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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Case Study: Melitta: How the inventor of the coffee filter is delivering a high-caffeine shot of Net Promoter excellence
Melitta is the 100 year old Minden, Germany based manufacturer of branded products. Founded by housewife Melitta Bentz, inventor of the paper coffee filter, its main activities are production and marketing in the fields of coffee, food storage and preparation, and domestic cleaning. Probably its most well-known product is its fully automated coffee machines. However, the company has a number of brands in its portfolio that enjoy leading positions across many international markets. And they are totally committed to excellent customer service.
Melitta: Brewing a First-Class Blend of Coffee and Customer Service
This case study describes how their Net Promoter project was implemented for their customer relationships and customer service systems together with CustomerGauge partner in Germany J/S/W Consulting.
Highlight of the system is the automated link from the call center to the CustomerGauge system via the API (CustomerGauge Application Programming Interface). Within moments a survey is sent out to the customer, resulting in a 60% response rate.
The system has already started to make an impact. Prior to the rollout, Melitta was confident that customers had a strong emotional bond with the brand and products. But the survey result surpassed all expectations, with initial scores above NPS +50 to back up the very high response rate.
Commented Consumer Service Coordinator Christoph Sundermeier: “It’s relatively easy to nurture relationships with customers to the point where they are satisfied with your service, but it’s another thing entirely to nurture relationships to the point where customers become active promoters, so we are exceptionally pleased with the initial results.”
As coffee lovers, we are delighted to have a client with excellent customer service, and great coffee machines too. By the way, our Client Operations Manager is an absolute coffee connoisseur – and she highly recommends their machines. Praise indeed!
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
Net Promoter News: A Nation of Shopkeepers say “Meh” to Points Cards but #1′s Waitrose, Accuray enters loyalty zone, Earnings ‘n’ NPS from Aviva, Hertz, Overstock, Bank Montreal plus Doxim’s self-promo fails advocacy test
British shoppers think loyalty cards are past “Best Before” date
What drives loyalty among shoppers? This week a Net Promoter survey across 1,200 British shoppers was released – with some eye-opening results.
While you may think cost-effectiveness was a sure way to driving loyalty, the brand with the most loyal customers was premium supermarket chain Waitrose. [Check out our previous Waitrose coverage]
Based on that, it might be reasonable to assume that customer service and quality were the main drivers of loyalty. Well, sort of. In fact, the biggest driver of loyalty was “Good price for good quality,” followed by “Customer service; product quality.” But that doesn’t mean cheap prices aren’t important – discount supermarket Aldi was second on the ladder, not far behind Waitrose.
But perhaps the biggest surprise of the survey surrounded loyalty cards. Despite the name, they don’t seem to be effective. Loyalty card pioneer The Co-operative Group, has the least loyal customers, and Tesco, which operates the mammoth-sized Clubcard scheme, has the third least. By contrast, Waitrose has only recently launched a loyalty card initiative.
These were the key findings, but also intriguing for us Net Promoter junkies are a few observations on the supermarket chains’ Net Promoter scores against their overall business performance. Not only did Waitrose and Aldi record the best and second best scores respectively, they have been among the two fastest-growing grocery retail chains in recent years. The Co-op, which scored -14, sacked hundreds of head office employees just last week. And Tesco, which scored -8, recently gave its first profit warning in 20 years.
Of course, Net Promoter Scores and business performance are not always in sync. But we believe there is more than a little truth in an independent 2005 study by the London School of Economics which was quoted in the article. The study found that Net Promoter “may be useful not only in predicting sales growth but, also predicting share performance and employee productivity”.
If that’s the case, I think I just felt Tesco shudder. Those scores in full:
| Store | Net Promoter Score |
| Waitrose | 46 |
| Aldi | 42 |
| Asda | 21 |
| Sainsbury’s | 16 |
| Lidl | 14 |
| Morrisons | 2 |
| Ocado | -4 |
| Tesco | -8 |
| Marks & Spencer | -10 |
| Co-op | -14 |
| Source: Grocer/Satmetrix Mar 2012 | The Grocer |
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Big Data Analytics and the role of Net Promoter
The rise of big data has been the subject of much discussion over the last few years, as businesses try to capture, analyze, and capitalize from it.
Bernard Marr, author of a book on the topic called “The Intelligent Company” suggested in a post this week that while traditional KPIs will remain vital tools to chart business strategy, they will increasingly be supported by analysis of “big data” – such as unstructured conversations across social media networks or search engine keywords.
He suggests that increasingly, companies may utilize tested metrics such as Net Promoter to assess advocacy and loyalty among a group of customers, but supplement this with big data analysis, such as social media analysis of the conversations around the product or brand on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
We have long been firm advocates of a customer-centric approach to business, and therefore what we like about this approach is that it sensibly places your relationship with your customers at the centre of your strategy. Despite the changes brought about by big data, sometimes the fastest route to nurturing delighted customers is by asking them one simple question: “How likely is it that you would recommend our company to a friend or colleague?” Smart Data Collective [Editors note: Bernard Marr has "75 measures every manager needs to know" but Adam Dorrell of CustomerGauge bests him by two in "77 Essential Metrics"]
Does a social media presence affect your Net Promoter Score?
The past few years have seen an enormous amount of noise (and some informative discussion) around the rise of social media, but what happens when a marketing-leading brand puts little or no effort into creating a corporate social media presence?
Conventional wisdom might tell you that the brand in question is missing out on an enormous opportunity. However, a post this week argues that beyond the hype, social media is just one medium through which customers interact with a brand. And if customers are consistently being delighted by that brand every time they interact with it, they will in turn advocate it to people around them – their friends, families, and social media communities.
According to the post author, automotive general manager Peter Anthony, the key takeaway is that corporate social media initiatives are not always necessary to achieving a high Net Promoter Score. (Note: While he cites Costco as an example to support his argument, we did find a Costco page on Facebook with nearly half a million fans, so we aren’t sure that the brand does not have a clear social media strategy.)
At any rate, we agree with the point, but we’d like to add a significant caveat. There may be a select few large, highly-advocated brands with enough positive momentum to rely on positive word-of-mouth buzz across social media channels to help generate advocacy. However, if you do not have a corporate presence on social media, that is one less channel you have to delight your customers and nurture new advocates.
In short, although for many brands there are risks associated with being on social media, the argument of whether to be in the space or not has already largely passed most of us by. The question for most companies now isn’t whether a social media affects your Net Promoter Score. Instead, it’s this: How can I nurture new advocates across my social media platforms? Peter Anthony’s blog
Accuray enters the loyalty zone
It’s another week, another NPS-based award for customer satisfaction as radiation oncology company Accuray Incorporated became the first company to receive Omega’s NorthFace ScoreBoard Award(SM) for excellence in customer satisfaction and Net Promoter Score.
This award system works on the Net Promoter Score’s basic principles. To be eligible, customers are surveyed a minimum of four times in the preceding year. However, rather than simply relying on the tried and tested NPS scale of zero to 10, Omega spins a little magic with the metric and converts it to a 5 point scale. Companies must achieve a score of 4.0 or above from their customers to receive the NFSB Award.
While we are not a fan of the mechanism or reasons for converting NPS to another scale, the basic principles of the award methodology seem sound, and we particularly like the fact that customers are surveyed four times in the preceding year. According to Omega, companies that average over 4.0 in their scale are in the so-called “Loyalty Zone,” and this ensures that they are “locking in profitable, long-term customer relationships.” But hey hey Accuray, what’s wrong with just sticking to the 0 – 10 scale? The Sacramento Bee
Doxim’s self-promotion fails the advocacy test
Last week we took a look at an announcement by virtual data room company V-Rooms that it had achieved an “A+” Net Promoter Score. While we weren’t sure exactly what that was, we were very enthusiastic about the tangible, clear steps the company is taking to further improve on its customer service.
This week, cloud-based enterprise content management firm Doxim has announced its “record Net Promoter Score” of 63 – an admirable figure, but a puffy piece of self-promotion that still leaves us feeling like we’ve just watched a nil-all draw.
Where V-Rooms focuses on the future and getting even better, Doxim discusses the past and how they compared to now. While V-Rooms drew a clear line of differentiation between their competitors, which are cutting down on customer service costs, Doxim compares its scores to global companies such as Sony, Google, Amazon and Apple – none of which are direct competitors and for which comparison is mildly interesting at best.
To wrap it up: Kudos on your score, Doxim. But what’s next? PR Web
Finance and NPS – A round up of recent company filings that mention Net Promoter.
Aviva PLC 2011 – reporting in London, Andrew Moss, Group Chief Executive Aviva said: “Last year more of our customers were willing to recommend us than ever before. We improved our customer satisfaction measure, Net Promoter Score(TM), last year and now more than half of our businesses operate in the upper quartile relative to local competition”. And in the UK: “Customer satisfaction levels and employee engagement have increased, with customer complaints down 20% in 2011. We’ve been changing the way we look after our customers by simplifying our processes and making them more customer-friendly. In our existing annuity business this has delivered a 26 point improvement in our Transactional Net Promoter Score(TM), achieved significant cost savings and helped reduce call volumes by around 20%.” Marketwatch
By the way, found on the web, really nice Net Promoter story from Andrew Moss, at Henley Business School June 2011. “…And when we look at our customer metrics, it’s an amazing thing but, here in the UK, our best net promoter score, which is how we measure customer satisfaction, is in our Death Claims Unit in York. So, how we deal with people in that very difficult situation, it’s amazing how people appreciate it if you really do deal with them like a human being” Aviva
Hertz Q4 2011 “In 2011, worldwide rental car’s net promoter score was up 6.4% year-over-year…” SeekingAlpha and Q4 2011 Conference Call Slides
Telecom Italia Adopt NPS (from Q4 2011 Earnings) “Move to our goals for the Mobile business… progressively shift customer care to self caring and adopt net promoter scoring across our organization to gauge customer preferences….” Seeking Alpha
Metro PCS (Q4 2011 Earnings call). Interesting as it’s in an answer to an analyst – shows that the COO understands NPS: Thomas C. Keys: “That’s a great question, Michael. The first thing is you’re asking me to give up a little bit of the secret sauce, so I’ll be happy to do that. [...] That works on the viral nature of how we advertise, at how we move a product, keeps our CPGA lower. It keeps our net promoter score higher…. ” SeekingAlpha
Bank Montreal Q1 2012 “This business continues to perform well with volumes higher across most products, and we continue to innovate in the execution of our strategy, achieving higher net promoter scores and increasing share of wallet” SeekingAlpha
Overstock Q4 2011. Report Net Promoter of 52 (see graph) “Customer, net promoter score has, slide 20, has still remained sort of astronomically high compared to retail in general. I just saw another scoring service came out and it put us right at the very top, we scored an 83, well, on another scoring service.” Seeking Alpha. and Slides
H&R Block (Q3 2012) “Additionally, our retention and Net Promoter Scores are up 150 and 400 basis points, respectively, demonstrating sustained improvement in 2 of our most important metrics.” Seeking Alpha, and Slides
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Net Promoter News: Nokia plots its comeback, V-Rooms accelerates customer service, Genroe organises CustomerGauge meetup, Social business needs a metric, Best of Staffing Awards integrate NPS
Nokia takes note of NPS, plots its comeback
The direction of Nokia has been the topic of a great deal of speculation over the past few years as the company’s fortunes have tumbled in developed markets following the rise of the iPhone and various Android phones. However, it is easy to overlook the fact that the company is relatively stronger in emerging markets and among price-sensitive consumers.
In fact, the company noted at the opening of the World Mobile Congress this week that 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. Based on this success, the company is now considering rolling out successful campaigns from developing markets to developed markets, rather than the more traditional opposite approach.
If it wants to regain its position as a preeminent mobile player in developed markets, Nokia certainly has its work cut out for it. But if it can replicate its high NPS, it will be very interesting to see whether it can start to make inroads into the smartphone market against heavyweights such as Apple and Samsung. Stay tuned for what could be a long battle (on your mobile, of course)! Marketing Week
[*editors carping note: NPS on Nokia product, or on the campaign itself? To be honest, we're not sure... If on the campaign, it's "trebles all round" for the ad-men, but pretty meaningless for Nokia success... Reminds us of a marketing meeting we attended a year ago with a well known consumer brand that had perhaps gone a bit too far on measuring Net Promoter - they were presenting in earnest the survey results of the question: "Would you recommend this email marketing message to a friend or family member?". As if that would really make a difference to customer loyalty...]
V-Rooms accelerates customer service, writes fantastic press release to prove it
A few weeks ago we discussed Atlanta-based virtual data room company V-Rooms, and its “A+ Net Promoter Score,” which left us wanting to be impressed but instead slightly confused.
While we still aren’t 100% sure what an A+ Net Promoter Score is, the latest self-puffer outlines with admirable detail exactly how seriously the company takes customer service – and this time, we are impressed.
The headline – “V-Rooms Increases Customer Service Staff by 25%” – is a promising start. But further reading reveals a company that is not only telling their customers how much they value them and outlining the clear steps they are taking to maintain and improve their customer service, but also highlighting this strength as a clear point of differentiation with their competitors. Check out these quotes:
- “At a time when many of our competitors are trying to cut costs by delivering the least amount of human connection, we are expanding our customer service staff.” (Dan Bradbary, CEO)
- “Unlike a lot of the other providers in the virtual data room space, our customers have the option to pay on a month-to-month basis.” (Karen Perkins, President)
- “Because we treat our customers well, they stick around. We give our customers the freedom to leave, they just don’t want to.” (Karen Perkins)
- And finally: “If the lifeblood of an organization is its customer service, then V-Rooms Virtual Data Rooms is already very healthy having recently achieved an A+ rating on their Net Promoter Score Survey.”
What’s an A+ Net Promoter Score? I’m too busy swooning to care! PR Web
Genroe organises CustomerGauge Australia meetup
If you’re a CustomerGauge user in Australia, keep March 15th open. Genroe, CustomerGauge’s Australian partner, is arranging a meetup to exchange Net Promoter information, product tips and best practices. And as Genroe notes on their blog, since there are not yet any competitive overlaps in the Australian CustomerGauge user community, there should be little problem in sharing great ideas with one another.
We’ll be supporting the event from Netherlands HQ, and look forward to hearing about how it goes! For complete details including a program and contacts, please check out Genroe’s site .
Social business needs a measurement metric
With the rise in social as a medium for brand communications, one of the big trends in the last couple of years has been social business, which global MD of Social@Ogilvy John Bell defines as “producing business value from social behaviour.” In a recent post for PR Week, he outlines three clear steps a business should lay out in order to develop a successful social business strategy.
The third step is to establish a measurement model, and nothing, he notes, breeds strategy like a common evaluation criteria. Though he is careful not to give a blanket statement on how a business should measure its social business, he mentions “you may decide to focus on relationship marketing versus advertising or because you believe in the strength of the Net Promoter Score.”
To which we’d like to add one small note: Social metrics are now a dime a dozen, but few are as clear or proven as Net Promoter. PR Week US
Best of Staffing Awards integrate NPS
There are currently around 13 million people unemployed in the US – a sobering statistic that we hope will change for the better sooner rather than later. And while it is only a part of the solution, the 2.5 million strong recruitment industry is helping to connect at least some of these people with new employers.
With that in mind, Portland-based research firm Inavero has released its annual Best of Staffing lists. In order to make the company’s Best of Staffing Client and Best of Staffing Talent lists, firms were required to attain a Net Promoter Score of +55, nearly double the industry average – with less than 1% of firms making the cut. This week the internet is awash with firms promoting their recognition, but for a full list you can check out the link below. Best of Staffing
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New Headquarters for CustomerGauge/Directness
We are pleased to announce that due to further expansion CustomerGauge/Directness has today moved to a new larger headquarters. We are now based in the Y-tech complex in Amsterdam, a short walk from the Central Station. Our new address is:
Van Diemenstraat 182B
Amsterdam 1013CP
The Netherlands
Telephone: +31 208 20 21 60
We hope to welcome you to our new offices soon.
Net Promoter News: Customer-centric KO’s sales-centric, Dutch telcos fail to shine, Intuit finds surprise NPS benefits, Home Depot improves NPS, EdgeWave finds an edge
Why customer-centric beats sales-centric
A couple of weeks ago we briefly touched on employees and how all too often they become the forgotten linchpin of great customer service. But nurturing an internal environment that produces great customer service is not as simple as rewarding staff for meeting sales targets. In fact, according to Professor Moira Clark, Director of the Henley Centre for Customer Management, rewarding sales may be a mistake, because instead of nurturing a customer-centric environment, you will instead nurture a sales-centric environment that may create short-term spikes in sales at the expense of the long-term sustainability of your customer relationships.
Instead, she advises that a customer-centric environment is nurtured best by having “systems, procedures and rewards in place” to inspire staff. It may be that you reward them for good customer service, satisfaction or meeting a target Net Promoter score.
How are you inspiring your staff to be truly customer-centric? Please let us know in the comments below! InternetRetailing
Dutch Telcos leaving customers underwhelmed
A Q4 2011 analysis of customer sentiment across the Netherlands has provided mixed news for mobile operators. On the one hand, there was some significant improvement by major players KPN and Vodafone Netherlands which increased their scores by four and five points respectively. But on the other hand, the best major player, Vodafone NL, recorded an NPS of -14 – significantly shy of Ben, which once again led the pack with the only positive score, of +5.
And despite these improvements, market average rose by only one point, from -20 to -19, with T-Mobile Netherlands and Telfort falling to score lower than the market average.
Among the fixed-line operators, Delta and XS4ALL received the highest Net Promoter Score, although both remained in negative territory.
Shout out to Dutch telcos: Customers are calling, but is anybody home? TelecomPaper mobile operator fixed-line
Intuit returns double digit growth, finds surprise benefits in NPS
American financial software provider Intuit is the latest company to discuss its Net Promoter results at its earnings call. According to CEO Brad Smith, customers have been returning higher-than-expected Net Promoter Scores for free tax advice they are receiving from the company.
This might sound pretty obvious – if you are offering a free product that your customers find genuinely useful, it comes as no surprise that this particular product will register a higher-than-average NPS. However, what was more interesting for the punters out here in Net Promoter land was that the high score for Intuit’s free tax product had a knock on effect across the entire business – dragging up the NPS across the whole product range.
While Intuit did not provide actual scores, the company grew revenue at a double-digit rate in its fiscal second quarter. Coincidence? We think not. Seeking Alpha
Home Depot announces improved earnings, Net Promoter scores
US home improvement giant Home Depot surprised the market this week with a 32% jump in earnings during Q4 2011. A bottoming out of the US housing market was cited by analysts as a possible reason for the jump, but buried deep inside the earnings transcript was another hint – a 130 basis point jump in satisfaction for the overall store to an extremely impressive +70.7, and a 290 basis point jump for the pro area. Seeking Alpha
EdgeWave finds an edge in customer service
We have spoken before on the importance of following up with your customers to let them know that an issue or suggestion they made has been acknowledged. Following 94% customer satisfaction rates and “industry-leading” Net Promoter Scores, online security firm EdgeWave has done just that and launched a customer rewards program in order to thank their advocates – not just with words but also with benefits that customers will use.
We read about this initiative via an EdgeWave press release, and as can often be the case, one of the most interesting tidbits of information was almost lost way back in the last paragraph. Please allow me to indulge myself (just for a moment, I promise!) and highlight a tangible point of differentiation that customer-centric businesses including EdgeWave (and Enterasys) offer:
“While many competitors have moved their technical support centers offshore, EdgeWave is committed to keeping their customer support in the US and staffing their centers with service-focused, product experts.”
Executives: We know the temptation to cut costs and outsource is great. But surely the temptation to cement relationships and develop long-term trust, advocacy, and growth should be greater? MarketWatch
Case Study – Dörken MKS Systems: How a technically focused business started a systematic approach to Net Promoter with CustomerGauge
Dörken MKS Systems produces and configures surface protection for the automotive, wind, construction and aviation industries under the brand name DELTA-MKS®, and in 2011 started a Net Promoter® project with CustomerGauge.
Headquartered in Herdecke, Germany, it has regional branches in the US, South America, China, Korea, and Japan. The company provides high level of technical service and products that meet exacting standards and complex specifications.
Case Study: Dörken MKS Systems. Fighting Corrosion. Maximizing Customer Service.
The case study describes how the Net Promoter project was implemented for their two-tier channels, together with CustomerGauge partner in Germany JSW Consulting.
Originally implemented in order to understand customers from a neutral standpoint, the survey succeeded in providing Dörken with successful results and useful feedback. And underscoring the fact that the company is a leader in its field in terms of customer service, at the end of 2011 it won an industry award for Best Professional Supplier in the category of “Substance and Semi-Finished Goods.”
Commented the Dörken Project Manager: “Immediate feedback was great from within the company and people were really curious to find out what their customers had said.”
We are pleased to have such a technically advanced client in Dörken MKS with excellent client focus.
