1.

Quantitative Indicators

Quantitative indicators are the most straight-forward KPIs. In short, they are measured solely by a
number. There are two types of quantitative indicators — continuous and discrete.

Continuous quantitative indicators can take any value (including decimals) over a range and may include
measurements like Miles Traveled (for a mobile service or shipping business) or Time Spent Per Call for
call centers and help desks. Discrete quantitative measures are whole numbers and include things like
complaints, accidents, and customer acquisition numbers.

2. Qualitative Indicators

Qualitative indicators are not measured by numbers. Typically, a qualitative KPI is a characteristic of a
process or business decision.

A common qualitative indicator that organizations regularly use would be an employee satisfaction
survey. While some of the survey data would be considered quantitative, the measures themselves are
based on the opinion of a person. Qualitative indicators tend to focus more on experiences or feelings
and the intangible value we place on them.

3. Leading Indicators

Leading indicators are used to predict the outcome of a change in a process and confirm long-term
trends in data. In a survey of several Fortune 500 companies centered on the metrics that they use as
leading indicators, 3M Corp, a mining and manufacturing company, supplied these answers:
Number of new patents

Number of new innovations

Customer service perception

In short, leading indicators look at what might happen, such as when you introduce a new product or
service. Forecasting these indicators can enable predictive decision making in relation to potential
industry trends or customer demands. In and of themselves, they are not standalone indicators of
success.

4. Lagging Indicators

Lagging indicators are used to measure results after an action has taken place in order to reflect upon
the success or failure of that initiative. Often, they are used to gauge historical performance or to
analyze the impact of a business decision. Lagging indicators enable businesses to determine whether
their business decisions facilitated the desired outcome.

Much like leading indicators, by themselves they’re not as useful as they are when used in something
like a historical comparison such as month over month or quarter over quarter performance. The other
issue with lagging indicators is that as they provide a historical view, it is sometimes too late to make
corrections to address shortfalls.

5. Input Indicators

Input indicators are used to measure resources needed for a business process or project. They are
necessary for tracking resource efficiency in large projects with a lot of moving parts, but are also useful
in projects of all sizes.

Some examples of input indicators include staff time, cash on hand, or equipment required.
 6. Process Indicators

Process indicators are used specifically to gauge the performance of a process and, hopefully, facilitate
any needed changes. A very common process indicator for support teams are KPIs focused around
customer support tickets.

Tickets resolved, tickets opened, and average resolution times are all process indicators that shed light
on the customer support process. In this example, that data can be used to influence changes in the
support process to improve efficiency and response time or resolution time.

7. Output Indicators

Output indicators measure the success or failure of a process or business activity. Output indicators are
one of the most used KPI types. Examples of output KPIs include revenues, profits, or new customers
acquired.

8. Practical Indicators

Practical indicators take into account existing company processes and explore the effects of those
processes on the company. For this reason, many practical indicators may be unique to your company or
work processes.

9. Directional Indicators
Directional indicators evaluate specific trends within a company. Where are the metrics moving? Are
they improving, declining, or maintaining?

An example of a directional metric used by many service providers would be Time on Site. This metric is
used to measure the time that techs spend on-site fixing issues and troubleshooting problems. Ideally,
most companies would like to lower their average Time on Site, as it is indicative of a faster, more
effective service. Broad directional indicators can be used to evaluate your company’s position within
your industry relative to competitors.

10. Actionable Indicators

Actionable indicators measure and reflect a company’s commitment and effectiveness in implementing
business changes. Those changes could be within business processes, company culture, or political
action. These metrics are used to determine how well a company is able to enact their desired changes
within specified time-frames.

11. Financial Indicators

Financial indicators are the measurement of economic stability, growth, and business viability. Some of
the most common financial KPIs include gross profit margin, net profit, aging accounts receivable, and
asset ratios.

Financial indicators provide straightforward insight into the financial health of a company but must be
paired with the other KPI types mentioned in this article to provide a complete picture.

Qualitative and Quantitative KPIs

More specifically, you’re looking for instances where the feedback received or data collected is both a
number and provides some kind of open-ended response that enables a person to report on their
experience.

For example, if you’re looking at trouble tickets for a help desk or support team, the qualitative KPIs
might include Time to Resolution or how long it takes your team to solve a problem. If looking only at a
number, you might get an incomplete view of the situation. If the number is higher than your current
goals, it might imply that the team Is taking too long or is ineffective at solving customer problems.
However, qualitative data, such as client comments or feedback, may report that your team is actually
quite thorough, particularly when it comes to solving complex and multi-step problems.

As the example demonstrates, KPIs are great at providing feedback and measurements, but in the same
way as a tailor measures everything completely to get the right fit, your organization should be doing
the same. That often means measuring multiple KPIs and analyzing all the data prior to making
responsive decisions.

The Why and How of Qualitative KPIs

As discussed above, qualitative KPIs will not be measured in a number. For that reason, they’re often
perceived as more complex to gather.
However, many people are more than willing to share their thoughts and experiences when asked.
Further, as a management strategy to gather these measurements, simply being active in your
organization, chatting informally with employees, or walking through your office, you can gather a lot of
data.

Further, qualitative KPIs include anecdotes or customer stories, comments, feedback, or responses to,
often, open-ended questions. That’s why in any survey, whether customer or employee, you should
include and provide an opportunity to share experiences, thoughts, and feelings. Again, when paired
with quantitative data, you’re more likely to get a more complete picture of any business situation.

Examples of Quantitative KPIs

Qualitative KPIs are likely the ones you’re most familiar with and are represented by numbers. They
include KPIs such as:

Sales growth

Customer Lifetime Value

Number of Resolved Tickets

Customer Acquisition Cost

Monthly Recurring Revenue

Service Response Time

KPIs for your finance team

KPIs for your service team

KPIs for your customer service team

How BrightGauge’s Dashboards Help You Track KPIs

At BrightGauge, we work closely with our clients to drive business growth by using KPIs and advanced
metrics. Understanding the different types of KPIs can help teams to design a well-rounded evaluation
system that boosts profits and improves business processes.
Our tools enable your team to create custom dashboards that help you to measure, visualize, and report
on the KPIs that matter most, regardless of the type of KPI. No matter which teams or functions you
need to monitor, you can see it all with our simple tools that do not require any complex coding.
BrightGauge provides the ability to save you time and effort by pulling together the data you need in
one place.

If you’re ready to talk about how our dashboards can keep you on top of your KPIs, and your business,
get in touch with our team today!