The old school thinking is that numbers are everything.
Because it is perfectly logical to have 100% success, while 100% of Customers are unhappy, right?
Instagram filters are nothing new – we have been ‘glowing up’ our service delivery for years or as the cynical might say ‘blinding them with science’
That is no longer good enough and with the proliferation of advanced ITSM platforms and tools based on AI, there simply is no excuse not to change.
Stop measuring:
- What makes you look good
- What is easy to count
- What worked at the start of the 10-year deal
- Vast numbers of stats which are meaningless but look impressive.
Start measuring:
- What drives value
- Where the service pain points are
- What causes the boss sleepless nights
- Customer satisfaction
- …in the dream world, time to value not time to close
Perfect metrics do not fix broken services.
Pretty dashboards do not make customers smile
Metrics are intended to tell the tale, not hide it or weave a false one.
Responsible service delivery is based on transparency, honest and integrity.
If you are drowning in data but experiencing an insight drought then something is fundamentally wrong.
The simple approach to reporting:
- Standardise data as much as possible to prevent cleansing overhead
- Catalogue data so it can be sliced in diverse ways without losing reference
- Report on the things that matter, ensuring the value that is being measured and alignment to business needs.
- Automate as much as possible, it is the output that has value not the effort.
- Constantly review validity of reporting and do not be afraid to retire a report
- Ensure that reports are reflecting the real world, with particular reference to user experience
- If reports are not being used for decision making, they have no value, stop doing it!
Service reporting and the knowledge it produces is one of the most valuable assets a company has. Treat it that way.