Good is (on the side of the) Right

In the world of surveying, which side is “good” on? Left? Or right?

We are often asked to give advice on how to put surveys together. Over the years I’ve collected dozens of examples – you can see some of the winners and losers on the “Survey Idols” section here, – and I’ll share what we think is best practice in a minute, but first some background.

Around 7 – 10% of humans are left handed. Science has recently attributed this to the gene LRRTM1. But throughout history being left handed has usually had negative associations – and this can be traced through the words used to describe the condition.

From Mesopotamian time, the left hand symbolized the power to shame society, and was used as a metaphor for misfortune, natural evil, or punishment from the gods. Modern meanings evolved from the ancient terms and in many European languages. The word “left” comes from the Old English lyft, meaning weak. “Right“ is not only a synonym for correctness, but also stands for authority and justice: (German and Dutch recht, French droit); in French, “gauche” means “left” and is also a synonym of “maladroit“, meaning “clumsy“.

Meanwhile, the English word “sinister” comes from the Latin, which originally meant “left” but took on meanings of “evil” or “unlucky” by the Classical Latin era.

Maybe left-handers don’t have it all bad. Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin and Leonardo da Vinci are prime examples of lefties who made good. And there is some evidence that left-handers think more quickly (and so can dodge trouble).

CULTURAL IMPACT

Apart from the names we call people, what are the other ways in which the left-right issue works? Let’s look at popular culture.

Jennifer Van Sijll writes in Cinematic Storytelling: “As Westerners we read left-to-right. If you rented fifty studio-made movies, there’s a good chance that the ‘good guy’ will enter screen left every time. When the ‘good guy’ moves left-to-right, our eyes move comfortably. Subconsciously, we begin to make positive inferences. Conversely, the antagonist usually enters from the right. Since our eyes aren’t used to moving from right to left, the antagonist’s entrance makes us uncomfortable. The screenwriter exploits this by transferring our learned discomfort to the characters”

So you can see that the eyes usually feel more comfortable with the left-right travel…

More examples of Good (or at least Better) on the right…

Something from the 1980s I would guess:

The meters show louder on the right…

Spinal Tap, “the loudest band in the world” had amplifiers that went all the way to 11. Which was on the right.

a graph – usually better/higher is on the top/right…

CONCLUSION

Quick question: You’re filling in a survey to give someone a great mark. Do you put your tick on the right or the left?

And although we allow our clients the freedom to choose, the CustomerGauge best practice is “Good goes on the right”.

Net Promoter Score to win in '08!

“Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future” said the Danish physicist Niels Bohr. This week the news is dark and gloomy about recession around the world, inflation and lack of business confidence, and it’s more difficult than ever to forecast what will happen over the next year.

But I’m going to stick my neck out and predict that more companies will focus on the customer this year, and that they will use the simple tool of the Net Promoter Score* (or NPS).

My crystal ball is helped by a new survey from IBM and US National Retail Federation which asked 418 executives in 137 retailers their top priorities this year. The number one issue for 2008 is Customer Satisfaction (up from 5th place last year).

IBM said that customer focus is always high, but this is the first time that is projected to be the most important area, due to customers becoming increasingly demanding. Internet and mobile phones are cited as reasons for this change.

For most businesses, the first place to start an improvement project is by measurement. In a recent issue of the Harvard Business Review a list was given of key performance indicators for leading companies including Return on equity (ROE), Operating Margin, Equity Ratio, Return on Investment (ROI), Liquidity ratio, Personnel costs (as % of sales), CAPEX (as % of sales), ROCE, EBIT and so on.

I had to re-read the list again to check. There were NO customer centric metrics. Nothing to indicate how well a company is performing in the eyes of its customers.

However, it is easy to see why. All the metrics listed above are clearly defined in business schools, and codified by accounting standards boards to help investors understand how much a company is worth or is performing. And until recently, marketing people have been hopeless at defining a standard for customers satisfaction.

But the Net Promoter Score has the power to change that. It is a simple to measure metric (just one question) and easy to teach and understand internally. In the last 12 months I have been hearing more companies adopting (or planning to adopt) NPS as their measurement of customer loyalty.

We have had much interest in CustomerGauge (which was the first tool designed specifically to measure NPS) from organisations who want to get closer to their customer base, and improve the customer experience. So much so, that I believe that in the next few years NPS will be as important a score to report as earnings growth, market share or profits.

And I believe that 2008 will be the tipping point for NPS. This will be the year that Net Promoter together with its running mate Customer Focus will be elected by business!

Waitrose is #1 UK retail experience

Waitrose supermarkets are the UK’s best stores according to a report out today from consumer group Which?, and not surprisingly are able to persuade customers to pay a premium in return for better service.

Which? surveyed nearly 11,000 shoppers and asked them to rate customer satisfaction, convenience, experience, pricing and products. Waitrose and partner store John Lewis topped the survey with 87 and 78 points respectively. Other high places were given to independent book and DVD stores, Marks & Spencer (who must have been happy to climb to 6= place), Lidl and Aldi (proving that budget stores can also score highly in customer satisfaction).

Customer focus no doubt assisted Waitrose to bring in a good year, with high sales growth at 4.1% – and in the key Christmas week, up an impressive 28.5% at £79.2 million.

At the back of the survey were TopShop, Focus, Currys/PC World, Somerfield, Woolwooths, JJB Sports. In last place (77th) were JD Sports – scoring 33 points overall, but only 6% on customer service.

Many sources for this, but the Independent remarked that “JD Sports told Which? Magazine that it had appointed researchers to find out the reason for its unpopularity”.

Can we respectfully offer some advice to poor Wayne Davis, head of retail at JD: “Wayne, don’t hire researchers! Your customers are your best consultants. Listen to what they say, prioritise, and then take one action per month to fix it. Track your Net Promoter Score, publish internally, and re-focus the company around the customer. Regards, Adam”

PS If in need of a good tool for this, we humbly recommend CustomerGauge.

Old School (Sony)Style

As a former member of SonyStyle in Europe, I think it’s always fun to see how Sony’s Direct Sales operations started. So I was clearing up the attic and throwing out rubbish from our new house’s former resident and I found this A5 format catalogue left behind by our new house’s former resident: “VAIO Accessories straight from the source: Sony”.

I recognised it at once as one of the first (if not the first) SonyStyle catalogue. It’s available online here (PDF 5Mb) for your download pleasure – but I expect this is one for the collector only as it lists now defunct VAIO accessories, all no longer available I’m guessing.

Customer Survey Idols #3: The Good Communicator

 

I am indebted to Church of the Customer Blog for this tip. It’s an email invitation to fill out a survey for a Chicago Pizza company. I liked it for the polite, yet engaging tone of the invitation to comment. It actually does a great job of selling, and shows a lot of thought.

Hi, My name’s Mike and I’m the Manager at HomeMade Pizza Company in Evanston. I just wanted to thank you for choosing HomeMade. The way we figure it, there are a whole lot of places you could’ve tried for dinner, so we really appreciate the fact that you went with us.

And if you get a chance, we want to hear what you thought. Do you have any questions or comments about your HomeMade experience? Any rants or raves? Whatever it is, let me know. Feel free to give me a call here at the store, or e-mail us at [note: I'll save them from the spambots].

Thanks a lot for trying HomeMade. I hope to see you again soon!

After commenting, this customer got a response direct from a VP.

Hey Christine — I just wanted to thank you for your nice email to Mike! Bottom line is, we’re really glad you finally had a chance to stop in and, of course, I’m even happier your guys enjoyed everything — fantastic! Glad you’re planning on coming in again, too — we’ll be looking for you soon.

And keep in touch — if you ever have any questions/comments/suggestions, we’d love to hear them — we want to make sure we’re keeping you happy.

Thanks again for the great feedback Christine, we really appreciate it! Best — Shane.

I like the way that the company’s personality shines through in both of these communications. This is how customers like to be treated!