The cafe owner thinks that what’s most important is getting customers seated and served quickly. Because she believes her customers simply value tidy lines and orders pushed through, she creates standards and KPIs. She measures things that enable her staff to tick boxes and make them look hunted.

The truth is people don’t visit her cafe in order to tell themselves a story about how they got fed quickly, for three times the cost of making a salad at home. When they want quick there’s always McDonalds.

Your metrics should be created around what’s most important to your customer. Is he looking for a shortcut, reassurance or love? Whatever it is you need to understand it and deliver it in spades.

Businesses and brands succeed when they deliver value based on customers wants, not the metrics of a well-oiled machine.

Image by Coffee Common.