Satmetrix - "Answering the Ultimate Question"

Net Promoter is more than a score, it's an organizational discipline in which companies focus on improving the customer experience and increasing loyalty. Through our research we have developed the Net Promoter Operating Model to help companies create a customer centric DNA. This model is well documented in Answering the Ultimate Question.

Whether you chose the Net Promoter Score or other loyalty measures, the operating model provides a best practice framework for how you collect and act on customer feedback to optimize financial benefits.

Identify Root Cause

Companies often think they know what drives customer behavior, but sometimes the data reveals vastly different loyalty drivers. Using a combination of analysis tools to identify root causes enables employees to address the real and relevant loyalty drivers for their customers. A good mix of quantitative and comment analysis increases the likelihood that you will make the optimal customer - focused decisions.

Develop an Enterprise Roadmap

Programs evolve at different paces to suit the needs of different organizations. The best programs are refreshed based on the evolution of the customer relationship, ideally driven by constant improvements and learning. Roadmap planning should take into account critical customer touch points for your customers’ experience. Understand how different touch points affect the overall customer experience, which ones have the greatest impact on loyalty, and in what sequence they should be addressed.

Build Trustworthy Data

The quality of data means everything to the success of a Net Promoter program. Data is trustworthy when you ask the right questions, of the right customers, at the right time.

With multiple touch points, you may use a combination of metrics to gain insight.. You must also ensure you measure the right customers. We call this measuring who matters. And finally, you need to determine the right time to collect customer feedback and when to ask the Recommend question: at transactional touch points or at the overall relationship level.

Innovation and Transformation

The payoff from a successful Net Promoter program is the ability to make the right strategic decisions and foster innovations that ultimately improve your market position. This is where the advantages of superior Net Promoter execution convert into competitive advantage. Net Promoter leaders experience product and service innovation through the iterative process of listening to customer feedback and making improvements. They use increasingly sophisticated techniques for strategic planning, overall go-to- market approaches, product strategy, and customer co-creation.

Drive Action and Accountability

Good data and good analysis are prerequisites, but they are of no use if you don’t take action. At the heart of a Net Promoter program is the ability to put understandable, actionable, and timely information in front of employees who can use it. Data needs to make sense in the context of their job and line up with their processes and incentives. There must be closed loop processes where data is understood, root cause is analyzed, and actions are completed, resulting in direct improvement of the customer experience.

Customer - Centric DNA

There are two key components to building a customer - centric DNA: executive sponsorship and organizational alignment.

Executive sponsorship is a founding principle of success. Programs typically do not succeed without the right sponsorship from the top. Without executive support, programs may lack the financial investments, human resources, and the focus on customers that is needed to make change.

Beyond senior leadership, you must get the rest of the organization aligned. We believe that customer focus should be at the core of the organization and permeate all decisions. Setting up a program governance structure will ensure that employees know their roles and responsibilities and the organization stays focused on improving loyalty.