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The contact center is experiencing a high dispatch rate, causing an excessive workload for employees, leading to burnout and high turnover rates. In addition, the high dispatch rate is causing longer wait times for customers, leading to frustration and potentially leading to a loss of business. The high dispatch rate is also negatively impacting the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the contact center.
It is important to highlight the negative consequences of the high dispatch rate, such as the impact on employee well-being and customer satisfaction. Emphasize the cost of not addressing the issue, including potential financial losses due to a decline in customer loyalty and the cost of hiring and training new employees to replace those who leave due to burnout.
To address the high dispatch rate, it may be necessary to implement a number of solutions. These could include increasing staff levels to better handle the volume of calls and requests, implementing more efficient processes and technologies to streamline operations, and offering training and support to employees to help them handle the workload. Additionally, it may be necessary to review the current volume of calls and requests to identify ways to reduce the overall workload and improve efficiency.

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The dispatch rate from the service desk to other teams is crucial since it indicates the efficiency of the desk. When the approximate cost to process a ticket at the service desk is between 8-10 dollars, @25 dollars at Level 1.5, @50 dollars at Deskside, and greater when transferred to other higher level groups, it can become fairly pricey if the dispatch rate is high. Additionally, if a problem has to be transferred from one team to another, the user may experience extended downtime. In this blog article, we'll look at why the dispatch rate is important and what you can do to improve it.


The service desk is the first point of contact for many IT issues, and its efficiency can have a big impact on the overall cost of resolving problems. That's why it's important to keep an eye on the dispatch rate - the percentage of tickets that are forwarded to other teams for further assistance. A high dispatch rate can be indicative of inefficiencies at the service desk, and it can also lead to extended downtime for users if their problems need to be transferred from one team to another. In this blog article, we'll look at why the dispatch rate is important and what you can do to improve it.


In this blog, we will discuss the following:


1. What is the dispatch rate and why is it important

2. How to calculate the dispatch rate

3. Ways to improve the dispatch rate

4. The benefits of improving the dispatch rate


What is the dispatch rate and why is a high dispatch rate bad for the service desk

The dispatch rate of a service desk is the percentage of incoming requests that are forwarded to another IT support team. A high dispatch rate can indicate inefficiency and affect the speed with which helpdesk queries are answered. This poor level of service can result in extended downtime for customers, meaning that their IT systems and equipment are not available for use when they need them most. As a whole, this has an overall negative impact on customer satisfaction and the reputation of the service desk itself. Consequently, it is important that service desk teams have established processes that enable them to address incoming queries quickly and effectively in order to maintain low dispatch rates.

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How to calculate the dispatch rate at the service desk

Calculating the dispatch rate at the service desk is an important step in optimizing customer service. To calculate this rate, total all the tickets received and total the number of tickets forwarded to other groups. The total tickets forwarded should then be divided by the total tickets received resulting in your dispatch rate. An ideal dispatch rate should be around <5%, as this shows that most of the total tickets have been handled efficiently rather than just getting transferred to other teams. Tracking your dispatch rate on a regular basis will help you quickly identify any efficiency gaps or create more opportunities for improvement.

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Ways to improve the dispatch rate at the service desk

Improving the dispatch rate at the service desk requires an in-depth analysis of several aspects to ensure sustained improvement. Regular check-ups on staffing, utilization, knowledge base usage, training, quality and schedules should be conducted in order to assess if a dispatch rate improvement is needed or could be achieved. Analyzing all information collected from these check-ups will provide valuable insights as to what areas need specific attention and/or adjustments for a long term increase in dispatch rates.

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The benefits of improving the dispatch rate at the service desk

Improved dispatch rates at the service desk provide numerous benefits. Automating processes, such as utilizing ticketing software, can reduce the time it takes to allocate tasks and provide faster service times. Managing customer data more efficiently can improve customer relationships and reduce overall call resolution time. In addition, streamlining processes between departments within a service desk organization helps to boost efficiency and collaborative efforts as well as ensure that customer-facing personnel have access to critical information when needed. All in all, improved dispatch rates at the service desk result in faster task completion times, better customer experiences, and greater satisfaction from both customers and employees alike.


In order to understand and improve the dispatch rate, it is important to first understand what it is. The dispatch rate is simply a measure of how quickly orders are sent to the supplier after they are placed. By improving the dispatch rate, businesses can reduce the amount of time that goods sit in inventory, leading to increased efficiency and profits. There are many ways to improve the dispatch rate, but some methods are more effective than others. We will explore these methods in detail and also look at the benefits of improving this metric.


So, what can you do to decrease the number of dispatches you make? First and foremost, ensure that you have a suitable number of employees working at the service desk. This will guarantee that there are enough staff available to deal with the influx of tickets that come in. Second, train your service desk staff so that they are prepared to deal with a wide range of situations. In addition, quality tools and systems should be purchased to assist the service desk employees in resolving difficulties more quickly and efficiently.

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Let's take a look at the Operational Management Reference Framework to see what impact the dispatch rate and what actions can be taken.

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Process Objective:

The objective of the Dispatch Rate reduction process is to define how to report, measure, track, trend, and harvest insights about the dispatch rate so that the Service Desk efficiency can increase, costs can be lowered and client satisfaction can be increased.

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Sample List of Benefits:

  • Reduced costs
  • More efficient Service Desk Agents
  • Implementation of Shift Left Strategy
  • More productive clients
  • Improved CSAT

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Sample List of Observations:

  • OM3 – Growth Management
  • OM5 – Skills/Training Management
  • OM6 – Resource Management
  • OM7 – Quality Management
  • OM8 – Knowledge Management
  • OM9 – Technology & Tools Management
  • OM13 – Service Level Management
  • OM14 – Service Performance Management (Reporting & Analytics)
  • OM15 – Continual Service Improvement Management
  • OM17 – Issues/Escalations Management
  • OM19 – Queue Management

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Sample List of Recommendations:

  • Understand the impact of growth/increased workloads is having on the dispatch rate. Are the agents feeling pressure to send the ticket to deskside to answer the calls waiting in the queue? (OM3)
  • Understand the impact of skills/training on the dispatch rate. Is the dispatch rate high because agents do not have the skills or have not be adequately trained? Are skill gaps across the board or confined to a group of agents, day of the week, hour of the day, a specific application, etc.? (OM5)
  • Understand the impact staffing levels are having on the dispatch rate. If there are staffing gaps, are agents being forced to cut the call short and send the tickets to deskside so they can take the next available call and avoid ASA and ABDN impact? (OM6)
  • Implement a quality management program (quality ticket monitoring and quality telemonitoring) to assess for ticket handling gaps. (OM7)
  • Understand the impact of the knowledgebase on the dispatch rate. Are tickets being dispatched to deskside and other teams because the knowledge does not exist, is not clear or is not being used? (OM8)
  • Understand the impact of technology and tools on the dispatch rate. Are tickets being dispatched because the agents do not have access to a working or reliable remote takeover tool? Do they not have access to remotely install SW? Do they lack admin rights to perform certain functions? (OM9)
  • Understand the impact of Service Levels on the dispatch rate. Are the call SLAs so aggressive that, agents are being forced to cut the calls short and dispatch tickets to deskside to avoid SLA miss? (OM13)
  • Understand the impact of Service Performance Management on the dispatch rate. Are adequate reports and measurements lacking to understand the behaviour of the dispatch rate? Is there an adequate analytics process in place to understand where the gaps are and how to close the gaps. Are agent utilization reports and targets in place to ensure consistency in handling tickets? (OM14)
  • Understand the impact of a lack of continual service improvement program on the dispatch rate. Are the observations and recommendations being made by the skills, quality, knowledge, reporting and measurements and analytics teams being acted on? (OM15)
  • Are issues raised to address challenges with being unable to resolve higher number of tickets at the service desk being addressed by management? (OM17)
  • Is there queue management in place to track and trend dispatch rates in real time?

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By following these recommendations, you may decrease your dispatch rate while also saving money for your business in the long term. Any other suggestions for decreasing the dispatch rate that you would want to share? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below!

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Exercise: What elements of the Operational Management Framework do you think have an impact on Dispatch Rate?

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