Net Promoter Score Wins 2006 CRM Award

My, my, how the CRM world has turned in 10 years; 1996 was the year that catapulted Siebel, Vantive and Clarify into our consciences – remember? Call centres then were still places for customer conversations; and everyone told everyone else that customer retention was cheaper than acquisition, courtesy of Bain. Ten years on I went to the European Customer Quality Expo & Congress in Cannes (whilst new CMC Editor Jeremy went to Customer Strategy Conference in Birmingham, see his report) to listen to tales of European CRM v2006 and to see what companies as varied as the BBC, Unisys and Nestle are making of it.

One Familiar Face

One familiar face from 1996 was Don Peppers – an icon of sustainability. The boxes and wiring may be history, but good ideas just go on. Of course, Don too has been acquired these days - by Carlson Marketing - nevertheless he opened the conference in evangelical form. Study vampire bats, he extolled. In the animal kingdom, apparently, only humans and vampire bats trust non-relatives. If Mrs V Bat baby-sits for Mrs O Bat and the favour is not returned – Mrs O Bat will soon find herself ostracised by the whole community. Moral; your customers trust you to help them, but if you're bent on self-interest and shareholder returns, you’ll feel the 'community' backlash – balance long term trust and short term returns.

Don also related the story of the goldfish who happily swims around the same bowl all day long: with no memory he doesn’t know he’s been there before. So too business who always act as if meeting 'new customers': with no memory of meeting them before.

Speed Dating

You might apply the goldfish principal to conferences; you go, meet a few people, and then carry on as before, events erased from memory. But chairman Doug Dvorak - "is that pronounced the same as the composer?" people whispered: we weren't sure - also of New World fame, had a US trick up his sleeve to stop that.

His feat of personalised Welkom, Failte (Irish welcome), Marhaban (Arabic) over; we snuggled into comfy seats, lights dimmed; only to be hoicked up by Doug and admonished to 'talk to one another'. "Introduce yourself and a business problem to three new people," he commanded – an activity that seemed to cross speed dating with a 'happy clappy' religious greeting!

Reticently, we networked; but the idea was pure magic. In a smallish group of 90 people, many presenting 'their story' or exhibiting, we formed a community. Over the next days, in between Doug's commands to "talk", we did just that; we listened, we learnt; we got to know each other. Moral; provide a platform for your customers to talk and encourage them to solve problems with each other – they'll love you.

2006 Award for Top Myth

The award for top myth of the moment goes to NPS (net promoter score) hailed by Frederick Reichheld in Harvard Business Review (2003) as 'The One Number You Need to Grow'. With NPS you ask customers one question, "How likely is it that you would recommend us to a friend or colleague," they think for a moment, then circle a number between 0 and 10 (0 is for those who might think 1 is better than 10). For your net score add up all customers scoring 9 and 10, and take from that all those scoring 6 or less (the ones scoring 7and 8 are ambivalent). World class score is 75-80% of your customer base; the average score 15%. The idea is intuitive and simple, making it compelling – but perhaps too much of a 'silver bullet' in the hands of the desperate and unwary.

GE Healthcare use it – as the great promoters of six sigma it appeals to GE’s metric mentality. "Loyalty measures are often soft and cuddly," said their Customer Relationship Champion, Eric Shawger, "NPS gives loyalty teeth against the profit gorilla."

Avis use it – mixing it with staff satisfaction to get a better picture of cause and effect.

And from general conversation it seems it has perculated through to a number of European companies.

The Voice of the Customer Echos in Story

Single measures have their place, but it's stories that echo the voice of the customer, giving emotional and contextual information to get under the skin of customer experience. Our presenters had some good ones:-

Angie Court, Director of Customer Service for Avis, effervesced on stage, to recount her 'entente cordiale' problems. Her French staff, it seems, just don’t understand that when an English woman says 'it's fine', she means 'it was awful and I want you to do something about it' – English men don’t understand that either, shouted a voice!!

Neither do her staff realize that 'I’m sorry' isn't an admission of wrong doing, but rather a term of fraternity, as in 'I'm sorry you are angry over your lousy flights, and you bags are lost'. Just say you’re sorry, she tells French staff – but it isn’t our fault, they retort – just say it, and the customer will be happy, she reassures them.

Customer psychology was a theme for Dominique Soudais, Customer Marketing Director for France Telecom. "We must recognize that the customer is schizophrenic" he lilted "He knows, and expects us to know all about him, but we must only use what we know with his permission." (I’m sorry if this sounds like Donald Rumsfeld). He sited the example of 'divorce' as a little known reason for telco churn. "We think we are giving great service, sending out detailed statements for cheaper 'friend and family' packages – but then the customer finds out the number his wife calls most often is her lover – and blames us." Viva la France!!

Perry Littleboy, Head of Strategy for Coutts and Company said the bank positively encouraged their private bankers to spend time telling clients 'company stories' – it built the brand values, engendered trust and gave a dam fine experience to boot. A very compelling exponent of this philosophy, he told the tale of the Duchess who had gone to an 'avant- garde' play sponsored by Coutts. The play contained scenes of bestiality; the Duchess was incensed "Fancy" she angrilycomplained "that Coutts should sponsor a play encouraging sons to answer their fathers back." Morale: get call centre staff to tell stories.

Call centre service, or lack of it, is still hot. Stephanie Wilson VP Client Services for Convergys
gave a spirited defence of attempts to operationalize customer satisfaction in organizations that have "more metrics than NASSA", "but clients are frightened that focussing on customer satisfaction will destroy their operational KPI’s." she told us.

Gold Nuggets

It is said that if you can take away one nugget of information from a presentation then you have done well. With that in mind:-

• High speed train company Thalys demonstrated how crucial it is to find out all customer needs prior to any attempt at delighting them –“for Germans good food is lots of it on a big plate” said their Marketing Director “but for the French its trendy food nicely presented.” You have to know these things; else you won’t score 80%.

• Alistair Tempest, President of FEDMA, let us into the nightmare world of EU direct marketing regulators; he informed us of current moves to insist that companies comply with the data protection regulations in their customers’ countries- all of them - rather than those of the country of operation. Should play havoc with internet selling and global trade!!

• Tom-Tom the satellite navigation company, told us that they had avoided growing customer contact in line with rocketing sales by installing interactive frequently asked questions on their website, as a ‘first line of defence’. Leaving ‘real people’ to deal with difficult enquiries and sales. An attractive idea for the audience, but is it quite so attractive for the customer?

• Stephanie Demay from General Mills reminded us to deliver the brand promise. She told of the superb male call centre agent who received nothing but abuse and complaints. His crime – after seeing the Haagen-Dazs advertisements callers wanted to speak to a sultry voiced female; not a chatty, male, cookery expert.

Such a Shame

But the prize for the best story must go to poor Mike Ashton of Hilton, who walked into a conference at a Hilton Conference Venue to wax lyrical about his new, award winning customer focussed strategy. Only to find that a large number of delegates had been refused entry to their booked rooms the night before, owing to a delayed touring party. Moral; Never go on stage with children or animals, and never extol the virtues of your customer service within 10 miles of anywhere it can be experience.

My thanks also to those presenters not mentioned – there was gold in all the stories. And here's to the next 10 years of evolving customer centricity; whose next on Oracle’s list do you think Stuart?

Jennifer Kirkby
Strategy & Business Analyst, CMC
Director, Mutual Marketing
ja.kirkby@btconnect.com

Find out more about Jennifer Kirkby