Benchmarking - An Innumeracy Crisis Name withheld upon request November 3, 2005   Imagine being at company X, and everyone is slapping each other on the back because they've hit their target of 15% year over year revenue growth. Now, consider how they'd feel if they looked across the highway and saw their nearest two competitors had y/y growth rates of 150% and 200%?   Consider the view from the window of a jumbo jet. Doesn't it always seem like you're going faster after your wheels touch down than when you were in the air?   Comparisons can provide a vital frame of reference, and a "reality check" for a business. But like any other business metrics, the fundamental lack of mathematical understanding causes problems. Are these problems any different from driving to Average Speed of Answer and ignoring the customer experience? Are they any different than staffing to a high occupancy level, and ignoring the expenses caused by high turnover? How many call centers are willing to pay for the skilled, technical talent needed to generate and interpret operational metrics that are meaningful? How many call centers are being run by people who could tell you that on a CentreVu report, ACD calls are only the answered calls, so that's why you could have more Aband Calls than ACD calls on your night shift report? Worse yet, things like this are clearly spelled out in the online help that is only a click away, but is never accessed by these call center managers.   It's the call center industry's own "innumeracy" crisis. That's why they seek out benchmarking - they want someone to tell them what metric they should be looking at in a report, and what number to look for to draw the line between good and bad. These aren't bad or stupid people. These are people who tend to be very good at managing the people who answer the phones. But they can't tell which of the eleventy-jillion metrics available on their reports system will tell them how they are really doing.