Customers who actively spread goodwill about the company will not only increase business but also reduce marketing effort and cost, says Lara Ponomareff, practice manager for business advisory company CEB, in Measuring the Customer Experience.
One way to measure customer advocacy is with the Net Promoter Score, which calculates the likelihood of a customer recommending the company to someone else. The NPS system is based on the idea that providing an exceptional customer experience will convert customers into promoters.
“The investment is trying to deliver an experience to customers that is so compelling that they stay and they talk to others, and in so doing you don’t have to go out and pay the high acquisition costs and soaring marketing money,” says Joseph Michelli, chief experience officer at The Michelli Experience, a consulting firm focused on customer experience.
According to Ponomareff, companies should focus on providing a lower effort experience to improve customer loyalty. “If we reduce customer effort within the customer service function of a distributor, then we would actually see a positive impact in NPS," she says.
Read more about creating a better customer experience in Measuring the Customer Experience.