Beyond NPS: Practical Metrics You Can Start With
Simple measurement ideas for early-stage programs, plus how to avoid vanity metrics.
A simple rule
If a metric does not change a decision, it is not a metric, it is a report. In early-stage programs, measure only what you can act on within two weeks.
Why NPS is not enough early on
NPS can be useful, but it is a lagging signal. It tells you how people felt after the experience, not what caused that feeling. When volumes are low, it also swings wildly, which leads teams to chase noise instead of improving the work.
Early-stage measurement should focus on reliability and learning. You want to know whether customers are getting through key journeys, whether issues are handled consistently, and whether the organization is removing root causes.
How to spot vanity metrics
Vanity metrics look impressive but do not lead to action. They are often easy to collect and hard to interpret. If a metric can go up while customers are still struggling, it is probably vanity.
Common vanity traps
- Total calls handled, without customer outcome or resolution quality
- Average handle time, without first contact resolution or customer effort
- Website visits, without task completion or reduced support demand
- Survey response volume, without clear follow-up actions
- Channel shift, without checking whether customers were forced to switch
A practical starter set of metrics
Start with a small set that covers outcomes, reliability, and learning. The goal is balance. If you only measure speed, quality drops. If you only measure satisfaction, teams struggle to improve the system.
Task completion rate
For a key journey, track how many customers complete the task without escalation. Keep the definition simple and consistent.
Time to resolution
Measure time from first report to final resolution, not time spent on a single interaction. Pair it with quality checks.
Repeat contact rate
Track how often customers come back for the same issue within 7 days. This is a strong early indicator of clarity and fix quality.
Leading indicators that work with low volume
When you do not have enough volume for statistically meaningful trends, focus on leading indicators that are still reliable. These are measures of process health and execution consistency.
Low-volume friendly indicators
- Promise kept rate: percent of cases where the team met the promised follow-up time
- Escalation clarity: percent of escalations with a clear owner and next step within 24 hours
- Root cause coverage: percent of recurring issues that have a documented root cause and fix plan
- Quality sampling: weekly pass rate on a simple interaction checklist
- Customer effort notes: count of friction points logged with an action, not just an observation
Pick one journey and measure end to end
Early-stage programs fail when measurement is spread across too many areas. Choose one customer journey that matters, define what success means, and measure it end to end. Examples include onboarding, billing clarity, claim handling, delivery issues, or account recovery.
A simple measurement sheet
- Journey: what the customer is trying to do
- Success definition: what completion looks like
- Primary metric: completion rate or resolution time
- Quality metric: repeat contact rate or promise kept rate
- Learning metric: root causes fixed per month
Use a two-week cadence
Weekly tracking is useful for operational health. Improvement work usually needs two weeks to be visible. Use a two-week cycle to review the numbers, agree actions, and confirm whether the actions worked.
Two-week cycle questions
- What is the top customer friction this period?
- What did we change to reduce it?
- Did customers get through the journey more reliably?
- Did the fix introduce new issues elsewhere?
- What should we standardize so the improvement sticks?
What good looks like
Good measurement makes it easy to answer three things: are customers getting through, are issues being handled well, and are we improving the system. If your dashboard cannot answer those, simplify it.
A simple next step
Start with one journey, four metrics, and a two-week improvement cadence. Keep NPS as a supporting signal, not the driver. When volume grows, add deeper analysis. Do not add complexity before you can act consistently.
