#29 – Benchmarking podcast, NPS research, survey design, Verizon Q&A

 

Welcome to the 29th edition of my customer strategy newsletter. The five topics this week are:

  1. Podcast on benchmarking now live
  2. Research on text analysis complete 
  3. Latest blog posts
  4. Notable items from other sites
  5. Looking forward

Net Promoter System Podcast on benchmarking now live

I recently recorded a podcast on benchmarking with Rob Markey, Bain partner and co-author of The Ultimate Question 2.0. It went live earlier yesterday

The intent of benchmarking is to give you useful points of comparison with your competitors. It is quite a complex subject, and we did our best to simplify it. We started with a definition, and went on to discuss various ways of making sure your comparisons are relevant and helpful. I asked the questions, and Rob answered, for the most part. Several of his points surprised me, including new information on the relationship between NPS trends and market share trends. You can find the podcast here, or on iTunes.

Primary research about answers to open survey questions

I completed the research phase of my study on what you are all doing with the answers to questions such as “What should we improve?” in your customer research. Some of you may be surprised to learn that the majority of companies do not yet use an automated solution for understanding such responses. Most simply read the answers, exposing you to confirmation bias, among other issues.

The results are here. I have also randomly selected one winner of our book Net Promoter – Implement the System, and notified him by email. Thanks for your participation.

 

Our latest blog posts

Here are the latest posts. OK, so maybe the third one is not the sort of thing I usually blog about, but I found the topic too interesting to resist. Older posts are still available on the blog page.

image Net Promoter Open Question Analysis – Survey Results

Final results of my primary research on how companies analyze the answers to open-ended survey questions. I was somewhat surprised by how manual it all is today.

image OK, You have given me a strategy development method… but what customer-centric strategies are actually possible?

The best strategy development method I have come across is one I learned from Willie Pietersen at his Columbia Executive Education course and is also described in his excellent book. This Bain article and animation complements it by suggesting there are only 30 different ‘value drivers’ or strategies available in B2C.

image Here is why the European Commission fined Google $2.7B, and how it could have been avoided

Quite a lot has been written about the recent $2.7 billion fine levied on Google, much of it simply wrong. Here is how to think about this type of competition law case.

Notable customer experience items from other sites

Satmetrix: Designing customer surveys that drive improvement

A nice 15-page document that provides useful tips on designing surveys. The focus is on ensuring surveys ask questions in a way that makes the answers easy to interpret and use to drive improvement. Supply some personal and company details to download the eBook here. A video on the same subject is here. And you can watch a video with Catherine Gurney of Satmetrix UK on the same subject here.

Q&A with Verizon Chief Experience Officer Scott Zimmer

Marketing Daily published this interview a few hours ago. Telcos, as an industry, tend to occupy the bottom of customer experience league tables, together with ISPs and cable TV companies. Verizon does better than average, so this interview is an interesting read. Have a look here.

 

Looking forward

July was a good month for our book sales, and also set a new record for pages read in the Kindle Unlimited service. August looks like it may be better again. A pleasant surprise given the vacation period in the northern hemisphere and the fact that we have never done any advertising either on Amazon or elsewhere. The only explanation we have is your ‘word of mouth’, and the reviews you have posted on Amazon. Thank you.

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You can also email me, Maurice FitzGerald, at mfg@customerstrategy.net.

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