“The quicker you can drive Net Promoter data into the tools your sales people use every day, the more successful you’ll be,” advised Sandy Anderson, VP Sales Operations at Experian. Integrating customer feedback from Net Promoter surveys into regular processes has aided in engaging the sales organization at Experian.

Sales employees are able to see scores, open-ended comments – the good, the bad and everything in between. Sandy’s shared her motto “All feedback is good. It gives us the opportunity to make a change."

Once the surveys are complete, Experian shares the results broadly within the organization. Each area must create action plans based on their customers’ feedback.

They’ve even begun sharing these action plans with clients. Clients learn about the client loyalty program – what it is, why Experian is doing it, how they’re using the feedback.

They share the results with the client and don’t hold anything back good or bad. It sounds like a very candid conversation:

“Here’s the items you told us we’re failing on and here’s what we propose to do about it. Does this sound right?”

Now…I know these conversations can’t always be easy. But, I imagine that Experian is becoming a very trusted partner for these clients.

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Aspire to be the next Nordstrom’s or Zane’s Cycles? Do you marvel at the legions of Apple fanatics? These companies all have one thing in common: a customer experience that is completely unique in their market.

Henry Jones, VP Western Region at Satmetrix, provided a how-to guide for creating a differentiated customer experience.

You have to start with the money…well, at least, you need to build a business case that shows that you can create value by delivering great service.

• Show that improving loyalty will drive growth. Henry described a client with a theory that happy customers are less likely to default on their loans. And they actually proved it to be true for their business – improvements in NPS generated revenue from customer income and reduced the risk of the business.

• Show the link between service and growth. Henry showed a call center team NPS ranking from highest to lowest. Now, these were service reps that were also charged with selling. They saw a 26% purchase increase between the top 5 NPS ranked teams and the bottom 5 call center teams. Since the key driver of the score differences was staff knowledge – there’s a direct linkage for the CFO - if I invest in creating knowledgeable staff…we’ll sell more.

• Understand what creates loyalty & destroys loyalty. What are the moments of truth where we can put in proactive processes to prevent detraction/customer churn?

You and your employees must to act with heart and passion. This isn’t something you can fake. It must be real and genuine.

• Create empathy with customers
  • Show employees verbatim customer comments – Things always appear more clearly when you can read them in your customer’s own words.
  • Ask employees to follow up with customers – There’s nothing more humbling than having to say “I’m sorry”.
  • Put yourself in your customer’s shoes…literally – employees at USAA dress in full military gear and eat MRE’s on their first day.

• Generate ideas from the front- line
  • Ask your front-line employees for their ideas – They see/talk to your customers every day, your employees are the gateway to their wants, needs and feelings.
  • LISTEN to your employees and USE their ideas – There’s no sense in asking for ideas, if you’re not going to use them.
  • Publicize the adoption of employee generated ideas – Make it clear to employees that “you are changing the way we do business”.

• Communicate & celebrate success
  • Rewarding employees for good performance – Everyone loves to have their name in lights once in awhile.
  • Show employees that this is important from the top – down.

You must invest in mechanics to build the process. Successful programs have systems in place to do this efficiently.

• Collect data at the right touchpoints – Identify the key moments across the customer journey that drive your relationship with the customer.
• Automate processes to drive & share information – Get information into the right hands quickly.
• Put process in place to ensure that customer concerns are responded to – Developing a process for closing the loop with customers ensures that it gets done right.

Money + heart + mechanics = differentiated customer experience AND a slew of loyal customers

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