Continually Improving the Client Experience

For as long as we’ve been keeping track (20+ years), over 95% of our clients have been satisfied with the services we provide. Starting in 2010, we pushed ourselves harder by implementing a client loyalty and experience measure called Net Promoter Score (NPS). NPS asks the question “How likely is it that a client would recommend ISS Solutions to a friend or colleague?” Client referrals are one of the ways we expand our business and the NPS methodology helps us gauge not only which clients are willing to recommend us and why, but also what actions we need to take to improve our relationship with those clients who are not yet willing to do so.

Although there is no national NPS industry benchmark for business-to-business technical services, the business-to-consumer technology benchmark for NPS is 37%, with companies scoring above 80% considered outstanding. The NPS methodology divides clients into three categories: promoters, passives, and detractors. The NPS score is the percent of promoters minus detractors and scores can range from -100% to +100%.

Our overall NPS score has increased from 54% in 2010 to 66% in 2012. One particular line of business, our service desk, scored 100% in 2012. Additionally, our IT value-added reseller, IT services and clinical engineering services lines of business improved and continue to be significantly above the national benchmark.

The metrics we track and our scores are interesting, but not as important as the detailed feedback we receive as part of the NPS survey. We ask clients for the reasons behind the ratings, and most provide detailed comments on what causes them to give us the ratings they do. These comments are reviewed by ISS Solutions executives and service managers. From these comments, we learn about our successes and opportunities for improvement. Our goal is to always make sure we continually improve our clients’ experiences to the point of absolute delight.

Interestingly enough, the NPS survey helped us identify that a common area of strength is also an area that can be improved with certain clients – communications. Most clients praised the ISS Solutions team on communications while others pointed it out as an area to improve. Part of our overall approach to quality is to learn from both our strengths and weaknesses. We are a people business; employees are our strongest asset. We’ll continue to invest in both technical and communications training for our team members so that we can better serve our clients. We’ll also continue to invest in advanced technologies that help us automate, track, and manage our service business. Thank you to those clients who participated in our 2012 NPS survey. Your feedback is appreciated and helpful to us.