The Performance Metrics Trap
by Citrix Online

Support agents -- like your other employees -- are more apt to excel if you provide feedback on their progress and performance. The metrics you apply in your support environment will have a dramatic effect on the way in which your support agents excel. For example, if your primary metric is call-handling time, your agents will strive to reduce that handling time. If your metric is the number of calls handled per day, your agents will try to handle more calls in a day. You should be aware that such one-sided metrics could improve agent performance at the expense of reducing support quality and customer satisfaction.

This issue is especially true for organizations that integrate self-service functionality into customer-support operations without adjusting and adapting performance metrics appropriately. Self-service enables your customers to automatically find answers online for the most simple and frequently asked questions. Because many of the “easy” customer problems are handled without the assistance of a support agent, self-service will dramatically impact your call volume, reducing the number of inbound support requests your agents receive.

The trap

Resolving simple questions via self-service complicates and increases your call-handling metrics because your support agents are only tasked with the more challenging questions. This inevitably results in longer handling times and fewer resolved cases per day. As overall call-handling time increases and the number of resolved cases decreases, you should adjust your metrics to reflect the change in your support model. Shift your focus from handling time to monitoring response quality and other metrics that now make more sense. Forcing adherence to old metrics will reduce the support quality you provide, unduly stress your staff, and even decrease customer satisfaction.

About Citrix Online
Citrix Online, a division of Citrix Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CTXS), offers the leading Web-based access, support and collaboration software and services. The division offers Citrix GoToMyPC®, the easiest-to-use solution for remote, secure and managed desktop PC access over the Web; and Citrix GoToAssist™, the most secure, reliable and powerful solution for Web-based technical support and customer collaboration. Citrix Online products are used by more than 4,000 companies worldwide, including Cisco Systems, Siemens, Intuit, Cablevision and Microsoft Business Solutions. The division is based in Santa Barbara, California, and is on the Web at www.gotomypc.com, www.gotoassist.com and www.citrix.com.