Increasing your customer loyalty, and NPS, by investing in your front line employees
The latest US Net Promoter Benchmarks for 2012 are in! USAA, Trader Joes, and Wegmans, all topped the list with some of the highest scores in their sectors. So what makes these companies so effective at creating a loyal, happy customer base? A common thread between these top-scoring companies is not just how they treat their customers, but also how they treat their front line employees. Here are three ways these companies work with their front line to ultimately increase their customer loyalty, and achieve some great NPS as well.
1. Employees who know your customers’ lives can better serve their needs.
USAA was again one of the top brands in this years NetPromoter Benchmark study, with an NPS of 83 percent, the highest NPS recorded across all brands and industry sectors. One of the factors behind their success is USAA’s commitment to understanding the unique lives of their military customers. USAA invests heavily in their new hires’ orientation, so they can truly “describe a day in the life of their customer”, even if they are not from the military or military background. USAA does this by requiring all new hires to go through basic training, right down to eating MRE’s, wearing a military helmet and feeling the weight of the soldiers packs during their extensive orientation program.
2. Invest enough time in training your front line to trust them, and free them, to do the right thing.
Wegmans decided to eliminate the behind the scenes rules that interfered with the customer experience when the frontline staff had a restrictive list of “do’s” and “don’ts” when serving their customers. Wegmans instead decided to invest heavily in training their frontline, over 40 hours per year for employees, with the skills to take action on their own, free from management oversight. There is simply one rule: that no customer is allowed to leave unhappy. The result? Low employee turnover, and a NPS toping the list of the grocery sector.
3. Involve your front line in your products.
Trader Joes develops an enthusiastic, and committed, sales force for their products by directly involving their front line in product tastings and development. Frontline employees enthusiastically run “tasting huts”, talking candidly with customers sampling new products. When the front line feels passionate and about what they are selling, they pass this passion and commitment along to the customers they serve.