You’re deep in the process of implementing Net Promoter® and then someone asks the question you’ve been dreading:

How much can we expect to improve NPS® in the next 6 months?

All eyes in the room turn to you. What do you say?

The answer is complex and the exact number depends on several factors but below are some real examples from companies around the world.

AccessPay

This case study shows how AccessPay, an Australian financial services provider, was able to lift NPS from 15 to 50 in just two years.

Zip Water UK

In this NPS case study, in just three years, Zip Water UK dramatically lifted their NPS from +2 to +73 by driving customer experience culture and relentlessly finding and correcting root cause issues for their customers.

Orange France

Orange France reported that they were able to improve the NPS by 6 points in 8 months from a starting point of zero.

Voxeo

In this presentation by Amy Downs of Voxeo, a telephone system supplier, indicates that they have improved their NPS by about 17 points to 62% in 12 months.

Virgin Media

This case study about Virgin Media indicates that:

“Since last year, the operational NPS has improved by 18 points” and

“Call centre NPS improved 24 points first few months”

1-800-GOT-JUNK

Michel Falcon over on his blog provided this feedback about this great company:

At 1-800-GOT-JUNK? I’ve seen our score increase from 68 to 85 within a two year period. Within that same period referral and repeat rates, the key metrics that NPS influences, also increased as our pool of Promoters grew. Increased referrals + increased repeat rates = a healthy, organic business.

The Home Depot

In a recent earnings call the Chairman and CEO said this:

Our net promoter score has improved approximately 1,000 basis points year over year and is now at 62.7%. It’s particularly significant for us that our scores went up in the second quarter versus the first quarter since frequently there can be a deterioration of performance as foot traffic increases”

Frank Blake – Chairman, CEO, The Home Depot

Best Buy

Forbes reported Best Buy as saying:

“Best Buy claims that the customer satisfaction levels with its sales associates, service and price perception have improved since it introduced the NPS in November last year. Quantitatively, the NPS has shown a 300 basis point growth.”

Stora Enzo

In an analysis of the same customers surveyed in both 2010 and 2011, 55% of detractors were converted to passives and a further 22% of detractors to promoters.

and

By Q2 2012, 36 months after starting the VOICE initiative Stora Enso had increased NPS by 10 percentage points.

Source: Stora Enso Case Study

How Do You Get Results Like This?

To achieve results like this you need to have several key features in your Net Promoter process

A Robust Data Collection System

Your NPS management platform needs to do more than just collect the Net Promoter Score. It also needs to collect, and give you the ability to analyse, the root cause drivers of customer loyalty. Without this additional information you will know your score but not how to improve it.

My preference is, when possible, to use a Transactional survey approach. Transactional surveys provide a continuous feed of data to the organisation. Collecting data continuously means that you can track changes in the score over time. This approach also is a great way to drive customer focus within the organisation

Taking Action

Collecting customer feedback is not much value unless you do something with it. The feedback is not the end it is the start of the process.

When setting up any customer feedback data collection system, NPS included, you must set up a parallel action process within the organisation.

• Who will review the information?
• How often?
• What will they do with it?
• How will you get the broader organisation engaged.
• Who will action the changes?
• How will they action them?

All of this means that you will need some type of Net Promoter Governance structure so that your organisation has a way use understand and action the information you receive from customers.

It is my experience that companies that do not have an organisational process in place to use the information, undertake a few haphazard projects but long term the endeavour falters.