Promoters, Neutrals, and Detractors: How to Use The Net Promoter Score To

Turbocharge Your Event

By Terry “Starbucker” St. MarieJanuary 9 & 10, 2012

The Classic Event Dilemma:

What’s the best way to gather meaningful, useable, and

actionable post-event feedback?

And…..

How can we best identify our event “evangelists”?

The Solution:

Ask “The Ultimate Question”

“On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely would you be to recommend us

to a friend or relative”

What Do The Answers Tell You?

• 0-6 “Detractors” – People very likely to be out there saying bad things about you

• 7-8 “Neutrals” – Neither ready to bail or ready to leap for joy

• 9-10 “Promoters” – Those literally telling you they are ready to shout to the rooftops for you (the evangelists)

The Metric: Net Promoter Score

• Popularized by Fred Reichheld and his book, “The Ultimate Question” (www.netpromoter.com)

• Major point: The customer satisfaction score with the highest correlation to profit

• Has had wide adoption by many “customer centric” organizations (Apple, USAA, American Express, Enterprise Rent-A-Car)

• Cited by Enterprise as the #1 success factor for their climb to become the top rental car company in the US

Calculating The Net Promoter Score

• The Score Calculation:– Percentage of 9-10s less the percentage of 0-6s

• Example: 100 calls– 60 (60%) 9-10– 25 (25%) 7-8– 15 (15%) 0-6

• 60% minus 15% = 45% NPS Score• What’s a “good” score?– Anything greater than zero is OK, but north of 50%

means your customer service is making you $$$, called “Good Profits” by Reichheld

When should you ask the question?

• Options:– Incorporate into onsite survey at event– E-mail immediately after event– E-mail a week after the event– Phone call a week after the event

• What’s Best?– Depends on number of attendees and budget– Can combine methods– Better to wait a week….if you can

Why Wait?

• Give your program and content a week to “sink in” with your attendees

• Better judge any post-event “buzz factor”

Other Helpful “Scripting” Points

– “Thanks for doing business with us!”– “Were the staff involved courteous and helpful?”– A few Content, Speaker & Flow questions

(depends on the event)– Ask for the “why” if they are a Detractor, AND a

Promoter

The answers to those “whys” will be real difference makers!

What Can Asking The Ultimate Question Do For You?

• Refine processes and procedures and save significant money

• Proactively deal with, and fix problems • Measure, track, and manage your customer

satisfaction (the Net Promoter Score)And, two other game changers….• Dramatically increase your customer retention• Identify and leverage your evangelists

Cost & Size Considerations

• Budget constrained?– Do SOMETHING; try calling a smaller sample of

customers personally, and use an online survey for every attendee

– Example: Hively (www.teamhively.com)• Time constrained?– Make the time, this is really important!!

• Don’t have a database?– An Excel spreadsheet will do just fine!

On your “To Do” List for 2012

Ask The Ultimate Question!

Thank You!!Twitter: @starbucker

Web: www.terrystarbucker.comFacebook: terry.starbucker

SOBCon: www.sobevent.com