Net Promoter Conference Miami 2008

Competitive & Cross Cultural Benchmarking by Satmetrix - Paul Pakalnietis

David Hankin, Director of Business Consulting for Satmetrix, discussed how and why organizations should benchmark their Net Promoter Scores against their competition and account for cultural differences. Competitive benchmarking helps executives answer the question, “How do I know if we have a good NPS?” There are three approaches to competitive benchmarking that can answer this question:

1) add competitor questions to your own loyalty survey,
2) use an external industry benchmark and
3) build your own panel of customers across your industry.

Each option has different costs, benefits and complexities.

Using Net Promoter to Drive Organizational Learning - Emilia Brad

Rob Markey, Partner and Head of Global Customer Strategy Practice with Bain & Company, spoke about using NPS to drive organizational learning at three levels:

1. Executive or strategic
2. Management or process
3. Front-line employee

Customer Experience in Retail Banking Accenture/Satmetrix Sponsored Research - Glenn Donovan

In the fall of 2007, Accenture and Satmetrix conducted a detailed study of retail banking in North America to uncover consumer attitudes and loyalty toward their primary banking institution. The survey, which included responses from approximately 3500 customers addressing 16 institutions, covered all aspects of customer experience relating to checking account, including channels, product quality and services.

According to Susan Piotroski, Partner, Marketing & Customer Strategy Practice with Accenture, who delivered the presentation, when Accenture thinks about touch points, it’s important to consider all aspects of the experience, including the product experience. These factors are often not part of customer satisfaction surveys, which tend to focus on call center, web, branch, and the like.

Q&A with Chief Customer Officer Author, Jeanne Bliss - Tom Kehler

Jeanne Bliss, Net Promoter blogger and author of Chief Customer Officer, and John Abraham, General Manager of Net Promoter Programs for Satmetrix, chaired a discussion session driven by questions from the audience largely focused on program implementation issues. For those who missed the session you missed the opportunity for free books!   

An early question kicked off the discussion (and the first book give away) related to top management commitment. The case was presented of a committed top management but a somewhat confused middle management. Jeanne made the case that if top management is really committed they will change incentives for middle management. Middle management will be caught in the middle if the NPS program is a top management and front line philosophy without a complete look how it changes cost and operations.

Designing For Action - Paul Pakalnietis

Deb Eastman, Chief Marketing Officer of Satmetrix, covered how managers can design a Net Promoter Score (NPS) program for action Friday afternoon. The well attended session included B to B and B to C Net Promoter practitioners from a wide variety of industries, including Financial Services, Business Advisory Services, and Telecommunications. In her ebullient style, Deb captured the attention of this audience, focusing on the topic of driving action at all levels within an organization.

Measuring What Matters - Glenn Donovan

Audience expectations seemed quite high as it was standing room only. Taking a practical approach as a result of his practitioner experience, Dr. Vince Nowinski, Principal Methodologist of Satmetrix, began by addressing the who, what, and when of data collection. He explained how the underlying validity and content of the data collected is what will ultimately impact the “actionability” of the information in your organization. (Yes, that is a made up word, btw.)