors when rating IT Requests

Results are based on HappySignals customers' data, rolling 6 month average ending at the end of the indicated quarter.

Positive Factors Q4/'19 Q1/'20 Q2/'20 Q3/'20 Q4/'20 H1/'21 H2/'21
Speed of service 30 % 30 % 30 % 29% 29 % 29 % 29%
Service Personnel's attitude 19 % 18 % 18 % 18 % 18 % 18 % 17%
Service personnel's skills 17 % 17 % 17 % 17 % 17 % 17 % 16%
I was informed about the progress 12 % 12 % 12 % 12 % 13 % 13 % 13%
It was easy to describe what I wanted 12 % 12 % 12 % 12 % 12 % 12 % 12%
Instructions were easy to understand 11 % 11 % 11 % 11 % 11 % 11 % 12%

Top Neutral Factors

The top 2 neutral factors are the same as top 2 negative factors, related to speed of service and having to explain case several times.

Factors IT Requests_Neutral

Based on 218,941 responses for IT Requests

Neutral factors when rating IT Requests

Results are based on HappySignals customers' data, rolling 6 month average ending at the end of the indicated quarter.

Neutral Factors Q4/'19 Q1/'20 Q2/'20 Q3/'20 Q4/'20 H1/'21 H2/'21
Speed of service 46 % 47 % 47 % 45 % 45 % 47 % 48%
I had to explain my case several times 13 % 13 % 14 % 14 % 15 % 13 % 12%
It was difficult to know where to start 8 %  9 %  8 %  10 %  9 % 10 % 9%
I wasn't informed about the progress 9 %  10 %  10 %  8 %  9 % 9 % 9%
It was difficult to describe what I needed 7 % 6 % 7 % 7 % 7 % 7 % 7%
Instructions were hard to understand 6 % 6 % 6 % 6 % 6 % 6 % 6%
Service personnel's skills 6 % 5 % 5 % 6 % 5 % 5 % 4%
Service personnel's attitude 5 % 4 % 4 % 4 % 4 % 4 % 4%

To avoid negative request scores, 3 key aspects to remember

When end-users are turning to IT with IT requests, a good score is much more likely if IT can: 

  1. Provide fast service
  2. Make sure it is easy for end-users to provide all relevant information
  3. Keep end-users informed about progress

Keeping in mind that Service Portals constitute the first touchpoint in 51% of the requests, understanding the felt user experience in the portal is important. 

In our global benchmark scores of all IT touchpoints, portal as a tool received the lowest score of all -26. 

Top Negative Factors

When end-users submit IT requests, negative scores are likely if the service is slow and they have to explain the request several times.

Factors IT Requests_Negative

Based on 218,941 responses for IT Requests

Negative factors when rating IT Requests

Results are based on HappySignals customers' data, rolling 6 month average ending at the end of the indicated quarter.

Negative Factors Q4/'19 Q1/'20 Q2/'20 Q3/'20 Q4/'20 H1/'21 H2/'21
Service was slow 34 % 35 % 34 % 33 % 33 % 35 % 35%
I had to explain my case several times 20 % 20 % 20 % 20 % 20 % 20 % 18%
I wasn't informed about the progress 13 % 15 % 16 % 16 % 16 % 15 % 17%
Service personnel's skills 11 % 10 % 10 % 10 % 10 % 8 % 8%
Instructions were hard to understand 6 % 7 % 6 % 6 % 7 % 6 % 7%
It was difficult to know where to start 6 % 5 % 5 % 6 % 6 % 6 % 6%
Service personnel's attitude 5 % 5 % 5 % 5 % 6 % 5 % 5%
It was difficult to describe what I needed 4 % 4 % 3 % 4 % 4 % 4 % 4%

Speed matters when dealing with IT requests

The most common reason for end-users to give a negative score for IT requests is slow service

Negative-reason-speed-of-service-2

Based on 218,941 responses for IT requests

IT Requests: Channels used

Results are based on HappySignals customers' data, rolling 6 month average ending at the end of the indicated period.

  Q4/'19 Q1/'20 Q2/'20 Q3/'20 Q4/'20 H1/'21* H2/'21
Chat 2% 2% 3% 3% 3% 3% 3%
Email 15% 15% 14% 14% 15% 14% 8%
Phone 22% 21% 20% 19% 19% 18% 11%
Portal 45% 43% 40% 40% 47% 51% 56%
Walk in 1% 2% 2% 1% 2% 2% 1%
Other           12% 21%

*1.12.2020-31.5.2021

IT Requests: Channel Happiness

Results are based on HappySignals customers' data, rolling 6 month average ending at the end of the indicated period.

  Q4/'19 Q1/'20 Q2/'20 Q3/'20 Q4/'20 H1/'21* H2/'21
Chat 74 72 72 75 75 76 73
Email 73 72 74 76 76 77 73
Phone 81 82 84 85 84 86 84
Portal 74 73 75 77 76 79 81
Walk in 92 92 91 92 93 93 92

*1.12.2020-31.5.2021

IT Requests: Channel Lost time

Results are based on HappySignals customers' data, rolling 6 month average ending at the end of the indicated period.

  Q4/'19 Q1/'20 Q2/'20 Q3/'20 Q4/'20 H1/'21* H2/'21
Chat 2h 29min 2h 11min 2h 7min 1h 59min 1h 58min 2h 1min 2h 35min
Email 2h 43min 2h 36min 2h 37min 2h 36min 2h 29min 2h 36min 3h 42min
Phone 1h 0min 59min 58min 55min 57min 56min 1h 2min
Portal 2h 59min 3h 0min 2h 58min 2h 55min 3h 17min 3h 12min 2h 54min
Walk in 45min 54min 53min 53min 1h 5min 1h 6min 1h 13min

*1.12.2020-31.5.2021

IT Requests: Reassignments frequency

Results are based on HappySignals customers' data, rolling 6 month average ending at the end of the indicated period.

Reassignment count Q4/'19 Q1/'20 Q2/'20 Q3/'20 Q4/'20 H1/'21* H2/'21
0 61% 61% 63% 65% 66% 69% 70%
1 26% 25% 25% 25% 24% 22% 20%
2 6% 5% 5% 5% 5% 5% 6%
3 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 1% 1%
4 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1%

*1.12.2020-31.5.2021

IT Requests: Reassignments Happiness

Results are based on HappySignals customers' data, rolling 6 month average ending at the end of the indicated period.

Reassignment count Q4/'19 Q1/'20 Q2/'20 Q3/'20 Q4/'20 H1/'21* H2/'21
0 79 79 80 80 80 82 83
1 75 76 76 77 78 79 79
2 66 63 65 69 68 69 72
3 64 63 64 65 62 63 64
4 50 51 55 57 56 59 57

*1.12.2020-31.5.2021

IT Requests: Reassignments Lost time

Results are based on HappySignals customers' data, rolling 6 month average ending at the end of the indicated period.

Reassignment count Q4/'19 Q1/'20 Q2/'20 Q3/'20 Q4/'20 H1/'21* H2/'21
0 1h 43min 1h 41min 1h 54min 2h 4min 1h 59min 2h 4min 2h 45min
1 2h 38min 2h 32min 2h 41min 2h 42min 2h 40min 2h 50min 2h 56min
2 3h 56min 4h 19min 4h 19min 3h 45min 3h 51min 4h 12min 4h 18min
3 5h 5min 4h 23min 4h 32min 5h 5min 5h 16min 4h 59min 5h 47min
4 5h 48min 5h 28min 5h 44min 6h 0min 6h 15min 5h 53min 6h 25min

*1.12.2020-31.5.2021

What type of IT end-users are the most common?

HappySignals captures 4 distinct types of IT end-user support profiles - Doer, Prioritiser, Supported, and Trier.

Each profile has different needs and wants when interacting with IT support and services.

More information about Support Profiles
IT-Support-personas-HappySignals

56% of end-users contacting service desks are "Doers"

Doers are capable of solving IT-related problems themselves. People often ask Doers for help. Sometimes Doers will even try to teach others to solve problems themselves. Hence when asking for support, Doers want expert help.

Guide on using Support Profiles in IT Service Desk
doers-1

Percentage of end-users per Support Profile

Support Profile Q1/'17* Q1/'18 Q1/'19 Q1/'20 H1/'21 H2/'21
Doer 49% 58% 60% 56% 56% 54%
Prioritiser 38% 23% 21% 21% 20% 19%
Supported 10% 14% 14% 15% 17% 19%
Trier 3% 6% 5% 7% 8% 8%

* In 2017 most customers were from Finland

 

When you can't ask a friend, you ask IT instead?

During the last Happiness Score™ Report measurement period, the share of tickets submitted by untechnical employees grew by 8%. 

It is the type of end-users that might feel more comfortable asking a colleague for help in the office, than turning to IT. 

When remote work became the norm, it was naturally much harder for these untechnical persons to ask their colleagues for help.

Another possible reason for untechnical end-users increased share of interactions with IT could be a result of devices at home not being set up the same way, requiring things like a secure VPN, access to files remotely etc. Issues that were very common in Q2/2020. 

Untechnical employees logged more IT incident tickets during Covid-19

8% more untechnical people (Supported and Triers) contacted IT Service Desks during the pandemic than before.

We believe this is because peer support is not as readily accessible as it was when everybody was in the office together.

Read about Support Profiles in IT Service
Supported-and-triers

Based on 423,510 responses for IT incidents

Across all profiles, human interaction is valued highly

Service Personnels' skills and attitude, alongside speed of service, have consistently been the most commonly linked factors for a good score.

That human touch is visible when comparing end-user happiness across all measured IT touchpoints.

human-interactions-2

   

Section_Remote Work
remote work happiness

A Year into Remote Work

We made the Remote Work survey available to our customers in the beginning of the pandemic. As the results started coming in, it was interesting to see certain changes as the months went by.

In the beginning, people were most unhappy with VPN access and their internet connection. Once IT got those connection issues sorted, but as remote work continued, the ergonomics of the home office started to be the issue. End-users were missing their second screen and other office equipment that they did not have access to at home.

When equipment, connections and other material needs were met, the collaboration challenges with colleagues started to get more attention from end-users. 

We have already seen in the IT incident and request data, that human interaction is highly valued by end-users. As people realise that collaborating in person may not go back to what it was before, best practices for collaboration in a remote setting seem more important than before.

 

How was this data gathered?

HappySignals created the survey to measure the Remote Work Experience in March 2020.

Since then, we have gathered 321,935 responses. In this report, we use 120,409 responses from December 2020 to May 2021.

 

There are 39 times more employees that say remote work is efficient than there are employees saying that is inefficient

remote work-efficient

Reasons for a positive remote work experience

Top factors for end-users to be happy with remote work are related to interpersonal aspects

remote work reasons positive

Reasons for a neutral remote work experience

Top 3 factors for neutral feedback are the same as they are for negative feedback

remote work reasons-neutral-1

Reasons for a negative remote work experience

The reasons for negative feedback in relation to remote work have slightly changed since the first half of 2020 but connection issues and workspace ergonomics are still on the top.

remote work reasons-negative

Bad internet connection is the biggest reason for not liking remote work

remote work-internet connection

Based on 120,409 responses on remote work

Happy countries are less happy with IT

Comparison between country happiness and end-user ratings for IT services

When we looked at the country specific happiness with remote work, we started wondering why certain regions and countries were scoring remote work in a certain way. 

Crossing the data between "Happiest Countries in the World 2021" and our Happiness Score™ with our own data around IT Happiness, an interesting pattern showed up. 

There is a negative relationship between how happy people say they are in their countries, and how they score happiness regarding IT services. 

End-users are impacted by their environment, and the way they rate IT services is not only reflective of service quality. 

Using benchmark data to compare changes in country and IT happiness, can lead IT to make better decisions in allocating more or less resources to certain locations. 

The happier the country, the lower the happiness with Remote Work

End-users working in Sweden and Norway are least happy with
remote work

remote work-sweden norway

Based on 120,409 end-user responses

As Remote Work continued month after month, end-user expectations shifted

It has been interesting to see how expectations regarding remote work have shifted over the months. In the beginning, connection problems were common. Then IT took care of those.

After a few months, employees started noticing how their productivity and comfort was impacted by the home office environment. 

Now after a year of working remotely and realising that for many remote work is likely to continue in one way or another, the expectations towards collaboration practices are rising. 

remote work-expectations

HappySignals terminology

Terms used in the report Definition
Happiness End-user satisfaction with internal IT services on a 10 point scale
Productivity End-user perception of lost time with IT incidents/requests
Factors Reasons influencing happiness, as selected by end-users on standardised surveys (e.g. speed of service, agent attitude etc) 
Happiness Score™
Happiness + Productivity + Factors
 
Combined system for measurement and representation of end-user happiness and productivity in relation to internal IT services and support. 
HappySignals Experience Management Platform for IT
SaaS platform that integrates with ITSM tools to bring together IT end-user feedback with operational data.