How do you measure and improve the performance of your Service Delivery Framework?

Customer satisfaction is often hard to measure as KPIs can easily be bent in a too positive direction eg. asking the right clients within a specific segment, reaching out to friendlier contacts, in the right moment, etc. Automation reduces confimation bias, but just offers snapshots and too many surveys are frankly a pain for the customer and counterproductive. In a B2B environment, particularly project-based, the only reliable and tangible metric for positive customer experience is increased ?? revenue and/or ?? nr of orders, that's what matters at the end of the day.

People have a tendency to conflate KPIs and goals. Goals can have their foundation in KPIs and in turn be SMART but KPIs in and of themselves do not need to be SMART. Being able to view your organization through the lens of data is a key component of defining your objectives. Understanding your services, and processes well enough to measure them in the right places, for the right reasons, helps drive the outcomes your business needs. For example, measuring customer satisfaction in cases where you are incapable of doing what the customer wants is of little value. Instead capturing those wants within a framework that feeds the information back into the product lifecycle is hugely important as is telling that customer the feature is ready.

For evaluating suppliers is important ensuring the efficiency, reliability, and quality of the products or services they provide. The choice of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for evaluating suppliers depends on the specific goals and requirements. Somethings important KPIs for evaluating suppliers can be: On-Time Delivery Performance Quality Metrics Cost and Pricing Capacity and Scalability Compliance and Risk Management Relationship Management Regularly reviewing and adjusting these KPIs will help ensure that your supplier evaluation processes remain effective and aligned with your evolving business needs

Nailing your goals and outcomes for an SDF is like setting up the ultimate playlist for a road trip. You gotta know where you're heading, what vibes you're aiming for, and how you’ll measure the miles of success. Think of it as figuring out not just the destinations (customer happiness, slicker services, or cutting the fluff) but also how you'll know you're killing it (those KPIs). They gotta be SMART - yeah, that old chestnut: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. It’s about making your service delivery sing in a way that’s gonna resonate with your crew (your team) and your fans (customers and stakeholders). So, cut through the noise, pick your tracks wisely, and let’s make this journey unforgettable.

Gap assessment should be a constant practice. Not every item requires "eyes on" daily but building your organizational culture around a constant, healthy, awareness of the performance is part of building a strong service delivery practice. Seeing the deviation in metrics isn't enough though. The organization needs ready tools to be able to explore and understand the deviation in order to plan for corrective actions. In healthy Service Delivery organizations this activity is as natural as breathing because teams review and react with regularity which allows for small course corrections instead of massive undertakings.

Time for a reality check on your SDF - it's like tuning your guitar before the big gig. Dive into what's rocking and what's offbeat. Use whatever tools you’ve got - surveys, interviews, or even a deep dive into your dashboards. It’s all about comparing the high notes (your goals) with the actual tunes (what’s happening). Spot where you’re missing a beat or if there’s a new rhythm you could try. And hey, don’t forget to listen to your audience - your customers and stakeholders. Their feedback is like the applause (or the occasional boo) that tells you exactly where you stand.

There is often a desire to "fix" everything at once. This should be avoided as it clouds the ability to see the effectiveness or impact of each individual item and leads teams into believing that items are beneficial where they could be ineffectual or damaging because the impacts are masked by other activities. Improvements should be structured in a manner that makes them measurable on their own and caution should be applied when running concurrent items. If improvements must be run concurrently then distinct measurement points should be developed so that they are able to be measured independently of each other.

Alright, now it's showtime - picking the upgrades for your SDF that’ll really amp things up. Think of it as setting your playlist for maximum impact. Whether you’re jamming with the Plan-Do-Check-Act groove or getting down with the Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control vibe, the key is to keep it tight and right. Sketch out what you're aiming to fix, drum up the resources, and assign your band members their parts. And after you hit play, don't just walk off stage - hang back to see how the crowd reacts. Monitor the effects, jot down the encore-worthy moves, and tweak the setlist as needed. This is about making each performance better than the last.

Having measures are great but it is also important to see where your measures disagree with each other. If your customer are angry but all of your metrics are in the green you are measuring something wrong. Either the threshold you have set isn't aligned or you are capturing the wrong part of the process entirely. It is important to look at the overall story that your numbers are telling you, whether they are system measured or surveyed, and what they mean for your brand or service. Also, and this should be self-evident, reach out to your team that is closest to the issue to get their ideas for what is critical. They live these interactions daily and have a better perspective than someone far removed.

Something to add for services is to manage to trends over time, preferably 6 months minimum to capture seasonality, the impact of DMAIC projects (did the C “stick”) new hires/attrition. Understanding the impacts to KPI of various business events will lead to a systems thinking mentality, that can propel you business to full optimization.

To measure and improve the performance of a Service Delivery Framework, start by defining clear Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) aligned with organizational goals, such as response times and customer satisfaction scores. Collect data through surveys and analytics, then analyze this information to identify trends and areas for improvement. Gather feedback from stakeholders to gain additional insights, and develop targeted action plans to address identified issues. Implement changes systematically while monitoring their impact through the established KPIs. Foster a culture of continuous improvement by encouraging ongoing feedback, and regularly report results to stakeholders to maintain transparency and engagement.

Define -> Measure -> Analyse -> improve -> Control By consistently finding areas of improvements in service & alignment with the right KPI monitoring helps functional improvements. setting various feedbacks from customer (at all levels) helps understand the improvement areas .