Our leadership team is debating whether we should include qualitative customer satisfaction metrics on our weekly Scorecard or stick strictly to hard financial and operational numbers. What is the correct approach?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Your weekly Scorecard must consist of leading indicators that allow you to predict future performance. While financial metrics like revenue and cash flow are important, they are lagging indicators that only tell you what happened in the past. To run your business effectively, you need a balance of both operational and qualitative metrics.

Qualitative metrics like customer satisfaction or employee morale are highly valuable, but only if they are measured objectively and weekly. If you are relying on annual or quarterly surveys, those numbers are useless for a weekly Scorecard.

To include qualitative metrics, you must find a way to quantify them. For example, instead of tracking a vague feeling of customer happiness, track your weekly Customer Net Promoter Score, the number of positive reviews received, or the percentage of customer support tickets resolved on the first contact.

The golden rule of the Scorecard is that every metric must have a target and a single owner. If a metric cannot be updated weekly with a clear, objective number, it does not belong on the Scorecard. By focusing on quantified qualitative data, you get an early warning system that flags potential operational and reputational issues before they impact your financial bottom line.