The Perils of Metrics

If Wells Fargo had set out to write a cautionary tale, a case study of data-driven dysfunction, they could not have succeeded better.

The first article posted here showed how creating strong incentives to hit numerical targets drove people over the edge.  Entirely predictable, and straight out of Austin's Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations.  (The first post in this blog links to that book.)

But why?  Why push for more and more accounts, particularly from existing customers?  If someone is already a customer, is there really enough margin in that person having two checking accounts rather than one?  Now we have a report pointing to Data Science getting used as a cudgel by someone who didn't understand the relationship between correlation and causation:

"It all stems from Wells Fargo's internal goal of selling at least eight financial products per customer. It's what Wells Fargo calls the "Gr-eight initiative." Currently, Wells Fargo boasts an average of about six financial products per customer."

While I have no direct inside knowledge, I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that someone found that customers with eight financial products were the most profitable.  Without enquiring further into why that might be so, someone dreamed up Gr-eight.  (A plausible explanation, by the way, is that relationship customers are more profitable than transactional customers and that people with a strong relationship with the bank are more likely to turn to it as their financial needs change.)

http://money.cnn.com/2016/09/09/investing/wells-fargo-phony-accounts-culture/