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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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
Net Promoter News: GOOG v AAPL, TW Tel- Tell NPS, The 10 Ways, Lawyers get the metric, E-ON Excellence
Google v Apple: Which is more innovative?
Google has a lot of fans, but according to a new book, it is arguably not at the cutting edge of innovation.
In What Matters Now, management expert Gary Hamel outlines four mental models found in organizations and advances a theory that only organizations that put innovation at the heart of what they do are true leaders in delighting their customers. Google doesn’t make the cut because instead of putting innovation at the centre of the business, it works on a model where only 20% of employee time is ostensibly used for innovation purposes. As supporting proof, he notes that after more than 10 years (several lifetimes in internet years) its original business model still generates 90% of its revenue.
In terms of true leaders, What Matters Now cites Amazon, Salesforce, and Apple as examples where the entire organization is devoted to continuous innovation and finding new ways of delighting customers. So what is Apple’s secret? Well if everyone knew that we’d be communicating telepathically with our machines by now. But we do know one thing. Apple is one of the leading exponents of Net Promoter Score. Source: Forbes
tw telecom talks up Net Promoter Score
If continuous innovation is indeed the key to delighting your customers and encouraging them to become advocates of your brand as Gary Hamel suggests above, he has some evidence here to support him. At their Q4 2011 earnings call on Feb 9th, fiber-pullers tw telecom CEO Larissa Herda released an impressive set of financial results, which she put down to two things – strategically releasing new products and that the company recently increased its Net Promoter Score to its highest level ever.
“This key metric not only measures our customer satisfaction and loyalty, we believe it played a key role in propelling our revenue growth in 2011,” said Herda.
Also this week, the CEOs of Tucows and Rackspace Hosting both mentioned Net Promoter in their earnings calls. While both were upbeat, we are always left hanging for more when a senior executive in an earning call says something like “customer satisfaction, as mentioned by net promoter score, continues to increase,” (Tucows) or “we want to generate incredible customer outcomes, we measure this customer loyalty through the Net Promoter Score” (Rackspace).
Note to CEOs: The details always tell the story! Seeking Alpha
Ten ways to improve your Net Promoter Program
A couple of weeks back we talked about one smart cookie (David Mitzenmacher) who summarised the entire NPS process on the back of a napkin. NPS is a simple system – that’s a sign of its effectiveness and also a key point of its attraction. But there is more to the metric than simply “root cause analysis” and “closing the loop”.
With this in mind, Alain Thys, managing partner at Futurelab, has put together “ten ways to take your Net Promoter programme to the next level.” It’s well worth a look, and helps shed some light on the different ways Net Promoter can help businesses effect positive change in serving their customers. Futurelab
Net Promoter – It’s the law!
Adrian Dayton writing in the National Law Journal ponders the question “Which metrics matter most?” for lawyers. In a laundry list of measurements, Fordham University professor Silvia Hodges, suggests “a more client-focused approach, the Net Promoter Score, [...] obtained by asking clients to report on a 0-10 scale whether he is extremely likely to hire you again or not at all likely. A high net promoter score means you’re keeping clients happy and earning referrals.” National Law Journal
Reputation Management and E.ON’s NPS Centre of Excellence
On January the 25th in Munich, the Reputation Institute and Bain & Company hosted an event to share knowledge on, you guessed it, company reputation management.
A couple of the more interesting observations included that most people buy a product based on on what they think of the company rather than what they think of a product, and that reputation-based communications strategy only has a chance to work if it has management 100% behind it.
While these are valid points and worthy of further discussion, there was one other nugget of information that we would love to hear more about. Energy provider E.ON is a company that takes NPS a step further than most. Not content with just running the occasional survey, it has “an entire NPS Center of Excellence.” Furthermore, it was noted by centre director Adam Elliott that “when you have your results you have to change the whole business.”
Innovation, it seems, is the thread that runs through all NPS news this week! The Financial
Upcoming Events
Diary note: Next Wednesday 22 February join the free Net Promoter webinar: Customer Service Fire-Fighting – Basic workflow for Customer Rescue (how to use Net Promoter with automation of customer responses to turn negative customer experiences into evangelist gold). Register here.
Webinar: Customer Service Fire-Fighting – Basic workflow for Customer Rescue, and Conversion to Promoters
In this free Webinar, we will show you how to use Net Promoter with automation of customer responses to turn negative customer experiences into evangelist gold!
16.00 UK / 17.00 CET / 10.00 EST 22 February 2012 – Register Now
In today’s business environment, the laziest thing to do is lose an expensively-won customer through poor service. And although asking for opinions on product or service is commonplace, few companies react fast enough to rescue customers.
But with a simple process we call “Fire-fighting” it’s possible to respond quickly and positively to issues, and “rescue” unhappy customers. Do it well, and you can convert these customers “detractors” into “promoters”.
In our best-practice webinar, we share how world class organizations use Net Promoter and automated workflow to drive their business. These companies have learned the power of engaging these detractors to turn them into customer evangelists. By using rules-based, automated workflow of responses, companies can quickly evaluate which customers to engage with to drive an immediate action in the organization.
We will discuss how you can:
- Create an automated Net Promoter “Customer Loyalty” tracking system to monitor your customers sentiment
- Devise rules based work flow to route these responses to the right person in the organization
- Use “Fire Fighting” dashboards and follow-up to ensure that these customers’ needs are exceeded
- Use industry best practices to try to turn these detractors in promoters
- And a behind the scenes look at the magic trick – “How to react fast”!
Topic: Best Practice Series: Customer Service Fire-Fighting – Basic workflow for Customer Rescue, and Conversion to Promoters
Date: Wednesday 22 February, 2012
Time: 16:00 London, 17:00 Amsterdam, 10:00 New York
Price: Free, to registered subscribers
Length: Approximately 20 mins
Presented by: Adam Dorrell, CEO CustomerGauge, Rob Kerner, Director CustomerGauge
Limited spaces – don’t delay to register!
Net Promoter News: 66% consumers switch through poor service, Telstra go NPS, CEOs chat Net Promoter, measuring “Greatness”.
Is it time for your company to adopt NPS?
Here’s a statistic that may give you heart palpitations: Research released last month by Accenture that canvassed consumers in 27 countries and 20 different industries found that 66 percent of consumers switched companies during 2011 as a result of poor customer service.
The Smart Planet article goes on to discuss the rising role of chief customer officers, and no doubt, this is an important part of improving your customer service offering.
But of more interest to us were the thoughts of Anne Bowman, chief customer officer of customer service technology and communications company Voxeo. One of her key observations is that in general companies have “notoriously low Net Promoter scores,” with the average score only +10. Smart Planet
Telstra dials Net Promoter
Ask any Australian what they think about Telstra´s customer “service”, and they will give you a list of grievances as long as your arm. And indeed, the last time the telco’s Net Promoter score was measured in 2006, it was a woeful -44.
It may or may not be coincidental that until recently Telstra was very dismissive of Net Promoter, with a spokesperson in 2010 saying “My understanding is that Net Promoter scores are a commercial measurement, and not focused on customer service.” Err, righto.
But times change, and with a new CEO (David Thodey) on board, there has been a renewed focus on the customer. Recent research found customer satisfaction among Telstra mobile customers was stable across 2011, with 65 percent of customers “very satisfied” – still trailing the industry average, but a significant improvement over 2006.
And this week, it was heartening to see Telstra announce it plans to adopt the Net Promoter Score as a gauge of customer satisfaction.
Noted Thodey; “This is a big change for this company – it really means every metric, every part of the company has got to change the way they measure. We want to get to a point where customers are not just satisfied, we want them to become promoters or they recommend Telstra to other people.”
People recommending Telstra for superior customer service – what will they think of next? ITNews CIO
CEOs Talk Earnings, Net Promoter Scores
It’s reporting season, and one thing we have been interested to see is the number of CEOs discussing Net Promoter Scores at their earnings calls.
As we would expect, most CEOs who mentioned Net Promoter (Philips Electronics, Nokia, Genpact, Shutterfly among them) simply talked about their scores in general terms. Virgin Media CEO Neil A. Berkett, went a step further, and talked up the appeal of TiVo via its NPS. “If you’re a TiVo customer, you’re an advocate. TiVo customers have a higher net promoter score than non-TiVo customers, are 20% more likely to be advocates than not,” he said.
But an even more interesting comment came from Sprint Nextel CEO Daniel R. Hesse, who claimed that the company was the only one of the four major US carriers to show improvement sequentially. “And our improvement has been so significant, we have moved up two spots in the major carrier rankings in the past 2 years,” he added.
Why is this noteworthy? Naturally, we like that the CEOs of some of the world’s biggest companies are putting a focus on NPS to help improve life for their customers (and shareholders). But what we particularly like about Sprint Nextel is that rather than simply quoting a figure, by observing it against previous and competitor scores, Daniel Hesse was able to effectively illustrate the company’s momentum in terms of customer service. (Acknowledgments to SeekingAlpha)
Telstra, are you taking note?
Satmetrix unveils social media measurement tool
Long time Net Promoter slide-deckerists Satmetrix have released a new social media measurement tool they call SparkScore. The tool will analyse comments across social networks, reviews, and other platforms before calculating a score for each brand using an NPS-compatible 11-point scale.
There has been some interesting discussion on the new tool by the pundits at Mashable, Econsultancy, and elsewhere. As for us, call us old-fashioned, but we believe most B2B customers don’t really use Twitter or Facebook to badmouth corporate suppliers. Let’s see how this plays out… Mashable, Destination CRM, Econsultancy Press release
Employee Net Promoter: e-NPS
Employees – The Forgotten Linchpin of Customer Satisfaction
It probably comes as no surprise to learn that employees want to be valued – but in spite of aiming to provide excellent customer service, too often companies that might otherwise reach greatness lose focus on their employees.
In a keynote speech at the Net Promoter 2.0 Conference last week, Fred Reichheld argued that specifically employees want to be “a valued member that is part of a winning team with an inspiring mission.” In other words, to nurture a culture of volunteers, where every employee is a champion of your brand.
Said Reichheld: “I think the question is how can I help my front line team leaders build better relationships among their team, not just so they can serve customers, but also enrich their lives.” Destination CRM
Rob Markey
Rob Markey on Loyalty and Growth
Most businesses aspire to growth, but according to research by Bain & Company, less than 10% achieve profitable, sustainable growth over 10 years. And Net Promoter guru Rob Markey, who spoke on the topic at the Net Promoter conference, noted that these companies tend to be loyalty leaders. The problem with the rest, he said, is that while 80% of execs think they deliver a superior experience, less than 10% of their customers agree.
Rob went on to outline key ways to help leaders understand NPS and discuss different lenses for viewing the metric, but what really sticks out for us is the substantial gap between execs who believe they offer a superior experience, compared to what their customers really think. It seems Anne Bowman was really onto something above when she observed that “in general companies have notoriously low Net Promoter Scores…” Net Promoter
Napier: “...we were thinking about how to measure greatness.”
Net Promoter – a measure of happiness, or greatness?
Net Promoter is generally known as a measure of customer loyalty, and a couple of weeks ago we noted that during the process of conceptualizing the metric, Fred Reichheld was tempted to call it a “Net Happiness Score.” In this video, Fred talks with five CEOs who believe Net Promoter does more than provide a customer satisfaction metric – and according to one, “What attracted us to Net Promoter, is we were thinking about how to measure greatness.” Conversation with 5 CEOs
Net Promoter News
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Net Promoter News: Subaru drives most recommendation at 57, KIA coming fast at 18, Detroit’s finest get a flat; Entrasys services 81; V-Rooms nix score, award themselves A+
Subaru focuses on the experience
Subaru in fast lane, KIA revs its NPS engine
Consumer-centric information portal BIGinsight.com has unveiled the results of a January survey of 9,317 consumers in the US that identifies which automotive brands enjoy the highest level of customer advocacy. It found the top five are Subaru, Toyota and Honda, Lexus and Volkswagen, in that order.
Did you notice what’s missing? That’s right – there is no US brand in the top five. BIGinsight notes that though GMC and Ford have improved since 2010, they remain considerably lower than their international counterparts. Is that the distant sound of nails being hammered in to the coffin of the US automotive industry?
Digging a little deeper into the research offers more insights. Among the top five, Volkswagen showed the greatest jump since 2010. Subaru’s NPS has also risen, and Toyota appears to be rebuilding trust following much-publicised recalls from 2009-2011. However, Lexus has stalled.
Last but not least, one automotive brand experienced a jump of 500% in their NPS from 2010 to 2012 – KIA – although not in the top five is coming fast, going from 2.8% in 2010 to 18.1% in 2012. Maybe it’s time to invest in KIA shares…. Full story San Francisco Chronicle
Top 5 Auto Net Promoter Scores (Ranked by JAN 2012 Score) Subaru 56.8% Toyota 48.9% Honda 43.9% Lexus 43.2% Volkswagen 40.7% --------- Detroit (US) Auto makers: GMC 27.9% Cadillac 19.8% Ford 15.7% Chevrolet 12.3% Buick 6.2% Chrysler 0.3%
NPS for Usability
At a time when smartphones, tablets, and assorted tech gadgets are being upgraded almost weekly, usability has become a serious issue for many consumers beyond the bleeding edge of early adopters and tech-minded geeks. With this in mind, the gurus at FastCo Design recently suggested creating a metric for usability based on NPS.
Before we go much further, we firmly believe that NPS works because it is about the entire ownership experience. And would like to point out that if a customer is indeed a advocate of your product, chances are they are already quite comfortable with its usability. By way of evidence, last week we reported on the 10 most advocated brands in the UK. Two of these are from Apple (iPhone and iPod) – a tech brand that is the market leader at creating breakthrough products that are both user-friendly and incorporate cutting-edge technology.
Having said this, columnist and designer Roderick McMullen notes that though companies may believe deeply in the power of usability, most probably aren’t measuring it or making it a key part of their strategy. And that is why he suggests adapting NPS to usability.
After considering carefully the most succinct way to frame a question on usability, he suggests the following: “On a scale of 1-10, How confident are you using this system/product/service?”
And voila, he produces a Net Usability Score! But hey, Roderick, NPS starts at 0, not 1! FastCo Design
Enterasys's website: "There is nothing more important than our customers"
Mantra pays off for Enterasys’ NPS
With a mantra of “There is nothing more important than our customers”, one would expect Siemens offshoot Enterasys to have a respectable Net Promoter Score. And this week, the network infrastructure provider announced it had achieved an NPS of +81, based on input from global customers across a number of industries.
According to customers, key points of differentiation about Enterasys include the following:
- The vast majority of the time the first person to answer the phone is the product expert.
- Product experts are highly experienced – with an average tenure of 13 years.
- Customers benefit from the simplicity of the company’s OneFabric architecture.
We were also particularly interested to note another tidbit of information. In stark contrast to the relentless drive to outsource support to call centres, the company’s support centre is 100% in-house. And this has paid real dividends in terms of customer satisfaction. Noted one client: “Enterasys’ technical support is amazing. Whenever I call for support, I gain fast access to knowledgeable engineers who really care about getting the issue resolved and being thorough about it.”
Service providers, take note! More: Smart Grid
V-Rooms reveals A+ NPS, revenue growth to match
Atlanta-based virtual data room company V-Rooms has announced revenue growth of 38% for 2011, more than double the growth rate of the industry. In a press release, they attribute this growth to their A+ Net Promoter Score, which they call a “world class distinction.”
While we applaud a high Net Promoter Score probably more than the next person, we are a little confused. Although Karen Perkins, President of V-Rooms says “We’ve put our focus on delivering the service, security, and accessibility that our customers want at an affordable price,” we aren’t really sure if the company’s NPS has improved or declined, if their surveys have helped them to change and improve their offering, or who conducted the research. Numbers are good enough for the rest of the NPS world, can you tell us what an “A+” actually is? Source
NPS on a napkin
The beauty of NPS lies in its simplicity, and nothing says simplicity quite like a diagram scribbled on the back of a napkin. David Mitzenmacher, chief customer officer at Volusion, has distilled the essence of NPS onto a napkin and uploaded a scan onto his blog.
In response, NPS guru Rob Markey noted “As the co-author of a 267-page book on the subject, I should probably find this vaguely disturbing. Instead, I’m really impressed. Nice job, Dave!” Net Promoter on a napkin Rob Markey’s response
Net Promoter News: Kérastase 80, Cohiba 59, Declaration at Lords, NPS almost called Happiness Score
Study reveals evolving UK consumer habits, most advocated brands
Recent research by leading slidedeck-ologists Bain & Company has uncovered the top 10 brands in the UK according to their NPS scores, and revealed evolving consumer habits.
L’Oréal’s haircare brand Kérastase is the most advocated brand, with a Net Promoter® Score of +80, followed by Mercedes, Apple iPhone, and Redken and British brand Hotel Chocolat at equal fourth.
British shoppers are now buying across more brands than they did previously in most categories, with a few exceptions, the most interesting of which is personal technology. One might immediately assume that this is due to the influence of Apple – a brand that has managed to combine groundbreaking innovation and a powerful emotional pull. And indeed, the iPhone’s NPS ranking appears to bear that out.
However, it isn’t only due to Apple. Lesser-known Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer HTC ranks joint seventh (alongside the iPod). In a category where innovation is fast and competition fierce (I’m looking at you, Nokia and RIM) it seems UK consumers are gravitating towards a small number of clear market leaders in the personal tech category.
Somewhat improbably, at 6th on the list was Cohiba, which reveals that the survey demographic appears to be cigar smoking fat-cats (presumably also users of Kerastase BAIN OLÉO-RELAX smoothing Shampoo for Dry, Rebellious Hair…).
That list in full:
Top 10 “most advocated” brands in the UK - (Based on NPS of 350 brands covered in the survey)
Sources: Marketing Week WARC
Fred Reichheld on happiness and business
It’s a well-known fact that the ultimate objective of NPS is to create happy customers – people who are so happy they will positively recommend your service or product to people around them. Less well-known is that happiness was so important to Fred Reichheld, the creator of NPS, that he seriously considered calling it “Net Happiness Score.” He decided against this so as not to put off hard-headed businesspeople, but maintains a well-formulated philosophy on how happiness should fit into business practices and help drive bottom-line profit – something we can all read and feel happy about! Forbes
Generate the "Wall of Faces" Fred mentions in the Forbes articles with our free utility - click on image
Safety First, Customer Happiness Second fuels NPS
We are firm believers in a customer-centric approach, which normally means customer happiness should come first. However, a philosophy of safety first, customer happiness second, has proven to be a winning formula for franchise Maaco Collision Repair & Auto Painting in Regina, Canada. In a third consecutive independent survey over the past two years, the business has received 100% customer satisfaction, and an NPS of +92.
This high level of advocacy is evident in sales figures – the franchise has achieved over $2 million in sales for three consecutive years – and other recognition, with the business being named Maaco’s Top Performer Quality Image Award for the second year in a row, and claiming top spot in its category in Entrepreneur Magazine’s Franchise 500. Leader Post
Lord’s named best sporting ground in UK
The iconic home of leather and willow (trans: cricket – Ed) continues to provide fantastic sporting events for visitors, but it has significantly increased revenues since opening its doors to corporate and private events. The key, it seems, is that each member of the Lord’s Meetings & Events Department is given a personalized training programme, with the ultimate aim being that each event should be tailored to the specific requirements of the client. It has the highest NPS of any sporting venue on an extensive UK list. ITCM
