Fred Reichheld is the creator of the Net Promoter® , founder of Bain & Company's Loyalty practice, and the author of five books including the New York Times bestseller The Ultimate Question 2.0. Reichheld is out with a new book, Winning on Purpose: The Unbeatable Strategy of Loving Customers, with co-authors Darci Darnell and Maureen Burns.
The ultimate purpose of any business is to enrich the lives of customers. This statement appears antithetical to the broadly accepted purpose of a business enterprise, which is to maximize profits or otherwise maximize shareholder value. But as the authors point out, when we enrich the lives of customers, we create a multiplier effect of financial results. Why?
Customers who we enrich buy more from us.
They don’t buy from elsewhere. When they bring their friends with them, they also don’t buy from elsewhere.
There is a great story in the book in which Steve Grinshaw, CEO of Caliber Collision (they repair damaged cars), talks about purpose. “People work hard for a paycheck, they work harder for a good boss, and they work hardest for a meaningful purpose. Our purpose is to help get each customer’s life back in order— to restore the rhythm of their lives.”
What could be a higher purpose for a collision repair company than to help their customers, who just got in a crash, get their lives back in order?
More about Fred:
The Harvard Business Review article: Net Promoter 3.0: https://hbr.org/2021/11/net-promoter-3-0
About Fred: https://www.bain.com/our-team/fred-reichheld/
More about ServiceRocket:
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318 Fred Reichheld Great businesses love customers