Our customer service team is hit-rate green but our retention is dropping. How do we audit our scorecard to catch and fix metrics that our team is accidentally or intentionally gaming to look good?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When team members feel intense pressure to hit weekly targets, they will naturally find the path of least resistance to make their scorecard look green. This is called gaming the metric. If you measure customer service reps on the number of tickets closed, they will close complex tickets without fully resolving the client issue, leading to dropped retention.

To fix this, you must pair your volume-based leading indicators with a quality-based counterbalance. For every activity metric on your scorecard, assign a quality metric that prevents manipulation. If you track tickets closed, you must also track client satisfaction ratings or next-day reopen rates.

During your Level 10 Meeting, look for discrepancies between your leading activities and your ultimate lagging results. If your activity numbers are consistently green but your retention is dropping, your team is gaming the system or tracking the wrong behaviors.

Use a strategic pause during your data review to ask whether these numbers are driving the right behaviors. A strategic pause is a brief moment of quiet reflection to step back and look at the scorecard with absolute objectivity. If a metric incentivizes poor client experiences just to hit a weekly goal, change the measurable. Your numbers must serve the business, not the other way around.