If your organization is one of the many employing Net Promoter Score (NPS) as an indicator of customer satisfaction, you’ve taken a step toward developing stronger customer relationships—and you still have some ground to cover.
NPS is based on the idea that by learning how likely customers are to recommend your company, you can segment them into “Promoters” (they really like you), “Passives” (they sort of like you) and “Detractors” (they don’t like you).
Understanding these segments allows you to categorize the positive and negative outcomes and determine ways to either replicate or correct them. It’s valuable only when you use this insight to change what you do, to create better outcomes in the future.
Even the Net Promoter Community cautions that “simply measuring your NPS does not lead to success. Companies must follow an associated discipline to actually drive improvements in customer loyalty and enable profitable growth.”
That “associated discipline” means making sure you are offering the right value at the right time to the right segments of customers.
The scores you get are a lot like a political poll. It’s valuable to understand current behaviors of humans in order to predict their future behaviors; however, like voters your customers’ situations and corresponding behaviors can change. What people say they'll do—and what they actually do—can be completely different things.
In other words, will they actually go vote—and vote for you—when they need what you provide, just because they said they would some time ago?
Communicating value is best done by employees who understand your brand message and are connected to customers who've determined it's time to buy. Educate employees on your brand message as the foundation for strengthening their every interaction with customers. Tell them what the customer-satisfaction data means to them and how it impacts their roles.
By making a positive difference in your customers’ lives, you will improve revenues. That kind of impact comes through the interactions your employees have with customers. A smart Net Promoter company develops “promoters” from within—at the point where employees can actually improve the lives of customers.
Dell has been using NPS for years, having gained sponsorship from the top: Michael Dell holds quarterly meetings with business areas to understand how they consistently satisfy customers. This is the corporate culture he’s created for Dell, knowing the culture ultimately becomes the brand. (True for every organization, by the way.)
The company has grown a vast champion network of employees who are aligned to the brand message, “tendering” that message—just like they would currency—to colleagues and customers every chance they get. Let's call those employees brandtenders.
Dell believes that in order to create engaged customers, it is crucial to help employees understand the difference they are making. Research firm The Temkin Group summed up a study of customer satisfaction and NPS this way: “Relationship trumps product."
Regardless of the measurement devices you use, here's how to get employees more involved in building sronger relationships with customers:
1. Help employees understand and become interested in your brand message—your ‘story'. (Employees become more engaged when they understand your company’s core values.)
2. Train employees to communicate the brand message consistently, to each other and to customers. (Your internal culture ultimately becomes your external brand.)
3. Allow employees the freedom to represent the brand in their own styles. (You hired them for their strong individual brands, right?)
These actions will do more for your organization than give you higher numbers on a scorecard. They'll make a tangible, lasting difference for your customers, employees and company.
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