Performance Dashboards: Measuring, Monitoring, and Managing Your Business, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 7

Operational Dashboards in Action

Every 15 minutes the executive dashboard at 1-800 CONTACTS gets updated with the latest sales and order information. The dashboard gives about 30 top executives and managers at the online supplier of replacement contact lenses a quick way to monitor performance metrics in context: They can view a time-series chart of sales, order count, or average order size by day, week, or quarter. They can also view current activity compared to the same 15-minute period last week, last year, or a four-week running average. (See Exhibit 7.1.)

Today, the dashboard shows a sharp spike in order volume and sales compared to the same day last week. An executive picks up the phone and calls the head of marketing, who confirms that the department ran an e-mail campaign this morning that offers existing customers a discount for ordering multiple boxes of contact lenses. The executive then checks the Daily Flash chart on the dashboard, which projects closing sales for the day and sees that the campaign will boost sales significantly, and he is pleased.

Meanwhile, the company’s call center experiences an uptick in sales activity, which is good news for the 200 sales associates. They quickly check the call center dashboard, updated every 15 minutes, to see whether they are on track to meet individual and team goals for closing ratio, average order size, availability, and quality of calls. If not, they and their manager can make immediate changes to ensure they ...