Choosing the Right Metrics

Choosing the right metrics to measure is the difference between success and failure but how do you pick the right metrics without overloading yourself with info?

Table of Content

    The sky is the limit – how to bring metrics back down to earth.

    Terms:

    • KPI = Key Performance Indicator
    • Metrics = Measure of an organization’s activities and performance
    • BI = Business Intelligence (reporting methods)

    Microsoft Dynamics CRM can track and report on anything, using out-of-the-box functionality.

    But how do you figure out what is most relevant for your business? What information will be useful? Will you have staff enter the data for reporting? What are you already doing right and what are areas of opportunity? How do you figure out what is most relevant for your business? The more of these questions you can answer the better your performance will in the future.

    Take the analysis methods you’re using now, and turn them into a metric. Look at the various ways CRM impacts your business, and follow metrics that relate to those areas.


    ……Data Overload

    Is the information useful?

    Only track data you will actually use, allowing you to see trends. Tracking extraneous data “just because you can,” takes away the focus of your metrics.

    Will you have staff enter the data? It has been found that asking Users to enter data they don’t find valuable could harm User Adoption rates. However, allowing Users to see trends in their processes could motivate them to capitalize on areas where they excel. Showing Users how their data entry efforts positively impact the company’s bottom line shows them the result of their efforts.

    What are you doing right?

    Following the habits of your top performers is invaluable. Knowing which types of campaigns outperform others gives a focus for marketing time and dollars. Customer retention rates tied to staff activities helps define needed characteristics at hiring time.

    What are your areas of opportunity?

    Knowing your pipeline drop rate or un-subscription rate can help refine your marketing and sales efforts.

    Are you tracking activity, instead of progress? Tracking reasons for lost Opportunities and Customers can help focus your future efforts in a more positive direction.

    Defining your needs

    If I could figure out……, then I could……… Determine the metric that will give you the answers.

    Go the extra mile

    Track Potential Flight Risk: How often does a specific client register complaints, call for support, request contract or obligation information, or ask how to close their account? These are all indicators that can give you a heads-up when a client is considering leaving you for a competitor.

    If you track the number of touches with Potential Flight Risk Accounts, you can make sure you’re giving them excellent customer service, and possibly offer services they didn’t know about previously.

    Can you do more?

    A lead asks for a service you don’t provide. Track requests for that service. Perform a survey to gauge potential demand. If this is a complement to services you already provide, consider branching out.

    We are tempted to track anything that will give us big numbers, and show immediate progress. Tracking the sheer number of leads added to the system will certainly give you fast results, as your sales people will download as many leads as they can find and add them. However, if you focus your efforts to measuring Qualified Leads instead, your sales people will focus on leads that have a chance of becoming sales, and work on quality in addition to quantity.

    The same is true for all the other metrics here.

    Top 5 Metrics for the Service Industry

    Conference Tracking

    • Number of New Leads who signed up using a special code
    • Number of Business Card Scans (new vs. existing contacts)
    • How did they find you? (Conference effectiveness)
    • Lead to Order Conversion Rate
    • Use a Dashboard to track all of this info during/after the conference.

    Case Tracking

    • Customer satisfaction at case closure (and X months later)
    • Close Velocity (how quickly a case is closed) by case type

    Project Tracking

    • Customer satisfaction at project completion (and X months later)
    • Process Velocity by stage/step
    • Conversion Rate and Funnel Drop-Off
    • How often do your customers respond to your efforts with a response or action? (Number of responses / number of engagements)
    • How often do customers unsubscribe? (What triggers this?)
    • How many people who click the links in your newsletter actually purchase from you?

    Relationship Refreshers

    • Have all of your customers been contacted in a provable way (action/response) in the last X months? (Percent response rate)
    • What percentage of customers respond to your outreach? How frequently?
    • If your typical customer stops responding after X contact attempts, you know to expend less effort on customers who are unresponsive after that number of tries.

    Collections

    • How many touches before an invoice is paid?
    • Which types of touches garner the biggest response? (Sometimes the relationship sales people have with the customer can net big results in this area.)
    • Date and Frequency of reminders as compared to Amount Paid?
      • 15th of the month, or the 30th?
      • 2 times a month, or 3?

    Sample KPI’s

    Sales

    • Order Interval (when are customers likely to order?)
    • Percent of Leads qualified (became Opportunities)?
    • Average sales per customer?
    • Percent of free trials that convert to sales?
    • Monthly Recurring Revenue (licensing, service agreements)?
    • Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)?
    • Annualized net gross margin added during the period, divided by Sales and Marketing Costs from the previous period.

    Marketing

    • New traffic by type (email, web, social media, trade shows)?
    • Source analysis: where are good leads coming from?
    • Lead to Opportunity Won Ratio?
    • Campaign Response Rate?
    • Number of Active Subscribers (responses to touches)?

    Service

    • Case Update Volume (activities/updates added to a case)
    • Case Close Volume (by type and User)
    • First-Call Resolution Rate
    • # Complaints escalated to management
    • # Returning Customers (Service / Contract renewals)
    • # Customers with Service Level Agreements (SLA’s) in place
    • Delivery performance vs. Sales Trend

    Implementations

    • Timeline responsiveness
    • Milestones met or exceeded
    • User Adoption Metrics
    • # of Users logging in per day/week/month
    • Update frequency on Accounts / Contacts / Opportunities
    • Average # of incidents after go-live date
    • Satisfaction scores for training and documentation