First, we had the Net Promoter Syndrome sufferers telling marketers that they had to figure out which of their customers were “advocates”, that is, those who gave a top-two box rating on a 10-point scale of likelihood to recommend the firm to friends, families, household pets, trees, and other living creatures.
Now, Yahoo! is telling us we have to figure out who the “passionistas” are among our customer base. According to Yahoo’s director of customer insight, passionistas are “natural advocates and already online creating and sharing content about their passions and brands that align with them.”
So what’s next? I have the answer.
Marketers must identify the Psychopathicos among their customer base.
Psychopathicos: Customers who will hurt, maim, or kill anybody who refuses to buy your products and services. They don’t just refer your firm to their friends and neighbors — they force them to buy from you.
“What did you say, you Pepsi pansy? You don’t like Coke? You will after I whack you upside the head with this 64 ounce bottle of Coke!”
If you think your Net Promoter Score is correlated to growth, forget that. Your market share will skyrocket with every 1% improvement in your firm’s Psychopathico Index (which, by the way, I can help you measure for a measly six-figure consulting fee).
I just don’t want to be there for the focus group study.
Technorati Tags: Marketing, Net Promoter Score, Yahoo, Passionista
I am laughing out loud! Very funny, Ron. Your next challenge: how to measure the psycho-ness of this group. Is it a scale of 1-10? Some sort of regression modeling to rank order craziness? Length of prison term?
This is the missing chapter (and flaw) in the gospel of NPS. NPS evangelists are fixated on ways to migrate indifferent customers up to advocacy status. That’s all fine and good, but it’s just as easy – if not easier – to improve your NPS score by eliminating detractors.
In fact, I’d suggest it’s actually MORE important to address the detractors of your brand than to find ways to promote indifferents up to advocates.
There’s a quotient in here somewhere. Something like [the number of detractors] divided by [the sample size]. Call it the ‘detractor quotient.’ If your detractor quotient is X% or more, it doesn’t matter if you’ve got a killer NPS score. Your brand has got problems. Big problems.
Instead of obsessing over indifferent customers (who may be naturally ambivalent about your industry), concentrate on the extremists who really affect your brand:
* Fix the problems that create detractors.
* Identify what advocates share in common and go find more of those people.
Ron, Ron, Ron……I can’t wait to discuss this with you LIVE next week.
Jeffry – who is fixated on turning passives into promoters? I agree, with you on the detractors being a focus for identifying REAL problems in the organization. At least that’s how I’ve been approaching it with my credit union clients.
If we see patterns in detractor data it’s all hands on deck. Very useful for improving the organization WHICH is the point of NPS. Ron seems to miss that. But then he’s a real numbers guy so the score has got him suffering from NPS-a-phobia….(okay, maybe that’s not as funny as some of his but it’s all I got).
See you next week Ron!
I remain,
An NPS Passionista
Ron,
A classic! Great job!
-Larry
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