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Features

Published February 2008

Anecdotal Evidence: Worthwhile or Worthless?

  

  Chris Moore

You’re in a meeting with the chief executive of your organization, and you’re asked why you’ve budgeted $100,000 for a new training curriculum for the customer service team.

Which of these responses are you more comfortable giving?

A. “We’re getting feedback from the team that our current customer service training is not so good. My gut tells me it’s time to revamp the training and reintroduce it using some cool new technology that we want to try out.”

B. “We’re getting feedback from the team that our current customer service training is outdated. The ways that reps interact with our customers have changed, and the team feels the current training doesn’t reflect the changes. Our plan is to bring the training current and, since managers think that the reps spend too much time out of the office for training already, convert it to self-paced content and put it online so reps can take it at anytime, right at their desks.”

C. “The key metrics we monitor for customer service training are validating important feedback from the team. They’re telling us that the ways reps interact with our customers have changed and the training needs to reflect the new model. A steady decline in first-time call resolution supports that feedback. Managers are also concerned that reps spend too much time out of the office for training. A steady growth in case backlogs supports that theory as well. The $100,000 investment will bring the curriculum current and incorporate a blend of self-paced and virtual instruction. Bringing those metrics back on target is expected to increase our customer satisfaction index by 10 percent. In the past, each percentage-point increase in customer satisfaction has meant an average of $250,000 in incremental sales revenue.”

I can’t say that Response A has never been given before, but it’s easy to imagine the look on the chief executive’s face, a one-sided eyebrow-raised scowl. Response B is more acceptable but still lacks any proof that the feedback is valid, thereby lacking real justification for the investment.

That leaves Response C. But is it realistic that you’ve got the hard data ready to back up the feedback that’s guiding your investment decision? It is if you’re thinking metrics before the feedback ever arrives.

The informal feedback loop for improving learning has been in practice for years, long before the proverbial smile sheet was developed. There was a time when it was all that the training department had to go on. Today, anecdotal assessment of learning initiatives is both necessary and valuable, and learning organizations still need to do it.

When Is Anecdotal Evidence Appropriate?
To keep the respect of stakeholders, CLOs need the hard numbers to justify their ongoing initiatives, particularly when their actions involve spending real dollars. If that money is from another unit’s budget and that unit is willing to allocate their funds to close the feedback loop, then your professional credibility is less on the line. But you’ll do your stakeholders a favor by asking for proof in addition to their off-the-cuff opinions. The proof you’re looking for doesn’t have to come from a full-blown return on investment (ROI) analysis. But when you receive the type of feedback about a learning intervention that will require an investment to rectify it, it is smart to quantify with your stakeholder the financial and other costs of different options to make the changes indicated by the feedback.