Small banner illustration of four people holding balloons with different facial expressions on them showing NPS scores Large banner illustration of four people holding balloons with different facial expressions on them showing NPS scores

Dec 2019

Astonishing meeting last week, I can't stop thinking about it...

Author: John Tarrant

Interesting conversation with a new prospect last week who I hadn’t met before. The company websites sing with promises of an amazing customer experience and of careers where the sky’s the limit and everyone is agog with a genuine sense of purpose. Happy, shiny people…or maybe not. The true reality as I found out is that their customer NPS score has gone through the floor, only matched by the plummeting ratings and general vitriol on Glassdoor and Indeed. The only good thing about their ratings is that it must make their competitors feel like Christmas has come early.

Astonishingly, they’re pretty relaxed as they’re going to buy a bright new shiny feedback tool from the States where staff can give multiple choice answers to 3 short ‘happiness’ questions. Not that they have a plan to do anything with the feedback they gather. I couldn’t believe it. Effective employee engagement is a business process with solid business principles, not a tick box exercise. It takes careful planning, research, measurement, real flair and a 52/24/7 approach to earn and build your employer reputation. As Jim Royle would say, ‘Happiness app my a***’. I won’t be buying shares anytime soon in that company but will be watching the NPS and Glassdoor ratings closely to see how much further down they can go.

Contrast them with a long standing DNA client. The MD was tasked to double the turnover and treble the profit in a six year period – and his bonus was dependent upon the customer NPS score not just the bottom line number. As we started the planning process his very first question was ‘What do we need to know about the staff here?’. You won’t be surprised to hear he succeeded.

In any business if you can’t guarantee the quality of the product or service you have nothing to sell. However if you can’t fulfil the promises you make to customers then you don’t have a business. And it’s the staff that do that, day in day out.

Remember, you’re never who you think you are. It’s what the staff and the customers say you are that is the true reality.

If you’d like to see how to derive true business ROI from your employee engagement or would like a world featuring happy staff, happy customers and happy shareholders, just call us. 

0117 300 3000

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