How to Make Brand Training with NPS in Mind

Ever since Fred Reichheld and a team at Bain & Company developed their ultimate question to predict a company’s growth, more companies[i] are investing time and effort into understanding their own Net Promoter Score (NPS). Though generating an NPS starts by asking and discussing a simple question, the amount of information that an NPS can offer is extremely valuable to companies that seek to grow through brand ambassadorship. These companies rely on a workforce that is well-versed in the language, ideology, and mission of their given brand and the best way to impact a company’s NPS is for the company to teach its customer-facing workforce how to be brand ambassadors themselves.

The beauty of the NPS system is that it has the potential to zero in on what makes a customer either want to recommend a product to a friend or become an active brand detractor. Once a company knows what has been turning customers into brand ambassadors or detractors, they can determine the best approach to administer brand training to their workforce. When a company’s workforce becomes brand ambassadors, they are better positioned to get the same transformation from its customers.

The Art of Using NPS in Brand Training

Though this approach sounds straightforward, getting the best results from NPS-centered brand training is more of an art than a science. For example, AllenComm helped HP roll out a brand training initiative that helped the individual members of their workforce—which included employees from 60 different countries—see their unique contribution to building and expressing the HP brand. By collaborating directly with HP’s stakeholders, AllenComm helped create brand ambassadors that represented HP in a way that had a positive impact on customers.

AllenComm was also careful to avoid any attempts to influence NPS scores by teaching to the test, so to speak. Any time a litmus test like NPS starts to get results, the quick and easy way to show improvement is to try and create a disingenuous method of measurement. It’s an approach that seldom works, and influencing a company’s NPS is no different. What corner-cutters tend to forget is that while NPS is essentially a system of processing data, the overall results are based on genuine, emotional responses from the customers who participate, and they can tell when you’re trying to manipulate them into brand promotion. The best way to get genuine results when conducting an NPS survey is to make sure you’ve offered your customers a genuine product and genuine brand messaging.

The Nuances of Brand Training

Amy Weiland, a member of the performance consultant team at AllenComm, plans on discussing the nuances of brand training as co-presenter for our upcoming brand training webinar. “A company’s brand should never be presented to employees as an abstract concept like a logo or catchphrase nor as a lofty goal via a well-worded mission statement,” she says. “The AllenComm approach to brand training emphasizes the importance of breaking the brand into actionable, everyday behaviors employees can implement immediately after their training. When done well, these brand behaviors can positively influence a customer’s perception and experience.”

For more information about brand training and its impact on NPS, please join us for our brand training webinar, Bridging the Brand Training Gap on Wednesday, November 20 at 11AM (MDT). Register here.

References:

[1] Net Promoter Score