What Do Your Customers Think About Your Business?

Kelly Kirkham explains how Net Promoter Score can give you insight into customer satisfaction…
Customer Service is now more important than ever. Since social media came onto the scene, the saying ‘any press is good press’ no longer rings true. In an instant, or a tweet, thousands of people can simultaneously think terrible thoughts about your brand, all because of one mistake.
This increased awareness has led the upcoming population of NPS, or Net Promoter Scores. Although you might not be familiar with the idea you see it every day, on websites and at the bottom of receipts.
Net Promoter Score, a registered trademark of Bain & Company, Satmetrix Systems, and Fred Reichheld, is a metric used by businesses to measure their individual levels of loyalty within customer relationships.
Advances in technology have allowed customer awareness to reach an all-time high. Customers can now easily price match, check reviews, and switch providers from a mobile device on the way to work in the morning.
Gone are the days of die-hard loyalties to specific brands. Who doesn’t remember the radio ads full of consumers proclaiming to only buy Lucky Strikes or Palmolive? In the modern world, purchases aren’t made based on the stigma or status attached to them, but rather by the customer feedback and available pricing.
This has led businesses to take note and find a simple, but telling, way of measuring their success or failure within customer relations.
The NPS metric is found by asking one question…
How likely is it that you would recommend [specific company] to a friend on a scale of 0-10?
0 being ‘Not at all’ and 10 being ‘I absolutely would’.
The scores are then broken into three separate categories

1.      Promoters (scores of 9- 10)

Loyal enthusiasts who will keep buying and refer others, therefore fueling growth.

2.      Passives (scores of 7-8)

Satisfied but unenthusiastic customers who are vulnerable to competitive offerings

3.      Detractors (scores of 0-6)

Unhappy customers who can damage your brand an impede growth through negative word-of-mouth.
To find a company’s Net Promoter Score, you take the percentage of total Promoters, or scores of 9-10, and subtract from that the total percentage of Detractor scores, or scores of 6 and under. The rule of thumb is that any percentage over 50 is generally viewed as a sign that your business is heading in the right direction as far as customer service is concerned. But remember! There is always room for improvement.
A statement from netpromoter.com says,
Net Promoter programs are not traditional customer satisfaction programs, and simply measuring your NPS does not lead to success. Companies must follow an associated discipline to actually drive improvements in customer loyalty and enable profitable growth.
They must have leadership commitment, and the right software and business processes in place to deliver real-time information to employees, so they can act on customer feedback and achieve results.
NPS has become a sort of science and is being widely used across the globe in almost every area of business. Airlines, computers, credit cards and insurance industries have all taken to net promoter scores as a way to monitor how their customers are seeing their brand, as well as making big decisions as an attempt to improve the public view of their business.
According to insightsfromanalytics.com, the top 10 NPS leaders are…

1.    USAA – Insurance = 80%
2.    USAA – Banking = 78%
3.    Costco = 78%
4.    Apple – Laptop = 76%
5.    Dillards = 75%
6.    Nordstrom = 75%
7.    Apple – iPhone = 70%
8.    Amazon = 69%
9.    Southwest Airlines = 66%
10.   Apple – iPad = 65%

Don’t be discouraged if your net promoter score isn’t as high as some of the aforementioned companies. We have some helpful starting points to make sure that you’re getting the best relationship possible with your customers.
Stretch it, pull it, take it apart and put it back together.
When you see your NPS score it’s important to attempt to slice and dice your data as much as you can. Look for trends, outside influences, and other general attitudes that could greatly impact the way you have been doing business.  Most importantly, ask your customers personally why they are happy or unhappy with the service or product you are providing. This alone is worth thousands of dollars of analytics and data crunching.
Be scrupulous.
No detail is too small when it comes to customer service. Even one bad post, tweet, or message can now reach a mass audience at speeds unimaginable. Don’t allow your brand to be the one that makes us all cringe when we see you in our news feed. Pay attention to every customer encounter. Everyone has a bad review, nobody can please everybody. In these circumstances be sure to contact the unhappy client immediately. The fact that your customer knows that you care enough to respond to their concerns will instantly work wonders. It has long been known within the restaurant industry that a mistake is always the best opportunity to create a repeat customer.
Get everyone involved.
Customer support is a company wide effort. Every individual hired as a part of your team represents your brand. From marketing to production, finance to sales, each and every time a customer interacts with your company their loyalty can come into question.
Create a team environment that has a client focus, and as always start at the top. When a CEO is personally interacting with individuals who use the products or services  the customer focused ideals will trickle down throughout the levels. With these key ideas in mind, each and every employee will know that your customers come first, and believe you me, it will show.