KPI Scorecards: Track Your Elevator Business Performance

If it had not been for KPI Scorecards, Madden Elevator would have never made it through many of the business trials and tribulations that every business eventually encounters. Someone once told me a saying that I really liked; systemize the predictable so you can humanize the unexpected. Life will always throw curveballs and our companies and our teams. When you can systemize how to solve the KPI Scorecard challenges that present themselves, when life and family unexpectedly throw you or your team a curveball, you can humanize the experience which will also assist in retention.   

How do you measure the success of your elevator business? Is it enough to look solely at financial indicators to determine success? And, of course, what about your consumers and workers? How do they figure into the equation? Tracking business performance is essential for the success of any organization. It allows businesses to measure their progress, identify areas of improvement, and make informed decisions to achieve their objectives. To capture these diverse aspects, businesses turn to Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These are a set of metrics that organizations use to track and evaluate their performance. KPI scorecards are tools that businesses use to monitor their progress towards achieving their goals.

Understanding Key Performance Indicators

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are quantifiable measurements used to gauge your company’s overall performance. KPIs may be designed for different levels of the organization, from the overall company to individual departments or teams. They may also be used to track performance over different time periods, such as weekly, monthly, or quarterly. The goal of KPIs is to communicate results succinctly to allow management to make more informed strategic decisions. Often measured using analytics software and reporting tools, KPIs serve as a vital tool in tracking progress, identifying areas that need attention, and ensuring that all aspects of your operation are aligned with your strategic objectives. 

A KPI Scorecard takes this a step further by organizing these indicators into a structured framework. This approach gives elevator companies a clear, comprehensive view of their performance across multiple dimensions, ensuring that your elevator business is not only profitable but also delivering exceptional service, maintaining safety standards, and fostering a strong internal culture.

How KPI Scorecards Work

KPI Scorecards operate on a multi-dimensional framework that captures the key aspects of your elevator business’s performance. The typical structure includes four core perspectives: 

1. Financial Perspective 

Focus on the financial health of your business by tracking metrics like profitability, return on investment (ROI), and cash flow. These indicators are vital in understanding the sustainability of your business operations. 

2. Customer Perspective 

Customer satisfaction, retention rates, and market share are the focus here. For elevator companies, this might include tracking customer feedback on service quality, response times, and overall satisfaction with your products or services. 

3. Internal Process Perspective 

This perspective examines the efficiency and quality of your internal processes. Metrics might include elevator downtime, maintenance efficiency, safety compliance, and the speed of installation processes. 

4. Learning & Growth Perspective 

This perspective looks at employee satisfaction, training, and innovation within your company. It’s about ensuring your team has the skills and motivation to drive your business forward. 

You can tailor these perspectives and KPIs to the specific needs of your elevator business. For instance, you might add KPIs related to safety compliance or customer service excellence. Regularly tracking these indicators against your set benchmarks allows you to make informed decisions that drive continuous improvement. 

How to Implement KPI Scorecards in Elevator Businesses 

Implementing KPI Scorecards in your elevator business can transform the way you manage and grow your operations. Here’s how to get started: 

1. Clarify Your Strategy: Begin by defining your company’s vision, mission, and core values. Identify key stakeholders and set clear strategic objectives that align with your goals as an elevator entrepreneur, such as enhancing service quality or expanding market reach. 

2. Select Relevant Perspectives and KPIs: Choose the perspectives that matter most to your business. While the four core perspectives (financial, customer, internal process, and learning & growth) are a good foundation, consider adding KPIs specific to the elevator industry, like safety compliance rates, average response times, or customer satisfaction scores. For elevator services businesses, track things like total callbacks, billable callbacks, non-billable callbacks, maintenance complete/open, safety test open to name a few. Once you get good at predicting, you can almost see things unfold before they happen, giving you time to resolve before it becomes a major challenge. 

3. Set Benchmarks and Targets: Establish realistic and achievable targets for each KPI. These should reflect both industry standards and your business aspirations, such as reducing elevator downtime by 15% over the next year or achieving a 95% customer satisfaction rate. It’s important to get your managers involved in developing their own KPIs so they can be part of the solutions instead of just pushing down KPIs. 

4. Monitor and Analyze Performance: Use KPI tracking software to monitor your performance in real-time. Regularly review the data to identify trends, potential issues, and areas where you’re hitting or missing your targets. Weekly review with management is minimal recommendation. 

5. Make Data-Driven Decisions: Use the insights from your KPI Scorecard to make informed decisions that will improve your business operations. This might involve adjusting maintenance schedules, enhancing employee training programs, or refining your customer service strategies.

The Benefits of Using KPI Scorecards 

For elevator entrepreneurs, KPI Scorecards offer several key benefits that can drive business success: 

• Alignment with Strategic Goals: KPI Scorecards ensure that every aspect of your elevator business is aligned with your broader strategic objectives. This alignment helps you stay focused on what’s most important, from safety and customer satisfaction to financial performance. 

• Improved Decision-Making: With a clear, structured view of your business’s performance, you can make more informed decisions. Whether it’s reallocating resources or adjusting your strategy, KPI Scorecards give you the data you need to make smart choices. 

• Enhanced Communication: KPI Scorecards make it easier to communicate your goals and progress to your team, stakeholders, and even customers. This transparency fosters a shared understanding of your business’s priorities and helps ensure everyone is working toward the same goals. 

• Employee Motivation: When your team understands how their work contributes to the company’s success, they’re more likely to stay motivated and engaged. KPI Scorecards provide clear targets and track progress, helping to boost morale and productivity. 

• Encouragement of Innovation: By highlighting areas where performance is lacking, KPI Scorecards encourage continuous improvement and innovation. This focus on finding better ways to operate can lead to significant advantages in a competitive market.

Keep Track of Your KPIs 

KPI Scorecards are a powerful tool for elevator entrepreneurs looking to elevate their business. When creating a KPI scorecard, it’s important to choose the right KPIs to track and to structure the scorecard in a way that is easily understandable and actionable. By implementing these scorecards, you can ensure that every aspect of your operation is aligned with your strategic goals, drive continuous improvement, and ultimately achieve long-term success in the elevator industry.

Empowering Elevator Entrepreneurs Summary 

1. Elevator Entrepreneurs should not be creating Scorecard KPIs on their own.  Utilize your team working closely with them to produce the KPIs that will make them successful.  Then get your administration support to build it into a spreadsheet or your favorite (BOS) Business Operating System. 

2. KISS – Keep It Simple Smart! Do not start out with too many, some suggest 1 main KPI in each department, however, I suggest 3-5 including over 50% leading and remaining lagging indicators. 

3. Do not automate. It is common for people to want to automate pulling in KPIs, however, in my opinion, that is a mistake. The process of a manager having to pull the data, vet the data, understand the data, and plug in the data has a profound physiological effect making them want to hit the number agree upon. Good managers will see KPI number(s) off-track and want to determine why so they can formulate a plan to solve. This process gives them an opportunity to do it before the weekly pulse sync meeting.