Fred Reichheld has authored a book called “The Ultimate Question” in which he basically argues that customer satisfaction surveys are a waste of time. Well done Fred, I couldn’t agree more.

So many companies spend thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars (depending on the size of the company) surveying their customers. A recent company I was with probably asked its customers 30+ questions!

But Reichheld suggests that there is only one ultimate question that should be asked:

“On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our company to a friend or colleague?”

Anyone who gives you an answer 9 or 10 is a Promoter. Those
answering 7 or 8 are Passively satisfied. A customer that answer 6 or
less is designated a Detractor.

All you have to do is subtract the percentage of Detractors from the
Percentage of Promoters and you come up with a Net Promoter Score (NPS)
which correlates highly with growth and profits.

Pretty simple isn’t it?

The average NPS of corporation in the USA is less than 10%… what is your company’s NPS?

• Harley-Davidson is 81%
• Amazon.com is 73%
• Apple Computers is 66%
• Cisco is 57%
• Fed Ex is 56%
• Southwest Airlines is 51%

For more info on Fred, you can read his blog here.