Alexandre Murat — Sony Style Europe
Alexandre helped us tie together many of the ideas we explored today, by telling us how Sony is integrating NPS into their DNA. How they have moved from a product-focused company, to one that is more and more focused on customer experience.
Why use NPS? They wanted to find a metric that would link their business activities to innovative experiences (combining product with overall experience).
They have done this by focusing on 4 steps:
- Understanding and interpreting customer needs, using feedback as the central point for this. And on this point, he separated "process improvement" from "innovation," pointing out that the first is great at removing defects, and must be paired with the latter to get to really excellent experiences.
- Engaging on strategic improvements. What they have found in analyzing detractor comments is that operational improvements are linked primarily to having products in stock and at a competitive price. By contrast, the more strategic and impactful factors that lie beneath detractor ratings are linked to the range of products available, and the convenience of dealing with Sony. When I hear "convenience," I think "end-to-end" experience. I get it!
- A big focus on service interactions and service "amplification". Operationally, they track this closely with NPS, receiving about 2000 responses per month based on surveying online buyers. And they close the loop with all detractors, because to them, complaints are a huge opportunity to improve.
- Using customer feedback to find totally new value propositions, and integrate this into their product line. Sony Style in the has already established about 200 stores in the US, and they are starting to do this in Europe now also. In fact, one of their flagship stores is opening about a block from where we are today in Paris, on Avenue Georges V, just off the Champs Elysees.
By the way, Alexandre admitted he was pleasantly surprised earlier in the day when Ralph Hababou, told his story about the WOW experience he had when dealing with Sony for a repair on his Vaio. Kudos to the Sony customer service department! If they can delight Ralph, who is an expert on the topic, they must be doing something right.
Alexandre concluded by talking about the importance of the Golden Rule. Clearly, they are committed to doing the right thing by the customer, and they are investing in several major initiatives...but many of them are still undercover. So watch for more new things from Sony in the near future!
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