Our customer support team easily hits their weekly target for tickets resolved, but client escalations are spiking because reps close tickets prematurely. How do we prevent people from gaming Scorecard volume numbers?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When you measure activity volume without measuring activity quality, employees will always find the path of least resistance to protect their number. If customer support is measured purely on tickets closed, reps will close tickets after a single generic email reply, merge complex problems into one ticket, or pass unresolved tickets to other departments.

To stop gaming, pair every primary volume measurable with an opposing quality or friction counter-metric. If one number measures output, the companion number must measure defect rate, rework, or customer fallout.

For customer service or technical support seats, deploy paired metrics on the Scorecard:
- Tickets resolved within service level agreement paired with tickets reopened within forty-eight hours.
- Total closed tickets paired with first-contact resolution percentage.
- Average handle time paired with escalation rate to tier-two engineering.

When a seat owner is accountable for both throughput and rework, gaming becomes mathematically impossible. Closing a ticket prematurely to hit the volume goal will immediately trigger a red on the reopened metric.

If gaming persists despite paired numbers, you are no longer dealing with a metric architecture problem. You are dealing with a core values or GWC issue on your Accountability Chart. An employee who deliberately manipulates numbers to create the illusion of productivity does not belong on your team. Bring the behavior to the Issues List during your Level 10 Meeting, IDS the root cause, and establish whether the seat owner has the integrity to report clean operational reality.