The Ultimate Question: Passive Satisfaction and the Role of Contact CenterOur discussion with Net Promoter Score author Fred Reichheld became very interesting when we decomposed the typical customer base into the three NPS constituencies: A) New Promoters - customer "assets" who are wildly satisfied with a product or service, B) NPS Neutral - those who are passively satisfied and therefore at risk, and C) Net Detractors - unsatisfied customers who actively try to ensure that your business does not succeed. This last group may even categorically represent a term known as "bad profits".

When I looked at it in terms of these three groups, I began to see the important link between today’s operational metrics in the contact center and the middle group — the passively satisfied NPS neutral group. It's a link that often gets buried in today's contact center metrics, since these metrics are typically based on averages. The most famous of these is the "average" speed of answer (ASA), which in turn feeds into the "service level," essentially creating an "average" of an average. This led me to an assertion that Reichheld believes and I agree with — that the greatest impact on the ability to create net promoters lies in the behaviors of front line employees. In fact, for many years we have been saying how critical the contact center and its front line ambassadors are in the overall strategy of a business.

Over the last three or four years, I've noticed a shift in the perception of the contact center in many companies we visit — one that suggests that the contact center is a transition state. In many cases, it seems the contact center is moving from the operational/cost side of the ledger to a place where it is seen as an asset to be leveraged, an opportunity for competitive differentiation. New metrics that break free of the historical "averages" approach will be necessary for this to continue. For example, in many of the places we've visited we've noticed the rise of FCR (First Call Resolution) as a strong indicator of customer satisfaction. Our theory is that businesses organized around FCR have likely done their homework and found that time-constrained consumers are far more satisfied when their needs are met entirely within the first contact.

As your business starts to view the contact center as a strategic asset to be leveraged, what new "NPS-friendly" metrics are you considering?