Category: Measures

  • Support Metrics Myth One: Goals Should be SMART

    Support Metrics Myth One: Goals Should be SMART

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    Metrics always seem to be a favorite topic of conversation.  At a recent CSI program team meeting, I was comparing notes with the Consortium’s Melissa Burch about some of the ways that metrics are misused in our industry.  Earlier in the year, my Third Tuesday collaborator, Francoise Tourniaire, and I led a talk on how…

  • Little Data

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    You can’t escape hearing about Big Data right now—it has replaced “cloud” as the current hot buzzword in tech.  The idea is pretty simple: it’s easy to gather huge volumes of data from Internet clickstreams, scientific instruments, roadway sensors, and all the other collectors of digital information in the world…but it’s not always easy to…

  • From Article Quality to Resolution Quality

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    [Editor’s note: the quality process that this post describes is now part of the KCS v6 Practices Guide under the name Process Adherence Review (PAR). What we called the Resolution Quality Index (RQI) is similar to a measure described in the Practices Guide as the Contribution Index. Also, what this post calls the Article Quality…

  • Just A Little About Surveys

    Just A Little About Surveys

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    Surveys are top of mind for me right now.  We’re in the middle of a couple of survey projects, and surveys inevitably come up whenever we talk about loyalty, satisfaction, and self-service effectiveness.  Doing customer service and support surveys is a topic that deserves its own book—as a matter of fact, it already has its own…

  • Is Knowledge Really an Asset?

    Is Knowledge Really an Asset?

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    “Knowledge is the key asset of the support organization.”The KCS Practices Guide, v5.1The Consortium for Service Innovation If I had a nickel for every time I quoted the KCS practices guide and asserted that knowledge is an asset…I’d have a lot of nickels.  I say it because it’s important to remind people that knowledge work…

  • Six Simple Measures for Community Managers

    Six Simple Measures for Community Managers

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    Not long ago, it seemed like there weren’t any reasonable measures for the health and effectiveness of communities; now it seems like there are too many!  We often see eSupport and community leaders trying to grapple with page after page of bar charts, line graphs, and tables, unsure what to pay attention to, and unsure…

  • The Power of Feedback

    The Power of Feedback

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    Last time in this space, we discussed the power of appreciation.  Let’s explore another primal human need—the need to answer the question, “how am I doing?” It starts early.  Watch a small child doing something new:  she will be looking anxiously at a parent to see if the action brings praise or censure.  As we…

  • Keep An Eye On Your Customers’ Success

    Keep An Eye On Your Customers’ Success

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    Generally speaking, in Support we measure our operations:  time to resolve and backlog, for example.  But in Marketing, they measure customer behavior, like click-through rates and conversion rates.  In this case, I think Marketing has it right.  And from what I’m seeing, more Support leaders think so, too. The days of passively waiting for customers…

  • Keeping Two Sets of Books

    Keeping Two Sets of Books

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    I learned a great best practice for organizational change this week at the Consortium for Service Innovation’s executive summit in beautiful Chatham, Cape Cod:  Keep two sets of books! No, not in the bad way—not like Enron—but to enable change. Several industry leaders are keeping two sets of books to track performance on their current…