In the article by Aaltonen, the author talks about how we can innovate with metrics and how to deliver metrics that are useful to the organization. A quote that stands out to me is “a good metric is often one that you can interact with, that is, take actions and see immediately how the readings change. this is because, instead of merely observing how the world is, we learn much more from observing the changes that result from our own actions“. This quote relates back to an important concept we learned from Project Management: see, feel, change. It is important that the metrics give a tangible representation of a concept, instill in end users the urge to take necessary actions, and create changes that stick. Another important concept discussed in the article is that we should not focus solely on quantitative measurements. By focusing solely on what we can only measure, we can potentially lose sight of the entire customer experience. Therefore, in developing useful metrics, we also need to pay attention to systems thinking and consider how our metrics will impact the entire system.
With that in mind, a recent report by MIT Sloan and Google indicates that our current Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for customer experience are no longer accurate for today’s digital environment. Customer experience experts often have trouble justifying their efforts with revenue growth even though everyone knows that great customer experiences lead to increased revenue. Some useful KPIs that effectively measured customer experience according to this article are: Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), Customer Acquisition Cost, and Net Promoter Score (NPS). This relates back to the “Everything Is Measurable” article in that even though it is difficult to measure customer experience, it is not impossible. By understanding the object of measurement (customer experience) and the meaning of the measurement, measuring customer experience is not impossible.
Source:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zqhicbealro0z26/The%20beauty%20and%20perils%20of%20metrics.pdf?dl=0
https://www.cio.com/article/2438921/it-organization/everything-is-measurable.html
https://www.cmswire.com/customer-experience/are-your-customer-experience-kpis-fit-for-today/
I agreed wholeheartedly that a metric should be as interactive and actionable as possible, I am also familiar with “vanity metrics”, which are common in the marketing agency world.
However, I am ambivalent about whether all “good metrics” are necessarily actionable. I am thinking about cases where some measurements are static and stable, having to do with the infrastructure of the system; you cannot quickly alter them and see changes, but they are crucial to maintaining the health of the system. Sometimes, analysts may work with a dashboard of key KPIs, but deep/ad-hoc analyses may require getting quick access to boring metrics recorded in the background.
Also, thank you for talking about that report on MIT Sloan and Google.