How to Pick Key Performance Indicators Like A Smart CEO

Key performance indicators

Tracking key performance indicators is the difference between thinking everything’s fine and knowing where a problem lies. Moreover, what’s behind it. So what key performance indicators should CEOs be tracking above all else, and why?

Net Promoter Score

Net promoter score is core to the long-term health of your business. If your business is growing, but you don’t have a strong NPS, then you likely don’t have a sustainable advantage. Most noteworthy an excellent NPS — 60 or higher — means that customers love your service. They will stick with it and will refer friends. - Bhavin Parikh, Magoosh Inc

Churn

As a subscription-based service, churn is the most vital of the critical performance indicators. Understanding when users join and when they leave helps to drive crucial marketing decisions. For example, what we can afford to spend on cost per acquisition. - Mark Krassner, Expectful

Reasons for Return

It’s always about why people leave. However, it should also be about why they return. Consequently, there are vital things that drew them back. So, it’s essential to know what those are so you can keep doing it, or add more to that motivation to return. - Zach Binder, Ipseity, Inc

Client Satisfaction

By far the most important of the key performance indicators a CEO should be obsessed with is client satisfaction. If clients are happy, that means you likely have the product or market fit. They are more than likely to keep paying you. Maintaining client satisfaction constant (or improving it) will allow you to increase prices or build new products to grow profits. - Kristopher Jones, LSEO.com

Areas of Interaction

It’s important to know which parts of a website — mobile or desktop — are the most widely used and visited, including the length of time there. These key performance indicators help better understand what people are looking for and how satisfied they are with what they find there. - Cynthia Johnson, Ipseity Media

Employee Retention and Satisfaction

Your business goes nowhere without a great team. Make sure you have key performance indicators that track the rate at which people leave. More importantly, identify leading metrics that indicate whether someone on your team might be in the wrong seat or on the wrong bus. The worst thing is to lose an employee because he or she hates their role. You should gladly give them a different one. - John Rood, Next Step Test Preparation

Trust

When your team trusts each other, they will put up with the occasional mistakes and bad decisions. When there’s trust, your team will also work together to solve challenges. Even if you aren’t there. Too many CEOs focus just on bottom line numbers when they have zero impact on it. The CEO’s responsibility is actually to the employees in the company. The employees are accountable for the numbers. - Krish Chopra, United Medical Rotations

Net Profit

One of the key performance indicators you need is net profit weekly. Look backward and project into the next week. Same thing for the previous month and expected in the next month. You also need to break it down based on what makes sense in your business. Have KPIs by channel, customer segment or department. What gets measured gets managed, right? Net profit at a granular level gives you insight into where to focus your management efforts. - Kevin Conner, Vast Bridges

Reputation

What people are saying on social media and among influencers is vital to track. These key performance indicators tell a CEO a lot about the company’s performance. Reputation is everything. So, you must manage it with the appropriate tools. Especially when it comes to addressing anything negative out there. - Andrew O’Connor, American Addiction Centers

Monthly Bookkeeping

It is essential to review and track your monthly bookkeeping. You can have an accountant do it or do it yourself. However, this report allows us to see all revenues, expenses, dues and payables. These numbers give us insight into controlling cost and determine activities that can increase revenue. Several times, I have been able to identify overpayments and paying for excellent services. - Piyush Jain, SIMpalm

Repeat Purchase Rate

I love looking at our bottom line numbers. I am a firm believer in Net Promoter Score as one of my key performance indicators. At the end of the day, though, I care about if people are coming back to buy more products. Whether for themselves or as a gift, nothing lets me know that we’re doing an excellent job like seeing repeat customers. And the biggest red flag is someone who buys once and then passively disappears! - Aaron Schwartz, Modify Watches

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Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) provided these answers. The organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched BusinessCollective. It is a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.