What Does it Take For People to Refer you?

Fred Reichheld is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading authorities on business loyalty and is a frequent speaker to major forums and groups of senior executives. Audiences around the world consistently rate him as an outstanding communicator. Mr. Reichheld has written the book “The Ultimate Question” which has been ranked #1 on the Wall Street Journal’s Business Best Seller list and #1 on USA Today’s Money best Sellers list.

So what is the ultimate question?

How likely is it that your customers would recommend your company to a friend or colleague?

This single question allows companies to track promoters and detractors, producing a clear measure of an organization’s performance through its customers’ eyes. It is also known as your Net Promoter Score.
Good relationships are hard to build. It’s extremely difficult to understand what people really want, keep promises and maintain a dialogue to ensure customers’ changing needs are met. Even initiatives to “better understand” customers can backfire, drowning firms in a sea of data.
Net Promoter Score is based on the fundamental perspective that every company’s customers can be divided into three categories.

“Promoters” are loyal enthusiasts who keep buying from a company and urge their friends to do the same. “Passives” are satisfied but unenthusiastic customers who can be easily wooed by the competition. And “detractors” are unhappy customers trapped in a bad relationship. Customers can be categorized based on their answer to the ultimate question.

In concept, it’s just that simple. But obviously, a lot of hard work is needed to both ask the question in a manner that provides reliable, timely, and actionable data—and, of course, to learn how to improve your Net Promoter Score. Asking the ultimate question allows companies to track promoters and detractors and produces a clear measure of an organization’s performance in its customers’ eyes. Analysis shows that, on average, increasing this Net Promoter Score by a dozen points versus competitors can double a company’s growth rate.

Do you how what your Net Promoter Score would look like?