You get what you measure to…
Expect to see this in other places because it is such a common issue that it bears pointing out to any audience that I have captive…
Last weekend Dave and I ran to get a bite to eat at a local fast food restaurant (I will omit the name to protect the guilty). We were there in the middle of the afternoon so, not a busy time for the drive-thru. We ordered, we pulled forward and paid. After giving us our change the young lady working the window asked us to pull forward and she would bring our food out to us once it was done.
I said “since there is no one behind us or ordering, is it okay if we sit here and wait, but if I see someone coming, I will pull forward?”
The young lady says (and I couldn’t make this any better) “our drive-thru is timed and we are trying keeping the times at under a minute, please pull forward and I will be happy to bring it out to you.”
<dramatic pause>
I pulled forward and turned to Dave and said, you get what you measure to.
The things wrong with this situation are many so let’s break down a couple:
1) Apparently no one actually explained to the employees why they were keeping the drive thru time at under a minute. They are working to this metric regardless of the unanticipated outcomes (i.e. customer annoyance).
2) If your success is reliant on the customer doing something (pulling forward) you have already failed; what if I chose to say no after she told me the reason.
3) If you are working to improve customer experience with shorter wait times, how do you express to the “eager to please” young lady that she has already lessened this by asking me to pull forward and wait.
4) They are “gaming” the system. At a young age, in the workforce, she has learned it is more important to cheat the system to achieve what the boss wants than to do the right thing for customer service. Of course, see #1, she may not understand the ultimate goal of the metric.
I am incredibly greatful she told me the truth, if for no other reason than I could consider how often in management we make this mistake.
As managers we create metrics, explain the rewards/risks for not meeting them, but how often do we fail to explain what we are really trying to achieve.