Rackspace Net Promoter feedback system achieves >60% response rates

John Lionato of web-hosting firm Rackspace reports that the company has achieved 50-70% response rates in its (B2B) customer relationship Net Promoter feedback process.  Here's some of what they do.

1.  Simple, clear invitations sent to the right customers by the right people

Rackspace NPS survey invitation, which includes live linked recommend question

• Before the survey goes out, Account Managers review contact information to make sure the most up-to-date contacts are listed to receive the survey
• Account Managers are encouraged to contact customers to ask them to respond to the survey, whatever their opinion
• The email survey invitation comes from the Rackspace domain (so it doesn't get caught by spam filters)
• The email subject line explicitly lists the number of questions:  "How are we doing … 2 questions from Rackspace"
• There is little additional "fluff" language in the email to distract from its purpose
• Survey email includes HTML-based radio buttons to respond to the first of the two questions (likelihood to recommend) right from the email
• The email invitation is signed by a real human being (John Lionato, the SVP for worldwide customer care), and his contact info is right there in the email

2. Short, clean and simple survey:

• The survey is kept short -- really just the likelihood to recommend and open-ended verbatim -- both delivering on the "two question" promise and earning the trust of respondents over timeClean, simple survey page
• It confirms your initial response, giving you an opportunity to change your score if it looks wrong
• It provides space for an open-ended verbatim explanation of your response
• It offers you the option of participating in a sweepstakes to win something of value (in this case, a 17" MacBook Pro)
• Note that there is no need for the customer to provide additional identifying info, because the email response click-through provided identifying information that is captured by the survey system
• Note, also, that Rackspace does not provide an opt-out or opt-in for subsequent contact (see below for explanation

 3.  True closed-loop rewards the customer's effort

• If a customer responds to John Lionato, who signed the email invitation, he gets in touch with them himself
• The team of "Rackers" responsible for serving the account really closes the loop, contacting the customer to learn more (good or bad)
• Whenever an issue is uncovered, the account team responds directly to customer concerns or issues
• Over time, customers learn that their feedback really gets action

Why no opt-in or opt-out for follow-up contact?  In controlled tests with their B2B customers, the Rackspace team found that they experienced no fall-off in response rates when they eliminated the opt-out or opt-in for a follow-up call.  They did find, however, that when they offered opt-out, about 20-25% of the customers opted out.  Similarly, when they offered opt-in for a follow-up call, about 20-25% of customers opted in.  They need to be able to link the explanations, verbatims and causes back to known events and characteristics of a customer's account in order to take action.  And customers have not ever complained about being contacted.

What are you doing to get your closed-loop feedback system's response/participation rates edging toward 100%?

Closing the customer feedback loop -- Harvard Business Review

Harvard Business ReviewThe December 2009 Harvard Business Review article we published on creating a robust closed-loop has gotten a great response.  In it, Fred Reichheld, Andreas Dullweber and I describe the role of closed-loop feedback in helping drive customer focus at the front line.  Moreover, we give three examples from different industries of companies using robust closed-loop systems to learn and improve.

The HBR article can be found on their website (link).

We also have created some video resources to go along with the articles, which you can find here and here.

Some recent blog posts on the Net Promoter approach

There has been a range of both criticism and praise for the Net Promoter approach around the industry.  Here are a couple of links to recent blog posts that you may find especially helpful:

• What's Not Wrong with Net Promoter Score?  Adam Ramshaw, a principal of customer experience specialist consulting firm Genroe (in Sydney), refutes some of the most frequent criticisms of NPS in a practical and helpful way
• 10 Lessons Learned from 10 Years of Net Promoter Satmetrix CEO Richard Owen's summary of some of the most important principles to follow when putting the Net Promoter approach into practice.  Very, very consistent with Bain's approach (it should be, since he works closely with us)
• Changing a Culture with NPS (registration/log-in may be required).  This is the story of how Concentra, a healthcare provider in the US, uses NPS to help drive improvement throughout its facilities.  It is posted on the blog for the Satmetrix NY 2010 Net Promoter conference (which will be held the first week of February 2010)

Update on Thursday, February 4, 2010 at 8:10AM by Rob Markey

Bruce Temkin on NPS:  Bruce Temkin of Forrester has a blog called Experience Matters where he summarizes some of his recent research and occasionally talks about an item of interest to him.  He has several posts on NPS, and they are collected and summarized in his latest post.

Trying to tell Apple just how many referrals you've made...

Jim Kerr of WAXQ radio (FM 104.3 in New York) had a hard time with the Apple Store's survey a few days ago.

Apple uses the Net Promoter Score in their store-level customer feedback system.  In order to build a better understanding of the value of Promoters, they are apparently asking Promoters how many people they have recommended shop there.  

As a radio announcer, Jim has sung the praises of the Apple Store to his listeners many times.  Listen to the clip to hear an amusing experience answering this question.

Making the case for Net Promoter Scores as an ISP industry benchmark

In this video, Harry Eastman, Operations Director of Easynet Connect and Julian Harriott, Communications Management Association Business Manager at the BCS (The Chartered Institute for IT), make the case that all business ISPs should adopt the Net Promoter Score as a common benchmark for comparing customer service.

It's an interesting argument, and one that we would support.  But for this to be practical, we believe that common methodologies -- auditable and verifiable -- need to be adopted across the industry.  We are working with one of the big 4 accounting firms to develop just such an auditable process, and to create a system for attestation and assurance that third parties can rely on for comparison of Net Promoter Scores across companies within an industry.

While I don't know a lot about the BCS, it appears to be just the sort of standards-setting body that could help create such standards.

What do you think?  Is this a good idea?  How would you suggest we go about helping organizations like this?