Net Promoter Conference Europe 2008

A Fresh Perspective: How NPS Has Shaken Up the Status Quo and Delivered Results - Q&A with Fred Reichheld - Deborah Eastman

Fred Reichheld began his session by tackling the debate raised by the market research community. He referred to himself as the anti-christ of market research. While all three of his books have been best sellers, The Ultimate Question has stirred up major debate in the market research arena. The biggest criticism is that it’s over simplified. It’s just one question and nothing about why? Yet, if you read the book it’s all about the why. NPS is not intended to be a superior predictive analytic; it is intended to be a management tool. 

Building Trusted Partnerships that Drive Word of Mouth - Deborah Eastman

Dr. Laura Brooks from Satmetrix discussed the importance of building trusted relationships with customers and employees and how that results in the economics of word of mouth. 

She started with recent research in high tech, financial services and telecommunication industries that showed trusted relationships had a stronger correlation to recommend scores then product or service performance. This was true of vendors with both one-off point solutions as well as broader solutions. Product innovation is not sufficient, buyers want a trusted partnership. 

Using NPS as a Lever for Organisational Change - Deborah Eastman

The second presentation of the day was delivered by Dominique Soudais who is responsible for customer experience at Orange. Orange is an international company providing fixed line, mobile and Internet services. They have 170 million customers on 5 continents.

Orange uses Net Promoter as a lever for organisational change, referring to it as the “magic KPI.”  Their goal is to help customers be more empowered and achieve more where they live, work and play.  Their strategy for growth includes investing in new technologies, such as fiber, that deliver incremental value for customers.  This strategy requires increased focus on customer experience and word of mouth.

Putting the Customer at the Helm - Deborah Eastman

Satmetrix CEO Richard Owen discussed how companies respond in tough economic times. As we face a potential recession, how much money should companies spend on improving the customer experience?

Public company accounting standards make it difficult to optimize for growth as they reward profits. Short term profits may not be good for long term success. To illustrate this point he describes two examples from the financial services area, the subprime mortgage crisis and credit card introductory rate offers. In both cases, the customer is happy during the initial period when the “special offer” is in effect. However, when the introductory rate expires, customers become disappointed and promoters become detractors impacting the long term sustainable value of acquiring that customer.