Why NPS is better suited than Customer Satisfaction surveys for good customer service
In an effort to really shift the dial of customer service David Tudehope, CEO of the Australian Macquarie Telecom Group, dumped the traditional customer survey approach in 2012 in favor of the Net Promoter’s simplicity.
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Tudehope now relys on NPS with its ease to conduct and interpret. Source: The Australian Financial Review[/caption]
Looking to differentiate from the two big Australian players, Telstra and Optus, Tudehope for years has put the improvement of customer service as a top priority.
To achieve this, every year his team would sift through an 80-page customer survey report and when recommendations would fail, additional questions would be added with the assumption that they just needed to dig a little deeper.
However, when adding more questions still failed, Tudehope put an axe to the program.
“It was an unwieldy, dead end strategy: the customers were not even surveyed until three months after contact.”
Realizing that his problems could be solved with NPS’s simple questioning, management now no longer has to wade through thick reports, decide upon those most viable and then work to push changes through the company.
With a score of 56 as of this June, Tudehope is impressed with the power it has to motivate Macquarie’s Australian based call center staff. Surveying each customer after a call center interaction, the collected data is displayed on screens throughout the call center in real-time.
Tudehope says however, that while he is happy with the progress Macquarie has made with NPS and customer service in the last 3 years, there still needs to be a shift by companies towards greater transparency. “People will start asking companies for their NPS score, it is actually a way of empowering customers."
Banks find only way to compete is become online centric
With interest rates low and banks offering very similar services, the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) banks know there is not much to choose from when picking a bank and as a result are starting to shift their focus to the customer’s experience.
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With low interest rates, UAE's banks are finding that digital is the new way to comptete[/caption]
And to do this, they are grabbing hold of the benefits online and mobile banking offer, because for an increasing amount of customers stopping by an actual branch is far too time-consuming.
Going digital is in fact worldwide proving to be a win-win situation for banks, as customers receive convenience and speed while the banks save money. As roughly 800 million people worldwide currently use mobile banking, with this number expected to grow to 1.7 billion in the coming five years.
And it is Dubai’s biggest bank, Emirates NBD that is leading the way at impressing its customers through mobile services. In June, it released a new function that allows the deposit of a cheque by scanning with a mobile device, which in turn reserves a place at the bank teller before arriving.
In reality though mobile and online banking are just one way of solving customer problems. What is at the heart of all these efforts is helping customers resolve issues as quick and easy as possible, no matter the means of interacting.
For this reason the strength of the relationship with wealthy customers still revolves around the managers that are assigned to look after them at the bank. “People don’t need their banks to provide concierge services,” says Tony Graham, the head of retail banking at United Arab Bank. “When they pick up the phone, they want someone to answer and they want it answered by someone sensible who knows what they are talking about.”
To read more about the UAE’s competitive banking system just click here.
What a poor digital experience does to loyalty
Giving customers a poor digital experience is never good for loyalty but now new research by SAP has quantified just how much and how closely it is tied to NPS.
Researching 34 major brands, the research found that where customers were dissatisfied with their digital experience only 17 percent said they would remain loyal, with these brands having an average NPS of -55.
While at the other end, of those customers delighted with their digital experience 73 percent stated they would remain loyal producing an NPS of 63.
The message seems to be that if you are going the digital route, which is almost everybody, then you need to do it right or you risk alienating your customers.
Read more about the report.
In brief
JetBlue is still flying pretty with a score of 68.
Grocery chain Trader Joe’s isn’t doing too bad either at 62.
In the wireless carrier industry Boost Mobile is a little further behind, at 33, but a good score for a telco.
TV cable provider Verizon is slightly lower at 22, but also good considering the reputation of U.S. cable companies.
And lastly, American pharmaceutical chain Walgreens has a score of 25.
