Net Promoter News: Subaru drives most recommendation at 57, KIA coming fast at 18, Detriot’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
Case Study: The Welcoming Host – How SingleHop Implemented their Net Promoter Score program with CustomerGauge
Some months ago Singlehop, leading US-based hosting company ramped up its customer focus by implementing Net Promoter® Score (NPS) with the help of CustomerGauge.
SingleHop case study - download PDF
SingleHop is a cloud hosting provider that offers highly scalable, on-demand infrastructure services to both end-users and resellers. With over 7,900% growth over the past three years and around 4,500 clients in 114 countries, it is the second-fastest growing IT company in the US.
CustomerGauge has been working with SingleHop for a while, and this one page case study outlines how SingleHop researched what metric to use, chose a partner, rolled out the NPS project and budgeted the project.
Particularly interesting are the lessons learned, and their score evolution. Here’s a sample quote from the study: “New clients are our best critics because they see us without the years of experience they already have with us. Going forward, NPS is going to be very helpful in allowing us to understand what the clients’ first impression is of SingleHop.” - Andrew Munz, Director of Relationships.
In addition, Andrew talks about the future of NPS at SingleHop.
We are delighted to have such a thoughtful and responsive client in SingleHop, and feel that with their focus on customer loyalty they will continue to see speedy growth.
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
Avoiding a Night in the Barrel: What businesses can learn from the US Navy Greenie Board
It’s a dark stormy January night in the Eastern Mediterranean. You are the last of the 15 pilots of your launch still airborne. The other 14 pilots have managed to land on the pitching deck of the aircraft carrier, some taking several attempts to do so. This is the most dangerous manoeuvre for the pilot of any carrier aircraft, and after taking two failed attempts to land (they call it a “bolter”) you only have enough fuel for one more run.
As you approach the ship, which is pitching up and down so it looks at times like you are above your flight path, you hear the voice of the Landing Signals Officer (LSO) keeping you on track. The best you can do is remember your training and keep calm. You have to land on that pitching deck.
And then moments later, touchdown. The relief of having landing safely is almost overwhelming – your heartrate takes minutes to come down, and your hands are shaking even as you get your first hot drink in the ready room. Facing gentle ribbing from your fellow fliers about being the last back, it quickly turns to some empathy, and you get told that your hard time was the result of a “Night in the Barrel” and it happens to the finest fliers.
Even then, the ordeal is not finished. The LSO team visits the ready room, and in front of all the assembled squadron publicly grades you on the “pass” (landing): “High, slightly overshooting start, fly through on comeback in the middle, low at the ramp. Fair-2 wire.” Ouch. And a marker is placed on the big “Greenie Board” on the wall of the Ready Room: A yellow circle. For all to see.
Back on shore…
This is just one of the stories that my colleague Rob Kerner tells about his time in the Navy. A real-life former “Top Gun”, Rob flew F14s in the US Navy, and rarely talks about it, but over a beer can sometimes be persuaded to let a few details slip. And this tale came out after a recent webinar we gave, “Relationship v Transactional Surveys”. I immediately picked up on the Greenie Board idea.
"Greenie Board" hanging on the wall of a Ready Room on a US Aircraft Carrier. Pilots names are down left side, dots represent the grade of each pass.
Rob explained that the Greenie Board was the most public part of an entire process that helps pilot get safely on the deck every time.
At the end of each pass, the controlling LSO shouts out his initial assessment of the landing to a writer on the team, and after every plane has been recovered, the LSO team goes below deck and reviews the passes. It is a peer group meeting (the LSOs are also are experienced pilots). A mark is given for each pass, and written notes reviewed. Later the LSOs will visit the ready room and goes through the grades in public. It’s an objective assessment. A frank exchange with the pilot is allowed, but the grade never changes. And this is for every pilot – Rob remembered his LSO duty giving a debrief to an Admiral!
And then for public display, the grade is put on the Greenie Board, which shows the most recent passes. There is no hiding from a Yellow or a Red. It’s transparent and very public.
Pilots are assessed monthly at sea by the LSOs, who will look at trends in the results – for example, on getting on the right glideslope at 10 miles out. Rob said that for him, this coaching was essential to help him improve.
From the warship to relationship
In some ways it’s crass to compare this story to business. I am in awe of anyone who can risk their life like this. And how can customer relationships be anything like defying death on the ocean? But there are some points that I took away from his story that related neatly to what we do with CustomerGauge.
The method of having a simple mark and comment for each pass perfectly fits the Net Promoter® concept of Promoter, Passive or Detractor, together with an explaining comment. In the case of business, it’s a transaction, or customer contact in place of a “pass”.
Scores are publicly displayed for all to see – an excellent transparency that you see in the best organisations. This drives continuous improvement, and again, a feature that is found in CustomerGauge, showing the Net Promoter Score and comment by segment, by customer in real time.
And the point that I really liked is that the flyer’s career is in part judged by his/her success on the “Greenie Board”. In our world, that means the “Relationship” Net Promoter Score is made up of the individual “Transactions”. And our Waterfall charts help organisations drill into the reasons behind negative or positive sentiment.
Measure for success
We often come across clients starting a Net Promoter project that have the initial notion of measuring b2b NPS with an in-depth annual survey of a representative sample of customers, either by phone or long web-survey. Our belief has always been that continuous surveying of transactions builds a much better picture of the relationship, and showing them on real-time dashboards like the Navy Greenie Board has always been a core function of CustomerGauge. We strongly believe that business relationships are made up of these touch-points (or transactions), and large b2b customers have many individuals interacting daily with suppliers. Scoring every transaction is the way to daily scores, and continual improvement.
Rob reminded me that he is also a member of USAA (the finance organisation aimed at US servicemen and women), hailed by Fred Reichheld as an NPS “star”. Rob also raves about their service, and it got me wondering if there was something in this military metric focus (of which the Greenie board is an excellent example) that can infuse its way across the entire business. The result for USAA is an excellent and consistent approach for customers.
I’m really inspired by this story. Watch out for part 2, where we actually take the “Greenie Board” concept and make it work in CustomerGauge for b2c “Relationship” NPS.
And if you have a few minutes, this video will give you a deep respect for what guys like Rob have done to keep the peace…
More on the LSO and grades. Picture credits: 1 2
Webinar Wednesday: Relationship Surveys vs. Transactional Surveys, in 17 minutes
16.00 UK / 17.00 CET
Wednesday 11 January 2012 (ARCHIVED)
What works best for Net Promoter® Score: Relationship Surveys or Transactional Surveys?
UPDATE: 11 January 2012. Sadly both Rob and Adam forgot to record the webinar, which was a shame as all agreed it was the best “Webinar Wednesday” ever. However, you can see the slides on this link.
Find out how in just 17 minutes in this interactive session, the next in our Net Promoter Best Practice Series.
Led by Robert Kerner and Adam Dorrell, this short webinar will cover the differences between a relationship survey and a transactional survey and give some interesting examples of where/when to use each of them. Once you understand the differences, we will discuss the pros and cons of each and whether a “hybrid” model might be a good fit for your organisation.
Topic: Best Practice Series: Relationship vs. Transactional surveys
Date: Wednesday January 11th, 2012
Time: 16:00 UK, 17:00 CET
Price: Free, to registered subscribers
Agenda:
- Survey overview and why we recommend Net Promoter
- Definitions and examples of relationship and transactional surveys
- Uses in each type in B2B, B2C and B2E (Employee) surveys
- Hybrid models
- Pros and cons of each type of survey
- Key takeaways
This is a fast run through as an overview of the issues, plus a short Q&A session at the end. It should be useful for those considering the design and implementation of a Net Promoter program, or anyone in a customer facing or research role in your organization.
CustomerGauge to Salesforce.com Integration: Add Net Promoter Score to your contacts
CustomerGauge announces integration with Salesforce.com – now you can effectively survey contacts from Salesforce and add survey results and firefighting activities right in your database.
(view our 4 minute video on CustomerGauge to Salesforce.com® integration)
As Salesforce.com users ourselves, we have long wanted to find a way to get Net Promoter® scores and comments from our own CustomerGauge surveys into the Salesforce.com system. Two years ago it seemed a little daunting with their APEX language but with the recent addition of REST to Salesforce we now have an excellent and reliable way of doing this, using their web services interface (SOAP / REST API ).
Functionality:
- Attach a Net Promoter Score and comment from a completed CustomerGauge survey to the right record in Salesforce.com (it adds an Activity – you can see this in the video)
- Create a “Case” containing the relevant customer comment and other information in Salesforce.com so that existing CRM workflow in your system can be used (you can also see this in the video)
- Export from Salesforce.com – Using our survey “Fire-Fighting” functionality we are able to trigger Salesforce.com to export selected records to CustomerGauge automatically (more on that in a future post)
We have added some custom fields in Salesforce to show NPS.
Image from Activity record in Salesforce.com
You can see how it works on the attached video, and we also have a presentation CustomerGauge to Salesforce.com API (99).
We would be delighted to show you how it works, and help you to try it yourself by using development accounts on Salesforce.com and CustomerGauge.
Fighting “Fear of Feedback” – Webinar Recording
Feedback is part our everyday life, from parents, school, sports/fitness, through to 360 degree appraisals at work. Why then do many companies seem to be afraid of receiving feedback from their most valuable resources – customers?
In a short webinar, Robert Kerner and Adam Dorrell of CustomerGauge will examine:
- Reasons behind the “Fear of Feedback”,
- Examples of best practice – world class companies doing it right
- Using Net Promoter Score® as a measurement tool
- Practical ways to deal with positive, negative comments, as well as customer suggestions
- Automated processes to help close the loop: strategic and tactical
- Feedback on the feedback – examples of how to get back to customers
Access the recording: 35 minutes.
https://directness.webex.com/directness/ldr.php?AT=pb&SP=MC&rID=12383597&rKey=0284A2C27B7FF6A2
“Fear of Feedback” Webinar
June 29, 2011, 5:44 pm Amsterdam Time
35 mins
More about this webinar:
There are some fearless companies out there – business leaders that engage with their customers on a regular basis, receiving and processing feedback to improve their business and reward loyal customers. Examples include Harley Davidson, Amazon, Philips, Apple etc. These companies see their customers as valuable resources. [more]
But it seems these are not the norm. Either companies are getting worse, or consumers more choosy. According to a recent survey, more than 80% consumers stopped doing business with a company because of a bad customer experience, (up from 59 % four years ago)*.
Companies need to stay closer to customers to be able to spot problems early and react quickly.
In this webinar, aimed at customer experience professionals, we promise you will pick up some useful tips on how to use customer feedback to increase customer loyalty/retention and identify problems to be improved.
Net Promoter News: Metro Bank NPS makes the papers
Evening Standard 11 May 2011
For the first time in NPS memory (that’s about 5 years in our lives, having started this Net Promoter news column in 2006) we have seen NPS mentioned in a major newspaper (this is the London Evening Standard from today – source) and in the first paragraph.
We’ve covered the Metro Bank before on these pages – it’s a new UK retail bank with focus on the customers. The article tells of founder Vernon Hill crowing about a “97%” Net Promoter score, and he lists the other usual suspects, including the Barclays score of -35. Nice to see such a focus on the customer. Let’s hope he keeps publishing his scores (preferably with some methodology around it – without wishing to being cynical we’d like more detail around that incredible 97 score).
If not time to read the article we have a handy chart here…
Retail Bank Net Promoter Scores, Evening Standard 11 May 2011
Net Promoter News: NPS Now Goes to 11 – “One More Likelier”
Following hot on the heels (clogs?) of our Dutch Effect post yesterday, we were immediately contacted by a local Amsterdam enterprise, who are determined to show that the Dutch are not low markers when it comes to Net Promoter® Score.
Local businessmen Hertz van Rental, is the owner of the “Stoot Je Hoofd Niet” Snack-Restaurant [trans: "Don't Hit Your Head"], slap-bang in the centre of the old Jordaan, Amsterdam’s former working-class-gone-hip neighbourhood, and represents a collective of bars and cafes in the area. The venues sell the well known Dutch delicacy, the tasty “Kroket” (or “Kroketje” to the cognescenti), a filling food which is the ideal complement to a beer, while enjoying the bar singers belting out sentimental Johnny Jordaan or Tante Leen numbers. The organisation goes by the name of the Jordan Organisation for Kroketje Excellence, and is dedicated to high standards of quality and service for this important part of the experience.
“Our Net Promoter Scores are so high” says Mr van Rental, “that our members regularly get an NPS of more than 90″. He concedes that booze and singing might help push up the scoring a little, but showed us verbatim comments from customers along the lines of “I would give you 11 out of 10 for this Kroket”. He challenged us to help his organisation take better feedback from their customers.
I am proud to say the CustomerGauge organisation rose to the challenge.
Net Promoter: Is there a “Dutch Effect”?
Scores Below Sea Level In the Netherlands?
Thoughts on how cultural differences impact Net Promoter® Score
Yesterday we had three webchat enquiries within an hour from different countries relating to exactly the same topic. This one is typical: “I’m searching for information if there are cultural effects that impacts the NPS. I’m specially interested in if Dutch customers are “harder” to receive a high NPS score from then the rest of Europe”. It’s not normal to hear such a specific pattern of questioning like this, and at first we thought it might be some kind of sophisticated botnet attack attacking customer loyalty firms. But when we spoke to one of the questioner it was clear it was genuine, apparently triggered by one of the company’s Big Client survey results just coming back. And you guessed it, a low score from the Low Countries.
I was asked, in a conspiratorial way “Is there something like a “Dutch Effect” on scores?”
