The call center was inefficient, and management knew it. Every time a customer called to file a claim, it took 15 minutes for the rep to collect all the necessary information and enter it into the system. During those 15 minutes, the rep had to travel through 13 different pages and click on 38 different fields.
They needed their people to work faster, and the solution came from an interesting place, a user experience overhaul.Management wondered, “What if the information was on a single page, requiring just a few clicks? How much faster could our people work?”
The answer exceeded their wildest dreams. Instead of 15 minutes, each call took a mere 30 seconds. With the extensive time savings, each rep could make 45,500 more calls per year, giving the company 10 extra months of productivity per call center rep. Oh yeah, I didn’t fabricate these results just to make a point. They came straight from one of our customers, a multinational insurance company.
With the extensive time savings, each rep could make 45,500 more calls per year, giving the company 10 extra months of productivity per call center rep.
In this example, the management team decided their key performance indicator (KPI) should be the time it takes reps to log a call. By having a solid metric to track, they could measure the project’s achievements and communicate the business value to their leadership team.
Establishing this goal early on set the stage for their success.It can be tough to establish KPIs for your user experience project, but it’s an essential detail that helps determine project success. After all, if your team doesn’t understand your goals, you’ll have a harder time achieving them. If you’re having trouble, here are some tips for creating an effective UX KPI:
1. Align KPIs with business goals
KPI’s should come from your company or department’s overall strategic goals. Common business goals that tie into user experience KPIs include:
- Increasing revenue
- Decreasing costs
- Increasing revenue from existing customers
- Increasing shareholder value
- Increasing market share
In the above example, the call center’s KPIs were mainly focused on reducing the time per task. This productivity gain helped them decrease costs and increase revenue. They decreased costs by reducing the amount of time it took for each rep to complete a common task, and they increased revenue by serving many more customers with the same number of reps.
2. Base KPIs on behaviors
The example team was measuring the call center reps’ interaction with the system. As the design changed, the reps’ behaviors changed too. If the new behaviors speed up task completion, they’ll know they’ve improved the user experience.
3. Be specific to your business processes
There’s no magic bullet KPI that works for every business. One business might try to drastically increase their number of clients, while another might try to reduce operations costs. If you want to make a change that affects the core of what makes your business unique, the metrics should be specific to your industry, business process or department.
4. Make KPIs measurable
If you want to analyze the impact of your user experience project, your KPIs must be specific and measurable. Vague goals like “improve business processes” are difficult to quantify, making it hard to know if your project is successful.
However, a goal like “reduce time salespeople spend on data entry” is measurable and actionable. Creating effective user experience KPIs is no easy task.
It requires time and discipline, but if your team works toward the right goals, you’ll be able to demonstrate how great design leads to great business results. Want more tips for leading a successful UX overhaul? Download our free eBook now!
