As an antidote to the complexity of social network mapping and other systemic ramblings of recent posts, friend and associate Mark Nerenhausen reminded me that most arts managers are running as fast as they can just to keep up. In a world of small resources, small staff, and gargantuan missions, rethinking how the universe works is fun, but quick and basic insights can be even more useful.
To that end, he pointed me to the December issue of Harvard Business Review, and an article by Frederick F. Reichheld (not available on-line, but there’s an abstract here). Through two years of research, Reichheld searched for the optimal, single-question customer survey, to help companies gain quick, accurate, and actionable information about their audiences. Here’s what he found:
It turned out that a single survey question can, in fact, serve as a useful predictor of growth. But that question isn’t about customer satisfaction or even loyalty — at least in so many words. Rather it’s about customers’ willingness to recommend a product or service to someone else.
He goes on to suggest that more complex customer satisfaction surveys actually cloud our ability to act in responsive and innovative ways.
By substituting a single question — blunt tool though it may appear to be — for the complex black box of the typical customer satisfaction survey, companies can actually put consumer survey results to use and focus employees on the task of stimulating growth.
So what’s the single question? Here was the clear winner in the study:
How likely is it that you would recommend [company x] to a friend or colleague?
I’ll grant you, it’s not brain surgery. But imagine encouraging all of your front-line staff to ask this question from time to time, or ask it yourself while wandering the lobby, the gallery, or the special events your organization hosts.
It tells you nothing about ‘why’ they would or wouldn’t recommend you. But at least it’s a start. And it might even start a productive conversation between you, your staff, and your audience. Now there’s a simple step in the right direction.
