Services still fall into the trap of promoting as a metric the number of enquiries/requests they get. Or their administrations impose it. Partly it seems an obvious measure, partly it is deceptively easy to collect and describe. It is, therefore very tempting to use it, especially if the figure is improving. Increasing numbers are an attractive message when a service is starting or has tried to increase interest from clients. But it is a potentially dangerous trap to use as a long term performance measure. There are at least three good reasons why services should not offer request numbers as a measure of success.
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