1. Is the NPS an effective way to measure customer satisfaction? What are the advantages and the disadvantages of using the NPS to measure customer satisfaction?

2. What benefits does calculating the NPS provide to a small company?

3. Select two companies in your area, one that you consider to offer superior customer service and one that does not. Select a (preferably random) sample of customers of each company and ask them to answer the NPS survey’s questions. Tally the results. What conclusions can you draw from your analysis? What recommendations would you make to the business’s owner?

John Ratliff, CEO of Appletree Answering Services, a Wilmington, Delaware-based company that operates 12 call centers, is a successful, fast-growing small company. With annual revenues exceeding $12 million, Appletree employees answer 70,000 telephone calls in a typical day for its customers, who include doctors and lawyers, for whom it provides messaging services, and companies of all sizes, for which it provides after-hours service support. “Our customers depend on our services every day,” says Ratliff. “That puts us on a hyper-track for both good and bad customer experiences.“