Deborah Eastman, Chief Marketing Officer, Satmetrix

It was nice to see some focus on B2B business models. As the owner of a company that serves other businesses, this session was especially attractive to me – plus Deborah Eastman is always has the inside track on B2B and NPS. Eastman started off outlining the keys to success in using Net Promoter in a B2B environment:

• NP can be leveraged to improve relationships
• Make sure Net Promoter is integrated with the core business operations
• Insure that action is taken on any feedback

Eastman also suggested that the request for Net Promoter feedback be built into client engagement contracts to make sure projects don’t end without getting the feedback needed. The average NPS for a B2B company is 24%.

A key takeaway from this session was the best practice of only surveying twice per year and the response rates should be 60% or higher. Eastman cautioned against accepting high Net Promoter Scores without also looking at your response rates. High NPS’s without high response rates render high Net Promoter Scores almost meaningless and probably means that the data is not trustworthy. In fact, non-respondents should be viewed as detractors with the assumption that the individual doesn’t care about the relationship enough to take 5 minutes to complete the survey. Eastman recommends dealing with detractors in a very direct way – by responding IMMEDIATELY to detractors. In general, it’s a good idea to not let detractors feelings to fester. She says that she’s seen conversations with detractors result in upsells quite often. A session participant noted that many companies are quickly tiring of survey taking so many companies are creating their own survey evaluations for their top vendors and releasing the survey results to the vendors – a different spin on Net Promoter for sure.

At the close, Eastman recommended closing surveys on time and getting the results – along with action steps – out the door within 30 days. The potential debate is, whom should you return that survey data? Just to the respondents or to everyone regardless of whether they responded or not?

If you chose the former, you risk not engaging potential detractors (the people who didn’t respond) and filling them in on your company’s improvement plans. However, if you inform everyone, you air laundry and may point out areas of weakness that many people may not have otherwise known about. As with everything, there is a trade-off and you need to do what’s right in your specific scenario. Yet another reason to get certified – to help address pesky dilemmas like this one.

Click here to download the presentation.

Melissa Namiot-Mader, Director, Business Systems Analysis and Loyalty Programs, Veritude

John Abraham, General Manager, Net Promoter Programs, Satmetrix

Melissa Namiot-Mader and Satmetrix’ own John Abraham had a bit of a ‘fireside chat’ session about how Veritude has leveraged Net Promoter processes to double their NPS inside 6 months and all but leave their competitors in the dust. Vertitude decided to use the NPS for several reasons:

What got them to measurable improvement was a combination of a number of carefully thought out, consistent action-steps:

• Veritude’s CEO walks the floor and takes a high-touch/open-door approach to dealing with employees.
• They conduct surveys twice per year without fail
• They conduct Net Promoter workshops and weave Net Promoter concepts into employee meetings
• Net Promoter Scores are tied to compensation
• All new hires are introduced to Net Promoter
• All new executive officers are given a copy of “The Ultimate Question” and are debriefed on what role Net Promoter plays in the company
• Each of their sites is required to do an annual Net Promoter action plan based on the verbatim feedback from the previous year. Only until they have created their action plan are they given their NPS from the previous year and then the scores are published publicly.
• NPS questions have been randomly built into their online time recording software via a pop-up questionnaire. Employees answer questions like:
• • Have you heard from your staffing consultant recently?
  • Would you recommend this staffing consultant to a friend or colleague?

• They’ve also kept it light by creating personas for promoters (a cheerleader), detractors (a devil with horns and pitchfork) and passives (the “Pat” character from Saturday Night Live)

When I asked Namiot-Mader what she would recommend for Net Promoter newbies, she advised that those interested in Net Promoter should make sure the Net Promoter approach is a good fit for their company and industry. She also suggested getting an executive sponsor or advocate. But, most of all she stressed DOING something with the data you collect. She cautioned not to try to address all the weak points at once, but to instead break the list down into manageable chunks – business line by business line if need be. As someone who has earned her Net Promoter Certification, Namiot-Mader encouraged the session participants to opt for certification because it’s good to go through implementing Net Promoter concepts with a group of people who are in the same position as you and whom you can bounce ideas off. Veritude has been effectively using Net Promoter in closed-loop for the past 2 years, but have been keeping track of their scores for the past 3 years and the results speak for themselves:

• In 2007, their NPS doubled from 2006
• In 2008, they exceeded their goals by 13 points
• They have created a new standardized resume template and implemented a consistent resume submission process so that their customers are able to see the quality of their candidates
• They implemented a new internal communication plan
• And, more importantly, they were able to answer the tell-tale question: “What should we NOT be doing?”

Tony Hsieh, CEO, Zappos.com

Tony Hsieh has been speaking a lot lately at conferences. And when you hear the story of Zappos.com and it’s rise from $1.6 million in revenues in 2000 to $1 billion in revenues at the end of 2008, you can understand why people want to hear about it.

What was refreshing for me was the amazing level of openness that Tony conveyed in his talk. They are so confident that they are building a great company, that they are not afraid to open the kimono.

I introduced Tony by sharing two personal stories that point out the power of Word of Mouth for the Zappos.com brand. I’ve actually never bought anything from Zappos personally, but my house is full of empty Zappos boxes, as my wife is a big promoter of their selection and service. I also shared a photo that one of our Satmetrix employees gave to me from his first visit to their facility in Henderson, Nevada, outside Las Vegas. The company gives tours of the facility, and ends the tour with a nice surprise. I won’t spoil it for those of you who have yet to visit there. I may check it out next time I’m in Vegas.

The brand simply inspired storytelling, and Tony explained that this is not entirely by accident. They focus deeply on the company culture (which is all about being the very best at customer service). And as Tony said, if you get the culture right, all the other good stuff follows…including good Word of Mouth and high Net Promoter Scores. Their NPS as measured internally has been running between 80-90%...which is pretty remarkable. But the balance of the discussion made it clear that they do a lot of specific things differently to generate so many promoters.

Tony talked about how “everyone is a little bit weird.” I personally identified with this a lot. I’ve got my quirks, and most of the people I know and love do to. People who don’t have quirks, or who mask them, are honestly not that interesting to me. That’s a big part of what makes us real and human…and I think it’s a bit of secret sauce in how Zappos is connecting emotionally with their customers.

They embrace this “differentness” in everything they do.

First of all with employees. Employees are encouraged to be themselves. They spend a lot of time selecting the right employees, making sure their values are customer service oriented. Then they put them all (everyone) through the same 5 week hands-on training program. They even offer to pay employees a sort of “departure bonus” after the first week of training if they don’t believe Zappos.com is the place for them. Tony explained that these practices help to get really committed individuals who are wired to fit with the company’s service-oriented culture. And it also allows them to unleash that creative energy at every point of customer interaction (without lots of complex policies and procedures). Now that’s different!

Process was next. They obviously do have processes…but again they seem to think of it differently. For example, they call their customer service team the “customer loyalty team.” That’s the ultimate goal right? You may service an automobile, but with people your goal is to make them loyal. How to do this? Well, their support team doesn’t “upsell,” they don’t measure call time, and if they don’t have the product in stock, the members of the loyalty team are encouraged to check 3 competitor websites to help the customer get what they want. Different, right?

Marketing and branding is different too. I loved it when Tony said that they have their 800 number at the top of every web page on their site. This contrasts radically with companies who are thinking of customer service as a cost, and try to make it hard to figure out how to call in for service. As Tony put it, the telephone is the best marketing tool out there. You get your customer’s undivided attention for 5 or 10 minutes to make a connection with them, and to establish who you are and what your brand is all about. Different again!

He wrapped up by reinforcing the 4 core things that he thinks companies need to get right to have a successful strategy:

1. Vision: theirs is to deliver the best customer service. That’s it.
2. Repeat Customers (not advertising): This is a big connection to the Net Promoter philosophy. Tony explained that they were forced to focus on repeat customers early on because of the dot com bust, but it has turned into one of their core metrics. They have gone from 20% repeat customers in the first 12 months, to over 50% today.
3. Transparency: They are committed to being open and honest about who they are, and you can get a copy of the Zappos.com culture book (with messages from every employee), or connect directly with Tony online in blogs on twitter, you name it. They are committed to being open and honest.
4. Culture: Their culture is their brand, and so it is for every company. Tony believes they are just 2 sides of the same coin.

Well put, Tony. Thanks for an inspiring and different view of how a company can operate.

Use the link below to download the presentation from our Case Study Library:

http://www.netpromoter.com/netpromoter_community/docs/DOC-1041

(view case studies requires brief registration)