For those that missed the Net Promoter Conference in San Francisco I wanted to follow up my pre conference blog with some random thoughts and lasting impressions that I have. In my blog before the conference, I asked the question:

What part of Customer don't we understand?"

In our Customer Experience consulting practice, we have encountered way too many customers who do survey their customers but do not or cannot use the feedback effectively. So, it was gratifying and impressive to see such a large turnout of customer zealots, especially in this business climate. I have opined in my blogs before that this is actually a great time to invest in improving your customer experience as your customer base is the path to future growth.

It was good to see the large turnout and that Richard Owen ( CEO of Satmetrix ) led off the conference talking about the importance of retaining customers as the cost of retention is far below that of acquisition of new customers. Save money, grow your business at the same time, how good is that? Equally impressive was the lineup of key executives from leading companies reiterating the same core principles. More importantly, we heard story after story that the Net Promoter score was not the goal; it was the fundamental business improvement that was facilitated by NPS programs that was the key. There were great examples of the Net Promoter economics as people had matured in their programs.

Some other themes were repeated by various speakers and attendees talking off to the side. Here are a few that I noted and whole heartedly endorse:

• NPS and customer experience requires the focus and endorsements of the C-suite executives to really be effective and enduring. Those that do embrace NPS have seen the results.
• Net Promoter Score is not the goal, fixating on great customer experience will give you a good score. The process is what helps you get better.
• NPS can be sponsored by the C-suite but still not be effective if you do not get engage your employee in the process
• NPS is about a journey and not a destination. It is not a program of the day. It requires commitment to the long term and lots of hard work to get the largest gains.
• Your customers are kind enough to give you the gift of feedback when you survey, you better darn well return the favors by ensuring diligent follow up.
• The C-suite cannot dictate good customer experience, it must be a part of the DNA, in must be nurtured and it needs to be a core part of the corporate values and operating principles.
• Survey may be a bad word. NPS is trying to encourage customer conversations. It is about how you listen to your customer and how you respond.

In the research that we have done around adaptive organizations and how companies survive for 50-100 years, the same factors emerge. While innovation is important, innovation does not happen without first listening to your customers. The more global that you are, the more that we use new media channels to connect with customers, the more diligent we need to be in listening to our customers. Like we heard many times during the conference, quite often the employee is the key channel from which we can gain customer insight and best influence the customer experience. Customer experience is not one job or one function; it is role of everyone in the company to drive positive, value added experiences.

The lasting impression that I took away from the conference is that interest in customer experience is growing, especially in B to B companies, and more companies are starting to understand the word “Customer” when it comes to their success.

Jeanne Bliss, Author and President of Customer Bliss

A tough economy like the current one we’re experiencing brings lots of stresses on customer relationships. We can all relate to our own stresses as consumers, which, honestly, are tough to ‘leave at home’. We also know well the stresses of our professional responsibilities to increase profitability when revenue is down. In an engaging participant Q&A and discussion, Jeanne Bliss shared strategies for making sure our customers feel less of the stress and more LOVE. Why is this so important?  When the economy begins to recover, customers will remember those companies that brought creative solutions to help them survive the downturn. Here are some of the ideas Jeanne discussed: 1. Love your front-line employees…..they have the greatest opportunity to influence customer relationships every day. Empower them to take care of customers as they feel is appropriate given the situation. Host roundtables with cross-functional teams and leaders that give front-line employees a chance to share their frustrations and allow other departments to hear what the customer is experiencing. 2. Listen and empathize – Given the challenges during these times, customers may spend more time than usual telling you about their concerns and frustrations. Listen, repeat what you heard and empathize. Then, don’t just let that information go in one ear and out the other, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!  What can you do to help weaken some of those concerns? Encouraging even small heroic acts of kindness can make a difference.

3. Love your best customers – Proactively reach out to customers before they call you. Make sure you understand each others’ challenges and how your resource alignment might change.  Proactively offer solutions that can help your customers bridge through a tough time. Be creative…. Think of the things you can do to better serve customers that don’t cost anything. You’ll be surprised how many ideas you come up with.

4. Demonstrate the value of “Customer Love” to your leadership - Partner with the VP of Sales / CMO / CFO to understand how ‘customer love’ influences the movement of your customer base and the increased value in revenue and profitability that can be realized.

You’ll want to visit www.customerbliss.com and pick up Jeanne’s books to learn more.

Remember, so many ways that you can ‘love your customers’ cost nothing or very little.  CUSTOMERS WILL REMEMBER AND REWARD YOU!  I dare you to try it and see!!