The One Number You Need To Grow
www.hbr.org
If growth is what you’re after, you won’t learn much from complex measurements of customer satisfaction or retention. You simply need to know what your customers tell their friends about you.
The One Number You
Need to Grow by Frederick F. Reichheld
Reprint R0312C
If growth is what you’re after, you won’t learn much from complex measurements of customer satisfaction or retention. You simply need to know what your customers tell their friends about you.
The One Number You
Need to Grow
COPYRIGHT © 2003 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
by Frederick F. Reichheld
The CEOs in the room knew all about the power of loyalty. They had already transformed their companies into industry leaders, largely by building intensely loyal relationships with customers and employees. Now the chief executives—from Vanguard, Chick-fil-A,
State Farm, and a half-dozen other leading companies—had gathered at a daylong forum to swap insights that would help them further enhance their loyalty efforts. And what they were hearing from Andy Taylor, the CEO of
Enterprise Rent-A-Car, was riveting.
Taylor and his senior team had figured out a way to measure and manage customer loyalty without the complexity of traditional customer surveys. Every month, Enterprise polled its customers using just two simple questions, one about the quality of their rental experience and the other about the likelihood that they would rent from the company again. Because the process was so simple, it was fast.
That allowed the company to publish ranked results for its 5,000 U.S. branches within days, giving the offices real-time feedback on how
harvard business review • december 2003
they were doing and the opportunity to learn from successful peers.
The survey was different in another important way. In ranking the branches, the company counted only the customers who gave the experience the highest possible rating.
That narrow focus on enthusiastic customers
If growth is what you’re after, you won’t learn much from complex measurements of customer satisfaction or retention. You simply need to know what your customers tell their friends about you.
The One Number You
Need to Grow by Frederick F. Reichheld
Reprint R0312C
If growth is what you’re after, you won’t learn much from complex measurements of customer satisfaction or retention. You simply need to know what your customers tell their friends about you.
The One Number You
Need to Grow
COPYRIGHT © 2003 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
by Frederick F. Reichheld
The CEOs in the room knew all about the power of loyalty. They had already transformed their companies into industry leaders, largely by building intensely loyal relationships with customers and employees. Now the chief executives—from Vanguard, Chick-fil-A,
State Farm, and a half-dozen other leading companies—had gathered at a daylong forum to swap insights that would help them further enhance their loyalty efforts. And what they were hearing from Andy Taylor, the CEO of
Enterprise Rent-A-Car, was riveting.
Taylor and his senior team had figured out a way to measure and manage customer loyalty without the complexity of traditional customer surveys. Every month, Enterprise polled its customers using just two simple questions, one about the quality of their rental experience and the other about the likelihood that they would rent from the company again. Because the process was so simple, it was fast.
That allowed the company to publish ranked results for its 5,000 U.S. branches within days, giving the offices real-time feedback on how
harvard business review • december 2003
they were doing and the opportunity to learn from successful peers.
The survey was different in another important way. In ranking the branches, the company counted only the customers who gave the experience the highest possible rating.
That narrow focus on enthusiastic customers