Frank McCusker's presentation addressed some fundamental questions about which customers to ask for feedback and when to do it in a B2B environment. Clients have often asked me if they should create a Net Promoter Score for each customer organisation. My answer has always been no for the reasons that Frank outlined. B2B products and services are usually purchased by a complex decision making unit - a mix of users of the purchase, influencers of the purchase and the economic buyer with the ultimate right of veto for the purchase. Each will have a different set of expectations and each will have their own experience. It's obviously vital to understand how each of these 'buyers' feels about the relationship. And therefore each will have their own NPS. Averaging these scores might be interesting but it won't really give you a true indication of the health of the relationship or the real likelihood to buy again. This is because the average will mask the score for the economic buyer and if this person is a detractor then you really need to know that and do something about it.

If you really want to use your 'relationship' survey to greatest advantage, you should, as Frank said, match the timing of the survey to the rhythm of the relationship. If you have an annual renewal for example, it makes sense to survey the customer in time for you to be able to rectify any problems or maximise any strengths before the renewal decision is taken. It is also essential that you have a relationship status check halfway through this annual cycle.  By adopting this approach you can really plan for success with every buyer in a single customer organisation.