Customer Confidential: Untold Stories of Earned Growth

In the old days, shop owners were on a first-name basis with their customers. Of course, the owners cultivated these relationships within their communities for years, allowing for the intimacy that so many companies aspire to today. It's tough to achieve—top leaders often drift further away from the front lines as a company grows. But technology is changing all that. Now companies are harnessing t...

If you're an angry customer, the last thing you want is another generic offer from the company that has raised your ire. These missteps can irreparably damage a relationship. But companies that know how to collect, analyze and act on customer data will learn to avoid these situations, says my colleague Tom Springer , who leads Bain's Advanced Analytics practice. They'll use that data to calibrate...

Employees who are sincerely happy almost always provide a better customer experience. But what can companies do to make a meaningful difference in how employees feel about their work? Shawn Achor , The New York Times  best-selling author of  The Happiness Advantage and  Before Happiness , says that companies can do a lot. In fact, sometimes the solutions are as simple as encouraging social interac...

Long before social media and online surveys, shopkeepers relied on a simple measure of customer sentiment: whether their customers were smiling.  In this short episode, Fred Reichheld and Rob Markey share the story behind the Net Promoter System's signature smiley face icons, and discuss how one number can become a powerful learning tool for inspiring lasting change. 

Do you shop online differently if the purchase involves clicking buttons vs. dragging an item into cart? Does a product search feel more fulfilling if it forces you to scroll through a vast trove of options? Do your survey responses change if the scale starts on the left or the right?  These are the questions that Jonathan Levav , associate professor of marketing at the Stanford Graduate School of...

One of the great philosophers said that a person who sets out to be happy probably won't achieve his goal. On the other hand, if a person sets out to help others and make the world a better place, he will probably end up happy. The same logic applies to companies that set the vague goal of maximizing shareholder value, according to Roger Martin, former dean of the Rotman School of Management at th...

By focusing on a single question, the Net Promoter System eliminates unnecessary complexity. Rob Markey and Fred Reichheld, inventor of the Net Promoter Score, explain the origins of the "likelihood to recommend" question. 

Steve Jobs. Charles Schwab. Howard Schultz. They all spotted an unmet customer need and made it their mission to meet it. They also founded iconic companies that started out as disruptors only to struggle as bureaucracy and distraction set in. In each case, it took the founder's return to get the company back on track.  It's a story that will be played out again and again in business. But it doesn...

Rob Markey discusses how he became a Net Promoter convert with Fred Reichheld, inventor of the Net Promoter Score.

Millennium Mat has developed a unique culture in which employees make production decisions for their teams and share in the financial benefits of their success. The leaders of these teams are called CEOs and they make all of the hiring and production decisions. Their employees, whom Millennium calls partners, are expected to bring forth their performance-improving ideas. Companies of all sizes and...

Large companies live and die by traditional financial forecasts—earnings estimates, sales targets and so forth. After all, it's how the market measures their value and whether they're worthy of investment.   The intense pressures to meet these goals can cause some executives to make short-term cuts that can undermine their long-term strategies. Some would argue that we need new gauges of corporate...

The Net Promoter System's "outer loop" is used to prioritize and address problems that can't be resolved by individuals or small teams. Rob Markey discusses why a robust, rigorous and transparent "outer loop" is essential to a solid Net Promoter System in this short episode.  Read more : The Net Promoter System's Outer Loop

A lot of companies find themselves a situation in which their competitors are increasingly adding value to their products, while they're struggling to figure out which features and services might move the needle with customers. The leaders of these companies aren't sure what level of service will capture more of their market—or if they should even focus on service. It's the classic "how to play/wh...

Does the Net Promoter Score gauge a customer's broader relationship with a company or just the customer's most recent experience? Or both? Who should make follow-up calls to customers? Rob Markey addresses these questions and more in this episode.

Why does the Net Promoter scale go from zero to 10? Why is passive not the same as neutral? Rob Markey answers these questions and others in this episode.   Recommended reading:   The Benefits of a Competitive Benchmark Net Promoter Score Creating a Reliable Metric

The goal of the Net Promoter System is to create a culture that encourages employees to bring energy and creativity to their jobs.  Developing that kind of culture requires inspiring leaders. We've all seen those people who seem born to be leaders. They have an uncanny knack for motivating the people around them. They show gratitude and connect with people in authentic ways. You might chalk it up...

The team huddle is the part of the Net Promoter System that connects the inner loop to the outer loop. Rob Markey discusses why regular get-togethers—often daily or weekly—are a critical element of the system. Read more : The Net Promoter System's "Huddle": How Employees Come Together to Focus on Customers and Teamwork

It's a question just about every manager wrestles with: How do I get my employees to do what I want them to do? How do I get them to be more empathetic to customers? To take feedback and make meaningful changes? Obviously, fair pay is essential, but there's far more to it. After all, motivating people requires tapping into deep emotional needs for autonomy, purpose and affiliation. In this episode...

The Net Promoter Score is a simple measure, but building a process and culture that results in deep customer relationships can be very complex. In this episode, Rob Markey answers listeners' questions on everything from competitive benchmarks to best practices for following up with customers.  Do you have a question for Rob? Feel free to tweet your question to @rgmarkey on Twitter or write it in t...

The Net Promoter System  ha s a mechanism called the inner loop that helps employees of all kinds get real-time feedback directly from customers. The feedback is usually positive—most employees do their job pretty well—so people typically become more engaged and enthusiastic. The occasional criticism or complaint about a specific interaction or decision can help individual employees and the organi...

The best companies--loyalty leaders that grow profitably--do things to teach their employees to do their jobs better. In fact, the Net Promoter System was designed to help companies facilitate and accelerate that individual learning. The system's inner loop and huddle play important roles in encouraging feedback and coaching so that employees can serve customers better and contribute to the missio...

What qualities and experiences make for a successful chief advocacy officer? Not just anyone will do, regardless of how bright and ambitious he or she may seem to be. The best CAOs aren't always the people you might think of first, and they aren't always working in predictable roles. But one thing is for sure: It's important to choose someone who has the respect of the organization's leaders. In t...

Ride-hailing companies disrupted the traditional taxi and limo industry by offering unprecedented convenience. But less has been said about the customer experience at these fast-growing companies, which typically allow customers and drivers to rate their interactions. After all, these companies rely on thousands of independent drivers in markets across the country. I recently had the pleasure of s...

In this short episode of the Net Promoter System Podcast, Rob Markey explains how a customer advocacy office, or CAO, can be a focal point for learning about—and improving—the customer experience. A customer advocacy office can serve as the project management office that coordinates product development, marketing and other functional groups in the organization to focus on the customer experience....

Most companies that serve other companies solicit feedback, often in the form of quarterly or semiannual satisfaction surveys. The Net Promoter System in a B2B setting also solicits feedback from customers. But that's where the similarity to conventional methodologies ends. This system's twin goals are to foster customer engagement and build strong client relationships. It isn't so much a survey m...