Abbott Labs is in the third year of their NPS Journey. Luc Ruysen, Europe Area head of Abbott Labs, shared a few highlights at the London Net Promoter conference today.
In 2007, the leadership team learned about NPS. Later that year, they ran a service NPS pilot. By early 2008, they had become convinced the closed loop feedback approach could help them grow and improve.
The feedback they received was rich and useful. While they believed they were already very close to their B2B laboratory customers and knew most of their issues, the NPS feedback revealed dozens of hidden issues and opportunities. Many of them were rather mundane, some were profound, and a few were truly surprising.
On the mundane front were a number of minor defects. A representative example: Customers found the packing slips frustratingly difficult to remove from the outer package for examination. This is not the sort of issue the lab techs or lab directors were likely to raise with their salespeople. If they did raise it, the salesperson wasn't likely to pass the issue along. If they were inclined to pass it along, it wasn't clear with whom they should raise the issue. It turns out the fix was exceptionally easy. Changing the glue used on the packing slips made them easier to access.
On a more surprising note, Abbott learned that lab customers were disappointed with product quality. On further examination, comments associated with complaints about quality often referred to shelf life and expiration dates. This puzzled the management team, because Abbott's product shelf life was just as good as the competitor's. So the team dug deeper. More in depth customer discussions through both follow up interviews and focus groups revealed that the issue wasn't really shelf life, but package size. Many lab products were used rarely enough that the standard package often couldn't be consumed entirely before the product expired. Simply introducing smaller package sizes for the rarely used reagents addressed the issue, saving the labs money in unused reagents. Perhaps more importantly, Abbott demonstrated to it's customers that it was listening closely and taking action based on their feedback. The change in product sizes addressed a minor defect or source of irritation. The very act of listening and responding earned loyalty.
Ruysen is proud of the progress the organization has made so far. They have accelerated their revenue growth and dropped profits onto the bottom line. He credits the focus on quality closed loop feedback with powering this growth.