The Corporate Woman

I know that I am going to be in the midst of competing views here but I use NPS where I work and have built a previous NPS program as well – I like it and it works.  Say what you will of the method (and believe me, there is much that has been said/written/blogged on it, good and bad), the core of it comes down to really listening to your customers, taking action on what you learn and letting them know they are heard.  For me, that’s the key.

I’ve often said that the NPS question itself (and the resulting score) are the least important parts of an NPS program and survey.  Before I anger anyone, please note that I said least important, not that they aren’t valuable at all.  What is more important, in my view, is the “why” for the score given and “what would it take to improve”.  This is where the listening gets good.

Once you have all that great data from your customers, it’s time to turn it into actionable information.  That’s done by taking the NPS data and tying it to other key data.  That’s going to vary for your business but it could be market channel, customer value, number of customers, retention, country, product, brand… well, I think you see where this could go, right?

Customer feedback that’s just a number that everyone watches and argues about is not really all that helpful, is it?  The real power comes from the program you build around the NPS data you collect and the tools you develop as a result.  Taking action on customer feedback and letting your customers know they are heard.  And who doesn’t want to buy from a company like that?

Tags: action, customer loyalty, listening, Net Promoter Score, NPS

Tomorrow is the first anniversary of my mom’s death.  After everything we had been through together, good and bad, this month has been hard emotionally for me.  Because she was ill for so very long, we were fortunate she held on (despite tremendous pain and suffering) to give us so much more time together than we thought we were going to get when she was diagnosed with cancer.  She was able to see and share in moments she never thought she could – the birth of her granddaughter and the chance to see her first few years.  Now my daughter has memories of her Nana, which I am thankful for. 

It’s the little things that are getting to me, the sharp moments of pained surprise like helping my daughter pick out a card for her Grandma (my mother-in-law) and realizing that we weren’t going to do that for my mom for the first time.   Seeing my little girl in her first play and realizing my mom wasn’t going to see it.  I’m feeling more emotionally sensitive too.  Odd, unrelated moments bring tears to my eyes that wouldn’t normally.   I think my tongue is a little sharper too but my oh so patient husband could speak to that more than I… 

Beyond the pain is peace as well.  I had time to come to grips with the loss of her before the time came, which helped me enjoy our time together more fiercely and thoroughly.  I have little treasures of her at home and in my office, keeping the memory of her near.  In my office, it’s an interesting mix of keepsakes – there’s what you would expect (pictures of her) but there is also one of her paintings and the first gift I gave her after I moved away from home.

So here’s to my mom, who lived her life on her own terms, with a strength, verve and determination that I hope I can match.  She never let obstacles or bad times keep her down forever and even death came when she was ready and not the other way around.  I hope to be able to pass on the good memories and good lessons to my daughter.   Never forgotten, Mom – your best lives on in your son, daughter and granddaughter.  I know you were proud of that and I am too.  I love you, Mom.

Tags: death, Family, loss, love, memories, mom

I’m going to try and avoid my soapbox here but I will warn you in advance that I may not be successful.  You be the judge…

In my experience, most surveys I’ve taken and seen (includes both those I’ve been asked to provide input on as well as those I couldn’t bear to actually complete), don’t really get actionable information as a result.  I get the sense that most people think surveys are easy to do and really, how hard can it be to come up with a bunch of questions?  In a way, they are right.  It’s not usually the questions that trip you up (although there are those and we’ll get to that in a bit).  The hard part, the tripping point, is really purposeful information.

1. If you had the answer to this survey question, what action would you take with it? 
2. Pretend you’re the opposite of a lawyer and don’t ask any questions when you already know the answer. 
3. Would you take this survey if you got it? Really?
4. Avoid conjunctions.  I don’t know why this comes up so often.  Conjunctions don’t conveniently shorten your survey by grouping concepts, they cloud your results.  (And, but, or, yet, for, nor, so).  “Please rate your satisfaction with the cleanliness and quality of our bathroom.”  Really, is cleanliness the same as quality?  Perhaps it was clean but the toilet paper was of poor quality… but I digress to another potential blog here.
5. Don’t be so wordy.  Overdone corporate speak, really long questions and acronyms are the usual culprits here.  Keep it short and simple to get the best results.
6. Have at least one open text/feedback question.  Instead of trying to cover every possible base, leave the customer the chance to share what they want to share, the way they want to share it.

And my last thoughts on the manner – keep the whole survey short and focused on your point.  Tell me how long the survey is or will take in the invite.  There’s always more but these are the things that always seem to come up in one form or another.  Now you tell me – how many times have you seen these simple rules violated?

Tags: best practices, customer loyalty, customer satisfaction, design, suggestions, survey