The metric that's lying to you
First response time is 4 minutes. Customer satisfaction is down. What's happening?
Metrics get gamed. Measure first response time, and techs send "We're looking into it" within seconds. Measure ticket closure, and problems get closed before they're solved. Measure billable hours, and efficiency disappears. The metric improves. The outcome doesn't.
The scenario:
You want to audit your service metrics to ensure they're driving the right behaviours.
The prompt:
You're reviewing your service delivery metrics.
Current metrics: [paste what you're tracking and current performance]
Create an analysis that:
- Identifies which metrics might be getting gamed
- Maps metrics to actual outcomes (what they're supposed to improve)
- Proposes balancing metrics (what prevents gaming)
- Recommends metrics to add, remove, or modify
- Designs a dashboard that tells the true story
- Includes qualitative checks to validate quantitative data
Flag the top 3 metrics that might be misleading you.