The Good, the Bad, and the Measurable

Have you ever done business with a company and wondered how they’re still profitable? Sometimes we come across businesses that put their profits over everything else- including their customers. For example, there have been many reports of how Comcast makes it extremely difficult to reach customer service for questions or even cancelling a plan.

While there are some businesses that nickel and dime you to death, there are many other businesses that strive to give you a great customer experience. For example, Enterprise Car Rental has always put the customer experience first. Not only have they grown from a small local business to the largest car rental service in North America, but they also value the customer service experience like no other and use surveys to track performance.

Based on many consumer complaints, it is safe to say that Comcast makes their money off of bad profits while Enterprise Car Rental puts the customer first and survives off of good profits. How can businesses tell if their profits are good or bad and how can you measure and improve? Let’s take a look by first defining each, giving some examples, then talking about how a survey can solve our problem.

Good Profits

Good profits are profits based on serving the customer, creating a positive experience, and delighting them so much they want to tell their friends. Good profits are based on products or services that improve a customer’s life and encourage them to come back for more. Examples of good profits include:

• Suggesting the best plan based on the customer’s needs
• Making it easy to sign up and cancel subscriptions
• Creating an exceptional customer experience in order to fuel word of mouth and referrals

Bad Profits

Bad profits still bring money into the business but are based on taking advantage of customers and deceiving them. Companies who survive on bad profits tend to have horrible customer service, a bad reputation, and low employee morale. Examples of bad profits include:

• Hidden fees
• Selling a trusting customer a plan they don’t need
• Making it difficult to cancel or change subscriptions

Now that we have a good idea of what good and bad profits are, how can we tell which our business is operating on and how to encourage good profits? Let’s talk about myReferralIndex and how it can help you measure, improve, and grow your business.

Measure

myReferralIndex is based on the Net Promoter Score which was developed by Fred Reichheld of Bain and Company. It is a customer satisfaction survey with only 3 questions and is designed to give businesses an idea of how well they are doing and where they can improve. The questions are as follows:

1. On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to refer us to a friend or colleague?
2. Why did you give us this score?
3. How can we improve?

Businesses can tell what their customers are thinking of them based on the score they give. A lot of 9s and 10s indicates the company is operating off of good profits. These customers are called promoters. Businesses who receive many scores in the 0-6 range are most likely operating off of bad profits. These customers are called detractors.

If your company could use some work, what better way to improve than listening to your customers? The second and third questions allow customers identify where your business can improve. The goal of these surveys is to allow some visibility into the customer experience so businesses can improve. If a business continues to survey their customers, measure, and improve based on responses, they are much more likely to provide a great customer experience and grow through good profits.