Hi Andrew - we definitely see the points you raise as critical questions for companies using MarketTools CustomerSat.  Breaking things down a bit:

• What are the key questions to use in Voice of the Customer programs?
  

There are many different viewpoints on this.  "Likely to recommend" can be very valuable, but has its limitations as a single metric and does not work equally well in all industry sectors.  Joe Camirand, VP of Research and Consulting Services for MarketTools CustomerSat recently posted a blog on the Secure Customer Index, originally developed in 1996 by D. Randall Brandt, PhD.  This index combines "Likely to recommend" with "Likely to repurchase" and "Overall satisfaction" metrics.  These additional questions provide deeper insight into customer loyalty, allowing businesses to analyze Top Box scores (percent of respondents who choose the highest options in your rating scale) and perform segmentation analysis using the Apostle Model, which correlates overall satisfaction with likelihood to repurchase.  Whichever method you use, we always advocate performing analysis beyond the top level score to understand which segments and key drivers provide the greatest opportunity for driving meaningful improvements.  Equally important is sticking with a set of key metrics that you can trend over time.

• What is the connection between technology and change management in Voice of the Customer programs?
  

As you highlight, “following a high-level metric won't help you change anything”.  I couldn’t agree with you more.  Our customers find that by using Enterprise Feedback Management technology, they can gather customer feedback in an objective way that promotes fact based decision making.  The right technology can help business leaders quickly identify the best opportunities for investment.  From there, however, companies must take action and initiate programs that improve the customer experience.

• What is the value of 1:1 follow-up with customers?
  

The CDW example you highlight is inspiring.  We’re a huge believer in the value of closing the loop with customers through 1:1 follow-up.  Organizing this effectively through a combination of email alerts, case management, and case analytics helps businesses get the maximum return from valuable sales and customer care resources.  Often customers will turn out to be more loyal after an issue is handled well than before the issue occurred at all.  And correlating 1:1 follow-up actions with resulting new business and customer saves can help you quickly show ROI on your investment in a Voice of the Customer program.

Justin Schuster

VP, Enterprise Products at MarketTools

Customer behaviors are complex. Companies' differentiators and positioning are varied. Net Promoter offers a simplified (or dumbed down) way to get a metric. However, truly understanding what that metric means for your company and your customers and using it to promote positive change is still complex.

If you're a big company, either way you go, you need smart people and insights beyond just Net Promoter. If you try to oversimplify something complex, you can easily end up with a mess. One thing that can provide decision makers with simplicity and drive positive change is a well designed dashboard for reporting key metrics, insights and recommended actions. I believe better data visualization and use of well designed dashboards will flip this problem on its head.

If you're not too big, I think finding simple metrics that work for your business is a smart thing to do. Maybe Net Promoter is an easy fit for your industry, maybe not.

On a separate note, this prompts a bigger question around experiences... what are the intangible values we wish we could measure around customer experiences?

Brian Regienczuk

@exprethink www.experiencerethink.com

Net Promoter is the ultimate question if the only type of behavior you are trying to promote is loyalty or evangelism.  If that's the only kind of customer behavior you are interested in, I guess you could be as narrow as a single data point.  Generally we hope to engage the customer along the whole buying cycle and there are many different characteristics we'd hope to know to help move them to a fully involved relationship, . http://bit.ly/drFvYT

I'm not sure I would classify it as the ultimate question but I think it can be an important one.  The key is to understand how it relates actual customer behavior and use it (or not) accordingly.  It can be a powerful tool in the arsenal but doesn't work everywhere or by itself.  

Thanks for raising an interesting question about an interesting question,

Tabitha

The point of a customer satisfaction survey is to give you accurate, actionable information. Relative to this, Reichheld, in some industries, fails. In some industries he doesn’t. There are many industries,even by Reichheld’s admission, that aren’t right for the Net Promoter question.

The best way to ensure accurate, actionable survey data is,as NPS does, to keep the survey simple. But you must vet your survey to ensure that the question or questions you ask are exactly tailored to your audience and your company. 

The suggestion that accuracy isn’t important is irrational from a business perspective. As Drucker pithily and correctly said, you can’t manage what you can’t measure.  And what’s the point of a satisfaction survey if it doesn’t lead to better management?

Net promoter is a good measure but not the Ultimate question. It is much better than the old Customer Satisfaction questions. For us it is also important as it captures the emotional side of a Customer Experience that gets lost in Customer Satisfaction. In fact in the research we conducted with London Business School in my third book the DNA of Customer Experience: How emotions drive value Palgrave McMillian 2007 we can statistically prove that emotions drive Net promoter. If you recommend someone you are putting some 'skin in the game'. Finally one of the best aspects of the introduction has been the debate it has generated and the ability to compare yourselves against other people.