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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Satmetrix: Increasing retention and repurchase through and integrated account management

jonathan.greenwood@us.schneider-electric.com — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:31:13 GMT

Deborah Eastman – Satmetrix

It’s always a please to hear Deborah speak. In the past I’ve been fortunate enough to have her teach part of my NPS Certification class. One of the great things about Deborah is that she has really walked the talk. When she speaks it’s from real experience of implementing NPS programs in complex, international B2B environments prior to her joining the Satmetrix team.

During this session we heard a about Deborah’s time with Bearing Point and the successful NPS-based key account program she introduced. It was a really interesting insight to hear that when returning there some years later on a consulting engagement she saw exactly the same issues and customer feedback were still present in the business. They had been unable to leverage all the excellent feedback they had and move to action.

If there was one thing Deborah wanted us to catch it was the need to act.

Deborah outlined that B2B account relationships are complex. In B2C everyone is (mostly) equal but in B2B we have to focus on who is the decision maker, who are the influencers, who are the end users. In addition, often overlooked, your account management organization is often equally complex. Stitching those two organizations together in an operational program is really the key challenge:

this complexity gives us multiple points of potential failure, that can impact the whole account. But also lot’s of opportunities to delight.
We have to be cautious that without an NPS program we have a biased view of B2B relationships -> Account teams are not always facing the reality of the health of the relationships

In that context Deborah emphasized again that this is not a research project – it must be an operational program to open the dialogue, and one that’s not related to a sales opportunity or a service intervention. It’s not a survey to calculate a score; it’s a way in which you engage with customers in a continuous improvement cycle:

1. Contact selection and recruitment

2. Non-response alert follow-up

3. Team review and action planning

4. Account closed loop

5. Structural action and communications

Coming back again to the internal account team structure, Deborah then spent time highlighting that the account team is not just the sales organization – we have to include all the key players that interact with the accounts, e.g. service and support organizations, regional/general management, etc. Looking at the typical concerns amongst those different groups really gave an insight into how the success of the account is a shared responsibility.

Towards the end Deborah pulled out a few key points that we’d do well to track in our own programs:

Active recruitment of customers into the program is key to drive response rates from the right contacts. Don’t drop a survey on them without warning. It has to be described in terms of how it’s part of the ongoing relationship, and that it is not just a survey.
It’s about engaging employees to collect and exploit the feedback - not about having them sit on the side lines watching the score. Be cautious in tying compensation to the scores too early – it will just drive employees towards gaming the system
Watch response rates carefully – less than 50% response rates means your teams are not engaging and you are not capturing a good picture of the real situation.But take care it’s representative of the different roles also (decision maker, influencer, end user) - it’s no good if all responses are from one population.

In summary:

these programs are here to drive to growth (it’s not about a survey, so change your vocabulary)
it’s about dialog not the score, the score comes from the actions we make
action has to come at all levels throughout the organization to be effective at transforming the relationship

So, another great session and a good close to today’s B2B track!

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New York Conference Blog 2010

Satmetrix: Increasing Retention & Repurchasing

Satmetrix: Increasing retention and repurchase through and integrated account management