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San Francisco Conference Blog 2009

9 Posts tagged with the b2c tag
JohnAbraham
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David Henry, Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer; Rory Dooley, General Manager, Control Devices; Glenn Rogers, Director of Customer Experience; Moderated by Fred Reichheld, Author, The Ultimate Question

 

 

Logitech closed the day and the conference with an excellent discussion of using NPS in product innovation.

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CMO David Henry introduced the company and their customer experience approach to us. This is a company with strong (very strong) roots in both product development and interaction design. David summed it up for me when he said, “we are focused on the interaction between the technical platform on the one hand and the human being.”

 

They are using NPS as a key measure to understand how they are doing with us humans that use their products. And it seems to be working pretty well so far, 18 months into their journey.

They started by creating a new approach and organization within the company…putting together under one group the following functions: marketing, quality, customer support, and (a new one) customer experience. The common denominator is the customer, and NPS is the metric that helps them know how they are doing with each new product release.

 

As David described the Customer Experience (CX) vision, I jotted down a few words on a scribble sheet…

…attitude…promoters…love…share…long-term relationship

 

For a company focused on making great product, they certainly seem to know what emotions they want to engender from their product users.  But how do they plan to get there?

 

One very practical, and meaningful, process change stood out. They have introduced a new step in their product development and release process, called “Gate X”. Gate X happens when the product is basically done, but not yet approved for mass production. And they couple Gate X with final consumer acceptance testing. They ask consumers for feedback using the recommend question and have threshold Net Promoter Scores as part of this signoff process.

 

What’s a good score in the Logitech world? They would like to see all products one day scoring in the range of 75% NPS. But the relative scores also tell them something. They showed for major product categories and explained that the products ranked #1 by NPS in each category were also #1 in revenue for each category.

 

David told the story of their first product that didn’t pass. It was a multi-million dollar delay to get it right, but the entire panel was in agreement that the additional investment was worth the delay. And, perhaps more important, it sent a signal to the organization that customer experience was truly important, and management was prepared to act on it in major decisions like this.

 

It was clear to me as we went through the discussion that customer feedback was not the only source of innovation. The company’s engineers and product teams also play a critical role. Rory Dooley, who runs the Control Devices group, elaborated on the importance of using the customer feedback to overcome strong, often differing, internal perspectives. That’s the best of both worlds from my perspective…leveraging your internal creativity and ingenuity, with the voice of the customer front and center to focus the discussion.

 

The good news is that most of their products pass Gate X and hit the mark with consumers. But I don’t think these guys are ready to rest on their laurels.

 

Footnote: I’d like to personally thank our audience member who requested free giveaways of Logitech products on the Oprah show. Feel free to write in to Oprah and suggest she have Logitech on the show to talk about their cool stuff and NPS. My personal vote goes for the illuminated keyboard (cool idea, I work late all the time!). While you’re at it, let’s ask Oprah if she uses Logitech webcams for her Skype interviews? Maybe the eBay folks in attendance (thank you eBay for your involvement!) can get us an in there!

 

That’s my final post for the conference. I learned more than ever this year, and want to thank Logitech and all the great speakers for being part of it.

4052 Views 0 Comments Permalink Tags: henry, w-o-m, logitech, glenn, fred, reichheld, dooley, b2c, rogers
mkirschn
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Deborah Eastman, CMO at Satmetrix, talked about improving NPS in B2B relationships. She focused on three themes:

 

  1. It’s about relationships, not surveys (engage customers in a partnership)
  2. integrate the program in the business (don’t rely on an independent NP team and demonstrate the value account teams receive which include protecting their key business assets: customers, and a better understanding of the customer relationship)
  3. ensure action.

 

Deborah emphasized how a NPS program helps understand the strength of your customer relationships, be proactive in improving and leveraging relationships and avoid surprises in account churn and lost business. There are many customer relationships across the enterprise and the health of the relationships have traditionally been determined by the account teams. But, these can be very biased. While the team may believe all is good, the NP scorecard shows the real story.

 

IMG_2192.JPG Deb then reviewed best practices for creating and managing a successful NP program. She began with creating a continuous process where account teams are involved in all steps of the process from contact participation to account planning based on the results. Next, Deborah talked about the sampling strategy by understanding client revenue segments and roles (decision makers, influencers and end-users). Her experience has shown that NPS varies by role and revenue tier. She said that many companies conduct a pulse survey once a year. She suggested segmenting the customer base and surveying a segment per quarter. Twice a year per account is best. The first time should be a short (pulse) survey and the second a more detailed diagnostic approach. This is a good balance for the company and its customers and provides a good read on differences per quarter before it’s too late to act. Next she talked about defining and publishing timelines and synching with the business operations. For example, don’t require closed-loop follow-up at the end of a quarter when sales teams are trying to close deals.  She then talked a little about the importance of a governance structure for the program. With regard to survey design she said it needs to be focused, role-based (different survey for Execs versus End-users) and the importance of delivering surveys in the respondent’s native language.

 

Deb talked about actively recruiting for participation where the account teams need to engage clients by positioning the intent and benefits and setting expectations. She said if done right, you should have response rates of 60% or higher (the audience gasped). Deborah stressed the importance of immediate response since this creates opportunities. In one example she said that for one Satmetrix client immediate follow-up after a trigger saved an $8M account AND resulted in a $2M up sell. She talked about incorporating program results in account planning using account influence charts (NPS by role) and linking to business metrics (revenue by NPS).

 

The last best practice she shared was about closed loop processes where broad communication to all customers about actions taken will serve to increase response rates. She suggested doing this within 30 days of the survey close, but realized this can take a little longer in many cases.

 

Finally, Deborah warned not to tie compensation to NPS right away or it will surely kill the program – account teams will try to game the system. In closing, she shared a few case-studies on successful NP programs including a Business Telco company that experienced a 150% increase in orders and an IT product supplier who identified new opportunities in 39% of their follow-up meetings.

3448 Views 0 Comments Permalink Tags: loop, satmetrix, b2b, eastman, nps, methodology, surveying, b2c
mkirschn
1

Tom Kehler, Vice President and GM Community Solutions, Satmetrix

Stephen Blundell, Senior Manager Vendor Partner Relations, Intuit

 

Tom Kehler, VP and GM of Community Solutions at Satmetrix and Steve Blundell, Customer Advocate at Intuit, talked about improving NPS through online customer engagement. About one half of the audience said they had an online community initiative underway. Tom presented a strong case for ‘continuous customer engagement’, especially in B2C and B2SMB. For example he asked, “Do you have the ability to contact your Promoters in the next 24 hours?” Promoters can be activated to support other customers, help in a marketing campaign, defend or back a corporate position, etc. In support of this Tom referenced a recent HBR article written by the cofounder of Intuit, Scott Cook called “The Contribution Revolution”. He talked about the need to create a Return on Engagement through better products (the best innovators are users of the product), better marketing (get Promoters to help form the message), and better word of mouth (comes from a trusted relationship and starts with listening). The customer’s return is the ability to influence the company and product direction and to play a role in creating a better customer experience – for themselves.

 

Tom stressed that the primary goal in a customer engagement program is to demonstrate that you are listening. He then shared a case-study on the Intuit TurboTax Inner Circle program, a micro-site for customers to have conversations with Intuit. Tom walked through an innovative technology (Adaptive Conversation) for identifying the best ideas from a large customer group. He also explained how the system is able to build robust customer profiles that leads to better CRM and support a closed-loop process. When combined, these capabilities allow a company to demonstrate that they know their customers, know their needs and are able to actively help improve the customer experience.

IMG_2228.JPG Steve then showed how the ProSeries and TurboTax product teams were able to use the Satmetrix platform to engage customers in product improvement. Customers provide ideas in their own words, vote on statements provided by others and then rank ideas by importance. The process extracts ‘wisdom from the crowd’ by turning qualitative feedback into quantitative results. Intuit is able to take action on this data since it identifies what’s important to the most number of customers. Steve shared other best practices for listening to customers including a customer council where customers are asked how Intuit can improve its products and services. These customers spend two days at Intuit’s offices paid for by Intuit. Steve found that if they involve customers in the beginning of the development process then they get a better product in the end. He referred to the successful launch of a payroll product due to this method of customer engagement. In another example, he shared a situation where Intuit thought the customer priority was to have a faster, easier TurboTax experience. After using the Satmetrix Customer Engagement platform Intuit realized this not to be the case and instead, to their surprise, found that the #1 problem was with rebates. This caused a significant shift in focus that eventually led to the elimination of rebates.

 

 

Tom concluded by stating that engaged customers create measurable results including increased loyalty, WOM and repeat purchases.

2555 Views 1 Comments Permalink Tags: b2c, w-o-m, blundell, kehler, conversation, satmetrix, intuit, adaptive
MichelleS
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Tony Hsieh - CEO Zappos.com


Building a Brand that Matters

How many people have bought from Zappos? That’s a good question. According to the Net Promoter® Conference audience, a lot.


And the reason is because Zappos is focused on providing the best customer service and creating the most loyal customers. It is a mantra that is the corner stone of its corporate culture.

 

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Word of Mouth is Key


This is a business based on customer focus, creating repeat customers and driving Word of Mouth. They tried a large advertising campaign once but found they saw little rewards. Now the company takes the money that it would have been spent on advertising and puts it back into the customer experience.

Where a lot of companies are trying to lessen the amount of contact/calls from customers, Zappos wants to speak to the customers. They take about 5000 calls a day plus live chat, twitter, and emails. They want to create a complete word of mouth experience. One thing they’ve noticed is that when they do a random survey their Net Promoter Score (NPS)  is 83, but when they do the survey via phone their score raises to NPS 90. So Zappos is going to keep speaking with its customers as much as possible with the goal to build long term customer relationships.

 

To this end, everyone in the company goes through the same training as customer service, plus 2 weeks on the phone and training on twitter. Zappos believes that if the company is going to focus on customer service then everyone needs to be focused on customer service. Culture fit is key to the organization and every employee needs to believe in the core values.


Four things to building long term brand:

 

  1. Vision- chase the vision not the money. Their vision be about the very best customer service.
  2. Repeat customers- choose and focus on great product and great service
  3. Transparency - Be real and you have nothing to fear
  4. Culture - Committable core values:


  10. Be humble
    9. Be passionate
    8. Do more with less
    7. Build a positive team and family spirit
    6. Build open and honest relationship with commendations
    5. Pursue growth and learning
    4. Be adventurous, creative, and open minded
    3. Create fun and a little weirdness
    2. Embrace and drive change
    1. Deliver WOM through service

 

Zappos is owning the 3C - Clothing, Customer Service, and Culture and Zappos is all about delivering happiness to the customers and its employees.

3901 Views 0 Comments Permalink Tags: b2c, zappos, b2e, symantec, tony, w-o-m, zappos.com, hsieh
JohnAbraham
0

Brad Smith, President & CEO, Intuit

 

 

IMG_2138.JPG Brad Smith of Intuit gave us a preview of what a mature Net Promoter Discipline can look like in a company…and how it can be an underpinning of transformative work that is focused on delighting the customer. He opened by explaining that 81% of new sales for Intuit are attributable to Word of Mouth…so this isn’t just a nice to have. Having more promoters is central to their growth strategy. How did Intuit get to this point? It was clear from hearing Brad’s talk that he personally, and Intuit as a whole, had been using NPS and the core concepts of Net Promoter since the early days. He gave a compelling and concrete description of the phases of NPS adoption that they had passed through since starting with it in 2003. These phases may sound familiar to many companies who have been using Net Promoter: Phase 1: focused on the score. This is the ideas that most companies here about first…the Net Promoter Score. It’s obviously just a tiny part of what the concept is about, but it is the starting point for most companies who hear about Net Promoter. Phase 2: the verbatims. Brad pointed out that the next thing they did was dig into the verbatim comments. The big takeaway from this was that the customer experience was not just about the product. It was about the end-to-end experience for the customer. That’s the view from the outside in.

 

Phase 3: process mapping. Fix those detractors! That’s what happens next in nearly all companies. They see the feedback, and the squeaky wheels obviously need grease. In Intuit’s case, Brad described major investments they made to map out processes, improve them, and drive down the number of detractors. Nothing bad here, but it’s not the end of the story.

 

Phase 4: how to get more promoters. This is a big shift, and it requires a different mind set. Employees need to think about the things they can do to delight customers and generate more promoters. It’s usually hard for companies to focus on this until they have detractors under control. But it is crucial.

So, at this point, I would have thought the story was over. These are the four phases most companies talk to me about. But I think Brad appropriately added a fifth phase of adoption, which is critical to getting things right out of the gate (rather than going back to diagnose, fix, and improve)…

 

 

Phase 5: innovating with customers. Intuit focuses today on getting customers and employees to participate together in innovation. What’s interesting about this is not only the outcome you get in terms of the product and the customer experience, but also the fact that you can build more promoters by having them involved with your company in this process. They know they have a voice. It can also be a huge motivator for employees.

 

As a takeaway, Brad stressed three things to consider. The importance of leadership, the power of harnessing employee creativity, and the impact that co-innovation can have on word of mouth. Where is your company on this adoption path?

 

Click here to download the presentation.

2111 Views 0 Comments Permalink Tags: intuit, w-o-m, b2e, smith, b2c, brad
LWest
0

Golden Rule Behavior

Posted by LWest Jan 26, 2009

Scott Baker, President & CEO, Paul Davis Restoration

Don Peacock, Franchise Owner, Paul Davis Restoration

 

Pairing a franchisee and a franchisor certainly made for an interesting session.  All day I had heard stories of hard-won lessons and triumph about what it meant to implement Net Promoter within four walls; I was really interested in learning how the team at PDR was able to pull it off with franchisees!

 

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As always, it all starts in making the choice to “go NP”. Baker mentioned that the reasons that Net Promoter was ideal for PDR were:

 

  • the system is simple
  • it serves as one, single “trackable” metric for busy franchise owners
  • although they had tried to improve customer loyalty, they weren’t able to make a big enough improvement – and they didn’t want to be satisfied with the status quo
  • it’s a way for franchisees to show differentiation without spending a lot of money on advertising
  • he felt the goal of Net Promoter would really resonate with franchisees

 

IMG_2104.JPG Once the decision was made, the PDR team set the goal of getting the homeowners themselves to recommend PDR to their insurance agents and adjusters.  Along they way, by using Net Promoter, they were able to make some correlations and learn some lessons it would have been very hard to learn or they may not have ever learned, like; a surge in sales sometimes results in a decrease in their Net Promoter Score –especially during an emergency or disaster. This is reasonable because during trying times the focus turns to helping as many needy people as possible and as a result some of the elements that drive Net Promoter Scores are not as prominent. They were also able to discern the top three causes of the creation and existence of detractors AND promoters.

 

Some causes of detractors are:

  • lack of communication
  • lack of timeliness and
  • challenges with quality of service and workmanship

 

Some causes of promoters are:

  • professionalism
  • timeliness and
  • quality work

 

No real shockers there, but it’s always good to identify what’s driving your NPS scores.

Team PDR decided to address some of the core reasons behind detractors by creating The Paul Davis Customer Experience Manual, which outlines the PDR keys to customer loyalty:

  • First contact is made with caring and compassion (many of the people who contact PDR do so because of a natural disaster or some other personal or family crisis)
  • Engagement (this is where they begin the process of developing a long term relationship with the customer)
  • Commitment (when they get the customer’s permission to proceed with the restoration work as outlined)
  • Fulfillment (when PDR gets an opportunity to actually do the work they’ve outlined and deliver on their promises)
  • Completion (the opportunity to create a long lasting relationship with the customer)
  • Continue (essentially “lather, rinse, repeat”)

 

But, the main cause of Net Promoter success at Peacock’s franchise is in requiring that everyone attend some sort of customer service programming for at least one hour every week.

 

Baker was careful to express that participation in Net Promoter is not mandatory for franchisees, but he was clear about stating that having a franchisee like Peacock to tout the benefits of using NP could not be paralleled.

 

To close the session, Baker and Peacock shared some lessons learned:

  • Golden Rule Behavior and Net Promoter appeals to candidates who want to do the right thing so when hiring employees, if there’s not a fit it’s obvious right away
  • It’s a good idea for franchisees to have their own awards ceremonies – it shows they’re committed to the process
  • High NPS scores have the potential to mask other problems, so don’t be lulled into complacency because of high scores – always look for ways to improve on your improvements and always look for the not-so-obvious ways you’re dropping the ball
  • Surveys that are sent closer to the actual time of the transaction get higher scores because the experience is still fresh in the mind of the customer.
  • Oh, yeah, and when workers wear “dust booties” over their work boots when coming inside and when they ask for permission to park their trucks and use the bathrooms – those actions always lead to a higher NPS. As a woman, I can totally see the logic in that!
1194 Views 0 Comments Permalink Tags: b2c, peacock, paul, restoration, baker, sanfrancisco, davis, pdr
Doug_M
0

Happy Customers Are Hard Work…

Posted by Doug_M Jan 26, 2009

IMG_2226.JPGOur morning breakout track here at the NetPromoter Conference on Developing Customer Focus in Service Operations created a full house. Even though the speaker was Lindsay Notwell from Verizon, the room was full of customer zealots and NOT the Verizon Network folks that you see in their ads. If you, missed this session then you missed a great talk.Lindsay and the Verizon team are deeply engaged with NPS. They started just last year and have listened to over 2 million customers and have followed up with 750000 calls. The title for the presentation was “Getting Customer Religion: The Virtuous Circle of Listening and Delivering Great Service”, listening is really a key point. Lindsay made the point several times that if you survey, you must follow up and call back those customers who took the time to share their opinions. If they took the time to complain, then they want to help you improve. This is a great tip on how to turn detractors into promoters.
Lindsay pointed to some key success factors that seemed to also be a theme for the conference.  His key success factors were:

 

 

  • This must be a part of the C-level mandate. The C- suite must be believers
  • The right executive sponsors are a key to success
  • There needs to be a dedicated group driving program leadership, it can’t be just a part time job of many and it needs to be cross organizational
  • NPS has to become part of the DNA of company.

 

Beyond the survey, Lindsay noted that the hard work continues with the tactical work efforts that includes gaining employee engagement via training, consistent messaging and integration in all communications. The program also needs to be sustainable and cannot be viewed as the ‘program du jour’. NPS can’t be just the program for THIS year, or quarter or month, it must be durable.


He pointed out that the NPS score is not the goal, it is a symbol that helps you decide what to focus on to improve the customer experience. Using the verbatim, the actual words from the customers, is a powerful tool that allows everything from direct employee coaching to creating the rallying cry for the organization. Focus on the customer experience and the scores will come.


Does it work? Verizon uses NPS as a benchmark tool for a very competitive industry. They top the benchmark and recently have shown impressive financial results that match. The competition who does not hear you now and is at the bottom of the benchmark is leading the pack in losing customers, losing money and losing jobs. So, while NPS and customer experience is hard work, it seems to be worth it for Verizon.

 

Click here to download the presentation.

1809 Views 0 Comments Permalink Tags: b2c, notwell, b2e, lindsay, verizon, dna
JohnAbraham
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Walt Bettinger, President & CEO, Charles Schwab

 

Walt’s talk struck me as incredibly honest and inspiring. He was candid about the fact that Schwab had some major problems back in 2004 that forced them to make a major shift in management. He was also candid in admitting that companies don’t like to stand up and speak about their failures.

 

IMG_1992.JPG In this case, we got the benefit of hearing the story at the right point in time. Schwab HAS managed to make an amazing turnaround, and are in a position today that allows them to reflect back on what they were able to accomplish and share some great learnings and advice with us. Before Walt got started, he mentioned that he was proud to be running a financial institution that has NOT participated in TARP (the Troubled Assets Relief Program), and the crowd broke into spontaneous applause (yes, most of us in the room are taxpayers!). So I think he connected with our hearts (and our wallets) from the start. Let’s hear about how they set themselves up for the relatively strong position they are in today. The story starts in a familiar but not so friendly place for many companies, especially in the financial services industry. It was 2004, and they were plagued with major problems (especially in their retail division): bad profits in the form of nuisance fees, processes that made it hard for customers to deal with the same human being on multiple calls, tumbling net new assets (their key financial performance measure), and NPS of -34%. Chuck Schwab, founder of the company, stepped back in as CEO, and brought in a new management team (including Walt) from parts of the company that were performing better. And the changes began.

 

 

I noted in Walt’s bio that he started his career as an entrepreneur at the age of 22. And you could see that entrepreneurial style in the story he shared with us. He didn’t spend time focusing internally at first. Instead, he went straight to the customers and employees who had left Schwab in the previous 12 months, and talked to them himself. This listening process painted the picture he needed to reset the retail division’s strategy...not based on spreadsheets and new value propositions, but instead based on a set of values.

 

Walt went on to describe how he filtered these values into the new management team and the organization. Their core framework drew on two key pieces of work: the NPS framework, and Forrester’s work on customer benevolence. They coupled the closed loop feedback of Net Promoter with a LOT more direct customer interaction for all the retail division’s employees. In fact, today 9 out of 10 of their employees in the division deal directly with customers.

 

They also made a commitment to the idea that every customer matters. He told a compelling story of one customer who left Schwab, not because he himself was being charged lots of nuisance fees (the individual was affluent and receiving a different level of service), but the problem was that he noticed the companies policies at the time for entry level investors, and felt they were inconsistent with what he believed in. I wonder what that customer would have said about recommending to a friend or a colleague…

 

Over the course of the next 3-4 years, the retail business turned around its fortunes completely. As they changed their relationships with clients and invested in providing a lot more help and guidance (for free), those customers rewarded the company by staying with Schwab and referring friends and family members. Net Promoter Scores improved by 60 points, net transfers of assets quadrupled while competitors were mostly negative or flat, and the stock price more than doubled. Today, Schwab gets 55% of new retail clients from referrals.

 

Overall, this was an inspiring story with an amazing ending. It will be very interesting to see how all of this investment in culture and customer helps Schwab withstand the current turmoil of the financial markets. I think they are quite fortunate to have done this work over the past 4 years. So don’t  be surprised if Schwab continues to surprise us with great stuff.

1402 Views 0 Comments Permalink Tags: schwab, b2c, management, turnaround, walt_bettinger, b2b
MichelleS
0

Aman Verjee- CFO, eBay

Kellie Cobaugh - Senior Manager Loyalty Insights- eBay

 

Why Net Promoter® and what are the benefits?ebay3

When ebay first began looking at their customers they started with measuring customer satisfaction but the data was not actionable and not intuitive for the customer. Today, eBay is using the Net Promoter Score (NPS) which they see as pivotal to linking the customers, and their experience to financials. They believe future company growth will migrate from their traditional customer acquisition model to customer retention through a deepening of customer relationships.

 

As many of the sessions covered, eBay has found that having a cross functional team dedicated to driving the Net Promoter program and support from senior management has really made the program successful, and has help to get engagement from the whole organization. eBay also has spent a great deal of time looking at the economics of the program and from this developed the Net Promoter Economic (NPE) program

 

Using predictive modeling - these analytics let you predict the score someone would give you based on others like them. They look at core data like dollars spent each month, churn rate, etc. in each case Promoters had better numbers. In some cases while you may not see spend increase with top promoters, you may see churn reduce. The largest lifts come from moving Detractors towards Promoters, for eBay it means moving Detractors to Passive will bring the greatest results. The critical thing is to look at customers that are detracting and really focus on why

 

eBay’s Advice

 

  • The NPE program - If I knew then what I know now
  • Bring in NPE efforts as soon as you start an NPS program
  • Be clean about how long it takes to get these programs really working
  • Have a consistent data gathering process

                    
                


                


     
        
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