Flows and funnels that defined the customer journey will never be the same. The new dynamic sends a clear signal to B2C companies: Retire the static segments, models and personas used to reach targets and guide campaigns pre-pandemic. Instead, as I have recommended during recent workshops and talks, marketers will need to adapt and evolve marketing and messaging based on a living and learning profile of the consumer. There are massive implications for companies in the B2B sector, too, where accelerated digital transformation is collapsing once lengthy sales cycles, and every touchpoint can advance or stall conversion and advocacy.
The result is a need for metrics that look to the future, not just measure the past. “Common sense must be used, and adjustments must be made,” writes Robert Walker, founder and CEO of Surveys & Forecasts, LLC a full-service marketing and research consultancy. The logic is powerful—and pertinent. His is one of a growing number of voices fueling the debate over NPS (Net Promoter Score), a business metric whose value has gone virtually unquestioned for years.
NPS measures a customer’s willingness to recommend a product or service to others, which was a meaningful metric when it was introduced in 2003. Fast forward, and NPS is in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. NPS was dubbed a “dubious management fad” by the Wall Street Journal, which highlighted the more problematic side of the metric that has developed a cult-like following among CEOs and magically never declines. (Note: the article is behind a paywall.)
Read the full article on Forbes.
