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Assessing Customer Loyalty |
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It is particularly effective to determine an organization’s net promoter score (NPS), as it provides a means to establish, very accurately, the levels of loyalty in the customer base and the success, or otherwise, of the services the company is providing. Striata has developed an SMS-based customer loyalty determination tool that has been successfully deployed on behalf of companies in the financial services and other business sectors. Striata’s Text-2-Rate product is based on a Harvard Business School concept of NPS, known as 'Ask One Question', and provides accurate evaluations of customer loyalty and attitudes towards a company. The question: "How likely is it that you would recommend us to a friend?" has proved to be the best predictor of customer loyalty across the vast majority of businesses. The NPS is the percentage of customers who identify themselves as promoters of the company, minus the percentage whose response indicates that they are detractors. Promoters are assets, while detractors are liabilities. By subtracting the liabilities from the assets, you are left with the net worth of the customer base or the company's NPS, and this is regarded by Harvard as the single most reliable indicator of a company's ability to grow.
Customers can be divided into three categories:
The Text-2-Rate tool is applied on an ongoing basis, because to achieve an accurate measurement, the customer being polled must have had a recent interaction with the company, such as buying a product or a service. The poll should preferably be conducted less than seven days after that interaction. Customers are then also generally well-inclined to respond to the SMS. An in-depth reporting system has been built, allowing companies to view the results from customers immediately. The details of customers responding with low scores (detractors) are e-mailed to the company's call centre for immediate follow-up. A swift response often means that any issue or problem is resolved quickly, the customer is not lost and the company gets a second chance. Proper evaluation of the results gives the company an accurate view of how effective their customer service and relationship management initiatives are proving in practice, providing feedback, so that corrective actions can be devised and implemented. These NPS surveys via SMS are a valuable source of information from which actual levels of customer liaison, sales, service and other customer interface attitude, commitment and performance in a real-time environment can be gauged. Companies can benchmark themselves against their own goals, against their opposition and against their partners in joint brand/business promotions. That's valuable strategic information. |
