Our company, the CEOs voiced boomed cheerfully at the company's annual leadership conference, is an industry leader in customer experience. Im immensely proud of your efforts in establishing our global reputation for innovation and customer-centricity. As the applause of the 300 or so company managers began to die down, I glanced at the executive vp sitting next to me. She appeared to be choking on some arugula.
Yikes, she muttered under under her breath.
I understood where she was coming from. The problem was it was highly unlikely that most of our companys customers would have agreed with our CEO's assessment.
In fairness to him, his comments werent entirely unfounded; the companys monthly metrics on customer experience did tell an exciting story. And, as for the marketing department collecting the data, its staff had used common and well-established methodologies.
But what our leader didnt realize, was how much of the overall story was data-driven fiction. Specifically, the company's net promotor score -- a single-question metric that predicts customers' loyalty by assessing their likelihood to recommend a company or brand -- was being manipulated by the front-line employees and managers.
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