In the materials section of this site I describe in some detail 'The Ultimate Question' by Fred Reichheld, where he introduces the Net Promoter Score, which I believe is a breakthrough piece in the simple and continuous measurement of customer satisfaction.

I have introduced this material to a number of clients and they have shared with me what a superbly effective tool this is.

Practising what I preach, I now use the Net Promoter Score as a continual measure of the customer satisfaction levels I am delivering.

For the year to 31st March 2012 my NPS is currently

71

This is based on the following:

Total client responding: 14
Promoters: 10 (71%)
Passives: 4 (29%)
Detractors: 0 (0%)


NPS score for year 08 - 09: 81
NPS score for year 09 - 10: 62
NPS score for year 10 - 11: 69


The Net Promoter Score can also be used to measure staff satisfaction (by asking the question 'how likely would you be to recommend working here to a friend') and I have a recent great example of the power of this method of measuring progress over a sustained period of time

Three years ago I started work with a senior leadership team in a large company. This was not a poorly performing team, but there were many issues (including having some 'wrong people on the bus' and a culture in need of improvement)

The Director of the team was determined to make improvements. We first used NPS to take the temperature and establish a starting point for the journey. On 7 March 2008 their NPS was -33.

Over the past three years we have worked consistently to build the leadership capability and beliefs of this team. Of course some people have left the bus but many of the team remain. We used the measure again, and the result was an NPS score of 87.5.

Tangible proof of immense progress, and a great measure to use.