Case Study: The Welcoming Host – How SingleHop Implemented their Net Promoter Score program with CustomerGauge

Some months ago Singlehop, leading US-based hosting company ramped up its customer focus by implementing Net Promoter® Score (NPS) with the help of CustomerGauge.

Avoiding a Night in the Barrel: What businesses can learn from the US Navy Greenie Board

It’s a dark stormy January night in the Eastern Mediterranean. You are the last of the 15 pilots of your launch still airborne. The other 14 pilots have managed to land on the pitching deck of the aircraft carrier, some taking several attempts to do so. This is the most dangerous manoeuvre for the pilot of any carrier aircraft, and after taking two failed attempts to land (they call it a “bolter”) you only have enough fuel for one more run.

As you approach the ship, which is pitching up and down so it looks at times like you are above your flight path, you hear the voice of the Landing Signals Officer (LSO) keeping you on track. The best you can do is remember your training and keep calm. You have to land on that pitching deck.

And then moments later, touchdown. The relief of having landing safely is almost overwhelming – your heartrate takes minutes to come down, and your hands are shaking even as you get your first hot drink in the ready room. Facing gentle ribbing from your fellow fliers about being the last back, it quickly turns to some empathy, and you get told that your hard time was the result of a “Night in the Barrel” and it happens to the finest fliers.

Even then, the ordeal is not finished. The LSO team visits the ready room, and in front of all the assembled squadron publicly grades you on the “pass” (landing): “High, slightly overshooting start, fly through on comeback in the middle, low at the ramp. Fair-2 wire.” Ouch. And a marker is placed on the big “Greenie Board” on the wall of the Ready Room: A yellow circle. For all to see.

Back on shore…

This is just one of the stories that my colleague Rob Kerner tells about his time in the Navy. A real-life former “Top Gun”, Rob flew F14s in the US Navy, and rarely talks about it, but over a beer can sometimes be persuaded to let a few details slip. And this tale came out after a recent webinar we gave, “Relationship v Transactional Surveys”. I immediately picked up on the Greenie Board idea.

Rob explained that the Greenie Board was the most public part of an entire process that helps pilot get safely on the deck every time.

At the end of each pass, the controlling LSO shouts out his initial assessment of the landing to a writer on the team, and after every plane has been recovered, the LSO team goes below deck and reviews the passes. It is a peer group meeting (the LSOs are also are experienced pilots). A mark is given for each pass, and written notes reviewed. Later the LSOs will visit the ready room and goes through the grades in public. It’s an objective assessment. A frank exchange with the pilot is allowed, but the grade never changes. And this is for every pilot – Rob remembered his LSO duty giving a debrief to an Admiral!

And then for public display, the grade is put on the Greenie Board, which shows the most recent passes. There is no hiding from a Yellow or a Red. It’s transparent and very public.

Pilots are assessed monthly at sea by the LSOs, who will look at trends in the results – for example, on getting on the right glideslope at 10 miles out. Rob said that for him, this coaching was essential to help him improve.

From the warship to relationship

In some ways it’s crass to compare this story to business.  I am in awe of anyone who can risk their life like this. And how can customer relationships be anything like defying death on the ocean? But there are some points that I took away from his story that related neatly to what we do with CustomerGauge.

The method of having a simple mark and comment for each pass perfectly fits the Net Promoter® concept of Promoter, Passive or Detractor, together with an explaining comment. In the case of business, it’s a transaction, or customer contact in place of a “pass”.

Scores are publicly displayed for all to see – an excellent transparency that you see in the best organisations. This drives continuous improvement, and again, a feature that is found in CustomerGauge, showing the Net Promoter Score and comment by segment, by customer in real time.

And the point that I really liked is that the flyer’s career is in part judged by his/her success on the “Greenie Board”. In our world, that means the “Relationship” Net Promoter Score is made up of the individual “Transactions”. And our Waterfall charts help organisations drill into the reasons behind negative or positive sentiment.

Measure for success

We often come across clients starting a Net Promoter project that have the initial notion of measuring b2b NPS with an in-depth annual survey of a representative sample of customers, either by phone or long web-survey. Our belief has always been that continuous surveying of transactions builds a much better picture of the relationship, and showing them on real-time dashboards like the Navy Greenie Board has always been a core function of CustomerGauge. We strongly believe that business relationships are made up of these touch-points (or transactions), and large b2b customers have many individuals interacting daily with suppliers. Scoring every transaction is the way to daily scores, and continual improvement.

Rob reminded me that he is also a member of USAA (the finance organisation aimed at US servicemen and women), hailed by Fred Reichheld as an NPS “star”. Rob also raves about their service, and it got me wondering if there was something in this military metric focus (of which the Greenie board is an excellent example) that can infuse its way across the entire business. The result for USAA  is an excellent and consistent approach for customers.

I’m really inspired by this story. Watch out for part 2, where we actually take the “Greenie Board” concept and make it work in CustomerGauge for b2c “Relationship” NPS.

And if you have a few minutes, this video will give you a deep respect for what guys like Rob have done to keep the peace…

More on the LSO and grades. Picture credits: 1 2

Webinar Wednesday: Relationship Surveys vs. Transactional Surveys, in 17 minutes

16.00 UK / 17.00 CET
Wednesday 11 January 2012 (ARCHIVED)

What works best for Net Promoter® Score: Relationship Surveys or Transactional Surveys?

UPDATE: 11 January 2012. Sadly both Rob and Adam forgot to record the webinar, which was a shame as all agreed it was the best “Webinar Wednesday” ever. However, you can see the slides on this link.

Find out how in just 17 minutes in this interactive session, the next in our Net Promoter Best Practice Series.

Led by Robert Kerner and Adam Dorrell, this short webinar will cover the differences between a relationship survey and a transactional survey and give some interesting examples of where/when to use each of them. Once you understand the differences, we will discuss the pros and cons of each and whether a “hybrid” model might be a good fit for your organisation.

Topic: Best Practice Series: Relationship vs. Transactional surveys
Date: Wednesday January 11th, 2012
Time: 16:00 UK, 17:00 CET
Price: Free, to registered subscribers

Agenda:

• Survey overview and why we recommend Net Promoter
• Definitions and examples of relationship and transactional surveys
• Uses in each type in B2B, B2C and B2E (Employee) surveys
• Hybrid models
• Pros and cons of each type of survey
• Key takeaways

This is a fast run through as an overview of the issues, plus a short Q&A session at the end. It should be useful for those considering the design and implementation of a Net Promoter program, or anyone in a customer facing or research role in your organization.

Have yourself a Merry NPS Christmas… The Santa Claus Net Promoter Interview

It’s hard to think of a more customer focused outfit than the gift-distributing juggernaut that is Santa Claus Inc. From present making, data-collection (the “Naughty/Nice?” campaign is an all-time triumph) and worldwide logistics, the whole vertically-integrated organisation is entirely based on the customer experience. Naturally, they are serious Net Promoter users.

And this year, CustomerGauge were delighted to become the exclusive supplier of the Net Promoter® Score measurement system for Father Christmas. We were lucky to get a quick interview with none other than Santa Claus who spoke to us from his North Pole headquarters. He  was remarkably relaxed, despite being less than a week away from the big day.

CustomerGauge: Thank you for speaking to us Santa – you must be incredibly busy at the moment…

Santa Claus: Ho ho, actually, I try to delegate as much as possible, and Mrs Claus is always reminding me to keep my work-life balance in check.

Yo-ho-how did we do?

CG: Santa, why did you pick Net Promoter as a loyalty measurement?

Santa: We wanted to do a follow-up survey for everyone – not a sample of people, but all the children and adults. Net Promoter is beautifully simple. The “Just One Question”, 0 – 10 scale is easy to understand, and the sentiment “Would you recommend…” really appeals to all of us at Santa HQ – it’s like the gift of a personal recommendation. And it’s not just easy for our present recipients to understand – “customers” we call them – but everyone in our organisation gets it. It’s really the most important metric for us.

CG: How does your NPS program work?

Santa: We start by getting our database ready in November: cleaning, de-duping, filtering out who’s been naughty and nice, and checking it twice. As we deliver gifts, our ERP system sends the information to CustomerGauge in real-time using their API. They store the information, and 24 hours after we’ve been down the chimney, the CustomerGauge system automatically sends an email. Everyone has email these days, so that’s the best way of delivering the survey invitation. The survey is localised into 30+ languages, and we collect comments, then immediately distribute them. While many people around the world are watching the “Only Fools and Horses Christmas Special” on Boxing Day, I’m looking at NPS numbers and comments scrolling in real-time on the CustomerGauge digital signage.

CG: How are you responding to comments?

Santa: Well, I bought copies of Fred and Rob’s book, “Ultimate Question 2.0” for all the elves earlier this year, and we ran Customer Experience workshops to bring up awareness in the organisation. We appointed NPS champions in the functional parts of the business: manufacturer, communication, distribution, returns etc, and when the comments come in, they are distributed to the front-line elves, who are keen on making small improvements. We can make some immediate changes, and work on lower priority issues throughout the year. But one thing I do insist on – we must get an answer back to the customer within 24 hours!

CG: …And you track that?

Santa: Yes, we track this “firefighting” workflow in CustomerGauge. We make sure we close all all the issues promptly.

Ding Dong Merrily on High (Score)

CG: Why did you pick CustomerGauge?

Santa: CustomerGauge has been easy to integrate into our ERP and CRM systems – the API is very useful to get data in and out. It’s scalable – pushing millions of emails out in a 24-hour period works well. It’s very internationalised, and the CustomerGauge support has been excellent. The elves like the real-time digital signage, and they implemented it in under four weeks.  I would say it’s already made a positive impact on the organisation. I’ll send a link so you can try out the survey [ed: here it is: Santa's Survey]

CG: Have you any learnings you can pass on?

Santa: Yes – batteries. We always pack batteries now as so many toys need them on Christmas morning. Thanks to feedback, we now drop off  a “Dad’s pack” to make sure presents can get assembled without fuss – it contains screwdriver, scissors to open packaging, and two Ibuprofen as a restorative! Also, for some kids, we are now pre-installing apps and logins on iPads so they are “play ready”. We are always learning – and we never forget that people have a choice of present deliverer at Christmas!

CG: Finally, Santa, can you share your NPS score?

Santa: Of course -  it’s 100!

CG: Thanks Santa, and best wishes of the season

Santa: No problem. Merry Christmas everybody!

Note: You can try out Santa’s survey here. And if you want to see how the back-end CustomerGauge system works, please ask for a login and a guided tour.

Webinar Wednesday: Web Surveys vs. Phone Surveys, in 15 minutes

What works best for Net Promoter® Score: Web Surveys or Phone Surveys?

16.00 UK / 17.00 CET
Wednesday 7 December 2011 Register

Find out how in just 15 minutes in this interactive session, the next in our Net Promoter Best Practice Series.

Led by Robert Kerner and Adam Dorrell, this webinar looks at the pros and cons of both web and phone surveys – with cost comparisons, a look at the value, and when to use either web or phone.

This is a fast run through, with practical examples, plus a short Q&A session at the end. It should be useful for those considering the design and implementation of a Net Promoter program. REGISTER  here

Found In Translation: Net Promoter Customer Comments Automatically Translated

To have another language is to possess a second soul
- Charlemagne

For some fun last week in CustomerGauge HQ, we counted up the number of languages that we can speak. The result: 13. Maybe more – I think I forgot to count Norwegian. That certainly helps us roll-out complex multi-language solutions for our clients.

And from this week,  we can now assist our clients with a low-cost, instantaneous translation system for Voice-of-the-Customer comments from Net Promoter® Score survey.

Our new CustomerGauge Automatic Translation System uses the Google Translate™ Translation Service API to translate over 60 languages. Translated comments are stored in CustomerGauge, and can be searched and reported on. No need for cut-and-paste, no buttons to press. If you have used Google Translate before, you’ll be familiar with the idea.

Technically it’s a “Gisting” service – you can get the “gist” of a comment – but it’s not a perfect translation. We always recommend that comments be routed to local language speakers to deal with; however, the service has already proved useful for client needs. Some interesting points have already be “found in translation”.

The cost of this service is EUR 0.10 per translated comment. (equiv: US $0.13, A$ 0.13, GBP 0.09). It is available from 2 December 2011 on CustomerGauge b2c sites.

Our Client Operations team are ready to set up translations on CustomerGauge sites now. Or if you are considering a Net Promoter project, let us advise you on acquiring the gift of translation for your Net Promoter project.

Download the presentation here.

CustomerGauge first with full API support for Net Promoter

CustomerGauge is now available with a full range of API (Application Programming Interface) methods to connect to enterprise systems, so now it’s simple to connect to ERP, CRM, BI and e-commerce systems and measure Net Promoter® Score. It is the first fully automated Net Promoter Score platform with an enterprise level API.

Using the API, CustomerGauge clients have already been able to integrate service-request systems, IVRs and other enterprise systems to contact customers and measure NPS in real-time, feeding results directly back into corporate systems.

One client uses the API to send customer details to CustomerGauge as soon as an agent hangs up the phone, and within two minutes the same customer receives an email survey to gather a score and a comment. The results of this activity have pushed response above 50%.

Another client is using the API to push customer issues directly into Salesforce.com in order to “Close the loop” with the wider organisation.

And another client is using multiple platforms to survey, including graphically based iPad systems, all based on communicating results to CustomerGauge with our secure API.

These CustomerGauge platform integrations are simple and quick to implement, and mean that NPS can be easily rolled out across organisations by connecting with diverse IT platforms.

Developers can start directly with our documentation. To understand more about how CustomerGauge can be integrated with other systems, contact us.

CustomerGauge Security Enhancements: November 2011 Release

Security is one of the least exciting features to talk about in an application, but it is the essential foundation of a SaaS system like CustomerGauge. Safely storing the customer details and Net Promoter Scores of our corporate clients keep us awake at night. We quietly spent some of the summer months on a rolling program of security enhancements, mostly invisible to our users, all oriented to improving data protection.

Today we roll out some platform enhancements which include two security features:

• Multiple Failed Login Attempt Prevention. There may be useful acronym for this tongue-twister; suffice it to say that this helps block a nasty penetration attempt called a “brute force attack” – if someone tries to repeatedly login without success they will be blocked from the system.
• IP Whitelist: This came as a request from clients who wish to restrict CustomerGauge access to selected IP addresses, and so enhance security on the system.

Details are in a short presentation, questions can be directed to Client Operations team.

Converting eCommerce Customers into Volunteer Affiliates (webinar)

Jump-start your 2012 marketing planning in this free webinar by learning how to extend your e-commerce platform to get your customers working for you.

16.00 UK / 17.00 CET 23 November 2011 Register

In today’s tight business environment, companies cannot afford to miss opportunities to gain customer insight, and find ways of using it to engage with customers. And with even a modest online shopping site, companies have started to amass sophisticated customer databases with a great deal of demographic and purchase data included. But there is a key piece of information missing: Which customers would actually recommend you?

Knowing who are your most prolific buyers, and then adding this loyalty dimension is surprisingly easy to do, and costs little. Armed with this knowledge, you can build a small army of mavens and volunteer salespeople who will help you spread the word. And you also gain the benefits of real-time, continuous feedback, and can quickly find out what is working (or not) on your site.

In a short webinar we bring together two experienced customer service executives to discuss the importance of using this valuable tool, your e-commerce platform. Here’s a clue: you will be amazed at what you can learn by just asking your customers.

Rob and David will discuss how you can start this with low-impact initiatives, extending to fully-automated online systems, based on Net Promoter® Score. Agenda:

• Turning data from your e-commerce system into valuable customer insight
• Make the link between loyalty schemes, e-commerce and social marketing
• Continuously survey customers to recognize needed improvements in your business
• Identify advocates and turn them into customer evangelists

Length: Approximately 40 mins (30 mins presentation/10 mins questions)

REGISTER NOW – limited places!

About the presenters:

• David Marklew, Companion of the Institute of Customer Service, over twenty years of senior operations and customer service management experience with major brands including HMV, Virgin, TK Maxx, specialising in service strategy, engagement and best practice.
• Robert Kerner, Director, Business Development, CustomerGauge, formerly: independent consultant, HP, John Deere

CustomerGauge User Event, Amsterdam, 2 November 2011

On Wednesday 2 November the 2011 CustomerGauge User Event will be held in central Amsterdam, Netherlands. We are looking forward to welcoming all CustomerGauge users to a packed one-day event – it should prove to be excellent opportunity for clients to hear the latest news on the CustomerGauge platform, hear about success stories from around the world and meet other CustomerGauge users.

The exclusive one-day event will feature:

• Expert user presentations from long standing CustomerGauge users
• Enhanced Net Promoter® Score understanding – with tips on changing your company culture
• Latest developments on the CustomerGauge platform
• Best practice sharing
• One-on-one interaction with industry peers

Location: NH Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky, Central Amsterdam, Netherlands (map)

Time: 10:00 am to 17:00 pm followed by cocktails

The cost to attend the event is EUR 95 (+ tax) per delegate, with travel and accommodation cost will be borne by the Participant. Space is limited so we request you to register by 14th October 2011.

We hope you can join us – CustomerGauge team

PS CustomerGauge partners can also join for the morning plenary sessions, and benefit from afternoon breakout sessions. More details on request: info@customergauge.com

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