Companies strive to land on “Best of” Lists, whether they are local or national in scope. The Inavero Best of Staffing award is based on staffing firms’ Net Promoter Scores. Staffing Industry Analysts’ Best Staffing Firms to Temp For competition is also based on the Net Promoter Score system.
I’ve worked with several Inavero winners and found they all share a commitment to delivering exceptional levels of client and talent satisfaction. Improving your client and talent NPS is a high ROI investment that will yield greater loyalty, faster growth along with higher EBITDA and firm valuation. It’s a process that is conceptually simple, yet requires focus and effort.
It begins with a top-level commitment to sustainably improve loyalty. You must go beyond simply reviewing your NPS feedback, implementing minor changes and speaking with your detractors.
I recently worked with a large IT staffing firm, helping it raise client and employee NPS from a few points above average to near Best of Staffing class in eighteen months. Here’s how we achieved this result.
Start with your current NPS as a baseline then establish an organization-wide NPS target to propel your firm’s NPS score to the next level. For example, set an objective to improve NPS by 24 points in 24 months with sub-objectives along the way. Announce your objective to internal employees. Solicit everyone’s ideas along the way.
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Establish a cross-functional team that is responsible for driving internal programs to reach your target NPS score. Start by reviewing your NPS feedback and identify opportunities to improve. To make rapid progress, I recommend the team meet every two weeks during the first six months.
Get to the root cause – go beyond addressing spot issues and tackle the systemic issues across your firm. This step entails self-reflection and a willingness to process feedback that may conflict with internal views and perceptions. Sometimes the truth hurts.
Look for the low hanging watermelon – pursue initiatives that will have the greatest impact for the least cost and effort. Your team will generate many ideas for improving NPS. The key is selecting the 20% that will yield 80% of your improvement. In fact, two or three well-chosen and executed initiatives may drive the majority of your gains.
Track action plans and chart your results. Tie feedback to specific action plans and initiatives. Keep everyone informed about the status of your progress.
Create systems and accountability – Build repeatable service delivery systems and hold people accountable for client and contract employee satisfaction.
Simplistically, improving NPS is about receiving more ratings above eight and fewer below seven. Practically, our service delivery systems must consistently produce more promoters and fewer detractors.
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