Most companies devote a lot of energy to listening to the "voice of the customer," but few are very happy with the outcome of the effort. Now, a growing number of companies are developing effective customer feedback programs based on Net Promoter Score® that they credit with strengthening their customer relationships and helping to fuel the growth of their businesses. Instead of building elaborate, centralized customer research mechanisms, these firms begin their feedback loop at the front line. Employees working there receive evaluations of their performance from the people best able to render an appraisal-the customers they just served.

In this 4-minute video, Bain partner Rob Markey describes the Net Promoter Score® process. He explains how companies that ask a simple question, "How likely are you to recommend the products or services of this company to a friend or colleague?" can quickly sort their customers into Promoters, Passives and Detractors and calculate their Net Promoter Score. While the score is important, the real power of Net Promoter is in follow-up interactions that reveal why customers gave the scores they did and the front-line learning, coaching, and process improvements that result from the customer feedback.