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

Philips puts design in the heat of the battle

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Battle for the Presidency: A race to the bottom

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

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

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

Freightquote.com quotes revenue growth, high NPS

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

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

Five Year Milestone

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

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

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

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

Wonga: Legal loan shark or financial services innovator?

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

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

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

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

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

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

SurePayroll pays attention to customer convenience

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

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

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

Promoters: Just the beginning?

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

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

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

NextUC takes KPIs to next level

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

Which Companies are using Net Promoter?

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

Case Study: nib health funds: Checking Up On Customer Loyalty with Genroe and CustomerGauge

nib health insurance is one of Australia’s fastest growing health funds, providing health cover to more than 850,000 people nationwide. Established in 1952, the Hunter-based company has achieved significant market growth in recent years, expanding its footprint into Victoria, Queensland, and more recently Western Australia, to become the country’s fifth largest health insurer.

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.

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

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

Advanced Technology Services advances B2B Customer Satisfaction

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Profits, Net Promoter Scores are ‘Weebly’ high

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

And finally, Cameron gets NPS idea for NHS

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

CustomerGauge unleashes revolution in Customer Feedback Management (press release)

CustomerGauge Everywhere to give entire organisations Net Promoter® customer feedback in real time

May 02, Amsterdam: CustomerGauge, a software company that brings Net Promoter® Score and customer feedback into the heart of businesses, has announced the release of CustomerGauge Everywhere – a revolutionary upgrade to the CustomerGauge platform.

The key innovation of CustomerGauge Everywhere is that it gives organisations open rolling access to customer feedback and Net Promoter® Scores to anyone in the organisation in real time, via an intuitive, user-friendly homepage that features a Twitter-like news feed of customer feedback. The page can be viewed across desktop or  iOS and Android  mobile devices.

By placing customer service at the heart of the organisation, CustomerGauge Everywhere will empower staff across organisations to solve customer service issues fast – regardless of whether they are dedicated customer service professionals or involved in other areas of the business. This innovation has significant potential to improve the customer experience and lower costs in marketing, sales and related areas.

“In the past, the big problem with customer feedback, even structured, proactively collected feedback, is that only a few people in any given organisation generally had access to this goldmine of data,” said Adam Dorrell, CEO, CustomerGauge. “But CustomerGauge Everywhere has changed that forever. We believe this could be as much of a change agent to enterprises as Facebook and LinkedIn have been to personal and business relationships.”

In addition to real time access to customer feedback and Net Promoter Scores, CustomerGauge Everywhere was created with a new architecture for delivering super-fast performance (one million records graphed in one second) and is available in English, German and Italian, with other languages soon to follow.  There are also a number of new options to drill into the data with advanced filters and date functions, and for the first time targets can be easily set and distributed by administration users. Other distribution options include real-time digital signage and integrations using the CustomerGauge API to any other system including Sharepoint or Salesforce.com.

For further details and a demonstration on CustomerGauge Everywhere, please see this short  webinar (15 mins).

About CustomerGauge

CustomerGauge is a cloud-based software solution from Amsterdam-based Directness BV, a fast-growing privately held software company founded in 2007.  CustomerGauge is designed to be the most comprehensive and cost-effective platform for enterprises to measure Net Promoter Score (NPS) and show ROI from marketing investments. The software platform has won clients all around the world, with global clients including Philips,  Electrolux, Vodafone,, and Tommy Hilfiger

Contact: adam.dorrell@cdirectness,net

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