Metrics_ How to Improve Key Business Results - Martin Klubeck [89]
Other options included using Reichheld's “Promoter to Detractor” ratios. This was actually attempted for over a year before I finally gave into the inevitable. (I couldn't get the third party to use a 10-point scale and the concept of promoter to detractor was too complex for some of the managers.) The consistency provided by using percentages quickly became expected by the workforce. I still believe in the value of the promoter to detractor analysis, but for the purpose of the report card, I added percentage satisfied to the measurements for our particular audience.
FREDERICK REICHHELD'S PROMOTER-TO-DETRACTOR SCALE
According to Reichheld's The Ultimate Question (Harvard Business Press, 2006), the most important question you should ask is: “Would you recommend this service (or product) to a friend or coworker?” Using a 10-point scale for the answers, with 1 being “definitely not” and 10 being “definitely yes,” if a respondent gives you a 9 or 10, she is considered a “promoter”—someone who would encourage others to use your service (or buy your product). If the respondent gives you a score of 6 or less, she is a “detractor.” Detractors will actively discourage others from using your service (or buying your product). Numbers 7 and 8 are considered “neutral” answers—meaning that you can't predict if they will promote or detract from your reputation. You need to have a ratio of two promoters for every detractor to translate to growth (neutrals are not counted). The higher the ratio, the better your word-of mouth-advertising, and the more likely your business (the number of customers) will grow.
Figure 9-7 shows the ratio of promoters to detractors. This ratio can be a negative if you have more detractors than promoters. In the Service Desk case, we had a high ratio. For example, in December 2009, for every detractor (1-3 rating) the Service Desk had over 50 promoters (those rating them as a 5).
Figure 9-7. Ratio of promoters to detractors for overall customer satisfaction
The ratios were impressive. I took some liberties translating Reichheld's methodology. The 5s equated to 9s or 10s and 1 through 3 equated to 1 through 6. The 4s equated to 7s and 8s. I stopped using the terms “promoter” and “detractor” since we weren't using the proper question. It was more meaningful to simply say that the measure reflected the ratio of “Highly Satisfied” (5s) to those who could not say they were satisfied (3s or less). This in itself was more meaningful than an average, but still not as clear as I would have liked.
“What about 4s?” was a common question that I received when I revealed the data this way. Explaining that 4s were “truly neutral” didn't sway most people. The service provider thought we were losing the “satisfieds” and that a 3 was neutral. My correlating the values to Reichheld's formula was hard for them to accept. I believe this was in large part due to fear of the measures and that they wouldn't look as good as they could.
Using the ratio of highly satisfied to not satisfied may seem logical to you (it does to me). But I found that this wasn't the norm for customer satisfaction surveys. The Service Desk had been reporting this data for over a year and they always reported it as an average score like 4.7 (out of 5). It seemed as if the best way to show the results would be to use a Likert Scale.
I looked at all Service Desk reports for the past three years. The first year showed an average score of 4.7 for the year. The following year was 4.76 and a 4.8 for the most recent year. Besides a slight upward trend, I couldn't figure out what the data meant. Was the average good or bad? Well, the third party provided benchmarks for our industry and for all users of their service. So now we could see that we were above average in the case of our scores. But, I still felt a little lost. I didn't see how 4.8, 4.9, or 4.58 meant anything. Granted, if the average were 5.0, I could know that all scores were fives. This would mean that 100 percent of the customers were highly satisfied with our