Heading down a slippery, slippery slope

Should you change the definition of promoters, passives and detractors? Or should you stick with the accepted standard?

This question comes up fairly often in our client work. Many Bain clients are international or global companies. It turns out people in various cultures use response scales differently. Some Asian cultures, for example, mostly use the middle of the scale. Some South American cultures use the extremes. Very few Japanese respondents are give a 10, but Brazilians use the top of the scale all the time.

Should the definitions of promoter (9-10), passive (7-8) and detractor (0-6) be adapted to local markets?

Sony did it!

Click on the image to see full sizeIt appears Sony developed custom definitions of promoters, passives and detractors. I ran across this presentation slide from research firm Synovate in 2009. A client (not from Sony) recently sent it to me again when he wanted advice responding to local market pressure for changing the definition. (Guess which country manager argued for custom definitions. If you think it was the head of Brazil or Mexico, think again.)

I wonder if Sony stuck with their custom definitions, or

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Five conditions to meet before tying incentives to customer feedback

In 2006, GE began building incentives around improved Net Promoter Scores in its businesses. Many other companies followed suit. Yet, few have gotten it right. In fact, we have heard many reports of gaming, exclusive focus on the scores and other problems. Several months ago, in my previous post on this topic, I described the challenges companies face when they tie incentives to customer feedback. This post will tackle "pre-conditions" to meet before you move forward. A future post will address some other best practices.

TIAA-CREF includes NPS in executive compensationInterest in tying incentives to NPS and other customer metrics continues. Since at least 2008, TIAA, the big insurance company, has included NPS improvement goals in senior executive compensation. In May 2010 Phones4U, a UK mobile phone retailer, announced a big increase in the weight of NPS in its frontline compensation (news article). The move received mixed reviews from sales staff.  Pep Boys, a US auto parts store chain, reports that NPS is an important part of their executive compensation system, and describes it in their proxy statement.

The obvious question:  How do you avoid the most serious pitfalls and risks?

Based on our experience, we believe five conditions need to be met before you link incentives to customer feedback:

1. Reliable metrics
2. Link to financial and strategic outcomes
3. Processes and tools for understanding root causes

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Hilton is still begging for scores!

Email begging for a 10 on Hilton's feedback surveyI swear that I truly don't have anything against Hilton as a company. Truly, I stay in many Hilton properties and I am deeply invested in their rewards program.

But Hilton continues to provide an ongoing stream of worst practice examples regarding customer feedback. I can't think of any company outside of automobile sales and service where I have run across more examples of bold, unabashed begging for scores.

Here's the latest, an email sent to a friend of the NPS Loyalty Forum who had stayed at a Hilton Garden Inn.

In case you missed some of the previous examples I had collected from various Hilton properties, here's a quick access list: 

• Begging for Scores at Hilton
• Follow-up survey invitation
• The dangers of tying compensation to customer feedback

Dell's customer experience turnaround: An NPS journey in-progress

Updated on Friday, November 19, 2010 at 11:28AM by Rob Markey

Gary Fox, Director of Global Customer Experience at Dell, told the story of their transformation and the role that NPS played in that at the Net Promoter Conference in London on June 17.  At 26 years old, Dell is today a $53B revenue company with roughly 80% of that revenue coming from enterprise and 20% from consumers.

The appeal of NPS to Michael Dell was grounded in its simplicity.  Everyone understands Net Promoter, and under Michael's direct leadership, improving the customer experience has become one of the top goals of the company.  NPS is on the executive team's scorecard, and improvement goals are shared.  On their intranet, Dell has posted their Net Promoter Score right next to the share price.  This symbolic co-location is meant to emphasize the importance of balancing the customer experience against financial goals.  Every leadership team meeting that Michael Dell holds begins with a discussion of the Net Promoter Scores and what is driving them.  This cascades down the leadership ladder into each business, another important way Dell works customer focus into the business rhythms of the company.

Net Promoter Scores are collected for all the different customer segments.  "We listen, and we learn, and we push ourselves to improve," says Fox.  He leads a central Customer Experience team that creates consistency in measurement and feedback, and creates a strong closed-loop feedback system in each business.  They listen through multiple channels, soliciting feedback not only through their NPS surveys, but also through customer events, social media, the voice of the agent and other informal settings.  (About a year ago, I took a Dell web survey, which was decidedly NOT in line with the principles of customer advocacy.  You can read the prior post here.)

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An interesting follow-up survey invitation from Hilton

If you've been reading this for awhile, you know how critical I have been in the past of Hilton employees begging for feedback scores (Begging for scores at Hilton).  You also know that I have been collecting and posting examples of good and bad feedback surveys and email invitations (Survey links).

As a result, some friends have been sending me examples, and a recent one came from Hilton.  Within a couple of days following a recent stay, this person received an invitation to provide feedback.  After a day or two more had passed, a reminder email was sent.

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