Alain Thys

Net Promoter programmes have rightfully become a staple of many businesses. But as can be seen from CustomerGauge's recent NPS benchmark report, every programme can be improved.

So, as 2017 is looming on the horizon, I want to propose five areas in which you might want to check whether your Net Promoter programme is up to scratch.  Or - if it isn’t - whether you should start planning some improvements in the coming year.

Alain Thys is the founder of Futurelab and author of So You Want to Be Customer Centric. Laurent Bouty is the CMO and partner at Futurelab. They were recent guests on the TechnologyAdvice Expert Interview Series. The series, which is hosted by TechnologyAdvice’s Josh Bland, explores a variety of business and technology landscapes through conversations with industry leaders.

Imagine the following situation.

A man sees an attractive woman at a party. They talk and decide to have a few dates. After giving all the right signals for being a loyal, caring, trustworthy and relationship-oriented guy, he convinces her to spend the night. The next day he is gone and when she calls, it is clear he doesn't want to speak to her....

When it comes to managing the digital customer experience, there’s an interesting duality all of us need to deal with:

No customer-centricity programme deserves to exist without a business case. This doesn’t need to be extensive or be forensics proof. But it does need be present, if only as an estimate made on the back of an envelope. After all, any company initiative that is disconnected from the fiscal realities of business is impossible to sustain.

In a major customer centricity programme I ran a number of years ago, we interviewed over 100 people at all levels of the organisation. We wanted to understand how customer-centric they considered themselves to be and compare these findings to the behaviour of the whole business.

If you work in customer strategy, sales, service or marketing, there is a high probability that you stay up to date on the latest developments in your field of expertise. You read articles like this. You visit conferences. You talk to colleagues in other companies to exchanges hints, tips and practices. 

What do you think would happen if during an offsite meeting, 6 members of your 10-people strong management team came up with the most brilliant brand and customer strategy on the planet. In fact it was so brilliant, that it would give Apple, Google and Amazon a run for their money. It would go down in history as the best strategy every written.

Dear CMO,

Last weekend was Valentine. Together with many others, my wife and I celebrated the love that has come to define the 25 years that we’ve been together. But as we did, I also started thinking about that “other” relationship you tell me I should have. The relationship with your company. Your brand.