David Kluskiewicz

Bain fellow Fred Reichheld has a theory on how to measure customer loyalty. By simply asking, “Would you recommend us?” you can, with reasonable accuracy determine whether customers are buying in or shopping around. It’s called Net Promoter Score.
Although this survey method may appear too simple for a lot of organizations, it may make more sense than “boiling the ocean for a cup of tea.” Well developed surveys can produce helpful data, but in the age of consensus, they can take an eternity to approve and execute, rendering them inefficient.

What is especially useful about Reichheld’s method is its repeatability. We can often learn more about something like customer loyalty by examining how it changes over time than we can by trying to analyze every little facet of it at a single point in time. If organizations could get even a few people to answer this question (and the follow on, “Why?” if their answer is 8 or below) regularly, they could discover customer satisfaction problems well in advance.