Is data without context harming your performance?
If meaning isn’t assigned to data at collection, interpretation and action stages; subsequent decisions and assumptions can be very damaging. Poor metric design causes staff to loose motivation and, frustrated, they completely ignore metrics, or worse, actively fight against them. Management become confused, pushing extra resource and not seeing improvement.
The full story
We’re not going to hit target at this rate
A Director at Europe’s head office of a global consulting company was grappling with the poor efficiency of her staff’s face to face customer contact scheduling. The numbers just were not where they needed to be. At this rate they were not going to hit financial targets and head office had already announced tighter travel budgets.
Knowing they needed to win new contracts and that in person customer touch points dramatically increased contract renewal probability; more visits per trip was the only answer. Account Executives were responsible for scheduling business trips and they weren’t being efficient.
They have what they need, don’t they?
Leads were available for Account Executives to target and they were generously incentivised to improve travel efficiency metrics. The Director just could not understand why Account Executives were still not improving scheduling.
Why were there still so many trips with just one visit? Why didn’t they understand that missing financial targets would have even worse consequences for next year’s budget?
She had to ensure travel efficiency improved, and eliminate ‘one visit days’, to have any chance of reaching the financial goals.
The diagnosis process
Understanding the metrics
Together we went through a process to unravel the problem and identify the root causes we could address. Their focus was on the ‘one visit day’ metric. I discovered, the metric hadn’t taken into account visits close to their company base, where Account Managers could travel directly to and from the office; and visits which occurred on the first or last day of a wider continental trip, where for example one last visit was squeezed in before the flight home.
Removing these scenarios dramatically altered the ‘one visit day’ metric and while this offered her a little relief; the data did reveal significant opportunity for improvement in average visits per trip.
Understanding the people
The Account Executives walked me through their scheduling process and, to my surprise, they all wanted to schedule more visits per trip. They understood their bonus depended on it and understood that more visits were needed to hit financial targets. They weren’t operating inefficiently out of naivety and felt each of their scheduled trips were as close to optimal as they could get.
The problem they were facing was not being aware of any other potential visits they could fit in. Using the sales lead data, they had to copy and paste addresses one by one into Google maps locate them. A frustrating process that often yielded no results.
Revealing this to the Director instantly changed her perspective, shedding light on how we could solve the problem.
What we learned from the diagnosis process
The real root cause wasn’t the Account Executives inadequacy, it was the metrics themselves and that the sales lead data wasn’t working for the business in the right way.
Data without context can be damaging
The metrics were painting the wrong picture and causing unfair blame to be directed towards Account Executives, and worse still, it discouraged scheduling visits close to home or squeezing in one last visit on a bigger trip.
Performance metrics can be very powerful, when designed carefully and used correctly, but unfortunately many businesses haven’t placed their data in context leading to poor and harmful metric design.
Making assumptions about root causes leads to bad decisions
The Director had assumed Account Executives needed more incentive; this was costing money but not adding value.
It’s all too easy to make assumptions, especially when viewing problems from a distance, digging for facts and identifying perceptions is the only way to understand ‘why’.
Investing in data is not enough; it has to work for the business
Time was being wasted wading through the sales leads organised as a list; the data wasn’t user optimised.
Data considered alone is just data; to have an impact it needs to be usable and insightful for the user it guides.
Designing an effective solution
I designed a seemingly simple solution to address the root cause. The value of the sales leads data was high but locked in the wrong format. The director was aware that revenue could also be generated from existing customers with timely visits. I formatted both sets of information so that it could be displayed simultaneously in real time on Google Maps. Account Executives could see where all the opportunities lay and click on links back to their system to obtain contact details.
We reviewed the metrics and crafted a suite that told the true story behind travel efficiency. The Director and Account Executives had the tools in place to make a difference.
The outcome
We hit the goal and achieved other improvements too
Partnering together we wanted to achieve financial targets through travel efficiencies. When fully rolled out we estimated the solution would bring in $600,000 to $1,200,000 in additional revenue or up to 17% of her annual target.
By going through the diagnosis process and unlocking potential in her data we had also achieved some unexpected benefits:
Improved morale
An effective tool which eliminated the need to endlessly copy and paste addresses, removed frustration and improved the Account Executive’s efficiency. Team morale went up.
Managers were happier too, they could focus their efforts back on improving sales skills, conversation rates and customer service.
Rebuilt team relationships
Managers recognised that blame was unfairly being placed on the Account Executives. They now had the tools they needed to do their job efficiently. The relationship between the two groups improved.
Enhanced customer experience
When extra sales visit opportunities were exhausted, any white space left in Account Manager’s schedules could easily be filled with courtesy visits to existing clients creating more opportunity to engage with the customer base.
What potential is your data hiding?
Do you feel staff aren’t acting in line with the intention of your metrics, as the Director did in this case? Are you left a little perplexed as to why? Do you need to improve efficiency to hit your targets? Are you making the most of your data?
Adding the right context to your data and making it work for you can seem easy in retrospect but can be torturous from the inside. Don’t fight alone, I can guide you through a process for you to unlock the value in your data.
To chat through your optimisation opportunity, please get in touch.