PPB June 2015

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more susceptible to new competition, alterna-
tives or abandonment.
If more than 10 percent of company or
product revenue comes from detractors,
there are two things you can do. Stop selling
to those customers or attempt to fix the
problems that are making your detractors
unhappy. Making the adjustments to price,
quality and features to meet those cus-
tomers’ expectations can be a huge chal-
lenge, but that’s usually what separates the
best-in-class companies from the rest.
Find out what customers like most
about your product/service. One of the
most effective ways to understand what drives
customer loyalty is to conduct a key driver
analysis. Key drivers are things like quality
(Are your products reliable? Do they work as
described?), value (Does your product give
buyers the best bang for their buck?), utility
(Does your product offer essential features?),
and ease of use (Can customers use your fea-
tures without frustration?).
A key driver analysis tells you which fea-
tures or aspects of a product or service have
the largest statistical impact on customer loy-
alty. It can be conducted for all customers but
also for each of your different customer seg-
ments. At the end, you’ll be able to identify
the most popular or unpopular features or
aspects of your product or service and have
customers rate that experience as well.
Pinpoint your haters. While companies
should strive for more promoters, it’s often
the customers who are least satisfied with
their experience who have a much larger
impact on referrals and the brand. Research
supports that customers who are dissatisfied
with a product or service experience are actu-
ally more likely to be vocal and tell more
friends and colleagues about their bad experi-
ence than generally satisfied customers.
For example, I’ve used for
years. Its website allows you to see your per-
sonal and small-business finances, expenses
and investments all in one place.
Unfortunately, the product team recently
turned off the small-business categorization
feature with no notice to customers. This
meant hundreds of hours of logging small-
business expenses were lost and unrecoverable.
Understandably, a lot of loyal customers
were upset and let the company know.
While it’s unclear what will happen to the
product, the experience has been so frustrat-
ing that I’ve shared it with at least a dozen
close friends who manage small businesses
and track their personal finances with
This one change turned a pro-
moter into a detractor.
The negative effects of detractors can
outweigh the positive effects of promoters.
Again, once you’ve identified your detractors,
you’ll have some decisions to make.
JUNE 2015 • PPB • 49
It depends on how you look at customers. Organizations
that are distinctive look for relationships more than trans-
actions. If all I’m looking for is a transaction then mere sat-
isfaction will fit. If I’m looking for a long-term repetitive
relationship (and that’s where profitability lies) then you’ve
got to get to something more than satisfaction.
In our industry, all we differentiate on is service. How
can a distributor become distinctive?
When someone says they have ‘great service,’ that’s like
saying ‘we have a telephone.’ It’s so generic it does not
mean anything anymore. Tell me how your service is great.
Put some meat on the bones and find a powerful way to
express it. FedEx says “…when it absolutely, positively has
to be there overnight…” They don’t say, “We’ll drop it off
by 10:30.” How you frame it and say it is critically impor-
tant. Small businesses may think that to be innovative and
creative, they’ve got to blow it all up and start over.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. You only have to
do one thing uniquely different. What can your firm do
that could be completely different [from the competition]?
There are a lot of negative perceptions about our
industry—that it’s somewhat dispensable and you
can get the same thing from everybody. The bar is
low and there’s not much you have to do to be
distinctive.
What is the twist or the hook to make the customer
go “ah!”? I don’t want to give my customers inferior
promotional products but something different and of
quality. I am such a believer in what you do but I
understand there’s a lot of clutter in the marketplace.
We get too busy doing what we do, that we don’t
think about what we do. Creating something
distinctive is so critical especially to those in crowded
marketplaces.
Companies tend benchmark themselves against their
immediate competition but customers compare your
service against Marriott or where they bought their car.
So if the BMW dealership called them back immediately
and you didn’t, well I don’t get it. Benchmark yourself
against companies that are delivering the ultimate cus-
tomer experience.
While companies should strive for more promoters, it’s often the customers
who are least satisfied with their experience who have a much larger impact
on referrals and the brand. “
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