Turn Detractors into Promoters
Whew! What a day! Due to the popularity of our webinars, QuestionPro for the first time hosted two webinars. We wanted to show love to our European and Asian colleagues. We hope you enjoyed it and learned how to turn detractors into promoters.
Our experts for this webinar were Mark Salsberry and Joel Aach. Mark is the President of QuestionPro CX and has over a decade of experience in Customer Experience and Market Research, working for and with Fortune 100 companies. Mark helped Verizon Wireless implement a customer experience solution across the USA, had helped start Research Intelligence, an innovative solution that allows brands to experience their customers using streaming video and speech-to-text.
We were delighted to have Joel as our featured guest speaker. Joel has 30 years of experience translating consumer needs and opportunities into growth for world class brands. This includes packaged goods at General Mills and Helene Curtis/Unilever, quick service restaurants for KFC/ YUM, and restaurants spanning from Casual Dining to Luxury Consumers such as Red Lobster, Bahama Breeze, Yard House, Eddie V’s and The Capital Grille.
LEARN ABOUT: Time to Value
The previous QuestionPro CX Webinar talked about Promoter Amplification and how to take a satisfied customer to the next level, where they add more value to your business by sharing referrals.
Today’s webinar focused on methodologies that businesses can take to save dissatisfied customers – also know as detractors and turn detractors into promoters.
Below were the slides from today’s webinar.
What do we mean by – Turn Detractors into Promoters? And what is a Detractor?
Detractors, in the language of the Net Promoter Score (NPS), our customers are unlikely to recommend your company to a friend or colleague. The goal is not only to save that customer from leaving you but, even more importantly, to keep them from damaging your brand by telling others about their bad experience.
Detractor Recovery is about getting those customers back and trying to understand how to reduce customer churn and increase loyalty. To do that, review these critical mechanics of detractor recovery.
Detractors are not created equal. It is important to understand what triggered a low score. Thus, once you have an NPS or overall question in place, it should be followed by “Why?” You need to be able to prioritize the actions that you are going to take to turn detractors into promoters.
You can do that by looking at their score. Is the detractor a zero? A six? Are they a customer who is an influencer vs not an influencer? Are they a well-known customer or unknown, or potential customers? It can also be done by customer lifetime value. Is the detractor someone who is going to be contributing a lot of revenue to the company or it is a one-and-go? These questions can help you start prioritizing your actions. It is critical to understand what is really going before starting the recovery.
Our experts explained a lot of great examples, of how to determine areas that need to be addressed in order to turn detractors into promoters and to enhance the customer experience by inviting open ends and understanding response patterns. Please, refer to the slides and video.
Why would we want to keep the detractors, what is their ROI? It is commonly accepted that it is more expensive to acquire a new customer than it is to keep an existing customer. Yet in many companies that money is flowing directly into the acquisition. Experts, however, suggest having the line item for keeping the existing customers and satisfying them.
“As many as 89% of consumers began doing business with a competitor following a bad customer experience.”
To do the math look at the CLV. You know how much they spend on average with you in a certain period of time, as well as you know your customer churn, how long they stay with you. Multiply the lifetime value by a number of customers you are able to save. Experts encourage to think from that perspective because it will not only allow you save money and time but also delight your customers.
The second part of the webinar talked about – how to activate the detractors, once you have established who they are.
Two approaches: Open-loop vs Closed loop
The Closed Loop approach resolves the issue where it is surfaced. Restaurants and hotels are great examples. Open Loop is an approach where issues are being resolved by the customer care team.
Examples include an aviation team approach or telecom, where it is harder to resolve the issue where it is surfaced. Ownership needs to be assigned to count someone accountable for resolving the issue.
The suggestion is to resolve it where there is familiarity. The closer you can get to the point where experience occurs to have that loop set up, the better off you are going to be. Closed-loop approach is always recommended where it makes sense. And training is paramount so that you don’t let the problem walk out the door. In the case of call centers – engagement is paramount. The conversation has to happen in a meaningful way.
Few factors are most important for activating your promoters
Empower your employees and train them for a scenario when a detractor approaches you. How should they respond? You want your employees to have a toolbox that they can use in that situation without needing to ask for permission. While they might not be the commander-in-chief but they can own it and put actions in place to solve the issue at that moment.
Sometimes you might want to even go above and beyond to prevent a customer of having a bad experience and adapt +1 mentality. Did your customer have issues with dinner reservation?
Delight with a complimentary bottle of champagne, on their arrival and turn it into a positive story that they will share and remember.
Money vs Customer Service in Detractor Recovery
From customers point, the majority of people consider that customer service component of the recovery is more important and widespread than the compensation part of it. This emphasizes again, that it is not about how much money a company can throw at the customer, but how well they are able to deliver the service for the recovery.
LEARN ABOUT: Service Recovery
Please, reach out to us with more questions and QuestionPro Team will be happy to help you turn detractors into promoters.
Looking to deliver an exceptional customer experience with QuestionPro CX? Discover more about how to delight your customer at every touchpoint and turn them into brand advocates.
