Just one question…
18th September 2007 by Michael Zimet
We all know that customer satisfaction is of paramount importance to business success. But how do you measure it?
In his book, The Ultimate Question: Driving Good Profits and True Growth, Fred Reichheld builds the case that the answer to a single question is the best indicator of customer satisfaction — and the best predictor of future business success.
That question is: Would you recommend us to a friend?
It’s a good, provocative question. The answers probably do reveal a lot about the prospects for any enterprise.
This reminded me of New York City’s former (and flamboyant) mayor, Ed Koch, whose trademark was his habit of walking down the street and asking anyone and everyone, “how am I doing?” He got plenty of feedback — some positive and some, well, not-so-positive. (Was it a good predictor of success? Well, Koch was re-elected twice.)
I was thinking that we should try the same approach for IABC. We already conduct periodic member surveys and research, but this would be another way to emulate Ed Koch by asking “how are we doing?” and perhaps gain some additional insights — from both members and non-members — for our Advocacy initiative.
So, paraphrasing slightly, here goes:
Would you recommend us to a colleague?
Why?
November 6th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
I don’t think there’s a lot of mystery to measuring communications. I think it’s mostly about setting expectations — what are your goals, what are the expected results (specific and tangible), and then it’s a question of following through.
In my current workplace, I definitely think that the simple, personable “Koch approach” is a helpful one, but it can’t be the only approach to measurement of course. Because for every employee I ask “how am I doing?”, I’ll get a different response and different feedback. How do I then document and quantify any trends in that?
I’m also not sure I want to measure everything. Again, it gets back to 1) what are you trying to do; and 2) who is your audience. Sometimes I simply want to put some thoughts out there to make people think, or look at something/someone in a new way.
I was a member of IABC for a long time. I would definitely recommend the organization to certain people whom I know value comms or want to learn more.