Steam has announced that going forward they are going to be sharing information and metrics from their support team. This is Valve's response to not only the users who have been asking for improved support in this aspect but also in an effort to "improve transparency around users' experiences getting support from [Steam]." Improvements made to the general support process are also highlighted giving particular attention to better tools, being able to use your steam account instead of needing to create a new one and even the increase of staff on the support team.
On the newly created Steam Support Statistics page you're able to see information not only on the type of support request volume that Valve experience but a breakdown of what types of issues are most prevalent and the time range in which these issues are solved. The announcement page explains that on any given day Steam will receive around 75,000 requests, with an average of 8,000 waiting at any given time. Earlier this year though it wasn't uncommon for 50,000 requests to be sitting in waiting.
Breaking down where the requests come from the majority are related to Steams refund policy that was implemented as a way to refund titles that you felt you didn't get what you expected or you had only played a very small amount of, though this is also the type of issue that takes the least amount of time to solve. Users can also see more in depth data about the players active on Steam, what games are being played, as well as the download statistics from the Steam store showing where all bandwidth is being allocated.
While many won't see too much use for the site for those who enjoy statistics and watching trends this resource might be an interesting way to follow trends of issues occurring in Steam as well as holding Steam accountable for their promised improvement in statistics with hard data as opposed to what we are told.
What do you think of Steam releasing their support statistics? Is this kind of information interesting to you, or do you plan to never visit the page?
