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Part - V

The four measurement categories represent a family of measures framework. This framework provides a comprehensive view of the business process. For example, measures can be developed to assess performance in all aspects of customer service, including cost management per call, quality of service, and labor costs.

The importance of comprehensive measures becomes particularly evident in cases where measures are in conflict. Take the example of the manager of a customer service center who decides to replace its antiquated automated answering system with a new model.

This investment in technology will have a short-term impact on costs, but a quick payoff would be expected in the form of improved quality and shorter duration of calls. In another scenario, a decision to contain costs may be detrimental to service quality, which could lead to unhappy customers and ultimately impact revenue. Without looking at the whole picture, these two scenarios may be misinterpreted by management in terms of their overall success or failure.

Customer and Employee Satisfaction

Customer and employee satisfaction information are commonly used to understand operational health. Typically, this information is derived from rating and ranking questions. They may include multiple-choice and open-ended questions. Customer and employee satisfaction information provides organizations with subjective evaluations and perceptions of their employees and customers. Because this is opinion-based information, this information cannot be considered measures of performance. It is difficult to manage opinion; managers need hard facts to facilitate change. Opinions can, however, be used to direct traditional metrics benchmarking. For example, management can discover the importance of focusing benchmarking efforts on cycle time if they receive a low customer satisfaction rating in this area.

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* Contributed by -
Emma Skogstad,
Courtesy: APQC (American Productivity & Quality Center)