Every service delivery organization sets key performance indicators (KPI) to measure the health of the organization. Knowing where to take action based on what is reported is a recipe for success. However, there is a balance that has to be achieved among the metrics to ensure that the measurement scale is not tipped too far in any direction. If you think only of cost and do not account for the feedback from customer experiences then you are destined to fail.

Getting true feedback can sometimes be difficult, and even with metrics, it can be misleading. For example, our client reported having received a glowing report on one of our agents. “I spent two days trying to figure out how to do this on the website,” the customer said. “When I called the agent, he walked me through the process, and it was done in minutes.” On the surface, this appears to be a win. The customer is happy. On balance, however, this outcome is a service failure. Why couldn’t our client serve himself on the web page? Is there something wrong with our website? How many others have had the same experience? Read more.