Net Promoter News: Philips designs to win customers and NPS, Speedy beats industry NPS, Obama and Romney in race to bottom, Freightquote NPS +68

Philips puts design in the heat of the battle

In an interview with FastCo Design, new Philips design chief Sean Carney lays out his approach to convincing a sceptical CEO of the value of design and leading over 400 creatives at the 120-year-old Dutch company (full disclosure: Philips has been a CustomerGauge client since 2007).

Joining the company last year, Carney felt that design could positively impact the bottom line if it were better integrated with the business. So he has placed a renewed emphasis on nurturing relationships internally across departments including corporate strategy, technology research, new business development, and country sales organizations. And in a bid to broaden revenue streams, instead of being focused on creating a great customer experience around individual products, there is now more emphasis on designing wider ecosystems. According to Carney, these initiatives are aimed at helping Philips win more business and improve its Net Promoter Score.

Early results are promising. Philips Fidelio music docks have recently become the market leaders across Europe – a category that both Apple and Sony failed in – and also been recognized with industry design awards. FastCoDesign

Speedy links customer satisfaction to bonuses, boasts industry-beating NPS

This week UK equipment rental company Speedy has announced a significant turnaround in profitability and an independently-assessed Net Promoter Score of +29.5, which it says is well clear of the industry average of +11. (As an aside, it’s very useful to see important information such as an industry average, but would be even better if a source was cited).

The group has placed a renewed focus on customer service in its statement, saying that “To enforce awareness and customer service standards, any depot failing to achieve a 90 percent plus satisfaction level fails to qualify for performance bonus, irrespective of its profitability status.”

Putting customer satisfaction above profitability is one the most emphatic statements any business can make about its intentions, and we commend Speedy for going the extra mile to nurture strong, sustainable relationships with its customers. Implemented consistently, this strategy should pay increasing dividends for the business in the years to come. Vertikal.net

Battle for the Presidency: A race to the bottom

If the incumbent and challengers of this year’s US presidential election were blue chip corporations that investors held as part of their long-term investment strategies, the time to dump the stock was yesterday.

According to research by BIGinsight, both President Obama and challenger Mitt Romney are considered to be terrible and almost-as-terrible by survey respondents, with Obama’s Net Promoter score at -80.7 and Romney’s at -59. According to the article; “The latest results show that President Obama is losing support among those who backed him in 2008, and these voters grade the president low for his performance on jobs and the economy.”

As we know, things can change quickly in politics, but we will be interested to see the outcome of the elections based on the current scores in May 2012. San Francisco Chronicle

Freightquote.com quotes revenue growth, high NPS

Freightquote.com is the largest online freight logistics company in the US. This week the company announced its dedicated customer service had directly impacted revenue growth over 2011, in which the company saw a revenue increase of 23%.

On a related note, Freightquote.com announced a (self-reported) Net Promoter score of +68. Since there is no word on industry averages or if the research was independent, the score by itself does not necessarily say much despite its apparent strength. Market Watch

Five Year Milestone

Congratulations to CustomerGauge, who this week celebrated their 5th birthday. Since registering the domain name CustomerGauge.com in May 2007, the system has grown to a global enterprise customer feedback platform. Many happy returns to all the team and customers.

Brought to you weekly by CustomerGauge. Browse Net Promoter News, search by company tag or check out the back issues. To get a copy in your inbox sign up here.

Net Promoter News: Wonga NPS +73, APR: 4214%. SurePayroll pays attention to convenience at 50+, 56% of brand owners used NPS, NextUC record month at +43

Brought to you weekly by CustomerGauge. Browse Net Promoter News, search by company tag or check out the back issues. To get a copy in your inbox sign up here.

Wonga: Legal loan shark or financial services innovator?

In stark contrast to most financial services companies, British up-and-comer Wonga claims this week that its Net Promoter Score is +73. According to CEO and co-founder Errol Damelin, “Most of the banks in the UK are negative. The Co-op has a score in the 20s while First Direct has one in the 40s — that’s a good number. Wonga, at 73%, is in Google and Apple territory, and most of the time we’re ahead of these guys.”

The company’s (self-reported) score is indeed very high, and it has grown in leaps and bounds since its founding in 2007. Damelin attributes this to Wonga’s transparency as well as the speed with which it can approve loans – in as little as half an hour. Notwithstanding its impressive growth and advocacy levels, the company has its share of detractors for the high cost of its loans and also arguably unethical advertising practices. Is Wonga a customer service leader or financial predator? For sure, it’s the poorest in society that use these high interest “pay day” loan companies, and even with a high score we hesitate to say these are poster boys for NPS…. You be the judge: The Guardian

Only 7% of US companies self-identify as customer-centric

According to a new survey released this week by the Temkin Group, only 7% of US companies with revenue topping $500 million out of 255 polled believed themselves to be genuinely “customer-centric.”

However, the survey did not reveal only bad news. Within the next three years, 49% of those surveyed want to become leaders in terms of customer experience within their specific markets. And encouragingly, 56% of brand owners used Net Promoter to gauge advocacy levels – up from 49% in an equivalent survey from last year.

If Net Promoter is being used effectively, we will be interested to check back in on this survey over the next few years to see how these companies are faring. Until then, there are plenty more stats for customer experience buffs to read up on at the link.  WARC

SurePayroll pays attention to customer convenience

The past several years has seen a mushrooming in the channels people use to keep in touch – social media, texting, instant messaging, emailing, and calling are all ways people communicate at work as well as home.

With this in mind, US online payroll service provider SurePayroll has taken the opportunity to broaden its customer service offering from simply phones and emails to encompass other channels such as IM and web submissions that may be more convenient for its 35,000 customers.

This has contributed to the company’s (self-reported) NPS in the 50s. According to Jamal Ayyad, SurePayroll’s director of customer care, other reasons for the high score are the company’s focus on working to resolve the customer’s issue on the first call, using its CRM system to identify product improvements that would eliminate the need for customers to call, and hiring people who are passionate about customer service rather than people with technical skills. 1to1media

Promoters: Just the beginning?

A criticism of Net Promoter is that while nurturing “promoters” or high levels of advocacy among your customers is all well and good, in reality how often do these promoters actually proactively advocate your product or service to the people around them?

A post this week argues that companies should move beyond promoters to identify “defenders” – customers who are already talking positively about your brand across social media or otherwise. It nominates Salesforce.com as one company which is already proactively developing relationships with these key customers by inviting them to blog, attend events, present panels, and have inside information available to them. And because this is done without financial compensation, it means their words carry a great deal of objective weight within their social circles.

For the record, CustomerGauge advises any company willing to take its customer service to a new level to proactively reach out to its promoters (including the 1% of extremely vocal advocates). It’s something we have been doing for years for a number of clients and know it can be achieved through the framework of Net Promoter surveys.  Harvard Business Review

NextUC takes KPIs to next level

Cloud communication provider NextUC has reported “record numbers across the board” for the month of April, including a Net Promoter Score of +43. The startup claimed in a self-puffer that it has recorded “100% product availability for the month, record user adoption, and record website activity.” San Francisco Chronicle

Which Companies are using Net Promoter?

In the last few years we have reported on many companies in Net Promoter News. We have a handy company index here which lists around 300 companies, some with Net Promoter scores – self reported or otherwise. It’s growing each week, and is now probably the largest source of publicly posted scores available. Use it as you need, but do remember that methodologies do vary wildly (one day we hope scores will be more standardised)!

Net Promoter News: Advanced Technology Services tightens screws, Darwinian Survival of the Fittest CE Brands in India, Weebly high NPS, MycroBurst in 70s, UK PM in NHS NPS push

Here we go gathering NPS in May – eyes down for the first Net Promoter Newsletter of the month… Brought to you weekly by CustomerGauge. Browse Net Promoter News, search by company tag or check out the back issues. To get a copy in your inbox sign up here.

Advanced Technology Services advances B2B Customer Satisfaction

High-end spanner twisters Advanced Technology Services (ATS) is the US-based provider of maintenance services to large manufacturing companies. Originally part of Caterpillar Inc, ATS became an independent privately-owned firm in 1996, and its revenues have been growing by an impressive 18 percent annually. According to CEO Jeff Owens, growth is due to relationship-building with its customers – small, but incrementally built up over time. ATS works to consistently delight their customers until the relationship eventually develops into something broad and long-term. The company uses Net Promoter to keep its finger on the pulse of these relationships, but has a strategic approach that seeks to improve on these scores year-on-year rather than a shorter timeframe.

Also of interest to customer loyalty junkies, Owens noted that “Before NPS, we did surveys on a scale of 1 – 10, and our guys really enjoyed getting 9’s and 10’s.  The reason we moved from that is that we were trying to raise the bar, and say, “It’s not just that everyone is satisfied. It’s whether our customers would, unsolicited, recommend us to a friend or colleague.” That “unsolicited” part is really important.” Forbes

Sony, LG, and Panasonic most responsive to change in Indian business jungle

New research from Market Xcel that used Net Promoter to uncover purchase intent among Indian consumers has revealed that Sony, LG and Panasonic lead the pack as the most advocated brands in the consumer durables category.

The article goes into some detail about which brands are winning across different product types, but what caught our eye was an easily-forgotten pearl of wisdom offered by Charles Darwin that remains very relevant in today’s business jungle. According to quote in the article, “Darwin theorised that it is neither the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”

It’s a great quote, and we’d add that proactively seeking feedback from your customers is the first step toward a building a change-responsive business – not just in terms of new products or offerings, but also in terms of building strong relationships and continuing to maintain your relevance.

For NPS fans, there is an excellent table of results featuring the brands and categories. PitchOnNet

PEER 1 Hosting aims for peerless satisfaction, not quite there yet

Online IT hosting provider PEER 1 Hosting this week announced the appointment of Gaye Andrews as its Head of Customer Service in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). The reason for the appointment appears to be closely tied to Andrews’ experience in rolling out an extensive Net Promoter program at RBS.

Regarding the appointment, UK MD Dominic Monkhouse, noted that “Passion and customer service are at the heart of what we do. Gaye’s experience of using NPS will be significant in driving forward our customer service and loyalty programs across EMEA, and ensuring we continually improve as a business.”

All sounds pretty straightforward, until you visit the PEER 1 website, where the company claims it has improved its Net Promoter Score “by 76% last year alone” – a somewhat confusing as it does not outline a benchmark, initiatives that may have contributed to the improvement, or who conducted the research. However, we do know that in 2010, the company claimed an NPS of +36. There is probably a mathematical formula in there somewhere to figure out, but we’ll let that go for now. The Hosting News

Profits, Net Promoter Scores are ‘Weebly’ high

MycroBurst is a crowdsourcing site for companies and individuals who want custom logos and designs. It has a community of over 35,000 designers, who compete to offer clients designs for projects ranging from website logos to postcards. According to co-founder Joe Witte, the company’s NPS is above +70. And in related information, the company doubled its revenue in the last year. Reuters

And finally, Cameron gets NPS idea for NHS

It seems that David Cameron gets the “Net Promoter” bug, applying it to Britain’s National Health Service.  Money quote: “Visiting NHS hospitals today, Mr Cameron will announce the “friends and  family” assessment.  “It’s very simple. It just asks whether patients, carers and staff would  recommend their hospital to their families and friends in their hour of  need,” Mr Cameron will say”. Daily Telegraph

Net Promoter News: Voxeo’s Customer Obsession, Sprint Nextel, MetroPCS awkward on NPS, Dutch Travel Counsellors get gongs, NetDimensions adds NPS Dimension, RSC Boss +67

Voxeo outlines three major NPS-inspired initiatives

Interactive-voice house Voxeo has been driving other interesting initiatives in an effort to make the company even more customer-centric – a few weeks ago we noted with interest that it has embedded Net Promoter deeply into the company’s service mindset by tying results to employee bonuses and asking customers to rate their support calls.

In a very readable post on its corporate blog this week, Voxeo has taken the informative step of outlining three major initiatives that have been inspired by Net Promoter customer feedback. In brief, they are:

1. Become a trusted adviser for clients’ businesses: Voxeo has entered into a number of partnerships that allow it to expand its offerings and areas of expertise, in addition to its employees being available to share their industry knowledge.
2. Rather than simply letting its customers know about new Voxeo products first, the company wants to put in extra effort to educate them about product changes and enhancements long before they occur.
3. Voxeo has introduced local web hosting servers in all US datacenters and augmented the business continuity information stored offline in its network operations.

We were amused by the slightly scary team name “Customer Obession Team”, but no denying the focus is there. For more details, pop over to Voxeo Talks.

Sprint Nextel and MetroPCS Communications Execs on Net Promoter Scores

Earlier this year at its Q4 earnings call, Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse discussed the company’s strong Net Promoter momentum and noted that Sprint was the only one of the four major US carriers to show sequential improvement. Sounds promising, right?

This week Hesse once again brought up the company’s Net Promoter Score at its Q1 earnings call (slide 10 if you want to join in at home), mentioning that “Sprint is the only one of the four major wireless carriers to show improvement year-over-year.” We’re not sure if this is exactly the same thing, but analysts have noted that its earnings were something of a mixed bag. We look forward to the next call and seeing if a similar Net Promoter quote is offered once again! Seeking Alpha Sprint Nextel

American mobile phone service provider MetroPCS also brought up the metric, with a somewhat awkwardly-worded comment that in Q1 “the transition of our customer base is important as mature users now benefit from our new handset selection and remained loyal to our brand. We believe this loyalty continues to show itself in positive Net Promoter Scores that demonstrate the true viral nature and impact of our service in the communities that we operate in.” We’ve tried to sift the jargon but still not sure – does it simply mean the company has positive Net Promoter Scores? Or positive momentum? We’ll keep an eye out for more info. Seeking Alpha MetroPCS

Travel Counsellors Netherlands picks up three gongs

Family-owned travel operators Travel Counsellors have been awarded with ‘Best Travel Agency Group,’ ‘Most Popular Travel Agency’, and the overall award for the highest customer service score in their first appearance at the Zoover Awards (also known as the Netherlands National Travel Awards).

This very impressive result is not without precedent – in fact, Travel Counsellors regularly attains stratospheric Net Promoter Scores of over +90.

The company proudly talks about using Net Promoter® Score. From their site: “Two weeks after booking all customers are sent a simple question ‘How likely is it that you would recommend your Travel Counsellor to your friends and colleagues?’ “. If you’re curious to discover a little more about how the business has been so effective a creating arguably one of the most customer-centric operations globally, check out the link to see group chairman David Speakman discuss why he is a big advocate of creating a relationship-based approach to a transactional industry (video). Source:  Travel Blackboard

NetDimensions adds Net Promoter Dimension

Learning technology supplier NetDimensions has unveiled a North American professional services portfolio aimed at maximizing clients’ value of their NetDimensions Talent Suite investment.

Commenting on the launch, Art Faccone, VP of professional services noted: “We are implementing the Net Promoter Score client satisfaction methodology across all client engagements in North America. Our goal is clearly to keep growing our differentiator, especially in an industry that is renowned for low satisfaction levels.” San Francisco Chronicle

RSC’s NPS stands at +67

Rental equipment provider RSC has announced its 2011 Corporate Social Responsibility report with a commendably detailed self-puffer. The release discusses its key initiatives and how these link back to stakeholder value, and notes that based on more than 23,000 customer survey responses in 2011, RSC’s Net Promoter Score was an excellent +67. Market Watch

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Net Promoter News: AmEx cashes in, Apple’s in-store asker, Nokia talks up Asha’s NPS, SoDA pops 51 plus NPS Everywhere

American Express: Tracking Net Promoter all the way to shareholder value

A fascinating interview this week with Jim Bush, EVP of world service at American Express outlines how the company has used Net Promoter to propel it to the leading position for financial services brands in terms of customer service in the US, and how the company is tracking its Net Promoter improvement all the way to its shareholder value.

Among the insights:

• In the past, 75% of customer service training was on how a transaction was completed technically. Now, training focuses on how to create the relationship and build it through humanity, conversation, and engagement,
• No scripts. When a customer calls American Express, the Customer Service professional is presented with a customer profile and other relevant information. This allows the care professional to leverage the power of their personality to build a human relationship suited to the particular customer.
• The company sees a 10% to 15% increase in spending and four to five times increased retention from promoters.  In addition, due to streamlining, operating expenses associated with service have been reduced. And even better, since the height of the financial crisis, the company’s stock has considerably outperformed the industry’s index.

Finally, a personal reflection by Jim Bush on his time in the role offered some interesting insights into what motivates a market-beating customer service professional. As with many people, he initially thought of customer service as a back-office operation. But as he considered the millions of interactions the company has with customers, he realized the following truth; “If we can unleash the power of that customer-facing organization, think of the value we can create.”

Not just for your customer, but for your bottom line! CNN Money

Steve Jobs on Customer Service

Steve Jobs famously once said “It is not the customer’s job to know what they want.”

But despite a significant number of punters taking this to mean that Apple doesn’t focus on what customers think, the brand actually uses Net Promoter to track customer sentiment very closely. A Business Standard article this week touches on how Apple uses Net Promoter to fine tune customer service in-store, noting that when customers make a purchase they receive an electronic receipt and sometimes a Net Promoter survey. Any negative responses are followed up by store managers, and results are aggregated and share internally. Customer service is not the reason the brand creates category-defining devices again and again. But it does take customer care extremely serious.

The article also mentions LEGO Group – which collects scores across both online and offline customer service touchpoints. Scores are distributed through the company monthly, and follow-ups are made on all negative responses. Since 2005, scores have improved 26 per cent. Business Standard

Nokia gives earning call, reiterates Asha NPS

In brief: Yesterday Nokia gave its Q1 2012 earnings call, and once again mentioned that its range of Asha smartphones has the highest Net Promoter Scores for any of the company’s mobile phone products. According to CEO Stephen Elop, this was due to the fact that Nokia “delivered consumers more aspirational designs and experiences.”

This may be so, but will it be enough to put a dent in Android sales, let alone Apple? It’s something we’re keeping a close eye on, so stay tuned! Seeking Alpha

SoDA gets Net Promoter Score, claims Outstanding Member Satisfaction

Another non-profit group has adopted Net Promoter as an important metric according to a Virtual Strategy.  The Society of Digital Agencies (SoDA) announced in a PR bragger their recent 51% Net Promoter Score, with 60% respondents falling into “Promoter” category.  Chris Buettner, SoDA Director of Operations said he was pleased with the results, but was not complacent, and wanted to evolve the programs based on the results. Virtual Strategy

Net Promoter now available Everywhere says CustomerGauge

“These days, everyone is responsible for customer experience” says a senior Electrolux executive, “It’s not just the property of the research department or a customer service team”. Responding to challenges like this has resulted in the new platform from CustomerGauge who this week announced their “Everywhere” Net Promoter® solution, delivering customer feedback and scores to everyone in the organisation, on desktop and ipad devices.

Comments are delivered in real-time, with the screen updating as customers respond. New features include performance boost with a claimed one million records graphed in around a second, more ways of slicing and dicing data, and language options with German and Italian available already. Wilkommen, Benvenuto! CustomerGauge

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Net Promoter News: Scottrade Invests in Loyalty, Reaps Windfall, Kohl’s and Macy’s are NPS Catwalk Queens; Walmart a Fashion Disaster, Dell makes Inspired Acquisition, Execs *Heart* Net Promoter

Scottrade profits from high customer service returns

Scottrade has announced to the world that it scored the highest in customer loyalty in the brokerage and investment category in the recent US Net Promoter Benchmark Study by Satmetrix.

This strong performance is definitely unusual for financial services brand, considering the robust criticisms and headwinds the sector has faced in the last few years.

And perhaps even more impressive, the self-puffer claims not only that the company’s growth from its beginning in 1980 has been entirely organic, but that it has never closed an office or had to lay off an associate. Bearing in mind recent crises and obstacles this would be a great achievement for a company with 50 branch offices. But for a company with over 500 branch offices such as Scottrade, I think we can safely call it exceptional.

For the record, Scottrade’s NPS was +54.  Eon

Women’s clothing: Kohl’s and Macy’s are the new black, Walmart the uninspiring beige

New Net Promoter research by BigInsight that analyzed the top five US retailers for Women’s Clothing (Kohl’s, Walmart, Macy’s, JC Penney, Target) throws up some interesting insights:

• Of the five, the most heavily advocated brands by a long shot are Kohl’s, Macy’s and JC Penney, all of which are department stores (as opposed to the discount options of Target and Walmart).
• For Kohl’s and JC Penney, price and selection were the key reasons that drive shoppers to make their purchases, but for Macy’s, it was quality and selection.
• Walmart was the only retailer of the five to calculate a negative score (-10.3).

There are several takeaway here for clothing retailers. But for shoppers there’s only one: If you want to pleasantly surprise your female friends and loved ones, visit discount retailers at your peril. The BIG Consumer Blog

Dell acquires AppAssure, based in part on Net Promoter Score

Dell has announced that it is acquiring software firm AppAssure, which it says will become the company’s primary backup offering targeted at small to medium-sized businesses.

According to Brett Roscoe, general manager and of data management solutions at Dell Storage, the key factors in the decision-making process were that it was going through a huge growth phase, and that this was complemented by Net Promoter Scores that were “off the charts.”

We’re always interested to read about high Net Promoter Scores that correlate with business growth, and it will be interesting to check in on this acquisition in a year or so to see if the momentum has continued. In the meantime, this appears to be an inspired move by Dell.  ARN

Austin Benn outperforms in advocacy, falls short in transparency

This week UK recruitment solutions firm Austin Benn trumpeted a Net Promoter Score of +72 on its website, and says its nearest competitor comes in at +56.

While both of these scores are exceptionally strong, details on the site are pretty light. In the interests of transparency, we’d love to know more details on who did the work and sample size. The usual basics. (Plus, a small #fail. They tell us “*Net Promoter methodology based around customers scoring given factors on a scale of 1 to 10″ – should have used standardised 0 – 10 for accurate results).

Austin Benn – if you’re reading this please feel free to add this to your NPS CV, and re-apply for the top Net Promoter spot!  Austin Benn

A third of execs claim to use Net Promoter

According to Acxiom and Loyalty 360, Net Promoter is one of the most popular metrics used by CXOs as part of their customer retention strategies. So popular, in fact, that approximately one third of those surveyed claiming they use it – a big number indeed and somewhat higher than we may have estimated.

Perhaps in a related matter, less than half agree that they know who their most loyal customers are. Marketing Charts

In Brief: Other Net Promoter news this week

• CustomerGauge’s Australian partner Genroe discusses the three critical elements of Customer Loyalty surveys
• The Motley Fool sings the praises of Net Promoter-using cloud computing specialists Rackspace
• Costco claims highest Net Promoter Score among major department, wholesale and specialty retailers in recent survey by Satmetrix
• CustomerGauge followed up the “Monday Effect” news in last weeks Net Promoter News by looking at some data in They Don’t Like Mondays. Or Do They? 

Brought to you weekly by CustomerGauge. Browse Net Promoter News, or check out the back issues. To get a copy in your inbox sign up here.

Net Promoter News: Grange Links Satisfaction to Retention, Hail to the Chief Customer Officer, Pipe Center “Perfect Sat.” no Pipe Dream and the Net Promoter “Blue Monday” Effect

Grange sees “direct correlation” between satisfaction and retention.

Insurers have had a rough time of late, with major US health insurers managing a paltry average of +4 in a recent Net Promoter survey across 30,000 US consumers.

According to a new article in Insurance and Technology, insurers may be able to begin to turn around their dismal satisfaction levels by “shifting from a process mentality focused on executing steps, to a people-focused paradigm emphasizing communication and aimed at keeping customers happy.”

The article goes on to discuss Grange Insurance, an automotive, home, life and business insurance provider, which constantly reviews customer satisfaction using the Net Promoter Score, records all customer calls, and embeds them in the relevant claim file. By continually evaluating these sources of intelligence, Grange can determine individual claimants’ preferences and also tailor its training for customer-facing employees.

All pretty straightforward, but the kicker lies in the final quote by CIO Michael Fergang, who asserted: “There’s a direct correlation between customer satisfaction and retention. Net Promoter is our vehicle to evaluate that very quickly.”

Insurers, how are you keeping your finger on the pulse of customer satisfaction? Insurance Tech

Hail to the Chief Customer Officer

The rise of the Chief Customer Officer (CCO) has been the topic of increasing discussion over the past few years, and in early February, we quoted Voxeo Chief Customer Officer Anne Bowman, who noted in Smart Planet that in general companies have “notoriously low Net Promoter scores,” with the average score only +10.

This week, Bowman further expanded on her role in Inc. Magazine. According to the article, Voxeo had been using Net Promoter for some time, but was seeing “diminished returns” from the initiative due to the fact that the company did not have consistent processes for analysing the data and acting on the insights. One of Bowman’s initiatives was therefore to formalize the system, “by tying results to employee bonuses and asking customers to rate their support calls.”

The article did not elaborate on the specific outcomes of this action, but we do know that Voxeo has a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of +57, which according to the company is “the highest customer loyalty score achieved by any business software or telecommunications company.” And it may also be interesting to note that Anne Bowman is recognized as a top customer service expert by her peers, having recently been invited to join the prestigious Chief Customer Officer (CCO) Council. – Inc. Magazine

Pipe Center and Climate Center shoots for “perfect satisfaction”

In the UK, building services company Pipe Center and Climate Center announced that its national NPS rose from +15 in March 2011 to (an incredibly precise) +27.79 in March 2012.

This follows the launch of a 2009 customer service initiative dubbed “Operation Service Excellence”, which aimed to make the business more customer-centric.

The company is certainly ambitious with regards to its customer service. According to managing director Dean Fradgley, “Operation Service Excellence is a long-term initiative and we will continue striving to improve customer service levels until we achieve perfect satisfaction and perception scores every time they are measured.”

We wish them luck! Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Magazine

DIRECTV’s broadband plans for Latin America heat up

Speaking to Latin American investors last week, Evan R. Grayer, Vice President of Broadband for DIRECTV noted that in Argentina, the company saw a 25% increase in its Net Promoter Score for its Net service.

Interestingly, this correlated with very low monthly churn rates – 1.3% in general and 0.7% among the DIRECTV Net Customer community. Seeking Alpha

Does the day of the week affect your Net Promoter Score?

UK-based data analyst John D’Arcy shared an interesting insight this week – one of his client’s customer satisfaction scores (including Net Promoter) correlated closely to the day of the week. According to him “People hate Mondays. And they were taking that fact out on our survey. More people were satisfied on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays before the rate started a depressing decline to a Monday low.”

While we need to be wary of reading too much into a single experience, it does raise a lot of interesting questions. For example – are there patterns across industries that should be investigated? Should companies ensure they are surveying equal amounts of people each day of the week? And more importantly, do coffee brands see a lift on Monday mornings? ClickZ [Ed: this is interesting. We'll be following up fast with a quick dive into the CustomerGauge databases to see if what effect it has on our clients. At first glance, there maybe something in this.]

Speaking of coffee brands, do check out our recent case study for Melitta, which achieved initial Net Promoter Scores of over +50, and an astonishingly high response rate of 60%.

And until next week, happy Easter from all of us at CustomerGauge!

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Net Promoter News: Safelite breaks NPS glass ceiling, Overstocks over 60, Android losing NPS battle, B2B Comp in the swingin’ 60s

Safelite Solutions smashes automotive glass ceiling.

The automotive glass repair and replacement industry may not immediately spring to mind when one thinks of industries that attract high Net Promoter Scores, as these are normally reserved for those that elicit strong emotional bonds from consumers – such as some food products or glamorous consumer tech.

But this week in the US, Tom Reid of Safelite Solutions proved the “glass ceiling” could be broken when he announced that his company not only has a Net Promoter Score in the mid-80s, but that they are continually striving for improvement.

We liked the fact that Reid also honoured five franchisees with scores of 90 and above. And we were equally impressed by the company’s survey response rate – approximately 40%. (CustomerGauge Factfans: Mr Reid went on to say the survey was done by email from the 60% of customers that leave an email address, with a 40% response rate, so they have an NPS score based on a total 24% response of ALL customers. Pretty much in line with CustomerGauge stats – Ed)

Some industries may be predisposed to getting higher average Net Promoter Scores than others, it’s always great to hear about a company that doesn’t just buck the trend, but breaks preconceptions as well. Congratulations Safelite! Source: The splendidly named GlassBytes

Overstock.com stocks up on customer satisfaction

Over five years ago, technology-based retail company Overstock.com aimed to increase customer satisfaction levels and put a brake on contact centre costs. As part of that effort, the company turned to cloud-based contact center solution Echopass for a new cloud-based solution.

Since then, Overstock.com’s post-incident Net Promoter Score has improved to over +60. The company attributes this particularly to enhanced agent training, monitoring, and compliance, which it says are capabilities provided by a fully capable quality management and call recording solution.

But we found two things particularly interesting about this story – the first that the collaboration between Overstock.com and Echopass seems to have been instrumental in Overstock.com’s customer service improvement, and the second that the companies reported on this successful collaboration only after five years of (presumably) hard work.

The message here is that there is no silver bullet to continually delighting customers. Even with (or maybe because of) today’s dizzying array of tech tools that all seem to promise more and better results, pleasing customers is more often the result of putting in consistent, concerted effort over a considerable period of time. MarketWatch

Datamart scores sky-high NPS, but we have no idea why

Net Promoter is a metric designed to measure customer advocacy and give businesses the insights to become truly customer-centric. Of itself, it does not predict business performance, though there is often a correlation between Net Promoter Scores and business momentum.

So when a business reports that it has a Net Promoter Score of +93, our first reaction is “Wow, that’s phenomenal!”. Our second reaction is to ask questions:

• How is the business performing?
• If Net Promoter has been used over some time, how do the latest scores compare with previous scores?
• What customer service insights and innovations can you share?
• What is the average NPS for your industry?
• Who did the research?
• How many people were surveyed?

This week, Datamart, a New England company that designs, installs, and supports communications systems, featuring call centers, video conferencing, and VOIP (voice-over-internet protocol) announced a phenomenal score of +93. The self-puffer says that the company is “using the data collected to guide Datamart into a promising second half to their fiscal year,” (gosh, I hope so).

But absent from the release is any information about the above questions. Instead, there is simply an explanation about what NPS is and an announcement of this amazing score.

Datamart: We wanted to talk about your fantastic service. We wanted to quote your delighted customers. We wanted to share information about your customer service innovations. But instead, we’re left with a blank space where that information should be. Your riposte is welcomed.  PR Web

Windows in, Android out?

Last week, we talked about the Nokia Lumia 800 and the fact its Net Promoter Score is the highest recorded for any Nokia mobile device. We speculated that based on reviews and the fact the company does not appear to have actually publicized the mobile’s score, it may be somewhat less than the iPhone and leading Android phones.

Analyst Ben Bajarin weighed into the debate this week with some bold predictions of his own. Based partly on Nokia Lumia’s high Net Promoter Score and his analysis of Android, he believes there is an operating system shift taking place – with “iOS for sure and potentially Windows Phone are the longer term winners.” Tech.pinions

B2B Computer Products: Expanding fast, with NPS to match

B2B Computer Products is a provider of technology products and services. This week, ShorTel, a provider of IP unified communications solutions, announced that B2B Computer Products scored an NPS of +67 for the 9-month period spanning July 2011 – March 2012.

According to the company, B2B Computer is consistently identified by Inc. magazine as one of the fastest growing companies in the U.S. and by Crain’s as one of the fastest growing privately held companies in the Chicago metro area.

We mentioned above that there is often a correlation between Net Promoter Scores and business momentum – and in the case of B2B Computer Products, that correlation certainly appears strong! San Francisco Chronicle

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Net Promoter News: NPS beats Nokia Sales KPI, Kaiser Permanente is health leader with Aetna the ‘wannabe’, Kodak Gallery clicks with users.

Nokia takes NPS as KPI for Lumia 800

A few weeks back we reported on Nokia and how a campaign in Mexico and Indonesia to launch its range of Asha phones led to Nokia’s Net Promoter Score increasing to its “highest ever level” in these regions.

This week at the Credit Suisse Group Technology Conference, the company discussed its plans for the Nokia Lumia 800, which is a key part of its growth strategy.

According to CFO Timo Ihamuotila, the company has adopted Net Promoter as the most important KPI for this phone, and at this point, it has the highest Net Promoter Score of any Nokia device launched.

For interest’s sake, we took a look at a couple of Lumia 800 reviews just to see if customers and hacks are on the same wavelength when it comes to how satisfied they are with the product. Engadget, CNet and TechRadar seem to agree it’s a pretty good phone – in some ways very good. So far, so good.

In the presentation, the company did not give specific scores, so if we presume that reviewers and consumers share roughly similar sentiments toward the phone, it’s probably a safe bet that in terms of NPS the Lumia 800 still trails the iPhone and leading Android devices by some degree, despite its high scores compared to other Nokia devices.

As to whether that’s enough to turn around Nokia’s momentum, we’ll have to wait and see! Seeking Alpha

Kaiser Permanente – the health insurer that could….

Last week we briefly mentioned that major US health insurers were viewed poorly by many customers. According to recent Net Promoter research, the average score for health insurers is +4, which compares unfavorably with more glamourous sectors such as tech (Google +56, Apple +68) or travel and hospitality (Virgin America +66, JetBlue Airways +64).

But is this really a fair comparison? For starters, health insurance is a utility. Like banks, which had similarly low Net Promoter scores, people need insurance, but needing something doesn’t necessarily mean that emotional engagement follows. Furthermore, the chances of a customer relationship with a health insurer souring are significant – if someone has a claim rejected they can have a strong negative reaction to their insurance provider, whereas approved claims may often be considered basic service.

So based on these factors, would it be reasonable to assume that health insurers should not aim for Net Promoter Scores similar to that of a JetBlue or Apple?

Not so fast. There was one outlier in the research – Kaiser Permanente, which scored +33. According to the article below, this is down to two key reasons – one being that Kaiser delivers health services, rather than simply a health plan, and two that it leaves competitors in the dust when it comes to providing the right customer service when people need help.

Hopefully, leaders such as Kaiser Permanente will help other insurers, banks, and telecoms to develop out-of-the-box strategies to put customer-centricity at the core of what they do. And who knows, maybe someday we’ll see a Kaiser beat an Apple. Insurance Networking News

.…and Aetna – the health insurer that wants to

So Kaiser Permanente leads major health insurers for the moment. Aetna is one of the worst-performing , with a measly NPS of -11. But according to one pundit, Aetna is on the path to making up at least some of its lost ground.

In articles across several publications, Dave Chase, CEO of patient portal & relationship management company Avado.com, argues that the company poised for a “remarkable reinvention,” reminiscent of the turnaround engineered at IBM by Lou Gerstner in the 1990s. He cites four key insights driving the coming turnaround. Of most interest to advocates of building customer-centric business such as ourselves is insight number two:

“Simply going through traditional channels of employers and providers won’t allow them to reach all of their target market. They have to create new pathways to the ultimate consumer. For a bunch of reasons, healthcare is becoming a more consumer-driven market so they must build or acquire that skillset.”

While we might argue that insurers who had earlier recognized healthcare as a consumer-driven market might already be sporting an NPS of the likes of Kaiser Permanente, we won’t quibble with the sentiment that American health insurers would be well-advised lose their lumbering dinosaur mentality and get their customer service act together, pronto. Forbes, TechCrunch

Kodak Gallery captures more than Kodak moments

More than 75 million people worldwide manage, share and create photo gifts online at Kodak Gallery, and based on the imaging innovator’s recent customer satisfaction and Net Promoter scores, it would be a shame if Kodak’s recent financial woes prevented it from growing in the way it deserves to.

This week, the company announced a year-on-year customer satisfaction increase of 30% and Net Promoter Score (NPS) increase of 57%, which it attributes to acting on issues that were uncovered by cross-channel investigation.

The most significant of these was a surprisingly simple change. Visitors wanted to be able to download photos from members – no surprises there – but because the option was disabled by default, many visitors weren’t aware it existed. This was also reflected in customer service analysis, as there were a significant number of questions about how to enable the feature.

According to the press release, changing the default setting saw a whopping NPS increase of 33%.

Remember, folks, sometimes it’s the little things in life that make all the difference. Food and Drink Digital

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Net Promoter News: OKC Thunder N-P-Sanity at +91, HireVue, Bill.com and Staffer gongs, plus Virgin America, Apple, Kaiser Permanente lead in US paneller; Facebook, Wachovia, American Airlines droop.

Oklahoma City Thunder and Match.com go 1-2 at CRM Excellence Awards

For those unfamiliar with basketball, the Oklahoma City Thunder is an NBA franchise formerly known as the Seattle Supersonics. And for those unfamiliar with online dating, Match.com is one of the giants, with more than 20 million members across 25 countries. What do these two companies have in common? They were awarded gold and silver in the Customer Experience category of the 2012 Gartner & 1to1 Media CRM Excellence Awards, announced this week.

While some are going have got Jeremy Lin-sanity, Oklahoma City Thunder have gone Net Promoter crazy, and was rightly recognized with gold after nurturing an environment that consistently “educates, evaluates, and congratulates” its employees – a key starting point to consistently delighting customers. The franchise has improved on an already strong Net Promoter Score – from +86 in 2008 to +91 last season, and ranks as the top NBA team in overall fan experience. The team is now a champion in terms of customer satisfaction – if they can repeat the performance on the court, the fans will be very happy indeed.

Match.com – and personals websites in general – have not grown without varying degrees of controversy over the past decade or so. However, Match.com for one seems to have a renewed focus on customer satisfaction, recently improving its email support, and investing in its customer care. According to 1to1 Media, customers that interact with Match.com customer care purchase at a higher rate than those who don’t. It must be all about a great first impression! 1to1media

Virgin America, Apple, Kaiser Permanente lead, Facebook, Wachovia, American Airlines lag in US customer loyalty

This week a new Net Promoter study across 30,000 US consumers unveiled customer loyalty leaders across 22 U.S. industry sectors and 200 brands.

Of particular surprise was how Facebook is perceived this year. Despite an incredible run on almost every metric you could imagine and a much-hyped IPO, the social network lost 21 points compared to last year’s benchmark, to fall to +31. Facebook has consistently proven doubters and naysayers wrong, and we would hesitate to predict and kind of sharp change in its growth trajectory or performance. However, the size of the fall does have us wondering – is Facebook losing a little mojo?

Elsewhere in the tech world, usual suspects Apple and Google both continued their stellar performances, with Apple scoring +71 for its hardware and +68 for software, and Google achieving +56.

Also of interest:

• Major health insurers were viewed poorly by many customers, with an industry average of +4, though Kaiser Permanente bucked the trend with an NPS of +33. For life insurance, State Farm led with +28.
• Financial institutions have copped a shellacking in the American press over the past few years, and this is reflected in their Net Promoter Scores, with seven banks having more detractors than promoters. The worst was Wachovia, at -15.
• American Express scored +43, ranking top among credit cards for the fifth year in a row.
• Despite the sluggish economy, Travel and Hospitality had some clear winners, with Virgin America the top airline at +66, and JetBlue Airways at +64. American Airlines lagged at -5.
• Auto glass repair specialist Safelite AutoGlass led the auto service and repair sector with +48, beating Goodyear into second place by more than 25 points.
• Telecommunication providers continued to struggle. Verizon, the highest scoring Internet service provider, had an NPS of just +18.

Source: SatMetrix / Market Watch

Bill.com hits customer service nail on the head

This week, online business billing and payments service Bill.com announced an 8 point jump in its Net Promoter Score over a nine month period, and though it does not announce its actual score, says it has now surpassed companies including American Express and Google (which presumably means at least in the high 50s, according to figures in the article above).

The company attributes this to an increased investment in its customer service offering, and goes to considerable trouble to outline the steps it has taken in this area in an admirably-detailed piece of self-promotion.

The full details are available at the link, but there were a couple of interesting points that really jumped out.

The first regarded the introducing new users to the technology. Many people experience difficulties when learning a new system, and recognizing this frustration, Bill.com created a “New Customer Success” team to walk users through the technology step-by-step. According to the company, 90% of customers that use the service become active users, and 98% of are satisfied with it.

The second thing that jumped out was a much smaller detail. The company uses two spokespeople in its release. The first is the CEO, Rene Lacerte. And the second is Kathleen Long, who has the still-unusual but increasingly common role of “Vice President of Customers.”

“When asked, ‘Have we resolved or made a plan to resolve your issue today?’, 93% of customers now say ‘yes’,” said Long. Now that’s a tough figure to beat! Market Watch

HireVue ratchets up new business, promotes Net Promoter Score

A few weeks back we took a brief look at the US HR industry and the role it is playing in slowly turning around the economy.

One company, HireVue, has brought a new dimension into the recruitment game, by providing a digital platform to recruiters so they search prospective talent by browsing and streaming interviews whenever and however they want – even from a smartphone.

It’s a very strong concept, and the company has just announced triple digit sales growth, 70 new enterprise customers, and numerous product enhancements, with all this backed up by a strong NPS in the +40s.

With this kind of growth, there is no doubt that competitors will emerge with other innovative ways to connect recruiters with the right talent. This will be a very interesting space to watch in the near-term future, and as innovation continues to develop, let’s hope HR and recruitment can play an increasingly effective role in driving global economies out of a standstill! Market Watch

Staffing Industry Analysts gives gong to best staffing firms

In more US awards news, global advisor Staffing Industry Analysts announced the winners of the 2012 Best Staffing Firms to Work for, winners being divided by size and selected using Net Promoter Score.

The winners included LiquidAgents Healthcare, TekPartners/MedPartnersHIM and Collabera Inc. Full details: Bradenton.com

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