NPS, CEM and Brand
“A brand is the sum total of the good, the bad and the ugly…your best product and your worst…your best ad and your worst…your receptionist and your CEO…your best customer experience and your worst”*
We have previously pointed out the connection between Customer Experience Management (CEM) and the Net Promoter Score (NPS); NPS is a ’simple but not simplistic’ way of measuring how well you are managing your customers’ experience.
But where does ‘brand’ fit in this mashup?
These authors argue that the Product/CEM/CRM mashup is the brand.
This is not the first time I have come across a wholistic view of service – product – brand. Leonard Berry and his team wrote on this subject after a decade of study, in 1993. I used a 2003 paper published by the Marketing Science Institute to refresh my memory.
First impression - Berry’s work also produced an index/metric that focusses attention on the experience elements that are important to the customer (not the company). His is called SERVQUAL and involves separately asking customers what they consider important then asking how the experience measured up. The largest gaps between expectations and delivery are the experience areas that need the most attention. We used this vehicle about 5 years ago for a client with very good results. It convinced them that further precision in service areas that the customers did not value really was a waste of money.
NPS, when implemented as a process-change guide, also allows companies to focus on the things important to the customers, not the company.
From the perspective of experience = brand however, it is worth taking a look at the 10 lessons these CEM pioneers taught us. Good food for thought.
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Listening. Quality is defined by the customer (we now have more effective ways of listening, online)
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Reliability. Little else matters to customers when a service firm is unreliable.
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Basic Service. Fundamentals not fanciness; performance not empty promises.
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Service Design. Service design must be a fluid process of continuous improvement – ‘If it ain’t been fixed it will break’
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Recovery. Encourage complaints, respond quickly & personally, develop a problem resolution system.
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Surprising Customers. Exceed customer expectations, especially with assurance, responsiveness & empathy.
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Fair Play. Airline example – ‘An industry that charges one customer $300 and another $1,300…with the only difference the timing of the reservation…cannot and will not earn the confidence and loyalty of customers.’
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Teamwork. Service team building cannot be left to chance.
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Employee research. As important as customer research.
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Servant Leadership. Serve the servers, inspiring & enabling them to achieve.
I am sure these 10 components do not appear in the brand bible of the average organisation.
Perhaps they should.
*A New Brand World Scott Bedbury & Stephen Fenichell
