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!

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

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!