Understanding Your Customer is Not Just About Star Ratings

Long deemed the brand loyalty index, the Net Promoter Score (NPS), has provided marketers and customer experience leaders with one way to determine how customers feel about their products and services.  It was – however – never intended to lead to the instant star ratings and recommendations on-demand that our digital world has built.

This Bloomberg Businessweek article, The Inventor of Customer Satisfaction Surveys Is Sick of Them, Too is worth a read.  The founding father of NPS, Fred Reichheld, expresses his deep concern that we’ve gone too far.  With Uber drivers begging for a 5 star rating and companies asking about your experience every time you have a transaction… this is not only creating the wrong customer experience, it is measuring very little and likely not driving a lot of follow up action as companies can’t keep up with all the data they gather.

My favorite line in this article is when Reichheld says “Do I really care if Pepto-Bismol has a Facebook page?” “Do I really want to follow my foot cream on Twitter?”

Building a deep understanding of the customer and where to take your customer experience is not about surveys – it is about really understanding your customer… that requires qualitative discussions not just star ratings.  Take a read to see what you think.

Related Stories

Do You Really Want to Launch a Client Advisory Board?

Posted on 10.3.2022 by in Customer Advisory Boards, Featured

Client Advisory Councils can be incredibly powerful vehicles to gain real insight, embed clients in your strategy and deepen important relationships. But, if it is not the right time, and the foundation is not in place, you can lose ground  

Continue Reading »

Customer Advisory Board Advice: Learn to Love the Pain

Posted on 08.30.2022 by in Customer Advisory Boards

The thing about Customer Advisory Boards is you just might get what you wished for: unvarnished advice about your strategy and your business. And while this is the very reason to create a Board, it can sometimes  

Continue Reading »

Honesty is the Best Policy When it Comes to Customer Engagement

Posted on 05.21.2021 by in Engagement Strategy

Growing up, I would often hear the saying that “honesty is the best policy.” It’s always best to be upfront, otherwise you’re only masking underlying issues and more often than not, that lid won’t remain closed. As an adult, I  

Continue Reading »


Customer Advisory Boards

Customer Advisory Boards are powerful engines of engagement, insight, and business transformation. Make the most of yours.

Meeting Facilitation: Virtual and In-Person Boards » Taking Your Customer Advisory Board Meetings Virtual »

Learn More »

Engagement Strategy

Like any good relationship, customer engagement is a long-term, reciprocal effort. When done well, meaningful engagement leads to better business results, faster.

Engage Your Customers to Help You Stop Pitching » Getting to a Customer Engagement Mindset »

Learn More »

Understanding the C-Suite

Building C-level programs that are meaningful and bring value to you as well as to your c-suite customers is challenging. Veiled sales pitches won’t win the day with this audience. Deliver what executives want: ideas, inspiration, innovation, influence.

Building a C-Suite Client Experience Strategy » Do you Know What Your Customers Value? »

Learn More »