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

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.

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)

• Kerastase - NPS: 80%

• Mercedes - NPS: 66%

• Apple iPhone - NPS: 60%

• Redken - NPS: 59%

• Hotel Chocolat - NPS: 59%

• Cohiba - NPS: 57%

• Apple iPod - NPS:53%

• HTC - NPS: 53%

• Audi - NPS: 52%

• Rolex - NPS: 51%

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

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

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.

And this year, CustomerGauge were delighted to become the exclusive supplier of the Net Promoter® Score measurement system for Father Christmas. We were lucky to get a quick interview with none other than Santa Claus who spoke to us from his North Pole headquarters. He  was remarkably relaxed, despite being less than a week away from the big day.

CustomerGauge: Thank you for speaking to us Santa – you must be incredibly busy at the moment…

Santa Claus: Ho ho, actually, I try to delegate as much as possible, and Mrs Claus is always reminding me to keep my work-life balance in check.

Yo-ho-how did we do?

CG: Santa, why did you pick Net Promoter as a loyalty measurement?

Santa: We wanted to do a follow-up survey for everyone – not a sample of people, but all the children and adults. Net Promoter is beautifully simple. The “Just One Question”, 0 – 10 scale is easy to understand, and the sentiment “Would you recommend…” really appeals to all of us at Santa HQ – it’s like the gift of a personal recommendation. And it’s not just easy for our present recipients to understand – “customers” we call them – but everyone in our organisation gets it. It’s really the most important metric for us.

CG: How does your NPS program work?

Santa: We start by getting our database ready in November: cleaning, de-duping, filtering out who’s been naughty and nice, and checking it twice. As we deliver gifts, our ERP system sends the information to CustomerGauge in real-time using their API. They store the information, and 24 hours after we’ve been down the chimney, the CustomerGauge system automatically sends an email. Everyone has email these days, so that’s the best way of delivering the survey invitation. The survey is localised into 30+ languages, and we collect comments, then immediately distribute them. While many people around the world are watching the “Only Fools and Horses Christmas Special” on Boxing Day, I’m looking at NPS numbers and comments scrolling in real-time on the CustomerGauge digital signage.

CG: How are you responding to comments?

Santa: Well, I bought copies of Fred and Rob’s book, “Ultimate Question 2.0” for all the elves earlier this year, and we ran Customer Experience workshops to bring up awareness in the organisation. We appointed NPS champions in the functional parts of the business: manufacturer, communication, distribution, returns etc, and when the comments come in, they are distributed to the front-line elves, who are keen on making small improvements. We can make some immediate changes, and work on lower priority issues throughout the year. But one thing I do insist on – we must get an answer back to the customer within 24 hours!

CG: …And you track that?

Santa: Yes, we track this “firefighting” workflow in CustomerGauge. We make sure we close all all the issues promptly.

Ding Dong Merrily on High (Score)

CG: Why did you pick CustomerGauge?

Santa: CustomerGauge has been easy to integrate into our ERP and CRM systems – the API is very useful to get data in and out. It’s scalable – pushing millions of emails out in a 24-hour period works well. It’s very internationalised, and the CustomerGauge support has been excellent. The elves like the real-time digital signage, and they implemented it in under four weeks.  I would say it’s already made a positive impact on the organisation. I’ll send a link so you can try out the survey [ed: here it is: Santa's Survey]

CG: Have you any learnings you can pass on?

Santa: Yes – batteries. We always pack batteries now as so many toys need them on Christmas morning. Thanks to feedback, we now drop off  a “Dad’s pack” to make sure presents can get assembled without fuss – it contains screwdriver, scissors to open packaging, and two Ibuprofen as a restorative! Also, for some kids, we are now pre-installing apps and logins on iPads so they are “play ready”. We are always learning – and we never forget that people have a choice of present deliverer at Christmas!

CG: Finally, Santa, can you share your NPS score?

Santa: Of course -  it’s 100!

CG: Thanks Santa, and best wishes of the season

Santa: No problem. Merry Christmas everybody!

Take Santa's Survey here to see how he's working with Net Promoter. Ask for a login to the back-end CustomerGauge system to see how the reporting works.

Note: You can try out Santa’s survey here. And if you want to see how the back-end CustomerGauge system works, please ask for a login and a guided tour.

Often, it’s a simple “Thank you for your feedback”. And the “cherry” is telling them what you did with the feedback.

Think of yourself in your local favourite restaurant.  You have a great relationship with the manager and feel comfortable talking about the restaurant.  After your third or fourth plate of spaghetti which you feel has too much sauce on, you decide to mention it to the manager.

To simplify let’s break it into three levels.

Level I – Asking for Feedback: At the very least, the manager is approachable and open to comments. Better, he is sensitive to feedback, sees that you may have be having an issue, comes over and asks you about it.
Level II – Processes Feedback: Manager takes your feedback in an open and honest way (certainly not defensively) and says that he pass it on to the head chef.
Level III – Providing the “Cherry on the top”: the next time you enter the restaurant the manager spots you, rushes over to greet you and says, “Thank you for your feedback about the spaghetti sauce – the Chef and I discussed it, and he agrees.  I am confident that if you order the spaghetti tonight you will be pleasantly surprised!”

Most successful companies in today’s world certainly are engaging in level I and level II customer service. There is often a mechanism in place to capture feedback. Good companies use comment in an open and honest way to try to fix it.

After all, a steady stream of customer comments is like having top-quality consulting, for free. And the best companies  get back to people to ensure them that their comment has been taken on board and was useful. It’s difficult for many organisations to do this, even if they have the corporate willpower.

There are some good ways to do this. Using CustomerGauge, for example, companies can:

1. solicit feedback from their customers, automating the data collection and surveying process
2. use the “fire fighting “ facilities , and identify issues to be addressed
3. once the issue is fixed, they can go back and send a short e-mail thanking those that raised the issue and explaining that they were part of the solution, a.k.a. “the cherry on top”.

Whether or not you do it manually, or make it highly automated, thanking customers must be one of the most underated, yet most effective customer retention methods available. And apart from anything else, it’s just good manners!

What works best for Net Promoter® Score: Web Surveys or Phone Surveys?

16.00 UK / 17.00 CET
Wednesday 7 December 2011 Register

Find out how in just 15 minutes in this interactive session, the next in our Net Promoter Best Practice Series.

Led by Robert Kerner and Adam Dorrell, this webinar looks at the pros and cons of both web and phone surveys – with cost comparisons, a look at the value, and when to use either web or phone.

This is a fast run through, with practical examples, 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. REGISTER  here

To have another language is to possess a second soul
- Charlemagne

For some fun last week in CustomerGauge HQ, we counted up the number of languages that we can speak. The result: 13. Maybe more – I think I forgot to count Norwegian. That certainly helps us roll-out complex multi-language solutions for our clients.

And from this week,  we can now assist our clients with a low-cost, instantaneous translation system for Voice-of-the-Customer comments from Net Promoter® Score survey.

Our new CustomerGauge Automatic Translation System uses the Google Translate™ Translation Service API to translate over 60 languages. Translated comments are stored in CustomerGauge, and can be searched and reported on. No need for cut-and-paste, no buttons to press. If you have used Google Translate before, you’ll be familiar with the idea.

Technically it’s a “Gisting” service – you can get the “gist” of a comment – but it’s not a perfect translation. We always recommend that comments be routed to local language speakers to deal with; however, the service has already proved useful for client needs. Some interesting points have already be “found in translation”.

The cost of this service is EUR 0.10 per translated comment. (equiv: US $0.13, A$ 0.13, GBP 0.09). It is available from 2 December 2011 on CustomerGauge b2c sites.

Details and examples in our presentation.

Our Client Operations team are ready to set up translations on CustomerGauge sites now. Or if you are considering a Net Promoter project, let us advise you on acquiring the gift of translation for your Net Promoter project.

Some example translations.

Download the presentation here.

CustomerGauge is now available with a full range of API (Application Programming Interface) methods to connect to enterprise systems, so now it’s simple to connect to ERP, CRM, BI and e-commerce systems and measure Net Promoter® Score. It is the first fully automated Net Promoter Score platform with an enterprise level API.

Using the API, CustomerGauge clients have already been able to integrate service-request systems, IVRs and other enterprise systems to contact customers and measure NPS in real-time, feeding results directly back into corporate systems.

One client uses the API to send customer details to CustomerGauge as soon as an agent hangs up the phone, and within two minutes the same customer receives an email survey to gather a score and a comment. The results of this activity have pushed response above 50%.

Another client is using the API to push customer issues directly into Salesforce.com in order to “Close the loop” with the wider organisation.

And another client is using multiple platforms to survey, including graphically based iPad systems, all based on communicating results to CustomerGauge with our secure API.

Using an iPad for a CustomerGauge survey

These CustomerGauge platform integrations are simple and quick to implement, and mean that NPS can be easily rolled out across organisations by connecting with diverse IT platforms.

Developers can start directly with our documentation. To understand more about how CustomerGauge can be integrated with other systems, contact us.