Beware of Vanity Customer Service Metrics

Avoid placing too much emphasis on customer service metrics that merely make us “feel good.”

During my undergraduate days, I worked as a dispatcher and customer service representative for a cable company in Tallahassee. Although I had previously worked in other customer service positions — including at a grocery store and at a catalog showroom — my experience at the cable company provided me with particularly valuable insights into customer service, especially within the context of “customer service metrics.”

Let me explain.

Prior to working at the cable company, I wasn’t aware of customer service metrics. In other words, I didn’t receive reports about how many groceries I bagged per hour while working at Winn-Dixie or how many Commodore 64 computers (remember those?) I sold per hour while working at Best (no, not Best Buy, but Best, a 1980’s catalog showroom).

However, that changed when I started working at Comcast Cable, about halfway through college. It was at that time that I became aware of such customer service metrics as “average hold time,” “average call time,” and “aging reports,” among others. Specifically, I received regular reports detailing the number of minutes customers remained on hold while waiting to talk to me; the number of minutes I spent on each customer service call; and the number of days delinquent customer accounts remained active (yes, I was the “meanie” who created and scheduled disconnect orders for subscribers who neglected to pay their cable bills).

Although management never really pressured me to “improve my numbers,” I began to question the legitimacy of one of the metrics — average call time — after getting to know Elmer, one of our cable installers.

Elmer was known for his “low numbers,” that is, the relatively low number of cable installations he completed each day. Indeed, Elmer was often referred to as “slow.” He even talked slow. Yet Elmer’s “slowness” wasn’t because of age or lack of ability. To the contrary, Elmer was thorough, deliberate, and thoughtful.

And you know what? When Elmer installed a new cable connection, it was done correctly: no “follow up” appointments were required. And, despite his “slow” mannerism, customers loved him. Indeed, Elmer not only calmed even the most irate customers, but he also possessed extraordinary patience to teach even the most technologically challenged customers to operate their converter boxes, VCRs, and remote controls in tandem.

In the customer service world, we tend to place a lot of emphasis on certain customer service metrics — particularly “quantitative” metrics — such as call time, installation time, and job completion time. And although tracking quantitative metrics isn’t unreasonable, we shouldn’t necessarily assume that these types of metrics accurately correlate to customer happiness.

Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup, cautions us about relying on “vanity metrics,” that is, metrics that merely make us “feel good.” Although relatively quick call times, installation times, and job completion times make us feel good, how appropriate are these metrics if customers feel as though they weren’t listened to or if customers need to call back several times in order to resolve issues?

This week, take a moment to think about the metrics your business or organization collects and measures. Specifically, ask yourself the following questions about each metric:

• Does the metric correlate to — that is, does the metric genuinely measure — actual customer happiness?

• Does the metric emphasize quantity at the expense of quality?

• Does the metric merely make you “feel good”?

By “weeding out” vanity metrics and focusing on customer service metrics that actually matter, your business or organization will be better equipped to measure — and, therefore, excel at — customer service.

Have a “customerific” week!

Mark