FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NEW AND DIVERSE COMPANY PLAYBOOK REVEALS LITTLE KNOWN SECRETS OF CUSTOMER LOYALTY LEADERS

Customer Experience Insights from American Express, 1-800-Got-Junk?, Charles Schwab, LEGO, Progressive®, Logitech, Vanguard and Verizon among those Highlighted

New York, NY—September 21, 2011—Nice guys do finish first—growing twice as quickly as their competitors—according to renowned loyalty experts Fred Reichheld and Rob Markey who showcase in their book how leading companies are winning over legions of profitable customers with a system of new rules that favor the customer, finally.

In The Ultimate Question 2.0: How Net Promoter Companies Thrive in a Customer-Driven World (Harvard Business Review Press, September 2011), readers get a direct line of sight into how leading brands are revolutionizing the experience of their customers through business practices that put the customer first. Readers will learn why:

• American Express feels that improving customer loyalty is impossible without first improving employee engagement
• Charles Schwab managers make tens of thousands of calls to clients each year to discuss their satisfaction with the company
• 1-800-Got-Junk? feels that even junk haulers need to passionately advocate the customer experience
• Progressive® Insurance believes that simplicity is the key to managing the customer experience for auto insurance of the world’s most complex businesses
• Verizon championed a symbolic action to rally its troops around putting customers first
• Vanguard chose to turn away business in order to protect the interests of existing clients
• The CEO of LEGO holds himself accountable, first and foremost
• Logitech won’t launch product upgrades that don’t produce even more dramatic customer experience upgrades

Thousands of companies are using the Net Promoter® score to measure and improve the customer experience. “The ranks of zealous customer advocates continues to grow,” said Fred Reichheld, Bain Fellow and often-acclaimed ‘godfather of customer loyalty’. “What started out as only an idea has become a quiet revolution. Net Promoter® companies are now mobilizing entire organizations around the single mission of delighting customers.”

In addition to discovering inspiring stories and examples from customer experience enthusiasts and leaders, readers will also learn the fundamentals of creating a successful Net Promoter® System in their own companies. According to Reichheld and Markey, effective Net Promoter® Systems require three components to be in place:

1. A simple and reliable metric for gauging how well you have earned your customers’ loyalty
2. Operational processes to support closed-loop feedback, action and learning by front-line employees
3. Making the mission of earning customer and employee loyalty your company’s #1 priority

“In just eight years, NPS has evolved from a powerfully simple metric for measuring customer loyalty to a full-blown business system for earning the loyalty of your customers and employees,” said Rob Markey, co-author and global head of Bain & Company’s Customer Strategy and Marketing Practice. “This is no longer about simply taking your customer’s pulse, it’s about creating a culture through a systematic approach to fostering enthusiastic loyalty.”

Editor’s Note: For more information, contact Dan Pinkney at dan.pinkney@bain.com or +1 646 562 8102.

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