Real World Actionability Beyond Recommendation: The Case, and Proof of Marketing Value, for Determining Customer Advocacy Levels

Summary of White Paper #10

The principal challenge to more universal acceptance of Net Promoter Score (NPS) has been its connections to such key marketplace proofs as revenue growth. “What if customer and brand researchers, marketers, and C-suite executives could have a simple, proven, contemporary and consistent framework for identifying near-term and downstream customer behavior?  And what if that framework could provide enhanced actionability around a recommendation score?” asks Dr. Michael Lowenstein, Executive Vice President of Market Probe.

• The answer lies in the new paradigm of customer advocacy as the most actionable measure and predictor of customer behavior.
• Advocacy represents the highest level of customer involvement and loyalty behavior achievable; interaction with suppliers on an individual and emotional level well beyond the typical functional, passive relationship between supplier and customer; and effect of customers proactively and voluntarily conveying their experiences to friends, relatives and colleagues.
• Beyond operational, marketing, and communication impact, the direct financial return for creating active advocates is both real and substantial.

The ultimate goal of every marketer and every company, therefore, should be to make every customer an active advocate while simultaneously reducing or eliminating customer indifference and/or negativity. Going forward, advocacy will represent the standard for performance, and profitable, excellence.