It’s no coincidence that the highest-performing agents in the contact center get the highest marks in emotional intelligence. And there can’t be one without the other. This is the key to success and the basic pillar for building a contact center environment. It must be customer-oriented and focused on emotional connections.
But hiring agents with empathy is not enough. There must be a system and a culture that makes empathy a priority in every contact center. Emotional intelligence must be at the heart of every agent’s actions, and of course, start from the top. Act on this principle to ask agents to do the same, responding and behaving appropriately, but naturally during each interaction with the customer.
And even though emotional intelligence can take different paths, there are six crucial elements:
1.Anticipate customer requests
Agents must pay attention to tone and other verbal cues so they are well equipped to handle the call in either direction. They must be able to recognize precise trends and patterns, to shorten call resolution time.
2. Provide explanations and justifications
As needed, contact center agents should ask questions to ensure they fully understand the customer’s challenge so they can properly resolve it. By providing facts, explanations, and justifications, agents can provide customers with greater context and insight, enhancing emotional connection.
3. Educate customers
Once the customer has their resolution, agents must take the interaction to the next level by offering additional information about the product or services available to help them now and in the future. Agents should look for teachable moments and opportunities to educate customers about their products, procedures, and company culture.
4. Build rapport
Rapport is the phenomenon in which two or more people feel that they are psychologically and emotionally “in tune”. Agents can start conversations with a simple “how are you?” to show interest and care. Over communication can and should be encouraged to build a connection.
5. Provide emotional support
If a customer is worried, upset, or confused, the agent must be able to recognize the mood and offer empathy and support. It’s about listening and asking the right questions. You have to have empathy for this. It helps connect with customers and encourages them to be more optimistic.
6. Offering personal information
Contact center agents shouldn’t be afraid to share some personal insights about themselves to create a connection with the customer. It is a basic tool in every agent’s kit. You can discuss everything from the weather to the city to company initiatives.
At its core, emotional intelligence is about showing a little empathy, which can go a long way toward providing great customer service.
Competencies assessment has positioned itself as an alternative or complementary method to performance or objective assessment. Through this technique, we eliminate the influence of external factors and obtain a truer picture of the abilities of each employee. For this reason, many companies are betting on this model.
Below, we explain how it works, what advantages it has and how a competency assessment is carried out.
WHAT IS THE EVALUATION OF WORKING COMPETENCIES?
Competencies are those knowledge, skills or practices that are required to correctly exercise a trade or professional activity.
Therefore, competency evaluation consists of analyzing and qualifyingthe skills and abilities of an employee based on the intrinsic requirements of their position. In other words, it is about measuring how the worker executes the tasks that he must carry out on a daily basis.
This list of essential tasks or skills is known as a competency model. Only the activities or knowledge critical to the success of that role should appear in them.
Assessing skills is based on the long term and the future of the worker, since it is based on the assumption that a professional with better skills will be more efficient than one who only stands out for their experience. So, the focus is on the future and not only on the past.
ADVANTAGES OF CARRYING OUT AN ASSESSMENT BY COMPETENCIES
Competency performance evaluation offers great benefits for organizations. Next, we mention some of them:
It allows to detect in which areas each employee needs to improve and create personalized and effective training plans.
It is a very useful system to know the effectiveness of training and act accordingly.
The evaluation is individual since the powers of the position are taken as reference.
Therefore, the obtained information is of great value and helps to know the employee better.
Facilitates the definition of the individual objectives of each worker according to their real abilities.
In competency evaluation, attention is paid to the methodology of work applied by each employee instead of just taking into account the objectives.
Promotes the creation of a comparison of the performance of those employees who perform the same function.
Increases the level of commitment of workers as it shows that the company values its efforts and is on their side to help them improve day by day.
Sets up a continuous improvement system internally
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PERFORMANCE EVALUATION AND COMPETENCY EVALUATION
Although both are closely linked to each other, performing performance evaluation and competency evaluation is not the same.
As we have already said, the competences represent a person’s capabilities in a certain activity and their evaluation indicates what, based on these competences, can do the employee, how much information has and how a certain project is carried out.
The competences are the basis of performance. However, a person’s performance is conditioned by many other factors such as the resources he has to carry out his work, the quality of the equipment, the effectiveness of the training received or the work environment, among others.
Therefore, the final performance of a worker results from combining their competences and the organizational context.
HOW TO MAKE AN ASSESSMENT BY COMPETENCIES
To carry out an evaluation by competencies, it is necessary to put into practice a series of steps that will allow defining the quality of each worker:
1. Define the skills you want to evaluate
The first step in the evaluation is to create the competency model in which the most important tasks, skills or knowledge to perform the job that is going to be assessed are listed.
Among these competencies it is important to introduce both soft skills and hard skills that can be assessed. For example, productivity, the ability to solve problems, employee commitment, communication with other colleagues, etc.
It is also advisable to divide them between:
Basic skills: those that are strictly necessary to perform any job.
Specific skills: the skills that have to do with the position held by the worker.
Generic skills: those that can be applied to the entire team or company.
2. Determinate which level of competence the worker must reach
Within the skills that appear in your competency model, you can set different degrees and decide to what extent each one is necessary. That is, you can estimate that the worker must have a maximum score of, for example, 10 in “teamwork” and 7 in “problem solving”.
3. Observe the worker and ask for feedback
Once the competency model is clear, it is necessary to move on to the evaluation phase. It can be carried out by the HR team, although the most advisable thing is for the direct supervisor or the team that works with that person to give their feedback. Their comments will be the most valuable since they are the ones who know the work of the evaluated person closely.
At this point, it is important to plan the dates of the evaluation so as not to overload the people involved, since the ideal is to carry them out in times of lower volume of work.
4. Develop an action plan
After analyzing the results obtained in the evaluation, the HR team, together with the direct supervisor, must detect which are the skills to improve. As we have mentioned before, this information should be used to create an action plan that helps the worker develop the necessary skills and reach optimal levels for their position.
5. Communicate the result
When evaluating an employee’s skills, we have a responsibility to pass on the results in a constructive way. It is important that during the conversation, which should always be in private, both parties provide data and arguments on which to base their comments in order to establish concrete solutions through the action plan.
Some entrepreneurs feel dizzy just thinking about whether or not to hire a company specialized in 360º consulting. And even more so when part of the team has also been trained internally. This feeling that outsourcing a consulting service for the evolution of the company is a failure for the organization is a false myth that we have set out to deny. Consulting C3‘s 360º consulting service is suitable for any sector, size and business activity.
WHY DOES YOUR COMPANY NEED A CONSULTANT?
In an increasingly competitive market, finding a market niche has become a highly complex challenge. The consumer and the way in which he consumes change, and not always the management of the organization or the internal professionals, immersed in the day to day, have the capacity and resources to investigate, adapt and implement the necessary actions to be able to compete in the new rules of the game.
60% of companies in Spain lack a strategy to attack the digital changes that the new market has imposed, especially after the impasse of the pandemic.
In this sense, the conservative business culture continues to prevail, with a misconception that betting on outsourcing consultancy will involve a high cost and not a medium- and long-term investment with high profitability.
The consultant, external and independent, sees the company from a holistic point of view: it lacks the ‘vices’ and internal inefficiencies generated by the day-to-day running of a company, the bad habits and the duplicities that are generated in many cases, especially when The company has several locations.
This distance is vital to identify which are the most efficient and beneficial solutions for the organization, aiming beyond the sales objectives and seeking the permanence of the business. The impact of the action of an external consultant is evident in sales, organization, customer service or communication itself.
Consulting C3 consultancies are based on four basic pillars: research, definition, innovation and adaptation. And all this from the particularity of each project, client and market. That is why it is so important to hire specialized services with a proven track record, with real results like those obtained by Consulting C3.
HOW DOES A 360º CONSULTANCY WORK?
Consulting C3 has experience in each sector, and extensive specific training, which generate internal support dynamics to maximize the results of the projects addressed.
To do this, the assigned consultant or team performs a prior analysis and diagnosis of the market. Through this, unmet needs in said segment are identified, as well as the company’s positioning of the project in the sector, and the strengths and weaknesses of the competition. Of course, we work with projections of possible scenarios according to the situation of the target market or markets.
In parallel, a sketch is drawn of what the current service or product is and how to improve it -in all its aspects- so that it is what the target audience demands, or responds in advance to a need that has not yet been identified. This includes everything from the design of a winning product or service to how to manage the price strategy or identify how to optimize costs to be more competitive.
With all this information, Consulting C3 designs the strategy, the most appropriate action plans for each area and how to carry them out.
At Consulting C3 we are at your disposal to answer any questions or provide further information about our 360º consulting services.
Team job. Photo young and mature businessmans working with new startup project in modern office or loft. Generic design notebook on wood table. Teamwork, business, creative meeting, cooperation concept
Last year we closed with the Sales Techniques for Ayming course
Last December we carried out the Sales Techniques course for Ayming, a business consultancy firm focused on the tax sector.
Prior meetings were held with AYMING in order to determine the training needs of the collaborating personnel, and to present a proposal that would meet the expectations in terms of a value offer, focused on achieving the objectives set by the client itself.
Do you want to get to know us a little better and improve your services?
After this preliminary analysis, the following objectives are determined:
Acquire the keys to the process of generating leads to succeed in commercial activity and arranging interviews.
Practice the techniques of discovery, active listening, formulating questions and detecting the customer’s motivations.
Arguing and responding to objections in order to reach a positive conclusion.
Gain fluency and confidence at all stages.
Tools and techniques used in sales
All the participants showed a predisposition to learning and to the practical application of the contents, showing involvement in the exercises proposed during the training action, and participating in the dynamics and the generation of their PAP, which they have started to work on personally for their professional development. They show to be a well-cohesive group where communication and collaboration exist between them. Motivated and with an optimum attitude of professional involvement.
The Consultant/Trainer would like to thank all the participants and the people in charge for the treatment received.
Overall assessment of the course
We would like to thank these positive evaluations from Ayming’s employees, as it is a source of encouragement for our work and drives us to continue improving in order to achieve better results.
Here are some of the comments:
“Very interesting and very practical. It has provided me with new knowledge and improvement techniques to continue growing as a professional and to achieve my goals”.
“I really enjoyed the course and I am going to incorporate everything I have learnt to develop myself further.”
“Quite interesting and a lot of learning to acquire for my job position.”
Would you like to know more about our customised training courses? Fill in the form or contact us by email at marketing@consultingc3.com
We will learn from Japanese culture, understanding what the following concepts refer to: Ikigai method, Shinkansen effect and Ganbarimasu.
The end of 2020, a complicated, different year, which has affected many companies that have had to join forces and resources to adapt to the circumstances caused by the COVID-19. The year ends and we always start the new one with the hope of creating purposes, innovative projects to change and make our businesses grow, in short, to transform ourselves.
What is the Shinkansen effect and how does it affect the business world?
It shows that if a complete transformation is to be achieved, not just small adjustments can be made, but a profound change is needed.
The cocktail that forms the Shinkansen and ikigai effect can be summed up in the expression ganbarimasu. The word ganbarimasu is at the origin of the expression ganbattekudasai, which means “do your best”, but whose more literal translation would be “be stubborn and firm until you achieve what you set out to do”. In other words, to achieve a goal you have to make the maximum effort.
What is the Ikigai method?
Ikigai method is a Japanese term used to identify what motivates you to start a day. For the Japanese, this concept is very broad and has been applied in their culture for many centuries. It can be summarised as the purpose of that energy that drives a person to get up in the morning.
It does not have a precise translation into Spanish, but its meaning is something like what it is worth living for. According to the Japanese, all people have one or several deep desires and motivations.
The origin of this terminology is on a small Japanese island, Okinawa, where the world’s oldest inhabitants reside. Their secret is to live with passion and intensity, setting firm daily goals. They follow the saying “if you do a job that you really love, it won’t be work, but enjoyment”. – by Confucius.
Ikigai Method: key to personal and professional development
This is a perfect formula for talent to develop. Only if you are clear about where you want to go, you will be able to choose how to use it and develop it.
Whatever purpose a person has, it will have a direct impact on various aspects of his happiness. Frustration often stems from not acting on a set of principles and values. With purpose, a person can focus on what they want to do in their professional life as well as in their personal life.
A study by the Harvard Business Review manages to show that when workers are connected with their purpose and the organisation, their motivation increases exponentially.
If your employees have a lack of motivation, you may also be interested in our training courses in Motivation, Self-motivation or Team Management.
What is the cost of not doing so?
Talents can be wasted. If you do not act on purpose, you will not use your talent efficiently.
You will work individually and not as a team. An organization that does not have a visible and clear objective for its employees will make them work in a selfish and particular way, because they will not be recognized as part of a more important whole.
Motivation will increase considerably. If you don’t have a goal, people will not recognise the real impact of their work and that will discourage them. When you work with the knowledge of why you are doing it, it improves your commitment to achieving the goals of the company.
How to implement a talent management and development strategy?
Identify passions. When a person knows what they like, they can recognise their purpose. With a clear goal it is easier to do so in a way that is aligned with the passions.
Confirm values. Values represent a person’s roots. If they are present, they will help one walk towards one’s true purpose.
The results give satisfaction and make it easier to take the desired path in a career, setting out strategies to achieve it.
Bring together individual and team goals. If everyone’s goals are in harmony with the organization, the personal impact is greater. Redefine individual goals and their importance to the overall objective.
Behaviors in line with the purpose are rewarded. Key performance indicators should not only reward tactical objectives, but also pay attention to strategic purposes that are resolved over the long term.
Explain success within a team and redefine yourself as a team with a common goal
Venn Diagram
The traditional representation of the Japanese ikigai is with a Venn diagram. This image is drawn using a system of circles that are cut out from each other and describe the four basic components of the ikigai.
What you like to do: what you love
In the nineteenth century, work was understood as resignation and something that had to be done. There was no question about whether the task was enjoyable or not. But throughout the 20th century, this orientation began to change and students were able to choose, based on their interests, different careers. In the 21st century, the labour market is presented as something vocational and people choose what they want to be trained in.
By establishing the following two secant circles that cut across the first one, these two elements are placed:
What I am good at
There are some activities that some people can do naturally or because they have a wide experience. Some people have an innate talent for business and others have needed to undertake several times to achieve their goal. The group defined between the first circle and this one, the ikigai refers to as passion.
What a person is willing to pay for
A circle secant to the two previous circles will include a person’s hobbies. For example, synopsis writing may appear here, as reading is a hobby of many people and something they pay for. Therefore, in the space where circles two and three cross, the possible professions will appear.
The three concepts described so far, although they are related, do not necessarily coincide. In other words, it is possible to be insightful at work with a database, but this may be extremely boring for a professional. Therefore, once these three elements appear, a fourth pillar can still be added:
What the world needs
The activity a person chooses must have a certain demand. Otherwise, even if one has extraordinary capacity, it will not bring any value. The ikigai closes the circle with the personal mission and vocation.
Is it posible to find the Ikigai?
The fact is that it is possible, but the complexity of finding it lies in the fact that it is necessary to strike a balance between the four pillars mentioned above, without forgetting that each of them also has its own complexity. Once this argument has been presented, a professional has different opportunities to develop personally and professionally. This is what the Japanese concept is all about: that people are happy and have a personal and professional life purpose.
The vast majority of people are at one or two of the key points described for the diagram above. When a person has a job, they are in what the world needs. Also, they are likely to be good at it. But liking it and enjoying it is more complex to achieve, although it can be done.
Current gamma techniques conceptually extend what is fun to areas that were previously not fun. This adds a new dimension to the ikigai method. Another alternative is to work with something that is enjoyable and motivating in a paid profession.
On the other hand, it is possible to broaden the scope in which a person is competent by training in that in which he or she is not too skilled. What is more complex is that a person’s work becomes a hobby for which they would be paid, although this is not impossible either.
IKIGAI method conclusions
In short, the ikigai, or having a purpose in life along with good social connections, is the key to a healthy and happy life with professional success.
Rrebuilding ourselves – Shinkansen effect
Trying our best – Ganbarimasuy
Finding our purpose in life – Ikigai
In Consulting C3 we have training courses which will help you to increase your motivation.
With the Advanced Telesales course you will master your technique and remember forgotten concepts.
The Advanced Telesales Course is aimed at commercial managers and telemarketers who have between 1 and 3 years’ experience in sales.
The training will be carried out in-company or in e-learning mode using practical dynamics and seeking the participation of all attendees. The training dynamic is based on a previous study in which those areas that require greater reinforcement are analysed. The previous analysis allows us to use real cases from the client company in the training action.
In addition, you can get a 100% bonus from FUNDAE.
You can also complete your knowledge with the Sales and Business Skills course or with a business coach. Thus, in addition to perfecting your knowledge of how to build customer loyalty, you will learn how to close a sale or perfect your skills.
Course objectives
The Advanced Telesales Course will help you to achieve the following objectives:
To perfect sales techniques of experienced telephone salespeople, improving argumentation, dealing with objections and offering advanced tools at the negotiation level to achieve an optimum closing.
Increase sales and customer loyalty.
Training can help your company to achieve more sales. In addition, your employees will be more qualified to achieve large closures.
“We also tend to give too much importance to the closure. This is normal. We find ourselves on the edge of the abyss, where everything seems to come down to a YES or NO, and where a bad step can ruin our hard and impeccable work, dragging with it our self-confidence and self-esteem”.
Increasingly, individuals, as well as companies as a collective entity, are becoming more and more aware of the importance of being emotionally intelligent.
Little by little, the discourse of the emotional has permeated society, awakening curious minds and gaining followers. So much so, that companies have begun to reorganise themselves around the importance of dealing with emotions in order to achieve greater benefits.
What only five years ago sounded almost like a joke among managers is now starting to be taken into account and gradually implemented in organisations. The so-called Happiness Departments have appeared, with their Happiness Managers at the head, busy and concerned with providing the best emotional conditions for workers, so that their personal and working well-being is translated into productivity.
No one disputes any longer that being emotionally intelligent provides benefits in all areas of our lives, in our level of satisfaction, success and effectiveness, and that it boosts our cognitive capacity, increasing our learning and our memory.
The equation is transparent: if EI (Emotional Intelligence) deals with human relationships, it is clear that it will influence any aspect of the company. Every decision, plan, product, service, team or customer will be affected by EI or the lack of it.
The imact
To make this impact more tangible, we will refer to Travis Bradberry and Jean Graves, co-founders of TalentSmart, who state that “a 1% improvement in a service’s work climate is equivalent to 2% growth in that service’s revenue”. Do the math.
On the contrary, a low mood, frightened workers or arrogant bosses are the cause of devastating effects that are often almost invisible to those not directly involved, but which take a heavy toll. These effects take their toll on the company through decreased productivity, poor communication, increased delivery delays, increased errors, and the drain of talent to more pleasant working environments.
To better lay the foundations, we can say that mastering basic emotional competencies helps us to be in good tune with the emotions of our colleagues, clients and suppliers, to be able to manage differences of opinion by avoiding conflicts, and to have the ability to enter into flow states in our work activity; three clear advantages that provide benefits in personal and professional well-being.
Commanding with the heart
Undoubtedly, much of the work of maintaining and enhancing that positive emotional state in organisations is part of the leader’s responsibilities. Leadership is not synonymous with domination, power or command, but with the ability to influence someone to help achieve common goals.
Leadership ability is not linked to intellectual ability or academic and/or technical preparation. Not even with experience.
A study by Daniel Goleman analysed the competence models of 188 companies, mostly multinationals and public bodies. The aim of the study was to determine which personal capabilities drove exceptional performance in these organizations and to what extent. The conclusions of the study were as follows:
Intellect was undoubtedly one of the drivers of exceptional performance.
Cognitive abilities were particularly important
The proportion of related emotional competencies was twice as high as the intellectual and cognitive ones combined
The higher the job category (where preparation and intellectual abilities tend to be equated), the greater the relevance for success of emotional competencies.
90% of the competencies that distinguished the “star” workers were related to EI competencies.
Emotional intelligence
On the other hand, David McClelland, an American psychologist focused on the study of motivation and professor of Daniel Goleman himself, demonstrated with a study carried out in 1996 in a multinational food and beverage company, that when their top managers had excellent skills in EI, their divisions exceeded the annual performance objectives by around 20%.
From the McClelland studies it can be determined that there are 6 main factors that influence the working climate:
Flexibility, understood as the freedom that employees feel to innovate without the imposition of bureaucratic procedures.
Sense of responsibility towards the company, i.e. engagement
Quality level set by individuals
Feedback: accurate feedback on performance and suitability for reward.
Corporate culture: the clarity by which individuals see the company’s Mission and Values.
Commitment: the level of commitment to the common goal.
The lack of flexibility discourages employees’ motivation by depriving them of creative mental space, thus preventing their expansion. When an employee does not feel that he or she participates in the company’s results, his or her performance tends to be the minimum necessary to comply and remains far from optimal. As a result, the quality level of the tasks does not allow the company to guarantee its competitiveness and the leader, overwhelmed by the lack of results, tends to transform his or her feedback into criticism, without generating the commitment of the employees, either to the company or to the objectives.
Whatever leadership style we exercise as leaders, leading from the heart should be our first commitment to ourselves.
At Consulting C3 we have a course in Leadership and Emotional Intelligence. I invite you to get to know it or to discover the benefits that this course can bring you.
The Elevator PITCH: How to Convince on the Spot course is aimed at managers of startups, corporations, SMEs and agencies. PhD students and teachers. And in general, anyone who needs to convince others in a short period of time.
The training will be carried out in-company, using practical dynamics and seeking the participation of all those attending. The dynamic is based on a previous study in which those areas that require greater reinforcement are analysed. With a previous analysis allows us to use real cases from the client-company in the training action.
Course objectives
The Elevator Pitch course: How to Convince on the Spot will help you to achieve the following objectives:
Conceive content strategically and prioritise.
Build the ideal flow and rhythm of the presentation
Reinforce strengths and minimize weaknesses.
Adapt the speech.
Distinguish the priority of the speaker.
Preview the processes.
Asking the right questions and anticipating situations.
Eliminating stage fright.
Managing the voice, body and emotions appropriately
To adapt oneself to the space and to the unexpected.
In addition, training can help your company to achieve more sales, and to make your employees more qualified to achieve great closures.
Being aware of what impact your product, service or brand has on your customers is fundamental to knowing why they like or dislike you, in other words, why they buy from you or do not buy from you.
Without elements that allow you to measure their experience, it will be impossible for you to understand your customers’ behaviour, whether it is in your favour or, above all, whether it is against you. As William Thomson said, “Anything that cannot be measured cannot be improved”. Therefore, if you do not have the elements to measure the quality of your product or service, or the quality of your customers’ experience, or the quality and functionality of your internal processes, it will not be possible to detect what you are failing at, let alone determine the optimal strategy for improvement.
In any case, to measure you need objective data that explains what, where, how, how much and when. These data are the key performance indicators (or KPIs) of what you want to measure and are like the fever thermometer. Another important piece of information is why, which will come out of your analysis, giving you a very accurate diagnosis, which will provide better results.
How do I know which indicators to use?
Implementing the right indicators seems easy if you know more or less what you want to measure. In general, we tend to measure everything so that nothing is missed. Thus, we start from the idea that the more we measure, the more we will know our clients. However, as often happens, excesses are not good and there may come a time when the trees do not let us see the forest.
Frequent mistakes in creating and managing KPIs: So that you don’t get stuck in the middle of a measurement and stop being effective, I share with you 10 common mistakes when choosing and managing your KPIs.
1. Measurement does not lead to corrective or improvement actions
The implementation of KPIs involves a commitment to precise and rigorous monitoring, without which they lose their functionality. If a KPI is not evaluated or is not followed up correctly; if it does not serve to make improvement actions, or the actions are not carried out, the indicator is simply useless.
Often, the vortex of daily work or the lack of clear responsibilities for KPI measurement makes its usefulness null and void.
2. Diogenes Syndrome
The habit of measuring everything makes us accumulate a lot of KPIs that do not add any value. It seems to us that the more we measure, the more we know, and it turns out that we get indigested by the indicators!
When we shuffle too many indicators, it’s impossible to manage them because their evaluation and monitoring takes too much time. Let go of that burden and balance the value of the KPI with your information management skills!
3. The dream collector
Man is a creature of habit. And it is the same with indicators. We often keep the same KPIs because they are the ones that have always been used. The question you should ask yourself then is: haven’t my clients or my company changed over the years? Remember to renew your wardrobe and keep only those KPIs that are useful to you today. Stick to a few: only those who provide you with valuable information to help you make decisions.
4. Falling into the silo
The indicators must be created on the basis of an overall view of the process. When we create KPIs thinking about the interests of our department and not in a transversal way and focusing on the client, we are falling into what is called the “silo effect”; that is, we become Golums who only look to conserve their treasure. Communication between departments stops flowing, there is no longer coordination and rivalries appear, putting the achievement of global objectives in check.
5. The perfume of vanity
We all like to look good in the picture, cover up our embarrassments and save ourselves a scolding from the boss. That’s why we are tempted to “make up the results” based on data obtained with vain KPIs, whose data suggest that everything is going well, but do not give us any real value. They are very dangerous, as they do not reflect reality and can push us to make decisions based on incorrect analyses.
6. Chronic myopia
When indicators focus on one part without taking into account the whole, it is easy to draw biased conclusions that make us take wrong decisions. For example, if a repair department detects, through a poorly defined KPI, a high level of stock and decides to reduce it in order to save on the cost of fixed assets, it may mean that the technical assistance service must repeat the number of interventions (more costs) and a loss of customers (!)
7. Navel-gazing
To think that we already know what to measure without having listened to the customer is a huge mistake. A restaurant measured the quality of its service with several indicators that valued the uniformity, image and education of its staff. They were not measuring, however, the average waiting time of customers between the first and second course.
8. Cheating on Solitaire
This can happen when the indicator eventually becomes the goal; that is, when the indicator stimulates a target or counterproductive behaviour in people. These are usually indicators that are associated with bonuses or financial compensation. For example: a commercial productivity indicator that measures the ratio between offers presented and offers accepted may cause the commercial to stop presenting some offers so as not to harm the ratio.
9. Stones on the roof
The indicators must be aligned with the objectives. When KPIs conflict with objectives, operational inconsistencies occur. For example: an indicator that measures the speed of delivery (no. of deliveries in 24 hours) may conflict with an indicator of logistical optimisation, such as “maximum utilisation of transport capacity”. Thus, in order to achieve a good result in the indicator of on-time deliveries, we under-utilise logistic resources, with truck departures without full loading, which means an increase in costs and less profitability for the company.
10. Buying a pig in a poke
The last of the most frequent errors occurs when measuring unreliable or unrepresentative values, as they do not add value to decision-making. Whenever we extract data, we must ensure that both the sources and the method of extraction of that data are reliable. If we extract data from a sample, this sample must be representative and extrapolated to the total data.
From Consulting C3, we advise you, to begin from being aware of these frequent errors in order to create and manage functional indicators, which are useful for decision making within your company.
But this is only the tip of the iceberg. If you want to go deeper into the creation and management of KPIs, you can consult us to find a tailor-made training adapted to your needs, which will help you to establish effective indicators based on strategic and operational criteria, as well as to know the definition, creation and implementation phases. In order to do so, do not miss our course on creation and management of KPIs.
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Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
