One of the things that comes back time and again at this year's Net Promoter Conference in London is the advice that the Net Promoter scale isn't an absolute measure of achievement but rather an encouragement to delight once more.

You see numbers are finite but experiences are not.

Clients sometimes ask 'what's next once you reach a 10?' After all 10 is perfection right?

Wrong? Virgin Media, ING, Philips, BUPA, Fiat - all say the same thing - a 10 on the NPS scale is just the recognition of delight - positive surprise if you like. In fact I would encourage everyone to see the NPS scale as a 'Surprisometer'.

So the challenge then become how you positively surprise next time. And that's the reality of Net Promoter. If you see it as just a metric then a 10 is job done - the Ultimate Answer to the Ultimate Question. But if you see it as a Discipline then 10 is just an the Ultimate Encouragement to delight next time and every time. And because you can't surprise with exactly the same experience a second time, then you need to find small ways to surprise once more. So use Net Promoter as your own Surprisometer and rise to the challenege of delighting customers on every occasion.