NPS obsession: Do not let fear of failure hold back your growth

Without proper measurement or tracking, CX projects and investments are unlikely to fulfil their true potential, and organizations may fail to attribute observed business benefits to the work completed by the CX department.

Customer centric Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) give brands visibility on consumer perspectives and act as a North Star for customer service. “If you build up common KPIs, it will force people to work together [for the good of customers],” explains Mara Rocha, customer experience and activation manager at Bayer.

Reflecting on when she first implemented certain customer service KPIs Rocha said: “At first, we had a lot of resistance, because people were protesting they couldn’t achieve the KPIs alone or that they couldn’t guarantee that it would be achieved because they needed departments A, B and C to work with them. This is where you can answer that this is the goal, to have all of these departments working together.”

The disadvantages of NPS obsession in customer service

As noted by the CX Network Advisory Board, however, the enthusiasm around CX metrics such as NPS can easily drift into an unhealthy obsession. In fact, some of the board members have actively rolled out projects to dilute NPS fixation due to it triggering undesirable outcomes.

Not only can aggressive NPS targets breed unhealthy behaviors such as staff begging customers for high scores on NPS surveys, the anxiety around the metric’s health can cultivate a fear of failure. One member noted that high NPS scores, especially, breed defensive mindsets and an avoidance of experimental CX projects which can hinder innovation.

In his session at the 2021 CXN Live Contact Centers event, Micah Citti, customer service operations lead at ESPN agreed that companies cannot let the fear of failure prevent growth and CX innovation.  

“One of our cultural priorities is to understand that sometimes if you are experimenting or trying something new, you have to accept the possibility that it may not work out. You can’t let the fear of failure stop you from trying new things,” says Citti.

He maintains that this does not provide licence for employees to be reckless with business decisions.  “While we are unafraid of failure we have a responsibility to ensure that in anything we do, we try to limit the potential of disaster as much as possible.” Citti notes that at ESPN CX innovation experiments are tested at a small scale to secure a proof of concept before being rolled out further. When failure occurs teams examine whether it is a fault with the implementation of the solution, an error that can be fixed or the reality that the theory simply does not perform as well as expected.

He concludes: “When you really embrace the idea that: to move forward sometimes you risk stumbling, you [will find you] end up moving forward more often than stumbling.”

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How to take responsible risks to boost NPS scores

To take responsible risks in the name of CX innovation, businesses must grasp the true meaning behind NPS scores. As mentioned in a recent CX Network Advisory Board discussion, businesses often buy-in to the NPS score as a metric and begin to obsess over the number, however most stakeholders forget to dig into the meaning behind the KPI. The answer is not to throw away NPS, but improving staff understanding that the score is the product of many variables. To increase NPS ratings with accuracy, brands should constantly reassess the underlying needs and wants behind the NPS scores customer give.

Tune in: How to boost employee engagement podcast

To identify areas of opportunity for CX innovation, brands should analyze the moments that matter most in customer journeys. The NPS verbatims given by detractor and promoter customers will provide clarity on the moments of delight and strongest pain points in your service. By mining this data with analytics, brands can trace patterns and uncover root causes to address.

On the topic of gaining a rich understanding on what factors influence NPS scores, Fred Reichheld, the creator of NPS metric, says: “The best trick I’ve seen is to have everyone, especially senior executives, call back five customers a week. Make it three detractors and two promoters. Use that as input for every meeting that you have, whether it is capitol allocation or IT budgets or regulation. Have fresh in your mind what customers are saying. It gives you the mindset of what’s it feels like to be a customer of this company...”

Once the driving forces that matter most to customers are understood, prioritize resolving and innovating around the most painful issues for customers. Then consider placing a reward structure for employees around the consistent execution of behaviors that create ‘wow’ moments in your customer service.

Pay close attention to ensure your business has a healthy culture towards NPS scores and constantly evaluate the meaning behind the rankings your customers give you. Investigations to tap into the reasons behind NPS scores should help identify the corrections, innovations or journey redesigns that are likely to trigger positive uplift in NPS rankings.

To continue enjoying NPS related content, tune into our customer centricity podcast episode featuring the creator of the Net Promoter System (NPS), Fred Reichheld.