NetPromoter® and Your Reference Program

A prospective client contacted me a few weeks ago to help his organization develop a customer loyalty program. His firm has a vibrant customer sat program and I was thrilled to learn “The Ultimate Question” is part of the customer sat survey.

Why?

The Ultimate Question, made famous in marketing circles by Fred Reichheld, is allegedly the most effective and efficient way to determine customer loyalty. According to Reichheld, it correlates to profitable growth.

For reference program managers, there are additional benefits. Respondents to a customer satisfaction survey in which The Ultimate Question is posed could make excellent prospects for your reference program. For example, someone who responds to The Ultimate Question, “Would you be willing to recommend us to a friend or colleague?” with a 9 or 10, is called a Promoter. If they’re willing to recommend you, they could be low-hanging fruit for reference acquisition. (BTW, Promoters minus Detractors—those who answered 0-6—yields NetPromoters.)

Find out if your company uses The Ultimate Question. If so, that’s good news for you!

Here’s how you can use NetPromoter for your reference program:

• Lead identification—ask your customer sat folks for the raw data from the survey. Find anyone who has answered The Ultimate Question with a 9 or 10—a Promoter—and check the respondent’s name and organization against your reference program participant list. If that person isn’t yet a reference, he or she makes an excellent prospect for you, and hopefully, an easy one to secure.



• Account-based marketing prospect—a Promoter might also be a great prospect for a deep drill into how your organization provides value that could be extrapolated to a profitable segment for your product, service, or company. Armed with detailed, specific knowledge, you could formulate a marketing plan for that account to grow the business even more, too, while using the information to deepen relationships—and revenue—with other accounts.



• Metric for your program—NetPromoter, which is a percentage, could prove to be a highly useful metric for your reference program scorecard.