"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?

H.M. Warner, Warner Bros.,1927

Continuing my predictions for 2011, with the general theme of  “hopefully you haven’t heard this one before”.

Number 3: The (IT) Empire Strikes Back

Information technologies are a big part of the success story behind voice of the customer programs in general. Trying to engage thousands of employees and hundreds of thousands of customers (in any kind of coordinated exercise) is generally considered to be, first and foremost, an exercise in technology enablement. Net Promoter as a discipline puts the Information Technology cat amongst the data pigeons by suggesting that everyone on the front line with the customer will be getting context specific real time reporting and closed loop support. And that’s just for starters.

Net Promoter data will create a major information resource for corporations that provides segmented attitudinal data in a scale and detail that companies have never had before. Heck, this could be the best database the company has; after all, unlike your CRM database, you know these customers exist as they replied to your survey! Data mining will suddenly seem very exciting, as will the opportunity to finally connect all those CRM data sources to your NPS data to our social media data etc etc.

Of course, all of this is non-trivial, and a lot of it will require IT assets from within the firm that have previously been out of the loop. NPS program leaders who effectively outsourced IT to their Software-as-a-Service vendors in the past will find they need a lot more internal support if they are going to make all these systems work together. And, with perfect timing, IT organizations are becoming increasingly aware that those “in the cloud” systems that their internal clients are buying outside their controls are becoming part of the information lifeblood of the business.

It’s a marriage for sure. Shotguns optional.

If you are running your Net Promoter program, expect a lot more IT department dependencies, involvement and complexity as your program becomes a mainstream information systems initiative.

Number 4:  Some things won't happen

It should, in theory, be easier to predict something won’t happen than predict it will. After all, there are a finite series of things that will occur, and an infinite list of those that won’t. But there is something to learn from looking at good ideas that just don’t seem to gain traction so I’m picking a couple.

Employee Promoter Score is my first. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all in favor of employee loyalty, and just about every program should care about employee adoption of NPS. But formal employee loyalty process stays in the sidelines for most companies as they either go through the motions, or just skip the idea altogether. I know I’m going to get upset emails telling me about how great your employee loyalty program is, but all I can say is “well done, thanks for sticking with it”. My bet is you are a minority.

Equally egregious will be the lack of investment in reference programs. I love reference programs; I keep thinking that every b2b firm should have a sophisticated approach that takes known promoters and funnels them into a database which then… well, you probably get the picture. Some of the case studies are exceptional. People won’t fund it sufficiently.

Please feel free to prove me wrong on both these.

“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.“
Philip K Dick

Customer experience programs, oddly, are more like a belief system than a business system. When I ask companies who abandon their Net Promoter or Customer Experience program the response I hear is:  We got tired and gave up.

Of course, they don’t say exactly that. Corporations have a lot of ways to say “I don’t love you any more” to any form of initiative;  most of them involve cutting budgets. Scaling back. Reducing executive focus. No longer a critical priority, or, my favorite, “we have customer loyalty under control”.

Given that most of us, on sober reflection, would be hard pushed to claim that we have our customer loyalty issues “under control” and, in most cases, nobody doubts the value of loyal customers, why do some firms tend to wax and wane with their customer experience programs?

I’m sure there are many reasons peculiar to each business. I have heard one topic above many recently. Customer loyalty data and net promoter scores are, well, very uncomfortable. Actually downright painful. And human nature is to avoid pain.

Sales forces, in particular rarely argue against the merits of NPS data, but in practice will rail against its use. Whatever is said publicly, I know many sales leaders would be happy to see the data go away completely. They often achieve that ambition given enough time. They are not saboteurs of the business, they are simply reacting to a process that is uncomfortable at best, painful at worst and where the emotional costs of personal compliance often exceed the business merits of taking part. Let’s face it, we may know deep down that our customers don’t love us, but that doesn’t mean we really want to find out how bad things might be. Sales people are optimists by nature (you have to be) so why turn over rocks?

The problem is that reality doesn’t change just because you choose not to believe in less than favorable NPS data. Our role as leaders is to confront that reality, however unpleasant it might be, and act upon it. Yes, customer loyalty programs are an exercise in courage and perseverance.

Given these factors, let’s not make it harder than it has to be. A culture that focuses on detractors as an excuse to create blame, withhold compensation, stall careers or otherwise punish can be an invitation for resentment and ultimately undermine the goals of the program. On the other hand, attach no consequences to your net promoter program and run the risk that it has no impact.

Yes, we are in the grey area of culture management. For what it’s worth, consider a few learnings from companies that have endured. First, don’t be too quick to punish through compensation. Second, it’s never too soon to recognize and reward the successful creation of promoters. And finally, don’t relax the level of executive focus. Too often, the natural course for the program is to atrophy.