Answering the Ultimate Question

Net Promoter - a multi-faceted program focused on increasing company growth through focused enhancement of customer loyalty - has been implemented in organizations worldwide. Many leading companies have demonstrated the positive effects of Net Promoter on innovation and profitability. Other companies, despite their declared commitment toward the program, have struggled with the program and achieved less than desirable outcomes. What explains these discrepant results? What are some companies doing - and others not - that is allowing them to achieve such success? In Answering the Ultimate Question, Richard Owen and Dr. Laura L. Brooks seek to answer these questions. In the years since the original research supporting Net Promoter, the authors have studied hundreds of companies to determine critical practices influencing program success. The product of these efforts is a book designed to assist readers who want to create a successful Net Promoter program within their organization. Net Promoter is more than just a metric - it is also a way of doing business. It is important, however, to understand the Net Promoter metric as a foundation. The Net Promoter Score (NPS) captures responses to the "Recommend Question," a question proposed by author Fred Reichheld: How likely is it that you would recommend Company X to a friend or a colleague? Specifically, NPS is a measure of the percent Promoters (someone who contributes to company growth through purchasing and referrals) minus the percent Detractors (someone who has the opposite effect due to negative referrals and high cost to serve), which yields a summary measurement. Companies who increase their NPS can experience positive financial results. To maximize the likelihood of Net Promoter implementation success, Brooks and Owen propose a Net Promoter Operating Model. The model consists of six essential elements: (1) Create customer-centric DNA, (2) develop an enterprise roadmap, (3) build trustworthy data, (4) identify root cause, (5) drive action and accountability, and (6) innovation and transformation. This model serves as the foundation for the book, with at least one chapter devoted to each essential element.