Knowledge Management Metrics & KPI’s for the Service Industry

1. Knowledge
Management
Metrics & KPI’s for the
Service Industry
Eric VanAuken
What to measure and
what not to measure your
teams on.

2. What are the typical metrics that are used in knowledge
management for individuals & teams?
Common Metrics & Impact:
Measurement Methodology Impact
• Articles created: Traditional & KCS Drives article creation but causes quality issues.
• Linkage to case Traditional & KCS Pushes usage, No accountability to create
• Participation (Create + Link) KCS Drives creation and usage, may impact quality
• Article Repair/Update KCS Drives Quality, No accountability to create or usage
• Citation KCS Drive Quality & Creation, Does not account for
usage
• Article Quality Index (AQI) KCS Drives quality within the article.
• Thumbs up/Down Traditional You get feedback from user but can be biased
• Engagement Ratio KCS + You have a standardized measure across teams
(# Linked or created / # cases) or individuals
• Customer rating Traditional Like thumbs up it can be biased
• Time article is in process Traditional This only drives rushed solutions that are not good
• First time right articles Traditional This drives a perfect solution never
• Number of cases with articles Traditional Like linkage but does not take into account if article
solved the case

3. What is the one metric that you should never use alone?
Never please never choose to use Article creation as a key metric as an
incentive for the individual.
If you choose to make article creation the key metric, you have lost the war.
Remember that you get what you measure. If you measure only article creation
you will get individuals & teams that create tons of articles but with little or no
concern for quality & many will have nothing to do with solving a customer
problem.
There have been many companies & managers that have gone down this road
and they soon find a database filled with repeat articles at best & at worst a
database jammed with articles written about anything and everything so the
individuals can meet their creation goals.

4. What Metric should I use for my teams?
To drive team engagement & Teamwork you should go with a
metric/measure that can be used across teams and across team members
that have varying work loads.
It should be something that focuses in on driving the creation and usage of
knowledge.
•For a goal tied to the team for yearly goals I would use the Engagement ratio
methodology.
• It allows for cross team, cross region measurements as it is a ratio of the teams
article linkage / teams workload.
• Industry standards say that the goal of this metric should be between 60 – 85%.
• Do not set goals to drive to 100%. If you drive the goals to 100% or even close to
it, you will get people writing articles on non relevant things so that they can attach
an article to every call. I have seen this first hand. The team should only focus in
on providing knowledge on calls that require it.

5. What Metric should I use for individuals?
To drive the individuals performance I would stay away from metrics that
focus on only one aspect of knowledge alone. I would also use the metric
for coaching purposes/incentives only not for performance appraisals.
It should be something that focuses in on driving quality and usage of knowledge
articles.
•I would use the Participation Rate & the Citation Rate
• The Participation rate is not a ratio and can not be used across regions but it
gives a good measure within a team. It rewards the individual for not only creating
an article but also for using an article to close a case. The articles used do not
have to be one of their own and thus this also drives teamwork.
• The Citation rate is also not a ration but rather a number. This metric is important
as it is the key indicator of a quality article. When other people are using the article
you created it drives pride in work & creation of pertinent well thought through
useful articles. This to me is the most important metric to measure any
contributor on. It not only measures quality but it also is tied to others linking your
articles to a case. Thus it pulls all things together.

6. Closing thoughts on Metrics.
While I did not touch on many of the other KCS metrics, I believe the following
should be used in a general Coaching discussion between the candidate and the
coach.
•Article Repair/Update
•Article Quality Index (AQI)
The above are key to help keep the individual focused in on the right things.
I believe that Citation rate and Participation rate are good to talk about in the coaching
sessions but can also be used as shop floor incentives within a team to drive the behaviors
and rally the individuals to aim for bragging rights.
The only metric I would use for a team would be the Engagement ratio. You can tie this to
a teams &/or individuals year end performance goals. You still have to be careful with this
metric as you never, never want to drive to 100% as that sets up other bad behaviors and
loading the system with articles that have nothing to do with customer solutions.

7. What should I use for the systems KPI’s?
You have to look break apart the system start up KPI’s from the longer term
KPI’s.
You need to think from a Crawl – Walk – Run methodology.
Crawl Phase ( 0 – 1 year):
•Count:
Article Link, Citation, Creation, Fix Counts – Discussed in coaching process
• Article Quality Index
Individual and team – Discussed in coaching process
• % Cases with Articles Linked
Individual and team
Walk Phase (1 – 2 years):
•Call time:
Individual and Team
• Engagement ratio:
Team – Tied into performance appraisal process
• Customer Call back rate:
Individual and team
• First time Fix rate:
Individual and team
Run Phase (3 – 5 years):
•Customer Satisfaction:
Team
• Employee Satisfaction:
Individual and team