It’s time to rethink targeting Net Promoter Score at the Frontline

It’s time to rethink targeting Net Promoter Score at the Frontline.

In the old days, suspected witches were tested by throwing them into the water

If they sank, they were innocent.

If they floated then they were indeed witches.

And if they were deemed to be witches, well you know how that went (queue burning sounds…)

Today, some Frontliners go through an equally questionable test with regard to their service on a call or chat.

They get measured on transactional Net Promoter Score or ‘NPS’.

Oh dear. (By the way, if you’re one of those NPS haters that wants to trash anything and everything about NPS this article is not for you.)

I toured a big Contact Center that targeted Net Promoter Score at the Frontline

I toured a Center that pushed a Net Promoter Score survey to the Customer at the end of each call.

As soon as the survey was completed that score – along with the Agent’s name – was beamed across large wall monitors placed around the Center.

There was even a lounge area with big TV screens so that Agents could see the all the scores roll by.

And the management couldn’t have been more proud of their set-up. While I was admittedly speechless.

Can you imagine what it was like for Agents working in that Center?

And the hoops they twisted themselves through to try and get higher Net Promoter Scores?

Net Promoter Score was not designed to be an individual performance metric

Net Promoter Score results reflect the way people feel about the company at the moment they were asked. And each perception is shaped by a whole mix of past experiences.

So much of what goes into a Net Promoter Score at a touchpoint level lies outside the control of the Agent.

A Client at a major Malaysian bank did a fascinating study that took a year.

They proved that ‘not so good’ experiences in other parts of the bank drove over 80% of the ‘not good’ Net Promoter Scores given to their Contact Center.

It wasn’t correct to say that the Contact Center Net Promoter Score performance was poor. Which was what had been happening.

A basic tenet of assigning a KPI to a job role is that the individual has a significant degree of control over moving the dial on that KPI.

When it comes to the Frontline, it’s more effective to identify and set goals around the proven drivers of ‘good’ NPS scores.

What drivers positively impact the Net Promoter Score and what drivers (or behaviours) to avoid. Drivers that Frontline folks can support and realistically achieve in the work they do.

That takes some research of course.

We had one Client who identified the attribute of ‘patience’ as one of the most significant drivers of Customer Satisfaction with their Contact Center call.

So they set metrics around patience. With the solid understanding (and ongoing tracking) that a better performance in patience led to a better outcome in Net Promoter Score.

Sure. Measure Net Promoter Score or Customer Satisfaction do the analysis and take the actions you need to take.

That’s understood.

And do de-aggregate the results.

The 3 categories of NPS performance – Promoters, Passives and Detractors – are more meaningful to work with than the roll-up number.

But targeting Net Promoter Score scores for Frontliners isn’t much more sound than throwing suspected witches into the water to see if they float.

10 CCXP Exam Practice Questions for Voice of Customer

The big German bank

Several years ago were in the process of finalizing the set-up of our company OmniTouch International in Germany. Exciting times for us.

We visited a big bank branch in Wiesbaden Germany to open our official company account. And here I should mention it is one of the top two German banks.

Our experience opening our account turned out to be a classic case of targeting Net Promoter Score at the Frontline.

There was the Corporate Banking Officer and a university student doing a work-study assignment attending to us.

The service was fine, the setting was fine and in 45 minutes it was all sorted.

At the end the Officer asked – “Is it ok if someone calls you to rate the service I provided to you today?” He has to ask for this permission before a call is made.

We said yes.

Then he said, “You will be asked to rate us on a scale of 1* – 10 and in our bank a 9 or 10 means you are satisfied.” *(Not a typo on the “1” but the NPS scale actually begins at 0).

He continued, “So may I know what score you will give?”

To which my partner Marcus answered, “7”. The room got quiet.

Then Marcus explained.

“You already had all the data you needed to pre-fill up the account opening forms in advance for us. That would have saved all of us 20 minutes time.

And then I would have given a 9 for this interaction.

We understand the forms part is a process issue and may not be in your control. And you both were great.

But a ‘7’ is my honest assessment of this interaction based on the 1 (sic) – 10 scale.” It’s not an assessment of you personally.

It was so awkward but instructive to watch this dialogue. To see the anguish.

I piped in, “I have to ask guys. Do you find this rating question that you have to ask very stressful?”

They both nodded emphatically.

Because to be fair to them – the question isn’t fair to them.

They misunderstood and misrepresented Net Promoter Score to us

I was suprised that we were told that 9 or 10 represented ‘satisfaction’. And anything lower than that was not satisfaction.

But that’s not at all how the Net Promoter Score scale works.

I don’t think the banking staff intentionally misrepresented the scale to us. Rather I think that scale was misrepresented to them by their bosses.

I mean if your bosses tell you that this is the measure and this is what it means, then of course you’re going to follow.

Because at the end of the day, people do what is measured, incentivized and celebrated,

By the way – we were never called. Which we would ‘guess’ was because we weren’t going to give the suggested or desired score.

The whole world knows that when it becomes about the score, people will game the system to make the score better.

Including ‘forgetting’ to arrange a follow-up call to a new account holder who wasn’t going to give a 9 or 10.

Before I close here’s an excuse I hear at times

There’s an interesting defense to using Net Promoter Score at the Frontline.

It goes like this.

“We know it’s not completely correct but we use it to make sure our people give good service to the Customers.”

I’ve even heard, “So we can motivate our Agents with the good comments” (if and when there are good comments).

That’s a stretch.

With this line of reasoning it’s ok to do the wrong thing. As long as doing the wrong thing is in the service of obtaining or getting the right thing.

Can you imagine how wrong that can go?

“Why did you rob that old lady?”

“To get money to put my kids through school.”

I could come up with dozens of such laughable examples. And as an excuse I don’t buy it.

https://www.omnitouchinternational.com/dont-make-a-bad-decision-in-the-name-of-a-good-outcome/