Page 53 - Impiantistica industriale

Intuit services accounting firms, it has to offer quite
different outreach and training programs to large Net Promoter companies use regular customer
®
and small enterprises. For any supplier to a large feedback to understand what they are doing right
corporation, simply mapping who in the organiza- and wrong. They loop the feedback quickly to fron-
tion decides on, influences and uses the product tline employees, their managers and senior execu-
can be a Herculean task. tives. This allows employees to discover the root
causes of both problems and areas of distinction
In B2B markets, even those long regarded as com- which then enables them to take targeted actions.
modities, deriving strategic advantage from loyal Over time, the accumulation of improvements ser-
customer relationships requires true differentiation. ves to build a powerful competitive differentiation.
Often that means not just great products at com-
petitive prices, but also dependable delivery, tailo- Generating revenues from existing loyal customers
red services and a high level of responsiveness and can be done much more efficiently than acquiring
collaboration. The value in most B2B markets has new customers. Customer loyalty thus has a big
shifted. Among manufacturers, for instance, profit upside on several fronts that combine to accelerate
pools have moved downstream to ancillary servi- organic growth:
ces, lifetime contracts or provision by the hour—all • B2B customers who are “promoters” have an
of which depend on addressing customer needs average lifetime value typically three to eight
such as reliability or reduced risk. B2B companies times that of “detractors,” depending on seg-
thus need to go beyond mere satisfaction to earn ment and industry. (We define promoters as
customers’ enthusiasm and loyalty so that they can respondents who give their company a Net
improve the business’s economics. Promoter Score , or NPS , of 9-10, while
®
SM
detractors give a score of zero to 6.) Promo-
As Lanham Napier, CEO of cloud hosting firm ters stay longer with the company, buy more
Rackspace put it, “Greatness is achieved when cu- products, usually cost less to serve and are
stomers say we’re great.” more likely to refer the supplier to colleagues
and friends.
Can a B2B customer really promote or advocate • NPS correlates closely with sales growth, ex-
for your business? Yes, but not just by saying fa- panded share of wallet, sales force producti-
vorable things or recommending the firm to others. vity, greater market share, greater employee
Loyalty and advocacy also can be expressed as engagement and higher profitability, according
the customer’s willingness to discuss how you can to Bain research and client work.
better serve his or her needs and add more value— • As a result, B2B loyalty leaders tend to grow
critical to boosting revenues and profitability. four to eight percentage points above their
market’s annual growth (see Figure 1).
To that end, many B2B companies have adopted
a comprehensive approach called the Net Promo- It might sound obvious that better economics flow
ter System . This system gives companies the from delighting customers. Yet this logic has only
SM
foundation for determining which investments will recently permeated the day-to-day operations of
yield the highest return, while it shapes behaviors, many B2B companies that have a legacy of fo-
mindsets and decision making at all levels in order cusing largely on product or technical innovation.
to form a more responsive, customer-centered or- Despite the professed importance of customer re-
ganization. lationships, it’s getting tougher to maintain them:

Figure 1: In B2B, promoters
have significantly more value
than detractors

Impiantistica Italiana - Novembre-Dicembre 2020 51