SM Metrics- Getting beyond followers, klout, and social butterflies!

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Bob Champagne

More Metrics Insights- Really? Haven’t we had enough?

I’ve been following all the “buzz” over the past week from #SXSW and now #eMetrics regarding the development, reporting and use of “metrics” in Social Media (SM) space. Quite interesting dialogue to say the least.

For some of you, particularly those who don’t live and breath Social Media, all of this may have turned into “white noise”, as this weekend appears to have exhausted just about every angle on the subject of SM metrics that we could possibly explore. But fear not! As another week kicks into gear, there will no doubt emerge a new wave of posts and blogs on the very same topic.

But I must admit, that all of this “metrics talk” does strike a chord with me. After all, having spent nearly two decades in helping company leaders and managers get their arms around business metrics, and the broader discipline of performance management, you would expect my ears to jump up at the word “metrics”! (I know…sad but true). And while SM is not an area I have spent an enormous amount of time studying or participating in from “the inside”, I am finding that many of the same principles I use with my “corporate clients” and very much “in play” for this new and ever evolving market.

Stepping outside my “sandbox” …

While my life does not revolve around advances in SM, I have become what one might call a “steady user” of it. From my evening “blogging” hour, to ongoing “check-ins” via Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn; I would confess to spending at least 10-15% of my ‘awake time’ interacting with online friends and colleagues.

Of course, like many of you, Social Media (which for me includes my morning time with my Pulse reader scanning news and blogs that I monitor) has replaced the time I spend reading newspapers, magazines and “industry rags” (in fact it’s become much a more efficient medium saving me lots of time and energy). And those ongoing “check ins” that I initiate, usually occur when I am either ” restricted” (cabs, airports, etc.), between tasks, or otherwise indisposed (I won’t elaborate on the latter- you get the idea).But the “blogging hour”… that is something separate for me, and while I do enjoy it and it helps me unwind, I also recognize it for what it is- a personal and professional investment in my own development. So yes, you could say that SM should be important simply because of the 15% percent of my day that I rely on it for.

But for me, it goes a little beyond that, especially now that the conversation has turned to metrics, and the broader issue of managing SM performance and results. Ever since I got into the Performance Management discipline years ago, I’ve been a strong believer and proponent of finding ideas and insights, wherever they occur (different companies, different industries, different geographies, etc.), and applying insights to current challenges within our own environments. Some would call this “benchmarking”. Others may call it good learning practices. For me, it’s not only common business sense, but a core set of principles that I live and manage by. And for many like me, it is the basis of any good Performance Management system.

So it’s only natural for me to observe what’s going on in this space and try to open some good “cross dialogue” on how we can lift the overall cause that I know we all are pursuing: More effective measurement, better management of performance, and stronger results.

Exploring “Best Practices” In SM Performance Measurement…

A few weeks back I published a post on what businesses outside of SM space could learn from what is happening within SM. Many of you found that useful, although I must admit that it was the first time that I really began experimenting with what was available out there in terms of thinking andtools. But rather than focusing on the tools, I tried to explore some of the bigger themes that were emerging in terms of practices and approaches, and attempted to determine which aspects of that thinking in SM might be be “import-able” by other sectors as “lessons learned”.

Today, I want to ‘flip the tables’ a bit, and talk about what other industries can teach Social Media about the art of measuring, improving, and delivering on our individual goals and aspirations.

I was inspired to go this direction by a number of posts over the weekend that appeared to delve into the same question (here’s an example regarding the measurement issues with Klout) When I read that, it sounded like some good stuff, I realized that this was really the tip of the iceberg on a really important issue. So expanding on this seemed to be the next logical step.

So what Can SM Learn From Others?

The below observations are based on merely a snapshot of what I see taking place now, and fully realize that dialogue is occurring at this very minute in certain hotel bars and restaurants on this very topic. My goal is not to suggest an exhaustive list of “fix it now’s”, but rather to open an ongoing dialogue on what we can learn and apply in our individual areas of expertise.

Is what we’re measuring today meaningful?

OK, let’s get some basics out of the way, at the risk of boring (or offending) some of the social media pundits and ‘real experts’ out there. For most users (consumers of Social Media)- the everyday user of Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, for example- the answer to ‘whether or not SM measures are meaningful ?’ is “probably not”. Save for ego and vanity, measurement of things like the number of “digital friends” (Facebook friend counts and Twitter followers for example) mean very little to the nature of managing meaningful relationships- whether it is in maintaining existing ones, or growing new ones. Meaningful relationships go way beyond these surface level statistics.

Of course, there are those individuals and businesses who do use, and rely heavily on, more in depth statistics for tracking their progress. So I believe at least some of them would say “yes- meaningful…but with a lot left to be desired”. The stats and measures are there. Are they meaningful and value adding to the business? Subject to debate.

What we can be certain of, is that things like Follower counts, Klout scores, Retweets, and Click-through’s are measures that are becoming less and less valuable, and that there is a deep yearning for more. Whether this takes the form of refining what’s in the algorithms and “black boxes” , or a major rethinking of the metrics themselves (which would be my vote), still appears to be a subject of great debate.

For the sake of what?

When you walk into a large company that “manages by the numbers” (and trust me, many don’t), you see that there are literally hundreds, if not thousands of things they are tracking. Some are real meaningful, and some are as useless as an “asshole on your elbow” (I heard that one from a old (and wise) plant manager in Texas, and have been waiting months to use it- hope I didn’t offend

When I see that level of measurement/ quantity of metrics, a little “warning sound” goes off in my head and I start exploring the question: “For the sake of what?” are you measuring this or that? I use a variety of techniques to get them to tell me how they are going to use a certain metric (most often the question of “why?” asked repetitively works best), but often the question is rhetorical because there is no answer. I once heard someone say, “If you want to see if information is valuable, just stop sending out the report and see if anyone screams!”.

Fact is, if a measure doesn’t have a causal link to some major result area, or worse, if the person managing it cannot see that link, the metric serves no purpose other than to consume cost. Most of the tools I see in SM space for tracking metrics simply report stats with no obvious linkage to any real outcome. Even if something like # followers was important (and we all know that most often it ranks pretty low), there is no clear path evident in the reports on how the stats actually impact an outcome that is important to the user (other than loose descriptions and definitions at best).

Yet, we all know that the tools and models for establishing those linkages exist everywhere. Just look at some of the basic tools used by stock traders. While they are not perfect by a long shot, “technicals” like Stochastics, Bollinger Bands, and simple breakout patterns, have clear paths to a high probability event or outcome, yet are available to even the most amateur investor. Even “stogy” old Utility companies can draw connections between things like permit rates, new connection activity and downstream staffing requirements. I’m not suggesting it’s easy, just that it’s important and that the tools are there to execute and simplify.

Who really cares?

For me, this is the MOST IMPORTANT item on the list. Most of us have seen the Klout site, Twitalyzer, and the myriad of other tools out there to support the development of personal networks. These tools are extremely useful, and possess a wealth of information if you have the time and stamina to think about what it all means. I mean, come on… to have 25 metrics on one page with trends only one click away is something that a real metrics guy can only look at and say “WAY COOL”. Seriously, very cool! That’s the good news.

The bad news is that it’s the same news for everyone. But we all know the dangers of “one size fits all”. I’m not diminishing the value these tools provide. SM would be lost without them. And in their defense, certain sites like Twitalyzer and Klout have gone beyond the simple dashboards and have incorporated categories that many aspire to, and have begun to draw some connection between these aspirations and those broad categories.

But it’s just a start (I mean come on…Are any Twitter users actually aspiring to be “social butterflies”? (ok, don’t answer that, because they’re probably some who do!) Perhaps a better question is whether a “social butterfly ” would ever aspire to be a “thought leader” ? My point is that it’s probably not a linear sequence of development, and while these categories get us one step closer to aligning measures with goals, they are still missing 2 things:

1) Better understanding of the goals of users (its probably more than 4 and less than 100) and

2) a guidance system that helps one use the metrics to achieve those goals.

So here’s a thought…What about a simple interface that allows you to pick a goal, and then tells you which metrics you should care about and what the target should be to accelerate within that goal class? You’d be building a model that would clearly feed on itself. I’d be surprised if the BI guru’s out there don’t already have this built into their corporate BI suites and Web Analytics tools, but it would seem to me to be a great draw for the myriad of other users with goals that extend beyond butterflies and mindless follower counts.

Find out what’s important, at as customized a level as you can (and is practical), and tell us how to get there. That’s the “holy grail” in every business, and what every CEO is and Executive is craving from its performance management process – “I’ll tell you what my strategic goal/ ambition is,…and you tell me what the metrics AND targets are that will help me get there,… and then help me track my progress!”

Can tools help? (and how?)

Absolutely and without question, the answer is yes. But just as other businesses and industries have jumped too quickly, often placing ‘technology before process’, so has SM in my view. Part of this is because of how the industry is “wired”, and how it has evolved. Born through technology, and managed and staffed with a heavy technology bent, it’s not surprising that we’ve reached a point where the data has become king, UI’s have a lot to be desired.

I’m not talking about the ease of navigation, the placement of charts, or the rendering of drill down information. I’m talking about how the user (the customer) thinks…starting with their goals, and accessing the relevant metrics to show progress and critical actions they need to take to improve. I suspect the developer who can “visualize” (to use an overused term in today’s SM environment) that kind of “line of sight” will ultimately win the hearts of its users.

The other role technology can play is enabling the algorithms and models that are required to deploy the kind of “mass customized”/ goals oriented solution I described above. Without these tools, the likelihood of being able to normalize, analyze and model these relationships would be impossible. So in my view, the tools are critical, but the effort first needs to be on the process (getting the line of sight understood) and then working the raw data in a way that renders it in a context-specific visualization. That’s in a perfect world- but it’s still a good aspiration.

Like I said, these are just the things that are ‘top of mind’ for me at the moment, and only informed by the lens through which “Bob” is looking. I’m sure some of these issues are top of mind for you too, and you may actually be unveiling (right now) that new “holy grail” subscription site that has the answers. If so, great…I may be your perfect customer. But if the last two decades have taught me anything, it is that different perspectives and different lenses often pose new questions and spark new crystal balling that lifts the entire game.

Of course I welcome any comments and expansion on the above list. As I said earlier, this is just the beginning of my own thinking, inspired in part by some of yours. I look forward to more of yours!

PS- For anyone who is interested in Performance Management and Metrics topics outside of the world of SM, feel free to bookmark http://EPMEdge.com

Links to some of my more recent posts on these subjects are provided below

Incorporating the principle of “line of sight” into your performance measurement and management program

Managing through the “rear view mirror”- a dangerous path for any business

Data, information and metrics: Are we better off than we were 4 years ago?

-b

Author: Bob Champagne is Managing Partner of onVector Consulting Group, a privately held international management consulting organization specializing in the design and deployment of Performance Management tools, systems, and solutions. Bob has over 25 years of Performance Management experience and has consulted with hundreds of companies across numerous industries and geographies. Bob can be contacted at bob.champagne@onvectorconsulting.com

Managing Through The “Rear View Mirror”…a dangerous practice for any business!

Posted on March 10, 2011 by Bob Champagne

You’d never drive only looking backwards…

Would you?

…Only if it’s a straight road, no traffic, and blue skies ahead; and even then, it’d be pretty dangerous and ill advised. But on any other road, doing that would almost certainly spell disaster.

It’s the same in business. And while it may sound like common sense, it’s amazing how many executives and operating managers are doing just that by the way they operate their performance management process.

Defining the metrics that guide your journey…

Over the past few decades, I’ve worked with hundreds of organizations to help drive their business improvement through the smart application of performance measurement and management practices. This work has literally run the gamut, from showing them how to use relevant benchmarks to supporting them in their target setting, to literally ripping apart and reconstructing their scorecards and dashboards.

While there are a lot of other facets to good performance management (many of which I discuss on this blog)- from establishing “line of sight” between corporate strategies and operating activities, to better integrating stakeholders within the EPM process (IT, HR, Finance et al)- the area in which my clients have had the highest impact still lies in the basic practice of measurement: that is, selecting the right measures to track, and committing to effective reporting and tracking of those indicators. Yes it’s still true…What gets measured gets managed!

But some of us are still driving backwards…

I’ve worked for so long in the measurement arena, that it has almost become second nature to me, as it has for many companies who do it well. But every now and then, I’ll read a post or an article that reminds me of just how shallow some of the thinking still is in this arena, and the degree to which many businesses still underestimate or undervalue the importance of this basic tenet of Performance Management. So I thought I’d use a little space here to refresh us all on how important the “measurement part” really is, and offer some perspectives that can help lift our “collective game” a bit.

Let’s start by looking at why we measure things. There are a myriad of factors that drive us to select a performance metric and start tracking it.

Unfortunately, as an industry, we seem to have gotten stuck on just measuring results and outcomes. More than likely, that is because those are the things we see most often on our company’s Balanced Scorecard. So our first instinctive reaction at the business unit level is to simply expand on those by adding a few lower level supporting indicators, or finding better ways to visualize the reporting (via dimensional slicing and dicing of those results metrics over various time periods, geographic areas, product lines, etc.).

But only focusing on results and outcomes is what I call “managing in the rear-view mirror”.

Getting your eyes back on the road…

Granted, over the past few years, there’s been a lot more discussion around “leading and lagging” indicators, and some companies have gained decent ground in this area. But even that area has gotten blurred, and few companies have really been able to define the types of causality linkages that are required to extract any value from these distinctions.

Often, when I look at business unit performance reports, I see things that are “labled” leading indicators. But rather than being truly predictive in nature, they are simply portraying the result of some other process that comes before “theirs”. I would acknowledge that some lagging indicators can, in fact, be leading indicators for some other process, and vice versa, but the more time I spend studying the interplay between measures inside of the broader corporate environment, the more it looks like “spaghetti thrown against a wall”, than it does a deliberate effort to define and draw clear connections and dependencies in performance and define the real performance dynamics at play.

Take full advantage of your peripheral vision…

A few years ago, I defined a simple framework to help clients think through this at a fairly basic level. But instead of focusing on whether an indicator was “leading or lagging”, I focused on how the measure was going to be used, and what kind of performance dialogue would be initiated by tracking that metric.

The framework involves looking at your performance more holistically by focusing on five “uses” for a particular metric. I’ll use a Customer Service example, but these areas could be applied to any business unit, or the enterprise as a whole.

Planning Metrics – These are the kind of metrics that help in your planning of workload and resources. There are two types of planning metrics: Those that help you see trends and variability by observing historical transaction volumes and variances; and those that are more predictive in nature (truly leading indicators) that help anticipate future trends (things like growth in particular segments, campaign “take rates”, trends in workforce demographics and attrition, etc.)
Alignment Metrics– Those measures that will help you gauge the level of alignment and commitment of your team to your operating plans and strategies. While you might not measure all of these with high frequency, they are essential beacons to look at periodically (at minimum, quarterly or annually), with focus on both plan variance and external benchmarks. These may include things like employee satisfaction and alignment, as well as trends in attendance and employee availability.
Operating Metrics– These metrics are analogous to what a pilot might use in the cockpit of an aircraft (e.g.- airspeed, altitude, etc.) Here, you are simply trying to keep these metrics within specified tolerances or control limits, so that any deviation in these can be quickly observed and corrected “on the spot.” Frequency is this area is often vital, with “real time” information being the desired level of reporting.
Improvement Metrics-Those metrics that you will review (with perhaps less frequency (daily, weekly, monthly) to show both changes in operating performance trends, as well as the drivers of departmental results. You will use these to review, diagnose and problem solve. And they will become the basis for your ongoing continuous improvement projects. This area is usually where result or outcome measures show up, even though these metrics can also be used in planning stages. Things like Customer Satisfaction, Complaint Volume, First Contact Resolution, and Employee Productivity would fall into this category.
Sustainability Metrics– While these measures may also be utilized in your planning phase, they mostly relate to those things that you are doing from a strategy perspective in shaping your long term vision for your department or organization. Driving major behavioral shifts in customer channel usage (paperless billing, mobile payments, online conversions, etc.) as well as overall customer engagement are the most common measures in this space.

There are clearly a lot of ways to look at your portfolio of measures to ensure you’ve got complete coverage. For example, some companies have success by categorizing their measures by reporting frequency, or the venue in which the metric will be discussed. But I find that understanding the stage in which the measure will be used, is equally important in ensuring you’ve got all bases covered.

While it may sound like I am contradicting the “balanced scorecard” principles to some degree by focusing on such a broad array of measures, I feel it is actually quite complementary to it. Not everything we look at is a KEY performance indicator (KPI) that would reside in your balanced scorecard. In fact, many of them won’t show up there initially. At the same time, however, I feel that some companies have gotten so “fixated” on the orthodox application of their Balanced Scorecard (in its most simplistic interpretation), that they have forgotten the many uses that metrics have in planning, managing, improving and sustaining performance.

Let’s plan a safer journey next time!

The good news is that most of you are already tracking, or are planning to track many of the metrics I mention above. At the same time, however, the manner in which these measures are tracked, reported, and utilized is most often viewed as “one size fits all”. That is, many of us will end up tracking these metrics with similar frequencies, reporting them to the same audience, discussing them in similar venues, and managing them in the same way we have always managed them.

As you move forward, I challenge you to think about your performance metrics, both holistically (do you have all bases covered?), and within their own discrete contexts for how they should be utilized and managed.

Oh, and one more thing…NO more reviewing your performance results on your iphone or ipad when you’re behind the wheel. That would likely negate any improvement gains we make in gaining back our peripheral vision (or as Stephen Wright the comedian like to call it, the “peripheral visionary”).

-b

“Lagniappe”- And its impact on customer satisfaction…

Posted on March 8, 2011 by Bob Champagne

The Principle of “Lagniappe”…

Being a native of New Orleans, I have always been accustomed to the term “lagniappe”. For those of you who don’t reside in the deep south, lagniappe is a cajun term used to describe the “little bit extra” someone gives you as their way of saying “thanks” and/or expressing their gratitude and generosity.

And today being Mardi Gras in New Orleans, I can tell you, there will be a lot of “lagniappe” to go around, from extra servings of gumbo and king cake, to the myriad of beads, cups, dabloons and other “freebies” that are thrown to the crowds from the parade floats.

Yes, the concept of lagniappe is still quite unique and special to those who live day to day in the New Orleans culture. It is special mainly because it is so rare to see it applied these days, largely because of the many who view this concept as “over servicing the customer” and an unnecessary gesture that could hurt profitability.

Lagniappe- As seen through the eyes of Purple Goldfish…

A few days ago, I stumbled on a twitter post by Stan Phelps that referenced the concept of lagniappe as it related to marketing and customer service. My interest was piqued for two reasons. First, it was nice to hear the term since I rarely, if ever, hear the term used outside of Louisiana. But more importantly, it reminded me of the “balancing act” that is essential when applying the “lagniappe” mentality inside a business.

On Stan’s blog, there is a recent post relating to his “purple goldfish project”, an effort to collect the many examples of “lagniappe” experienced by their readers. And there are some great examples starting to emerge if you take the time to read through the comments and entries. What a great idea to expose those companies who do in fact understand the value of great service and going that “extra mile”! There are so many posts lately on the “bad experiences” (see my recent rant on CS storefronts), that it’s refreshing to see the other side of the coin every now and then. So I really applaud Stan for getting that project going. Great stuff.

Lagniappe versus the Almighty Dollar..

Although I am a native of New Orleans, and lived there for nearly 35 years, living in the Northeast for the last 13 has tempered my views on the topic a bit. While I still value and cherish “lagniappe” when I experience it as a customer, I am now more keenly aware what it can sometimes do to the cost side of the equation. Any time I consult to a Customer Service or Marketing Executive, I am always working to find the optimal balance where good service and profitability meet.

If we think about this balance, it’s helpful to acknowledge the two very polar ends of the spectrum that are often at play- The Customer Service and Marketing folks, who view their primary goal as Customer Satisfaction, and who will do “what it takes” to earn it. And the Finance side of the business who view every investment in CS as a highly discretionary investment that, while perhaps necessary in the long haul, will have negative impact on short term profitability.

Of course, few of us operate on either end of that spectrum. Marketing and CS Executives are rarely that pollyanna when it comes to “satisfaction at all costs” , and Finance Executives are rarely that blind to customer dynamics.But the underlying biases are certainly there at some level. And anytime I hear discussion of going beyond a customer expectation, my “antennas” go up almost instinctively until I can see that a balance is present.

It’s all about Exceeding Expectations…Isn’t it?

Well that depends.

For starters, let’s look at what we mean by “exceeding expectations”. There are many ways to exceed expectations. We can exceed the customers expectation through the product itself. We can exceed their expectations on how the product is sold and delivered. We can exceed expectations on what happens after a complaint. The list goes on….In fact, the “Purple Goldfish” project has good examples emerging of all fronts.

However, while “exceeding expectations” on any one of those dimensions will generally score you points in short term satisfaction, it’s doing it in ALL of the zones that will generate “sustainable” levels satisfaction and loyalty over the long haul.

For me, all of the dimensions I reference above can be summarized into two broad categories, either of which we are capable of delivering on effectively (by meeting or exceeding expectations) or poorly (by failing to deliver). These are:

The PRODUCT ITSELF (or service) that is purchased- With respect to physical products, this generally deals with quality (does it work consistently without failure?). But with softer products or services, it could be the quantity provided ( for many, lagniappe is that extra helping or side dish you get with your meal at a restaurant), or a “feature” that you’ve grown to expect in the core product (In flight entertainment, availability and features of your bank’s ATM, Lobby services provided.)
The SERVICE EXPERIENCE (in terms of delivery/ and follow up support)- Here I’m referring largely HOW the service is delivered. It’s HOW you are handled by the sales, service staff, or even the automated channels when you interact with them. This could be during the sale itself, during the account set up phase, as part of a general inquiry or bill payment, or as a follow up to a complaint. For these purposes, I view service as “how the product is delivered“- before, during, and after the sale.

Winning with “lagniappe”…

As the chart below shows, a strategy to exceed expectation on any one of those dimensions, while failing to do the same on the other is a pretty quick recipe for trouble. The below chart shows the range of customer experiences (from below to above expectations) on each of these two dimensions (Product on the horizontal, and the delivery/ “Service” experience on the vertical).

Starting in the bottom left quadrant, few of us would argue that failing on both dimensions is a clear path to customer satisfaction HELL. While its a painful way to go, it’s often quick, unless you’re in a protected monopoly or some other type of “controlled market” that will prolong the agony. Assuming the product concept is good, and it has a decent enough business model, someone may actually step in to acquire and/or turnaround the business. But short of that, the days are numbered for companies that live in this space. Utilities and Municipal Services providers can often fall into this category because of their largely protected monopoly environment, although there are exceptions.

On the other end of the spectrum (top right) are clearly the “winners” in this game, the ones who are generating and sustaining high levels of customer satisfaction and delight. Great product. Great service. Interestingly, in more cases than not, they also have lower cost structures for servicing since good products and good first time service resolution actually results in fewer required interactions. The investment up front in product design and development of a strong service process has paid off. Apple is a great example of a company in this arena. The core product is well designed and it works without fail. It’s easy to set up, use and it rarely breaks. The service, wherever it is provided- store, call center, self help, etc…always surpasses my expectations.

(click to view full size)

And while, it’s not the “holy grail” on the chart above, operating in the cross hairs (“core players”) can actually be a pretty safe place to play. It won’t earn you much in the way of lagniappe or high levels of customer “delight”, but there is something to be said for consistently meeting both expectations ALL THE TIME. Customers value that more than we often think. Look no further than Southwest Airlines and McDonald’s for examples in this domain.

Being one dimensional often means trouble…

As with most things, failing to have a balance usually spells trouble downstream. The same is true here.

Companies in the lower right, are those who have a great product, but fail miserably on the service side. Interestingly, many of the quasi competitive utilities like Cable and Cell Providers operate in this space. Their service rarely goes out, and most of the time is truly fantastic (above expectation). But the sign up processes, inquiry resolution, and in store interactions are often pure hell. Auto companies (operating through a dealer network that varies in its performance levels) can also fall into this category.

The trouble here is threefold. First, bad service usually creates a spiral of its own spending (how many times have you had to call a second or third time to get resolution?) Second, whatever gain you got by having a great product, is at best neutralized because of the poor service. And third, given a way to get the same product somewhere else (think bad car deal experience), you’ll take it. Barriers to switch (for example, it’s not easy to mentally “uproot your TV and cable system” after you’ve gotten used to it) can certainly delay the defection. But when those barriers go away (e.g. time for a new car lease?), it’s a whole different story.

That all notwithstanding, I think the most interesting quadrant is upper left. Here lie the companies that are trying so hard, often spending out the wazoo to essentially buy their way to a desired satisfaction level. You know the types- the incessant stream of discounts, give aways, apologies, follow ups, etc… that occur on the heals of buying a poor product or service and failing to have even your most basic expectations met. Nothing ticks me off more than someone “begging” for a survey score (sometimes overtly), knowing full well that you aren’t satisfied. Its easy in this area for costs to spiral out of control because you’re fighting a losing battle from the start. Until the core service is delivered, the customer doesn’t (and shouldn’t) care about anything else. This is the one quadrant where lagniappe can in fact hurt more than it helps. Hotels that give me free cookies won’t earn my satisfaction if my bed is uncomfortable or my room is subpar. A happy stewardess does nothing for me if the inflight entertainment is down on a 10 hour flight. And an apology or free drink coupon does not help much if my flight is delayed because of a mechanical problem on a plane that has been sitting there overnight!

Get to the crosshairs, THEN move from there…

If I had to give advice to a company, it would be to first get to basic levels of expectations on both dimensions. Then worry about the lagniappe.

Define what your core product is. Go beyond just the basic product to all the things that customers expect about the service or product they’re buying. What’s your equivalent to the in flight entertainment system? or the TD bank coin counting machine? or the Chase check deposit feature (by capturing image on your phone)? even you’re pricing and rate structure/ plan options? These are the things that have brought customers to you. And they must work flawlessly just to meet expectations. Introducing new features and tools will do nothing if they either dont work, or are layered onto a poorly functioning base product

Do the same for your service offering and channels. Don’t embed a new self service channel, or new IVR if your underlying process still has major flaws. There’s nothing worse than getting stuck in a 7 layer IVR system, until you recognize that the analog process wasn’t much better. These kind of things speak volumes about the nature of your underlying process and service infrastructure. Same goes for those new kiosks, mobile bill pay, social media interaction, online knowledge base’s. Nothing is more frustrating to a customer than watching a company invest oodles in technology when it consistently demonstrates little in the way of savvy when dealing with the most basic of interactions.

Once you have your baseline set in each of these areas, and get your performance to the minimum expectation for both, you can look for more and more ways to offer those “extras” that will really make a difference, while also raising the bar for your competitors.

Who wants a second helping of crap?

Look folks, lagniappe is a often a good thing, particularly when it is added to a solid buying experience.

But when it’s not , any effort you spend to provide it will at best be neutralized, and may even cause the opposite effect. After all, who wants a second helping of a crappy meal?

Fortunately, for those who are spending Mardi Gras in New Orleans, there’s little likelihood of a crappy meal. And if you do happen to experience one, you’ll probably be to drunk to notice!

-b

Post #100 -Blogging on Performance Excellence…

Posted on March 7, 2011 by Bob Champagne

Time for a little celebration…And reflection…

While I’ve spent a little over two decades consulting and practicing in the area of Performance Management, blogging and writing in the online arena (as we know know it) is still relatively new to me. Sure, I’ve written my share of traditional articles and case studies over the past several years around specific projects and experiences, but maintaining a “steady stream” of online content via the blogosphere is a different game altogether.

As you can tell from the title, I am viewing today as a bit of a milestone in that it is my 100th post for this particular blog. And while the frequency has varied more than I would have liked (from monthly to weekly to now almost daily), I feel I have now settled into a bit of a rhythm. And from the feedback that I’ve received; the frequency, content, balance of topics, and the ability of the blog to stimulate healthy dialogue and debate, appears to have hit an optimal point. At least for me, and for now.

Nonetheless, I am continuously reminded that this is just a starting point for me, and while there is some pride in having hit the 100 mark, I am still humbled by how much I still have to learn. The blogs and posts that I read, be it though links on Social Media, or my ever expanding “Google Reader queue” , continue to amaze me. Everyday, I see something new, from a topic I want to expand on, to a new tactic I want to deploy.

So today, I will try and deviate from my typical content focus of Performance Management , and focus a little more heavily on sharing what I have learned through these first 100 posts. However, I suspect, that before the post is concluded (maybe sooner), I will somehow “wind my way back” to a performance management connection or implication. Hey, its just the nature of the beast!

Lessons Learned…

I realize this isn’t the first, or last post you’ll read on the “lessons learned” of blogging or writing in today’s online environment.

In fact, the number of “how to’s” in the arena of blogging, and all the derivatives of it; from how to drive traffic to your blog site, to how to use your blog to drive up your “follow count” and online “klout”, is reaching almost nauseating proportions. So much so that I struggled on whether or not I even wanted to go there at all. Let’s face it, a lot of what’s written on the topic is either pure babble, or so overtly self serving (apparent when the content on the page you’re directed to is weighted 90% toward ads and sales pitches, and only 10% to what little content remains), that it screams “TURN ME OFF” from the very first click.

The reason that I am continuing on with this is that I am also certain that there is some genuine interest by people like me who are in fact using this channel in the spirit with which I believe it was intended. That is, they are using this space to engage in the kind of open dialogue and learning that will enhance and grow the area in which we share a common interest (the “rising tide” so to speak). Of course, most of us who use this vehicle in our professional endeavors have made some linkage (albeit subtle) to their business or market development process. But overall, the business blog is more about brand and identity than it is an overt attempt to generate a quick “ad click through” or online sale of Viagra.

So if you’re in my camp on that perspective, and are genuinely partaking in, or continuing your blogging activity for the purposes of learning, growth, and long term relationship building, then read on. If not, it’s probably best you tune out now. These are not tips on making your first million in the next 30 days. If you’re looking for that, you’re in the wrong place.

My Top 5 Lessons Learned…

Before I dive in, let me say a few words to bloggers who are new at this. There is a LOT of junk out there on the “how to’s” of blogging, as there are good tutorials on getting started. While you may find this post useful, it is not designed to be a complete “get started” guide, but rather some of the most important lessons learned for me ( i.e. Things that took a lot of trial and error to get close to right. Things you won’t learn in a 2 minutes guide to blogging). So if you’re new to all of this, try and get a good primer. You won’t have to look far, as about one on every 10 twitter posts relates to these kind of “how to’s”. I guarantee you, they will cover all the bases (importance of frequency, brevity, storytelling, engagement, actionable lists and suggestions, distribution channels, ..the list goes on.) Not worth wasting space on that here.

So what lies below are those “other” lessons learned that you probably won’t find in that online cookbook of blogging:

Develop and harness your “idea machine”– Some bloggers will tell you that it’s good to carve out time everyday to generate ideas and fodder for future posts. While that may work for some, it’s never worked for me. Ideas hit me at various times throughout the day or night. So what works for me is to keep a log of ideas whenever they hit you (I write these down on a notepad or as an email to myself on my phone). Once a week or so, I use the draft feature on the WordPress blog site to get these “in the queue”, but only as titles at first. I fill in the body of those drafts as ideas come to me, and when I’ve got enough to work with, it only takes an hour or so to bang out a post. So instead of taking an hour a day to “create”, I’m literally creating all the time, logging ideas as I go. Instead, the hour I spend each day is on writing the actual post from one of the drafts in the queue.
Work within, and outside your “sandbox”– “They say” you should always write about what you know and are comfortable with. Perhaps that’s good advice when you are starting out, but as time goes on, challenge yourself to climb into the unknown a bit. I’m not talking about something completely unrelated (although that can also be good on occasion), but maybe an area that you haven’t applied your discipline to before- a new function, process, discipline, etc. This is as much about your learning as it is about communicating your ideas to others. Over time, you’ll find that working outside of your “sweet-spot” will not only open new doors for you in applying your expertise to new areas and applications, but will begin spark new ideas. Staying fixed within your comfort zone will force your idea queue to stagnate quickly, and will also prevent the type of learning and growth that is possible as you move forward.
Become a feedback “junkie”- Let’s face it, good feedback is not always the easiest thing to listen to. But we all have experienced the benefits that are generated from good feedback, and we inherently understand “why” we should crave it. We also understand that feedback from different sources has different value. Feedback from close friends and colleagues is much more valuable than it is from someone who doesn’t know you from Adam.The problem is that when you begin blogging, feedback will come from literally everywhere, the the explicit feedback you get in the comment section of your blog, to the indirect feedback you receive through your re-tweets and readership counts will become literally overwhelming for some. And when that happens, the temptation is to ignore it, either literally (simply by “turning off” comments feature on your blog), or by simply ignoring feedback from your “digital” network (in lieu of that comes to you via your good old “analog” friends). But in doing that, you’ll not only eliminate all of the unhelpful feedback, you’ll also eliminate a new source for those “future pearls” that will really make a difference in your growth and development. So instead of limiting the size of the “feedback pipe”, I say get better at how you filter the feedback that flows through it. The old adage “take what you like and leave the rest” is sage advice in this arena. Instead of getting upset or stewing over a particular comment or someone who disagrees with your point, simply thank the contributor and file it away for potential future reflection. Then move onto the next. As your network and feedback stream grows, you’ll find that your new “digital best friends” will emerge that are just as important to your growth as your long time trusted analog ones. And once you find those, embracing that feedback through active dialogue and debate will really begin to lift your game. It takes time to make those distinctions and learn how to apply your “internal filter”. But getting good at this will multiply your learnings many times over.
Design a routine that works for you- I touched on this in point #1, but there is more to the routine than just writing. Getting good at this (and I am FAR away from mastering it myself) does take commitment. While it does not have to, nor should it, consume your every waking hour (lest it become like an an addictive “drug” of choice), it does take time. And that time NOT all about writing. For me, that routine is simple. First, I spend an hour in the morning (something I do anyway) to read and learn Only now, instead of doing it via newspapers and an RSS reader, I do it on my mobile device with an application like “Pulse” that lets me quickly scan and read much quicker than before. It also gives me one click access to sharing posts I like “on the spot”. But the point is that my morning hour is about 75% reading, and 25% sharing what others have written. It also serves to feed the idea queue I mentioned above. Second, I spend about an hour late afternoon or early evening writing a new post from one of the “drafts” that are already mostly populated in my queue. If you get good at #1 above, this is a very easy step and the speed with which you write increases quickly. Finally, usually late in the evening, and often in bed with my iPad, I set aside some time for engaging others. Of course, like most of you, I engage throughout the day, dropping a post or two on twitter, and responding to others if I happen to have a few spare moments in a cab or on an airplane. But at night, my time is reserved for quality engagement like responding to someone else’s blog post via a well thought out response or some other type of “direct” interaction via email or message board. Now all of that may sound like a lot, but only one of those 3 hours represents something new (the actual blog post itself). All the rest is stuff I would have normally done, but simply changed the manner in which i do it so that it now serves multiple purposes.
Take the word “perfection” out of your vocabulary- … at least for this part of your life. Blogging by its nature is not formal “article writing”, although a few of your posts may evolve toward that. It is about getting your ideas on “paper” and engaging others to take that dialogue to another level. Sure, it makes sense to do a quick proof so that you don’t distract your audience, but this is not “book editing”. You should be comfortable trading off a small typo here or there, for the speed and flexibility that is necessary to create and participate in dialogue and learning. I’ve seen people (your’s truly included) spend so much time polishing something to perfection, that the topic and debate has come and gone by the time you’re ready to post. In this area, shoot to be “good” but not “perfect”.

I’ll mention one more thing, but I’ll keep it separate from the rest because you’ll see this discussed in a lot of other places. And that is the importance of measuring your progress (See, I told you I’d get back to the performance management discipline before long). Seriously though, you can’t manage what you don’t measure. Early on, your friends and colleagues (both analog and digital in variety) will be a good enough barometer for you. But over time, as your audience gets more diverse, it will be helpful to start looking at some more formal indicators. Between WordPress and Twitter, you’ll have most of what you need at first. All you’re looking for is 3 things. First, what is happening to readership (the number itself is less important that the growth). Are you seeing week on week, or month on month, gains? Second, and more importantly, are you getting some secondary effect through email forwards or re-tweets? (btw- for my own tracking, I only count re-tweets from people who I can tell viewed the article, or who I know well enough to trust. Beware of those who Re-tweet a 10 paragraph post within a nano-second of your initial post!) And finally, while it’s not your primary objective at first, you should start looking at whether or not you are making a connection to your business (if that is in fact a secondary objective for you). I’m not talking about sales or ‘click-throughs’ per se, but simply whether you driving people to the objective you have, be it referrals, visitors to you company’s website, or something else that is important to you.

More lessons await…

Like I said before, there are hundreds of other tips you will encounter, whether you try to or not. As you begin to use social media more, you will get literally bombarded with helpful (and unhelpful) tips and you can’t and won’t avoid them all. So whether you try or not, you’ll get lots of tactics to try out, from where to place your twitter button and RSS feed, to the best way to syndicate your good posts.

And as your network grows, so will your feedback. Some will be helpful and some wont. Again, take what you like and leave the rest for your “bank for downstream consideration”. Also, as you’re network and readership grows, you need to stay alert to the principle of quality over quantity. That goes for your posts, AND your network. While you may amass a significant following, a good rule of thumb is that only 1 out of ever 20 followers (at best) are what I would call “true digital friends”. That is not meant to disparage any of your followers, but just as you trust some of your “analog friends” more than you do others, the same will apply in digital space. These may not necessarily be those with the biggest following or highest klout scores (most often, they’re not). Rather, they are those who engage you and provide you with quality feedback, good ideas, and have similar interests and objectives. So make an ongoing commitment too identifying and harvesting these friendships, and growing these relationships.

Here’s to another 100!

Of course the beauty of writing posts like this is that you are never “right or wrong”. They are YOUR (in this case MINE) experiences to share. And if someone disagrees or wishes to embellish, you’ll no doubt get that wonderful feedback in your “comments” for you to process as you like.

Thanks for reading and here’s to the next 100 posts!

Data, Metrics, and Information- Are we better off than we were 4 years ago?

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Bob Champagne

Data, data…all around us…

Most of the projects I work on day in and day out involve data to varying degrees. I use data quite extensively in all of the assessments I do on organizational and operational performance. I use it heavily whenever I benchmark a company’s processes versus a comparable peer group. Data is at the very core of any target setting process. And, of course, data is (or at least should be) the beginning, and a continuous part of any gap analysis and any subsequent improvements that follows.

Today, the hunger that organizations have for good data has reached such unprecedented levels, that whole industries have developed in and around the domain of what we now call “Business Intelligence” or BI. Having consulted to organizations over the last three decades, I’ve seen this hunger level increase steadily throughout the entire period. But no more so than in the past few years.

However, despite all the gyrations that we’ve gone through over the years, one of the first things I hear from C-Suite Executives is that they still feel “Data rich and information poor”. So I’ll start this post off in the words of late President Ronald Regan by asking, “Are we better off or worse off than we were 4 years ago (in terms of translating data into useful and actionable information)?”

So are we better off than we were 4 years ago?

As any good politician, I would have to hedge a bit, and say yes, and no. And appropriately so I think.

We are most certainly better in our ability to “access” the data. If you’ve lived through the same decades as I have , you will remember the painstaking efforts we all made to extract data out of those proverbial “source systems” (when “SAS routines” had nothing to do with the SaaS of today). Everything from the data inside of our source systems, to the tools we use to access the data, to the ways in which we report and visualize the results has moved forward at lightening speed. And so, from that standpoint, we are, in fact, better off.

But on the other side of the coin, our tools have, in most cases, outpaced the abilities of our organizations and their leadership to truly leverage them. At a basic level, and in part because of the technology itself, we often have more data than we know what to do with (the proverbial “data overload”). Some would say that this is just a byproduct of how wide the “data pipe” has become. And at some level, that’s hard to argue.

But I think the answer goes well beyond that.

“Data rich, information poor”…still?

In large measure, yes. The bigger issue in my view is the degree to which the organization’s skills and cultural abilities enable (or better said, disable) them to effectively utilize data in the right ways. Most companies have put such a large premium on data quality and the ability to extract it through their huge investments in IT infrastructure and financial reporting, that it has in some ways forced leadership to “take it’s eye off the ball” with respect to the way in which that data is operationalized.

So from the perspective of using the data to effect smarter operational decisions, I’d say the successes are few and far between.

Of course, you can google any of the “big 3″ IT vendors and find a myriad of testimonials about how much better their decision making processes have gotten. But look at who’s doing the speaking in the majority of cases. It is largely from the Financial and IT communities, where the changes have been most visible. But it’s in many of these same companies where operating executives and managers still clamor for better data and deeper insights.

So while at certain levels, and in certain vertical slices of the business, the organization is becoming more satisfied with its reporting capabilities, translating that information into rich insights and good fodder for problem solving still poses a great challenge. And unfortunately, better systems, more data, and more tools will not begin to bridge that gap until we get to the heart of some deeper cultural dynamics.

Needed: A new culture of “problem solvers”

Early in my career, I was asked to follow and accept what appeared to me at the time to be a strange “mantra”: “If it ain’t broke, ASK WHY?” That sounded a little crazy to me having grown up around the similar sounding but distinctly different phrase: “If it aint’t broke, DONT fix it”.

That shift in thinking took a little getting used to, and began to work some “muscles” I hadn’t worked before. For things that were actually working well, began asking ourselves “why?”. At first, we began to see areas where best practices and lessons learned could be “exported to other areas. But over time, we quickly learned that what appeared to be well functioning processes, wasn’t so well functioning after all. We saw processes, issues, and trends that pointed to potential downstream failures. In essence, we were viewing processes that were actually broken, but appeared to be A-ok because of inefficient (albeit effective) workarounds.

“Asking why?” is a hard thing to do for processes that appears to be working well. It goes against our conventional thinking and instincts, and forces us to ask questions…LOTS of questions. And to answer those questions requires data…GOOD data. Doing this in what appeared initially to be a healthy process was at first difficult. You had to dig deeper to find the flaws and breakdowns. But by learning how to explore and diagnose an apparently strong processes, doing that in an environment of process

failure became second nature. In the end, we not only learned how to explore and diagnose both: The apparent “good processes”, and those that were inherently broken. And for the first time in that organization, a culture of problem solving began to take root.

Prior to that point, the organization looked at problems in a very different way. Performance areas were highlighted, and instinctively management proceeded to solve them. Symptoms were mitigated, while root causes were ignored. Instead of process breakdowns being resolved, they were merely transferred to other areas where those processes became less efficient. And what appeared to be the functioning parts of the business, were largely overlooked, even though many of them were headed for a” failure cliff”.

Indication, Analysis, and Insight

Few organizations invest in a “culture of problem solving” like the one I describe above. Even the one I reference above, deployed these techniques in a selected area where leadership was committed to creating that type of environment. But throughout industry, the investment in generating these skills, abilities and behaviors across the enterprise, pales in comparison to what is invested annually in our IT environment. And without bringing that into balance, the real value of our data universe will go largely unharvested.

There are a myriad of ways a company can address this. And some have. We can point to the icons of the quality movement for one, where cultures were shaped holistically across whole enterprises. More recently, we’ve seen both quality and efficiency (more critical to eliminating waste and driving ROI) get addressed universally within companies through their investments in the Six Sigma, and more recent Lean movements.

But if I had to define a place to start (like the business unit example I described above), I would focus on three parts of the problem solving equation, that are essential to building the bridge toward a more effective Enterprise Performance Management process.

Indication– We need to extend our scorecards and dashboards to begin covering more operational areas of our business. While most of us have “results oriented” scorecards that convey a good sense of how the “company” or “business unit” is doing, most have not gone past that to the degree we need to. And if we have, we’ve done it in the easier, more tangible areas (sales, production, etc). Even there however, we focus largely on result or lagging indicators versus predictive or leading metrics. And in cases where we have decent data on the latter, it is rarely ever connected and correlated with the result oriented data and metrics. How many companies have truly integrated their asset registers and failure databases with outage and plant level availability? How many have integrated call patterns and behavioral demographics with downstream sales and churn data? All of this is needed to get a real handle on where problems exist, or where they may likely arise in the future.
Analysis– When many companies hear the word “analysis”, they go straight to thinking about how they can better “work the data” they have. They begin by taking their scorecard down a few layers. The word “drill down” becomes synonymous with “analysis”. However, while they each are critical activities, they play very separate roles in the process. The act of “drilling down” (slicing data between plants, operating regions, time periods, etc.) will give you some good indication where problems exist. But it is not “real analysis” that will get you very far down the path of defining root causes and ultimately bettersolutions. And often, it’s why we get stuck at this level. Continuous spinning of the “cube” gets you no closer to the solution unless you get there by accident. And that is certainly the long way home. Good analysis starts with good questions. It takes you into the generation of a hypothesis which you may test, change and retest several times. It more often than not takes you into collecting data that may not (and perhaps should not) reside in your scorecard and dashboard. It requires sampling events and testing your hypotheses. And it often involves modeling of causal factors and drivers. But it all starts with good questions. When we refer to “spending more time in the problem”, this is what we’re talking about. Not merely spinning the scorecard around its multiple dimensions to see what solutions “emerge”.
Insight– I’d like to say when you do the above two things right, insights emerge. And sometimes they do. But more often than not, insights of the type and magnitude we are looking for are usually not attainable without the third leg of this problem solving stool. Insight requires its own set of skills which revolve around creativity, innovation, and “out of the box” thinking. And while some of us think of these skills as innate, they are very much learnable. But rather than “textbook learning” (although there are some great resources on the art of innovation that can be applied here), these abilities are best learned by being facilitated through the process, watching and learning how this thought process occurs, and then working those skills yourself on real life problems.

Dont forget “line of sight”

A few days ago I wrote a post on the concept of “line of sight” integration of your performance management content and infrastructure. It’s important here to reinforce the importance of tracking all of this back to that underlying construct.

The process of operationalizing information, is but one of many in the “line of sight” chain from your company’s vision, to the operational solutions that manifest here. And this process of operationalizing change is only a beginning of the journey you will make to translating these gains into ROI for the business (what I’ve referred to before as “value capture” or “value release”).

So as you navigate your path through the above activities, its useful to keep it in context and remember that the desired end state is to enable your business to see that clear “line of sight” from the very top of the organization right down to the work-face.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

There’s not enough space in a post like this to elaborate as much as we could on each of these. And creating real cultural change clearly involves more than a few quick bullet points. But as has been my tradition in this blog, my intent is to introduce you to principles and techniques that can get you started on this journey, or increase the ability for you to navigate the road your on.

Category Archives: Performance Management

Managing Through The “Rear View Mirror”…a dangerous practice for any business!

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Post #100 -Blogging on Performance Excellence…

Data, Metrics, and Information- Are we better off than we were 4 years ago?

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