Why's Your Sat Nav Like Measuring Customer Satisfaction?

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The Customer's Shoes

Nov 08

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In This Issue

Sat Nav's v Road Atlas

Lost Satellite Reception

The Most Important Customer Question

Something for You

The Ultimate Question

1. Ask your customers to vote-don't just add the Ultimate Question on existing market research surveys

2. Measure at least 60% of your customers-a sample is not enough

3. Tie each response to customers' profitability-to understand how valuable the vote is

4. Hold employees accountable for how customers vote-align incentives with executive compensation: good profits + loyalty = bonus

5. Use the feedback to help convert detractors and increase promoters-engage and empower the front-line to act

6. Publicise departments with high Net Promoter Scores-share best practices and develop tools and training

Top ten reasons why satisfaction surveys are a joke
You cannot build an effective customer-feedback system on the shaky foundation of current satisfaction survey methods and practices.

10. Too many surveys, too many questions

9. The wrong customers respond

8. Employees don't know how to take corrective action

7. Too many surveys are marketing campaigns in disguise

6. Survey scores don't link to economics

5. Plain-vanilla solutions can't meet companies' unique needs

4. There are no generally accepted standards

3. Surveys confuse transactions with relationships

2. Satisfaction surveys dissatisfy customers

1. Gaming and manipulation wreck their credibility

Greetings!

In this week's newsletter I raise the subject of customer satisfaction as well as sharing with you the number one question you need to be asking customers and what this means to you.

Sat Nav's v Road Atlas

Nine months ago I gave in, more tempted by the novelty rather than what I saw as a real need, and bought myself a SatNav. I don't know how I managed for so long without one, it's made my driving so much easier.

car_on_road

However these devices can get you lost, unlike my trusty Road Atlas where I can flick a page and see my complete route ahead with certain knowledge that the turns I'm taking will take me in the right direction.

Each turn on any route is like an individual "transaction" for that route. Typical customer satisfaction survey questions operate in the same way, they are useful for establishing the turns, for knowing how well we're doing at a particular point on the journey but as with any destination there are several routes to get you there. So what's also important is knowing that the transactions you are making are actually taking you to where you need to get to. Or rather more importantly where your customer wants to get to, so question not what's important to you, but what's important to your customers. If you don't know then find out - ask your customers.

a word of caution - don't confuse taking the right turns to mean the same as 'the customer thinks we're great'. Measuring transactions isn't the same as measuring relationships!

Lost Satellite Reception

The right course to plot with customers is the direction that leads you to winning and retaining profitable customers that spread positive word of mouth about your product or service. The final destination - repeat purchases and referrals.

Although transactions have their place we need a question that tells us more than how well we performed at the last turn. We need a survey question which when answered gives us certain knowledge that we are heading not only in the right direction, but that if we keep going we will arrive at our goal, that we haven't lost 'satellite reception'.

To maintain 'customer reception' we need to ask the right question.

And the Most Important Question Is..

There's one customer question that is business critical. Known as the Net Promoter Question it is simply this "How likely would you be to recommend us to a friend or colleague?"

Customers can score you with a rating for their response on a scale between 0 and 10, where 10 is extremely likely and 0 is extremely unlikely and 5 is neutral.

Since it's introduction back in the late 90's by Professor Fred Reichfeld of Bain & Company significant evidence has been published that demonstrates the link between the answers to this Net Promoter question and the business growth that follows. Net Promoter is a groundbreaking tool that measures what matters most to your customers. In his book The Ultimate Question, he established NPS as the catalyst to help companies sharpen their focus on customers.

Your Net Promoter Score (NPS) is calculated by taking the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters and it provides you with a single metric that can track whether or not your organisation is on the right course.

Bain & Co's extensive research shows that when you take actions to increase your Net Promoter Score then you drive your business growth. Reduce your detractors and increase your promoters and you end up with more positive 'buzz' about your organisation being spread throughout your market place.

I've been following the world of Net Promoter since it first came into the wider public domain back in 2003 and I encourage all my clients to adopt it as part of there customer satisfaction metrics. I also recommend that along with this question they ask a second question such as "What could we do differently to improve your experience of us?" This then picks up the most important factor on the customer's mind which may well be an issue with a transaction in the journey.

Call to Action
So here's something for you to consider:

When was the last time you reviewed your customer feedback strategy?
Are you measuring the transactions or an overall experience that is leading to recommendations?

Can you be sure that your questions are giving you feedback that is heading you in the right direction? Are your questions providing 'satellite reception'?
What steps could you take to increase the amount of customer feedback in the first place?

If you'd like to discuss the Net Promoter approach further or would like to know how to effectively and simply measure it automatically please contact me via email or call me on 0784 328 4310

Thanks for reading. Once again I'd appreciate your feedback via two questions in two minutes on how you found this newsletter. Please take my micro-survey here.

Kind regards,

Mark Gregory