Customer loyalty

Customers are our raison d’être

Without customers, there would be no KPN. That’s why their opinion is of paramount importance to us in our customer satisfaction and customer loyalty policies. We monitor customer loyalty permanently through our own surveys and the image created in public opinion and the media. This shows us what improvements we need to make.

An important measure is the Net Promoter Score (NPS). This indicator measures customer loyalty: we regularly ask a large number of customers how probable it is, on a scale of 1 to 10, that they will recommend KPN to others. This generates a score at the brand and market segment level. We use this figure because, in our experience, customer loyalty is a good indicator of stable growth. Our experience tells us that customers, both potential and current, allow themselves to be influenced by the recommendations and experiences of existing customers when it comes to choosing brands and products. The rise of social media sites and web sites where consumers share their experiences reinforces the phenomenon.

We have set up the NPS Board, composed of the business directors of KPN Nederland, to ensure unremitting focus on improving customer loyalty. This steering committee ensures that this is done in a consistent, structural fashion. We use the Net Promoter Scores, which are discussed with the responsible line managers, to manage our customer loyalty. We consider customer loyalty so important, that the NPS scores form part of the bonuses both of senior managers and of employees.

Our NPS targets

In 2011 we set ourselves the target of taking the loyalty leader position in 16 out of the 25 product market segments, in other words: of attaining the top score. We also wanted to attain a NPS score that was eight percentage points higher than the figure we achieved in 2010. Unfortunately we failed to achieve this target. We were loyalty leader in 13 of the 25 product market segments and our overall NPS score fell by one point to -14 points.

We have investigated the question of why we failed to achieve our NPS targets. On the one hand, the reason lies in a number of events in the ICT industry that generated major media attention. On the other hand, our service provision can and must be further improved.

Our improvement initiatives are designed to improve our NPS. In 2012, we want to achieve an NPS of -7 which means raising the result by 7 points relative to 2011. In 2015, we are targeting an NPS of +15.

Learning from the customer

KPN measures the NPS at various levels: in terms of brand and product (comparing ourselves with our competitors), in terms of specific customer events (delivery, service, complaint settlement and invoicing) and in terms of contact moments. For the last two levels, we use the closed-loop feedback approach (CLF).

CLF makes it possible to gage what a KPN customer thinks, how he or she evaluates an event or a conversation, and why. Any still unsolved customer problems are then solved. We also look, based on the customer’s input, at what improvements are possible and how we can make them, both at process and product level, and at employee level.

KPN is currently developing a uniform process for obtaining and utilizing customer feedback for all the channels, customer events and contact moments. We will then be able to take stock of and analyze the feedback on a structural basis throughout the chain, from sale to invoicing. This process give better insight into what the customer thinks of our service and how we can improve our quality even more on the basis of customer feedback.

In this way, KPN can continue to improve on the basis of information from its most important source: the customer.