New York Conference Blog 2010

The Bottom Line . . . Trust the Front Line

info@netpromoter.com — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 23:22:05 GMT

For my 40th birthday my husband bought me a microscope from Carolina Biological. They sell lab supplies to schools. My husband loved the experience because "the rep knew that I was only going to buy one microscope ever in my lifetime, but she still took the time to help me get the right one."

Imagine my delight when I got to meet Jim Parrish, the CEO of Carolina Biological. He told the room that the customer centric culture didn't happen by accident.

When he started he admitted that he was the lone wolf howling into the wind. Over time, and through very disciplined actions, he is now "the cheerleader on the sidelines" and his front line people are have taken over as the architects of the customer-centric culture.

To bring his people along he tried two "break out" moves.

1. He took customer comments to the front lines. Too often program leaders share NP scores with the front line but never let these folks hear what the customers are saying. But for CB, by sharing the comments the people quickly took ownership of the improvements and really took the feedback to heart.

2. The second thing CB did was connect the dots between poor customer services and the financial cost to the company. As an employee-owned company, this made a big impact. Error dropped fast and the NP score skyrocketed.

Ask yourself, who talks to your customers more? I bet 9 out 10 of you reading this will say that you talk to customers less than 2 hours a day. But the front line its 90% of their day.

Bottom line . .. trust the front line with the truth and the facts. They are the most important people in your business.

NPS the "Engine" for Mfg Success

info@netpromoter.com — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 23:01:46 GMT

The challenge with any manufacturing organization is that the company is often one to many steps removed from the end customer.

And yet, the end customer experience is what really drives word of mouth growth.

Cummins, one of the the worlds largest engine and component manufacturers, has successfully cracked the nut.

Taking the lead from companies such as GE, Aggeko, and Atlas Copco, Cummins has gone from zero to 60 in just one year with their Net Promoter program.

Their success is fueled by 5 key elements:

1. Commitment to fit NPS into an existing Lens of the Customer Initiative

2. Driving adoption by driving business value to the distributors

3. Focusing less on the score and more on the actions that improve the score

4. Moving away from anecdotal evidence to correlation-based drivers

5. Developing global standards

Distributor engagement isn't easy. . . but the benefit to the field arm is great. Have you had success engaging your distributor organization .. . tell us how?

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Citrix Online Uses NPS to Drive Priorities

info@netpromoter.com — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:31:13 GMT

Rounding out the Hi-Tech track, Tabitha Dunn, Director of Customer Insights for Citrix Online - the home of such celebrated projects as GoTo Meeting, GoTo Assist and GoTo Webinar - shared some insights about how NPS can be a driver of corporate priorities.

In the case of Citrix Online, the driver was product development and innnovation.

Tabitha gave us a veiled look at the projected numbers for a top-secret new project coming from Citrix Online. We were able to see the projections, but we don't know what the product is...yet. We got the distinct impression that the new product might hit digital shelves in about a month or so. Exciting!

Tabitha took the time to answer a lot of participant questions -- so much so that we had a mic runner in the room the entire time, but here are a few top-level take-aways:

Make sure you ask what people really want. And when you ask, get to the bottom of why they want what they want. Delivering on the wrong want/need can deliver low NPS scores. Tabitha gave the example of Citrix Online's customers asking for a smart phone client for their GoTo MyPC product. On the surface, it appeared that people wanted to be able to visit their computer desktops from their smart phone. But, when asked why they wanted to be able to do this and pointing out that the screen would be very tiny, etc., it turns out that users wanted to be able to access files in case they forgot them while traveling, for instance. (I personally think that some sort of file transfer product is what Citrix Online is launching in a month or so - some sort of GoTo MyFiles or something - but I can't be sure and certainly have no inside knowledge of such. It would be a good move for them though.)
Tabitha said, "The 'money' question is: how can we get from a 5 to a 10?" Meaning, the true value to a company's NPS program lies in figuring out how to drive improvement.
After seeing the various financial models and NPS/CX programs they've built, I chimed in and asked how long it took them to achieve what they've done. Her answer: 11 months and 2 full-time active team members. Wow, way to go Citrix.

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Satmetrix: Increasing Retention & Repurchasing

info@netpromoter.com — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:40:02 GMT

Satmetrix' own, Deborah Eastman delivered a presentation that was chock-full of common sense and hard-won insight with the theme: "Increasing Retention & Repurchase through an Integrated Account Management Program".

Some highlights were:

Account relationships are complex and traditional sales methodologies give a biased view of what's really going on in your accounts. You might want to read that again, it's not as simple as it sounds. Deborah gave the example of some sales folks saying, "I play golf with that guy all the time - he loves us!" Yet, when the NPS numbers come back, it shows an entirely different picture. The lesson here is grabbing a few brewskis and circling around the green with a key account does not a high NPS core make.
Watch your language. Deborah also hammered home that B2B account management programs should not be treated, viewed or referred to as research. An Integrated Account Management (IAM) program is not research - it's operational. They are also not surveys. Surveys are about you. Take note: if you start referring to your IAM or CX programs as surveys, so will everyone else. Refer to it as customer feedback...it might seem like a small nuance but people associate different things (and it's not always the association we want) with the word 'survey'. Stay mindful of this.
A good benchmark for B2B response rates is at least 50% - settle for no less. And, lead with your response rates. It's a bit off-the-mark to boast an NPS score of 80% and only have a 3% response rate. Not only are you missing the picture, but you're missing the value having the complete picture provides to your organization.
Don't forget your communication skills. Relay feedback to make sure you understood the feedback you're getting. It takes no time to pick up the phone and say, "Hey Bob, based on this last round of feedback, I understand X, Y and Z. Is that correct?" And, in fact, having conversations like this has led to more sales and repeat business. Relationships net you more diagnostic information and more information leads to better solutions.
That said, don't be tempted to look at CX programs as just sales efforts - CX should affect the company structure.
Keep in mind, too, that every person is not the same. Within one account, there are generally three types of people: decision-makers, influencers and end users. Be clear about what side of the fence you fall on with each group. End users may love your company, but if the decision makers don't, there's trouble in paradise. Look at how your NPS maps to each role.
Closed loop should happen with everyone -- not just detractors. Take the time to close the loop with promoters and passives -- and even non-responders. There's value in getting to the bottom of the numbers with real, live conversations with people. Ask promoters exactly how they came to be a promoter and then don't be shy about asking for referrals. Remember, closed loop conversations can generate income!
Link NPS to reference and referral programs. Marketing is usually looking for great case studies, PR is looking for customers/clients to talk to the media and sales is always looking for referrals - make sure these teams are cross-pollinating content.
Don't forget to leverage your wins! Have a balance. There's nothing wrong with focusing on areas of improvement, but it's a bit demoralizing for your team if all you're doing is fixing or pointing out what's broken.
When you can, map NPS goals to overall corporate goals. The idea being that the corporate goals already have energy and attention and NPS while having its own focus will benefit from the updraft.
Don't relegate NPS to an annual cycle. NPS needs to be on a quarterly cycle right along with sales results and forecasts. Focusing on NPS annually makes it more of an 'exercise' than a way your organization does business.

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Symantec - Energizing CX

info@netpromoter.com — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:10:11 GMT

Yesterday, I was the Hi-Tech Track Chair and as a result, had the pleasure of hearing Desirree Madison-Biggs, Director of Customer Experience at Symantec, speak about budget-friendy ways to put some zing in your CX program. (I must admit that it was quite cool to see the funny, yet informative, video they produced to update team members worldwide on NPS numbers.)

If you couldn't make it - shame on you! Just kidding...here are the top level take-aways in case you missed this session:

Symantec was bold enough to accept some of their CX challenges head on and adopted a position of "Customer First" and in fact, went so far as to give their CX program this theme: "Customer First: All the Insight, All the Time".
Desirree HIGHLY recommended having a game plan for your CX program. "You need a roadmap to there," she said. She admitted that Symantec put together part of their roadmap after a lot of the work had been done, but it's clear they're leading in CX programming now.
Desirree was smart enough to pepper her presentation with what would appear to be some obvious advice -- but these are all the things we forget when putting together CX programs. Sometimes the basics go by the wayside and we need someone who's been there to give us a gentle reminder. For example, here's this gem she shared: "You can't create promoters when service people aren't trained properly and aren't being nice to customers -- or if you have broken customer promises." Sounds obvious, right? But, how many times have you overlooked the forest for the trees when developing and implementing your CX program? Things to think about...
She also recommended creating an internal buzz. This requires a few things: the 'buzz' needs to come from the top, employees need to be engaged and empowered with action steps in order to get them on the same page and success stories need to be celebrated.
If you work within a national or international organization, don't forget to develop and nurture relationships with regional NPS champions. These are the people who'll keep the NPS home fires burning in between messages from corporate. For example, Symantec owned their CX program by mobilizing 17K employees to use a custom-developed customer assistance tool so that anyone can help a customer when needed. Genius. They also have a Customer First intranet/portal that showcases up-to-the-minute NPS scores and anything related to the organizations customer loyalty efforts. It's the first stop for anyone who wants to know about the Customer First program.
Desirree also pointed out not to lump all staff into the same bucket when it comes to CX programming. For example, Symantec has a special portal for their sales team and have created a RVP (Relationship Value Program). They also rolled out manager training so management can have conversations with employees about CX goals and where they fit into the bigger picture - it's all about each person knowing how they can specifically positively impact NPS.
The part that I thought was very forward-thinking is Symantec's CX Wiki, which is for employees as they move from position to position and want to bring information about Symantec's committment to customer loyalty with them.
Overall, Desirree stressed, "Communication is key! It is the underpinning to creating change within your organization."

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Experian - Adding Client Value by Engaging Your Sales Organization

info@netpromoter.com — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 07:45:06 GMT

“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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Cancer Treatment Centers of America: from “Sick Care” to “Health Care”

info@netpromoter.com — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:36 GMT

Fred Reichheld joined Steve Bonner, CEO of Cancer Treatment Centers of America for the closing session of the conference. Fred opened with a new point of view on Net Promoter, describing it as a way of taking a biblical proverb and turning it into a management system:

Proverbs 22:1

"A good name is more desirable than great riches. To be highly respected is better than having silver or gold."

Fred suggested a familiar sounding formula: "Think of it as Lives Enriched minus Lives Diminished, divided by Lives Touched." Is it really that simple? Ultimately, the goals of NPS are, but as we saw throughout the conference the actions and processes that allow you to create this outcome take a lot of hard work.

Steve Bonner – Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA)

Steve Bonner reinforced this by describing the many systematic things CTCA does to define it’s mission, design it’s desired experience, and reinforce quality of healthcare through regular feedback and management approaches.

He started by offering his personal view on the challenges for the health care industry to transform patient care. Steve pointed out that 16% of GDP in the United States today is being spent on healthcare, and this number is trending upwards in an unsustainable way. The vast majority of money being spent is on helping sick people get well. The real opportunity for us is to convert this into a true "health" care industry, to help healthy people stay healthy.

How NPS Can Shine the Light on Healthcare Quality

Quality and efficiency are the other big issues for the industry. This is where NPS could play in transforming this major sector of the economy.

Steve asked, "How could we use Net Promoter to accomplish more than reform. What would happen if we gave the consumer the same level of control over their choices that they have in other healthy industries?"

Steve called it a "renaissance," with the voice of the consumer at the center of it. He shared with us two videos from real patients, starting with Jerry Bradshaw, a police dispatcher from North Carolina, who was treated at CTCA’s Tulsa, Oklahoma facility. The video was from their "celebrate life" event, for patients who return to celebrate their 5 year anniversary of seeking treatment at one of the CTCA facilities.

CTCA’s average patient travels over 500 miles one way to come to one of their centers for treatment. This demonstrates how consumers are willing to take control of their own healthcare. Steve believes that when consumers take control of their healthcare decisions and choices, it can truly transform the quality and efficiency of healthcare delivery: and the patient experience.

What does CTCA do that is different?

Here are a few examples that Steve gave:

They publish on their website outcomes based on length of life, quality of life, and NPS.
They start every board meeting with a visit from a patient.
They do regular focus groups to explore how they could improve care.
They round with patients in the hospital every day, talking with them informally.
And they survey patients continuously in all of the facilities, to understand how they are doing in accomplishing their goal of top quality delivery of care.

Operating units get feedback from the survey each night, and they close the loop with the patient the next day. This closed loop entices patients into the process because they understand (and believe) it will make a difference. Most patients are contacted, and the vast majority (60-90% of them) respond with their feedback. They have brought the NPS down to the level of individual physicians, allowing them to compare their feedback to their peers in their specialty.

What this approach has gained for CTCA is a community of cancer survivors who are Promoters for the organization. The company’s four facilities, located in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, and Arizona, all operate at NPS levels of 80%+.

For some companies, this may seem incredible…but think of it this way. Imagine that you or your parent was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer, and you went on a search to find the best place to receive care. Imagine that you not only received great medical care, but also had an amazing overall experience that built your trust. And imagine that the treatment worked.

While the last step in this chain is not in CTCA’s control, I’m guessing most patients understand that….so what would you say if someone asked your opinion? How would you feel about an organization that accomplished this?

Peronally, I think the upside for healthcare oriented companies is huge. What industry has a greater potential to develop trusted relationships with its customers? I’m hoping that 5 years from now, this industry will have taken the example of CTCA and created a true "renaissance" in customer-focused care. Thank you, Steve, for the inspiration.

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Advanced Track: Learning from Customer Verbatims

info@netpromoter.com — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 23:25:26 GMT

Once a customer tells you he or she is a detractor, It's obviously important to understand why--and to find out in a reasonably efficient, cost effective way. How much of that information can be extracted from the open ended "why" answers customers provide on NPS surveys? It's a daunting challenge. Customers aren't always precise, or complete in their responses, for example.

Satmetrix Director of Methodology Dr. Vince Nowinski provided some in-depth insights. The Stanford PhD described how "comment intelligence analysis" methods allow you to make conceptual sense of such data, to see with greater specififity where problems are actually occuring and what the underlying issue may really be.

But users of NPS much be careful not to look at verbatim analyis as the end all. Rather, my understanding is that it helps you formulate intelligent hypotheses about where the critical issues with detractors lie. Further analysis will typically be required, perhaps in the form of focus groups, follow on surveys to targeted groups, individual interviews etc before you actually get at root causes of the issues detractors have.

Think of it this way. Without verbatims, you could only guess as to what's bothering detractors. With verbatims and the analytical tools described by Vince, you can formulate a very good set of hypotheses for further testing.

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It’s 3:00! Did you provide exceptional service today?

info@netpromoter.com — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 23:00:41 GMT

The tellers at Wright-Patt Credit Union check their email religiously at 3:00. Why, you ask…that’s when the Exceptional Service emails are sent each day. Employees, or partners, that provided an exceptional experience to members interacting with the credit union the day before, receive special recognition through these “thank you” notes. This is just one component to the credit union’s Net Promoter program.

Amanda Minehart, Service Quality Manager at Wright-Patt Credit Union, shared their experience with beginning their Net Promoter journey. “At the credit union, we measured everything…how many transactions we did, how many errors, call times, the list went on and on. But, we never measured what happened next. What about when the member left? How did they feel about their experience? What is the story they’ll tell. That’s when we decided that we needed to create a Net Promoter program.”

Now the credit union sends daily post-transaction and quarterly relationship surveys to gather member feedback to help them answer these questions. This feedback is collected and reported via online dashboards, monthly and quarterly meetings, and the partner intranet.

Member Centers, or branches, post boards that track how many Exceptional Service emails each partner receives. Employees receiving the most emails are recognized with Star Promoter awards and other small awards are given out. They’ve also been participating in weekly competitions called the Net Promoter League. Each week Member Centers “play” each other for top NPS for the previous week’s transactions. This all culminates in a NFL-style playoffs and Super Bowl. What does the winner get? A huge trophy and bragging rights…till next season.

At Wright-Patt, you have one of two jobs:

Serving members
Serving someone who serves members

So, in October, Amanda rolled out the Service Excellence Ambassador program as a way to engage the second group, back-office partners. The Service Excellence Ambassador (a cute orange cartoon, cardboard cutout) is passed from partner to partner to recognize staff for providing great service to each other. He arrives with a note that thanks them and describes why they were chosen. The partners love to take photos with him – he’s even been to an Ohio State football game – and post them on the Service Excellence Ambassador blog page.

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Orange Business Services: Building Stronger Client Relationships One Customer at a Time

info@netpromoter.com — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:09:03 GMT

Olivier Mourrieras – Customer Insight & Advocacy

Building a customer loyalty program is about business transformation. Building the right strategy, access to resources and obtaining buy-in from across the organization are just a few of the many challenges that most executives and program managers face when building out (or expanding) a customer loyalty program. This afternoon Olivier Mourrieras of Orange Business Services shared with us their journey to build stronger relationships within their strategic top accounts.

Orange Business Services is a leading global telecommunications provider. Orange employs over 30,000 within their B2B segment and service over 6,000,000 business customers. Over 90% of OBS’ annual revenues come from approximately 300 strategic accounts.

While Orange has had a customer loyalty program in place for 6 years, the first couple of years with the program were not without their challenges. Some of the initial challenges highlighted by Olivier included:

No understanding or insight into the end-to-end customer lifecycle
A fragmented and siloed business organization
Fragmented and siloed approach
Limited employee mobilization
More “spectators” than “doers”
Lack of executive sponsorship and leadership around the customer experience

Through Orange’s partnership with Satmetrix, they have embarked on a journey which has taken over four years to implement but has reaped considerable benefit to not only Orange customers, but to Orange’s bottom line. By using principles of the Net Promoter Operating Model (NPS model), Orange had developed a transformation program which consisted of the following themes:

Development of a transformational program which has taken advantage of Orange’s global business strengths while improving upon weak areas that have had a negative impact on customer loyalty
Development of a customer centric approach based on a variety of satisfaction feedback surveys and other listening posts including customer loyalty boards and user groups.
Pragmatic prioritization which drives actions prioritized on root causes and loyalty drivers
The tying of customer loyalty results to variable compensation. CLI accounts for 20% of all variable compensation!

In order to align the right level of support to spearhead these themes, Orange needed to obtain proper executive sponsorship. With the proper positioning and diligence, the program team was successfully able to enlist the support of their CEO. Having this level of advocacy has been critically instrumental in the adoption and growth of the Orange program. Since Orange’s core program team consists of only 5 full time individuals, a “top-down” strategy was necessary to ensure success.

As the program has taken root and built critical mass, Orange has integrated the Net Promoter Operating model within their sales and account management organization through the development of the following key initiatives:

1. (One to One) - Development of an integrative closed loop process which includes individual customer service improvement plans to be established and reviewed periodically. This process includes an initial internal review meeting, development of individual action plans and an account team meeting with the customer to review feedback results and agree to a documented action plan.

2. (One to Many) – Use of feedback in aggregate to analyze the varying needs across Orange’s broad base of customer segments. Given the diversity across Orange’s business, this process mitigates from “one size fits most” approaches to improving customer experiences. After all, not every customer or customer segment can be treated identically.

3. Development of a Customer Management Model (CMM) based on key components of the Net Promoter Operating Model. This included the establishment of:

A clear governance and communication structure
Clearly defined and documented escalation paths along with effective coordination to manage the Orange/Client relationship
To ensure trustworthy data and to mitigate against gaming, requiring the Customer’s validation of the survey sample. This process required that all survey contacts must be validated by the most senior customer interface so that optimal penetration has occurred.

So now that Orange has spent 4+ years and considerable effort in rebuilding and strengthening their program, what’s the ROI? The ultimate test was the development of a close linkage and positive correlation between sales pipeline and CLI trends within their top 200 strategic accounts. Through this study, Orange has identified a 6-month lag between CLI and pipeline revenue growth. In one particular customer account the CMM process identified service management issues, dissatisfaction with delivery expectations and a lack of a strategic approach. This insight was instrumental in developing an action plan with the client which consisted of quarterly strategic reviews and more proactive expectations setting. CLI scores with this client improved from 6.5 to 8.5 in one year while pipeline revenues increase 300% in this same period. From 1H09 to 2H09 Orange also saw 42% total revenue growth with this client. Now that’s putting money where your mouth is!

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How-To: Create Differentiated Customer Experience

info@netpromoter.com — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:30:04 GMT

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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Asurion - Beyond The Score

info@netpromoter.com — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:46:26 GMT

Guy Cartwright – NEW/Asurion

Americans are more connected than ever. In the US today there are more than 296,000,000 mobile devices including cellular phones and smart phones. If you’re like most of us, your phone is a critical lifeline to your day to day existence; it’s a way of keeping in touch with family, friends, clients and co-workers. Most of us would be lost without their devices! That’s where Asurion comes in.

Asurion is the global leader in protection services for consumer electronics and Guy Cartwright is Asurion’s VP of Client Experience. Asurion was founded in the late 1980s and currently serves more than 170,000,000 clients across 5 countries. Asurion’s engagement model is unique as they are a B2B2C organization. Asurion contracts with major cell phone carriers (Verizon, AT&T and others), which sell Asurion’s insurance coverage services to the end customer. Customers pay a nominal monthly premium through the carrier on their phone bill and if their phone is lost, damaged or stolen the device will be replaced for a small deductible.

Guy noted that many customers have “love affairs” with their smartphones as these devices help drive an emotional need to connect with others and become more and more integral to our daily operations. This love affair with smartphones is getting very hot steamy as projections show that over 60% of all mobile devices by 2015 will be smartphones. As more and more of us use and integrate smartphones into our daily lives, the potential risk for damage or loss becomes greater. As such, Asurion sees tremendous upside potential in their ability to scale.

Customer Experience is extremely important to Asurion so that they can retain their valued customers and grow their customer base as more individuals purchase additional devices for themselves or their family members. To ensure that Asurion is able to drive positive experiences within their client base, the decision was made to design and deploy a Net Promoter program.

The process in which Asurion deployed this program was described by Guy as “The How”. Specific examples of operational and structural improvements made as a result of developing their NPS program was coined “The What”.

When developing Asurion’s program (“The How” ), it was imperative that Asurion understand the process and flow of each touchpoint that a customer may experience. This process of developing the “customer corridor” was integral in developing a survey instrument which would provide the organization with meaningful data which would be analyzed as drivers of customer loyalty and satisfaction. After developing this corridor, which consisted of processes within JOIN - Incident - Claim - Phone, Asurion launched their program and began to measure customer feedback to best understand which areas of the business could be optimized for efficiency and quality of service.

Asurion strongly believes that while “The How” is important, it is just as important to drive action from customer feedback and not just watch the NPS like a score of a football game. By moving Beyond The score, Asurion developed both structural and operational improvements within their business (“The What”) which has had a profound impact on customer loyalty.

Some of the improvements which have been made as a result of customer feedback include the development and launch of a unified claims management system, which allows Asurion customers to file a claim via phone, IVR or web and integrate this information so that a client can inquire on the status of their claim and replacement via any of the three mediums. In other words, if I submit a claim over IVR, I may then check into the status of the claim by checking the web. This service reduces cost to serve a client while also providing greater flexibility and access to data from the customer’s perspective.

From a strategic perspective, Asurion has taken customer feedback to develop new products like whole-home protection plans which integrate mobile device coverage coverages for home telephony and Internet equipment, game consoles and TV & audio devices. This product segment looks to be quite promising for Asurion as more and more people rely on these devices to work, unwind and entertain.

Perhaps the most telling piece of data shared with us was that Asurion has utilized customer feedback to create a win-win-win for both their carrier and consumer clients. Among consumers who have had a documented mobile device incident over the past 12 months, the Carrier NPS of Non-Asurion customers is -13% while the Carrier NPS of Asurion customers is 6%. In other words, Asurion delivers value and increased loyalty to the carriers in which it serves.

As a consumer, do you have any stories of how a lost or damaged mobile device has impacted your life? Please feel free to share any stories, questions or comments below.

Thanks!

Satmetrix: Net Promoter 360 – An Internal View of Net Promoter Maturity

info@netpromoter.com — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:00:46 GMT

Dr. Vince Nowinski, Director of Methodology for Satmetrix, discussed a newly completed assessment of how organizations are doing when it comes to Net Promoter best practices. Dr. Laura Brooks was originally scheduled to present this topic, but fell ill with the flu…we were lucky to have Vince already with us in New York, since he worked directly with Laura on development of the assessment.

From Vince’s perspective, many companies excel in one area or another. But they are asking, “How do I know where the gaps are?” That’s the question he set out answer today.

Vince described why Satmetrix calls the assessment Net Promoter 360. The feedback on internal practices includes viewpoints from the Executive Sponsor of NPS within the organization, the Senior Executive Team, and Program Sponsors who manage the feedback operations. Think of this as a 360 degree view of what’s going on with your Net Promoter program.

Who Participated?

Vince presented data from a group of 22 different companies from 12 different industries, with an even split of B2B and B2C business models. Most of the companies (about two-thirds) had over $1 billion in revenue.

The assessment itself was designed jointly by Satmetrix and Bain & Company. Questions on the assessment capture a mix of internal attitudes, behaviors, and business results to assess a company’s maturity level in adopting the Net Promoter discipline. It includes questions like, “Does the organization invest resources? Do executives believe the data they have is reliable? Do they understand what the top customer priorities are? Do they have closed loop processes in place to address individual customer issues?”

How Mature Are You?

Vince separated the 22 companies into 3 groups, to understand different levels of maturity.

Level 1: Developing

Adoption of Net Promoter is limited to some parts of the organization. Data was not yet trustworthy, or fully used operationally within the business.

Level 2: Progressing

The biggest difference here was that NPS had wider adoption, and companies were regularly taking action on the data. This group also had a big focus on root cause analysis…indicative of a phase of adoption where tactical insights are being developed.

Level 3: Advanced

These companies had Net Promoter fully integrated with the decision making culture. They were focused on understanding relative competitive position, and had processes in place to focus both on limiting Detractors and, more importantly, generating more Promoters.

Some Key Differences

Ultimately, Vince pointed to the measures of customer centricity as the most linked to overall level of adoption. Many people describe this as “culture.” I like to think of it as passion for the mission of the company.

What really struck me was the internal NPS for the Net Promoter program itself. Advanced companies had 96% Promoters of their NPS efforts, with no internal Detractors. These are organizations where all the key executives and core team members are “on the bus.” In contrast, those at the developing stage had closer to 50-60% Promoters and a group of Detractors within the core circle that should normally be leading the rest of the organization.

Advanced companies (100% of them) felt that NPS was involved in the day-to-day operations of the business, while none of the advanced companies described it as a “research initiative.” I found this point interesting. What language does your organization use to discuss Net Promoter internally? I’m sure the advanced companies have “research” resources involved with the program, but they understand that the ultimate value of the research is its use in strategic and tactical decision making. The other word that jumped out at me was “initiative.” The advanced companies don’t think of it as a one-time initiative. It is part of the way they do business.

Finally, Vince turned to the big question: What’s more important, eliminating Detractors or creating more Promoters? Ultimately, companies need to do both, but we found that the more advanced companies were in their adoption of NPS, the more likely they were to be focused on creating more Promoters. That’s really the end goal, isn’t it? You may indeed need to focus on eliminating Detractors, but if that’s all you ever focus on, it can be hard to define a winning vision and sustain the motivation of your employees.

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Bliss, Zane’s Cycles, Southwest, USAA: Driving Extreme Loyalty

info@netpromoter.com — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:00:31 GMT

Jeanne Bliss discussed “extreme” customer loyalty with three beloved companies that are featured in her new book, I Love You More Than My Dog. She opened by describing 5 key decisions that beloved companies make.

1. They decide to believe

2. They decide with clarity.

3. They decide to be real.

4. They decide to be there.

5. And they decide to say sorry.

I loved Jeanne’s discussion of how companies say “I’m sorry.” It’s not just about a hollow apology, as Jeanne said. It’s about “saying it with humility and repairing the emotional connection with the customer.”Jeanne mentioned that she did most of the research for her book before the economic crisis hit last year. So, before the book went to print, she went back to re-validate that all of the beloved companies were still prospering, since that was a core tenet of the book. What she learned was that, indeed, these companies did well through the economic downturn. If fact, they continued to grow.

Chris Zane, Zane’s Cycles

It was inspiring to hear from an entrepreneur like Chris today. He described how he teaches his employees to believe in the customer. As he said, “Our approach is to provide more service than what seems reasonable. What we’ve found is that most customers take only what they need, so he can offer it for everyone.” But it wasn’t just about believing. Chris had hard numbers too…he understood the lifetime value of his customers, and put his philosophy in the context of that. For example, he lets customers take bikes for a test ride, and they trust them. No complicated paperwork. Isn’t that risky? As Chris describes, he loses about 5 bikes a year, but sells more like 5,000. What’s the impact? They have grown 23% a year for 29 years. They have 45% margins (the industry average is 38%), and $15 million in sales from a single store.

Fred Taylor, Southwest Airlines

Next, Jeanne interviewed Fred Taylor, Jr. who manages Southwest’s proactive customer service team, which handles communications after disruptions in service. Fred described how he came to this unique role within Southwest. Colleen Barrett , back in 2001, was searching for someone to take on proactive communications, and she pulled Fred from the front lines to take on this role. Fred described the daily process…They start with a morning overview meeting, where they review a pipeline of information about service delivery across their entire system of operations. Then they have criteria to determine which customers need customized follow up communication. Each communication is unique, but they have three key things in common:

1. They acknowledge the situation

2. They apologize for the experience they have had

3. They make some gesture to help regain the customer’s trust

They want to reach the customer electronically or with a physical letter before the customer has to reach out to them to lodge a complaint. He read a blog post from a customer who received one of their communications. The customer summed it up in this way: “It’s important to be ready to respond when you are not perfect. Only then can you created devoted customers and loyal fans.”

Wayne Peacock, USAA

Wayne discussed Jeanne’s key decision called “Clarity of Purpose” and what this means for USAA. This is a company that is clear on its mission…and rightfully so. USAA is a membership organization, serving over 7 million members of the U.S. military, and they are legendary for their service, not just within the military community. Wayne shared the following quote from a 40-year member of USAA:

“USAA is the best relationship (next to my wife / she’s sitting next to me) I’ve had my entire life.”

Wayne described how they keep a relentless focus on their members by integrating the life of the military into their corporate culture. Executives and employees participate regularly in events with the military, to understand their lives. They also hire their customers…almost 1 in 5 of their employees has served in the military or had a spouse or family member who has served. This helps to reinforce what they do in new employee orientation, to extend this knowledge of military life to all employees both through training and through personal connections. By understanding what military life is all about, their employees are able to “respond with empathy.” What does this empathy and clarity of mission get for USAA?

Over 97% of their customers stay with them each year. In their insurance business, their next best competitor is 9 points behind them on this core metric. In fact, 90% of military officers who have joined USAA have stayed with them for a lifetime.
They also have received numerous awards for customer service from industry organizations. Net Promoter is no exception on this one…When we benchmarked NPS for different industries last year (2009), USAA had the highest scores across all of the industries studied.

Wayne ended by giving Jeanne a taste of what new employee orientation is like for USAA employees. The audience got a fun break by watching Jeanne get dressed up in infantry gear. She even had a chance to taste an MRE (Meal Ready to Eat), courtesy of USAA.

What’s Your Story?

Jeanne summarized by challenging all of the audience members to decide what their company’s story could be. As Jeanne put it, “Beloved companies have a story. If your customers can’t describe, consistently, what they get from you…then you have no story.”

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Satmetrix - Learning from Customer Verbatims

info@netpromoter.com — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 08:45:54 GMT

As you may have already figured out, the “Ultimate Question” that is the foundation of Net Promoter is not actually a question, but questions. Just like Batman cannot exist without Robin or Peanut Butter without Jelly <insert cheesy analogy here>, likelihood to recommend has limited business value if there is not some way of tying context to the response that was given. The numerical values captured from clients is extremely useful for quantitative analysis, including correlation and regression analysis to identify drivers, while the open ended question is extremely useful for qualitative analysis.

Is too much data a bad thing? Not at all if you have the means to process large quantities of data. With numerical data, it is quite easy to ingest volumes of data into a database and crunch numbers with little to no regard for the volume that is being processed. However with unstructured data, like verbatim comments, we face a much more formidable challenge.

As Vince Nowinski, Director of Methodology, Satmetrix, shared during his session today, there are multiple ways of managing qualitative data in the form of customer verbatims.

Single Punch Categorization – This is where most comment analysis occurs. Verbatim comments are “bucketed” into a single themes or category. Categorization may be more subjective due to interpretation or bias from the person categorizing the comment.
Multi-Punch Categorization – Similar to the above, however comments are bucketed into multiple themes or categories.
Comment Intelligence - Using software algorithms, open ended feedback are processed analysis is performed by the incidence of particular words and their relationships with other words within the comment. In contrast to the single-punch and multi-punch categorization techniques which require categories to be created by the person (or people) performing the categorization, comment intelligence uses technology that analyses the patterns which exist due to interreliability of the keywords in a data set. Objectivity is not an issue since software performs the analysis.

The output of comment intelligence allows an organization to uncover relationships amongst different concepts and themes, along with the frequency and likelihood of association of keywords within themes.

For organizations with very large volumes of open ended feedback, comment intelligence solutions may be a good investment simply due to the time and effort required to manually process verbatim feedback.
While verbatim feedback is very useful to dovetail into quantitative analysis, Vince shared the following insights to take into account when using qualitative feedback:

Qualitative feedback diminishes as surveys lengthen
Open ended comments require more thought and effort on behalf of the client
Motivated customers share more and their sentiment influences responses
Tailored/targeted questions are best for asking verbatim
Customers are unreliable narrators and raters due to halo effects, fatigue, satisficing, ballistic responding and both cultural and response biases (Is it root cause or top of mind?)
Don’t’rely just on quantitiative feedback because you’re bound to miss what you don’t measure!

Used wisely, however, verbatim comments can inform thinking about the customer experience, shed light on how customer segments differ and prove better insights into root cause of customer experience issues.

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