CustomerGauge Case Study - nib health funds: Checking Up On Customer Loyalty

This case study describes why  nib chose Net Promoter, how they started surveying, and where the current partnership with Genroe and CustomerGauge has taken them.

Though the company chose Net Promoter for a number of reasons, the single most important factor was its ability to help the company see itself from the individual customer’s point of view. The decision to partner with Genroe and CustomerGauge brought with it a number of investment benefits that offset
some of the external costs and also provided new tools and insights to improve customer service more effectively.

Yes. We are Customer Obsessed as well.

Voxeo outlines three major NPS-inspired initiatives

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

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

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

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

Sprint Nextel and MetroPCS Communications Execs on Net Promoter Scores

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

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

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

Travel Counsellors Netherlands picks up three gongs

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

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

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

NetDimensions adds Net Promoter Dimension

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

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

RSC’s NPS stands at +67

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

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

Among the insights:

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

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

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

Steve Jobs on Customer Service

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

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

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

Nokia gives earning call, reiterates Asha NPS

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

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

SoDA gets Net Promoter Score, claims Outstanding Member Satisfaction

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

Net Promoter now available Everywhere says CustomerGauge

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

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

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

"Monday Monday - can't help that day..." This client clearly shows Monday is a bad day.

Rainy Days and Mondays

Was it true? We at CustomerGauge decided to take this as an Easter challenge. We fired up our data extraction systems, and over a coffee-and-chocolate fuelled data-binge we cranked the numbers of ten CustomerGauge clients. Using nearly a quarter of a million data points we arranged the results by the Day of the Week of Survey Completion. Our aim: to see if we could spot any patterns to support the premise that Net Promoter® scores would be lower on a Monday because people feel gloomier.

Our first dataset looked promising, and surprised us. The data immediately showed that Mondays were in  fact the lowest scoring day, some 5 NPS points below the client average. You can see this in the Client 7 graph above – we show the difference from the client’s overall Net Promoter Score, and the total number of points in “Resp” (Resp = response). In this case, Monday is 4.6 NPS points below the average. (so if the overall NPS was +15.6, the Monday score was NPS +11).

Happy Mondays. Saturday Night Fever.

Then our next dataset stumped us. Client 2 showed a 6 point increase on surveys completed on a Monday. If anything, Saturday was the worst day for Net Promoter.

TGI Thursday.

We pressed on. The next dataset showed that Client 10′s customer base favoured Thursdays, but hated Tuesdays. And Sundays. Hmmm.

Uh-oh. Wednesdays, no, Tuesdays child is full of woe.

Client 1′s data told a similar story on Blue Tuesday, but had a brighter Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

I do like Mondays. And can't wait for that Friday Feeling

Here’s another example where Mondays are favoured over other week days, according to Client 5 and their 64,000 data points.

All Clients. 244,000 data points. Not so much variation over the week.

Overall, what does the data tell us? As we expected, over all the data points, there is not a significant score difference depending on which day of the week you fill a survey in. The difference is within a range of 1 – 2%, which can be put down to some variability in the data.  In short, we don’t support Mr D’Arcy’s claim that there is a “Blue Monday” effect, although his hypothesis is interesting.

But there are some patterns that intrigued us. Rather than a day of the week skew,  we believe the numbers could be explained by variability in service on certain weekdays. These may warrant closer inspection by our clients. Some notes we made:

• We did notice that for one b2b client, surveys completed at the weekend were very negative. Maybe due to system errors happening on a weekend with no-one to fix them?
• Several of these clients listed have a survey sent after a fixed number of days after a transaction – for example 14 days. So the NPS results might refer more to service issue patterns on the weekday itself. For example, weekend parcel deliveries might be less reliable than a weekday delivery.
• It could be that customer service workers are more on the ball on say, Thursdays, rather than Mondays, so the effect is more on the delivery side than the customer perception.
• One bright spark in our office suggested that this data be used to fine-tune which workday to send a survey, if a client wanted to show a higher Net Promoter Score. We quickly squashed that idea. NPS should be all about consistency – in which case it does not matter, as long as you keep repeating the same environment. In any case, instinctively we feel that it should not make a difference.

A Day in the Life

For CustomerGauge clients: we are happy to share the details of this exercise, and if demand is high enough we will create a special report to help understand Net Promoter by day of the week (sent, completed, or transaction date). Give us your feedback.

Please also use the comments to discuss your thoughts – did we miss anything? What other information would you like to see? Should we call the Mythbusters?

Information for fact-fans: Data points taken over last 12 months. More than 300 responses in each weekday bucket, with most more than 1000 data points. NPS based on standard 0 – 10 scale. Client NPS results: Min 5.6, Max 67, Average 28.4, Median 18.5, all based on continuous 7 day surveying.

Useful references: Data Dredging, Calendar Effects. See also our NPS article: “Is there a Dutch Effect?” – dealing with cultural bias

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

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

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

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:

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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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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

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 9^th, 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 25^th 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.