In a previous story on this topic, I described Compugen Service's activities related to the Net Promoter Score (NPS) customer satisfaction survey methodology and positioned NPS as one of the key 'ingredients' we use, along with others such as ISO, ITIL and SERVICE 800, to achieve and maintain excellence in service delivery. At that time, we were just developing a semi-annual customer relationship survey program based on the NPS concept, which categorizes respondents as either "Detractors, Passives or Promoters". Our version of the survey, modified to include six questions instead of NPS' single original question, targets IT Managers, Directors, VPs and CxOs to determine if we are 'delighting' our customers with excellent service. We recently initiated our second survey pilot test–the first one focused on just the Richmond Hill area of Ontario, while this one was expanded to include primarily Vancouver, surveying a total of 90 customers. The three-step e-mail process includes a Notification, a Reminder and then the actual Survey questionnaire. Barely 15 minutes after sending out the Notification, we received a complaint from a healthcare IT executive telling us that it was taking us too long to process hospital requests for information and price quotations. It appears that no one at Compugen was aware of the problem this individual was having and the impact it was having on his business. This type of response, although not exactly what we wanted to hear, is exactly why the NPS survey is important to us. Previously, our customer survey work was focused only on service 'transactions'–asking end users how they felt about Compugen's performance for specific hardware break/fix service events. The NPS approach, on the other hand, measures satisfaction right up at the relationship level and goes beyond just service to include any aspect of the customer's dealings with Compugen, such as sales or operations, for example. We expect that the results of our NPS survey process, which will be expanded to include customers across the rest of the country, will drive change in our organization that will help us complement our traditional 'transactional' approach to business with an increasingly 'strategic' orientation. It will also help us trend, through regular surveying, how our customers view us over time and thus how effective our improvement initiatives have been. To share your thoughts on the NPS or on customer satisfaction measurement in general, feel free to e-mail me or call 1-800-387-5045.