Problems With KPI's

 Thoughtful.

Two problems with your KPIs

Nicholas Zeisler -November 11, 202201 views  in CustomerThink

Anybody who’s read much of what I have to say about Customer insights and Voice of the Customer (VoC) knows I’m quite critical of legacy KPIs like CSAT and NPS.  Part of that, naturally, is my inherent wiseass contrarian nature, sure.  That said, if I didn’t really believe that there’s a better way to do things, I’d not have invented a new top-level CX metric of my own (the Brand Alignment Score).

Sure, it’s easy to beat up on “the way we’ve always done it” and call it a day, congratulating oneself on being so much better than the rest.  But it’s also important to understand the limitations not only of our own cleverness, but the principles underpinning our own arguments.  For example, it’s important to understand (and admit) that even the metric I made up doesn’t deliver a panacea.

So let’s talk about how bad metrics are bad in two categories:

Universal—these are properties of every top-level metric, and it doesn’t matter which one you use, there’ll always be problems

Specific—this is why this particular metric is bad, and ideally this other one is good.

There are some things that, no matter how great a new metric you develop or how clever you are (or think you are, or your LinkedIn circle of connections says you are), there’s not any easy way—least of all by simply switching to a new type of question or measuring scale—to overcome the shortcomings that exist for all VoC metrics.  This is the category one needs to be aware of before parading out a great new KPI…it’s what should keep you from thinking you’ve solved the world’s problems.

For example, every metric can be gamed or lead to unintended behaviors based on how it’s applied.  Even operational measures (think:  Average Handle Time, First Contact Resolution, etc.) often drive people to do something that negatively impacts the Customers’ experiences.  It’s like squeezing a balloon…that pressure and air goes somewhere and causes it to bulge out in a different place.  If you emphasize scores uber alles, you’ll get folks doing whatever it takes…to drive that score, not necessarily to drive good CX.  This is why you get service professionals often asking you to give them a 9 or 10 on the survey that’s on the way.  There’s no perfect metric that’ll keep that from happening if the attitude of the organization is centered simply on hitting that target.  Every KPI will get you to that bad place.

Similarly, CSAT, NPS, Customer Effort Score, and yes even Brand Alignment Score are all too vague.  I’ve written before about Score Data and Amplification Data and if nothing else, that concept emphasizes that no top-level KPI will ever give you any information about what to do about your CX…i.e., how to improve it.  It’s a good sign that an organization is simply paying lip-service to “doing CX” if they don’t look any further than their top-level KPIs.  If the purpose of “doing CX” isn’t centered around making your CX better, it won’t matter which metric you use because the key to acting on what you learn entails learning more deeply why and how you’re falling short, not simply that you have (then of course, there’s the huge matter of doing something about it).  So regardless of what KPI you’re using, if that’s all you’re using, you’re missing the biggest part of the picture.  ... '