I have been reviewing results from our Net Promoter 360 program assessment and benchmark. Dr. Laura Brooks recently presented aggregate results at our Net Promoter conference in London and Dr. Vince Nowinski presented at our conference in New York.
My recent reviews have been looking at it from the specific client responses. It’s clear what companies need to do to achieve results. Some areas you should consider include:
1. Customer-centric culture.
We all talk about it, but do you REALLY embrace this? Ask yourself:
- Is Net Promoter Score(NPS), or whatever measure you chose, one of the top 3-5 metrics you use to guide the business?
- How frequently to do you review the data? Weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually?
- Is NPS data used when making investment decisions? Do you consider the impact of the customer experience when looking for cost savings? Is the data used to prioritize investment areas?
If you are not reviewing NPS data alongside your other operational metrics, can you really say you are customer-centric? Are your senior executives really bought into the impact of customer experience/loyalty on the business or are they paying lip service?
2. Prioritize and track strategic improvements.
Many companies are driving closed-loop processes at the front line. They do their best to address customer issues at specific points in time. This helps drive immediate benefits and often results in reduced churn and cross-sell opportunities. However, when it comes to addressing major strategic issues impacting the customer, many struggle to prioritize and hold cross-functional teams accountable to take action.
Bruce Temkin’s report on the current state of customer experience states:
71% identified “other competing priorities” as a significant obstacle to their customer experience efforts.
Continued triage at the front line is not sustainable. You will find that your program will plateau as your employees continue to try to address systemic issues, but without focus on root cause, and a cross-functional process for driving improvements you cannot achieve optimal success.
What is your process for prioritizing strategic investments? Is there governance in place to ensure actions are taken? Are you looking at this cross functionally or in your organizational silos?
3. Build trustworthy data.
Getting the voice of the customer (VoC) is different than market research. Market research gives you a pulse on the market, VoC programs should be collecting customer feedback at critical touch points and across the journey via relationship surveys, to continuously monitor and improve the experiences that have the greatest impact on loyalty. You must build an enterprise view to understand how to prioritize actions. You also need to ensure that your respondents represent the business that matters most to your financial performance. This is particularly critical in B2B organizations where every voice is not equal.
4. Evaluate your sample.
Are you getting an accurate representation of the business? Do you have both transactional and relationship measures in place to monitor the customer experience across the enterprise? If you expect leaders to take action on the data, can you confidently state that the data is accurate enough to guide business decisions?
There is much more to say on this topic, but if you get these three things on track you’ll be on your way to success. How well is Net Promoter/Customer Experience truly embraced by the leaders of your business? Do you understand the impact? Do they consistently communicate the focus on customers? Do they drive organizational change based on customer feedback? Do they hold employees accountable?
The gains come when you get it right. Our research shows that 42% of advanced companies are seeing modest-strong financial returns and 21% are seeing transformation of their business.
