Measuring and Improving Performance

When we define a vision or set a goal, we always need to establish metrics that we can track to verify our efforts are creating a result. The goal of every project will not be something that is tied to numbers so it is important to clearly define what success is for that project.

There are two different ways that we need to look at measuring and improving performance. 

  • Improving revenue.
  • Improving customer experience. 

Tie the goals back to revenue

Our most obvious metrics to try to change are those that are tied to revenue, or help growth. 

We can start by looking at the three ways to grow a business.

  • Increase number of customers
  • Increase frequency of sales
  • Increase average sale amount

Examples

  • New subscribers
  • Reducing cancellations
  • Increased trust and credibility 

Avoid the trap of bottom line

Sometimes we can get focused on metrics that are directly tied to revenue, but these can actually have a negative affect on customer experience.

It’s important to avoid short term changes that will make numbers look better if it will create a bad customer experience. Instead, we should make sure the changes we are making will both improve the metrics we are measuring but also improve customer experience.

Getting Better Performance Out Of Your Team

The wrong way to look at pushing a team to hit a goal is putting a bonus in front of them. They should already be happy with what they are making. What is more important, is that they feel a sense of ownership over what they are working on. 

Also avoid just turning up the volume and workload on all of your teams. All this will do is give you a short increase until everyone reaches burnout.

Important metrics can be hard to measure

Metrics like trust and credibility are things that will create a long time customer, but these are more difficult to measure. 

Taking action

  • Clearly define a goal, what is something you need to improve in your organization?
  • What metric will allow you to measure the improvement in performance for this goal?
  • What changes can you make to improve this metric to reach the goal?