6NetMore than ten years after its arrival, Net Promoter Score or NPS has now entered into a more sober growing phase, with questions generated both for and against it.

Bring on any discussion about NPS, and it is sure to start a frenzied debate. “Is it sufficient to have a single point testing metric for customer loyalty?”, “Has NPS succeeded as a catalyst in bringing out the voice of the customer?”, “Can bucketing all customers as either ‘promoters’ or ‘detractors’ (with a ‘passive group’ sometimes sandwiched in between), be applied to all levels of customer connectedness?”

The simplicity and ease of implementation made NPS popular with market researchers all over the world. In fact, many companies have dedicated teams to track their NPS scores. Not surprisingly though, many companies are also starting to relook at the entire concept of relationship marketing and loyalty metrics, beyond just measuring NPS.

In Southeast Asia (SEA), where retail and industry is set to boom (and already booming!), many companies are maximizing the knowledge of NPS as a testing metric, with other customer insight testing metrics to build better business to customer relationship models.

Using NPS in understanding the voice of the customer

At the heart of measuring customer satisfaction lies a simple question: “Were you satisfied with our performance?” By proactively measuring and acting on the results of these findings, certain companies in Southeast Asia have stormed ahead of their competitors. One of the finalists in the Temkin Group’s 2013 CX Excellent Awards is AIG Asia Pacific. It has transformed the entire manner in which its customer relationship and management systems work by using a closed loop NPS tracking as a powerful component of a more all-encompassing ‘Voice of the Customer’ strategy.

This is how it is done: Dedicated leaders and service teams continually tackle real time feedback from customers to sort out any customer experience issues and alerts, triggering a chain reaction. While the company remains focused on its customers by improving responsiveness, the customers constantly connect to the system with opinions which can be used to enhance the company’s brand image. AIG’s message – Feel Good – has resonated deeply with its customers and the market alike!

NPS as a tool to do in-depth analysis of customer needs

The Korean giant LG Electronics believed that a combination of the NPS and Voice of customers (VOC) systems could be used to ensure that customer needs can be captured more accurately and better response systems are formulated. LG came up with a NPS survey package that was customized for its customer base worldwide. Some of the changes that LG made after analyzing the NPS survey results were:

  • Offering customers rentals for the short duration that their TV is under repair;
  • Upgrading the user manuals based on consumer feedback;
  • Tracking and measuring individual customer’s VoC to improve future sales experiences.

NPS to measure customer satisfaction

Zalora, is an e-commerce company with operations in 7 countries in the Southeast Asian region. Launched in 2012, Zalora ID has seen record revenues and a high increase in visibility.

CEO of Zalora ID, Hadi Wenas stresses on customer centric services that the company initiated. Wenas attributes enhanced services such as same day delivery within Jakarta, as some of the key reasons why they caught the public’s imagination. As the company managed to deliver almost 95% of the time on the same day, customer satisfaction was high.

A satisfied customer is the biggest asset in your customer base. The simple NPS question of “Are you satisfied?” found customers giving Zalora ID a NPS score of 70 – the highest from among all Zalora groups. In just a year, Zalora ID had capitulated from a newbie to a high-visibility, high growth company.

There are a few cautionary notes to add about becoming too ‘gung ho’ about NPS, especially in the South East Asia region:

  • The majority of people in this region continue to shop in traditional formats. Yet, without giving these people a voice, companies are losing out on measuring the satisfaction levels of both existing and potential customers.
  • NPS can be used as fodder for organizing better training programs for frontline employees. However, to use this metric exclusively is not recommended, as there are other elements to consider such as analyzing the survey design, the time the survey is taken and the kinds of customers who have provided feedback.

NPS is not the final and ultimate tool with which we can measure loyalty, but it is here to stay. It would do well for companies in Southeast Asian regions to adopt NPS tracking as part of their customer loyalty programs, but also to mix and match it with newer and better metric analytics.

By Anant Choubey, Regional Head – APAC, Capillary Technologies

About the Author:

Anant_ChoubeyAnant Choubey is responsible for sales and marketing in the APAC region at Capillary Technologies and currently manages the firm’s business across South East Asia. His prime focus is to strategize and expand Capillary in the burgeoning market in South East Asia. He has donned many hats in Capillary over the years, from operations to client servicing to business development and has been instrumental in setting up Capillary’s India business, before moving to Singapore to establish and manage the South East Asia market.