Closing the feedback loop is a central element of the Net Promoter System. The purpose of closing the loop is to let customers know that Metso has heard their feedback and has addressed them right inside the organization. In practice, our customers may have noticed this in two ways.
The quicker visible sign of closing the loop happens right after the feedback from customer has been received: Some of our customers may have received a follow-up call after providing their feedback. In addition to acknowledging the feedback, the discussion enables us to learn exactly what the customers’ concerns were – in customers’ own words. This serves as a foundation for identifying learning opportunities, establishing a framework for planning improvement actions, and generating ideas to enhance the customer experience. In some cases, the feedback has led to providing faster responses to enquiries for a certain customer, or organizing an additional, topical training event or a workshop with another customer.
Secondly, customers may have been made aware of longer-lasting changes or improvements implemented based on their feedback. For example, in Market Area Asia Pacific, a concrete action taken based on the customer feedback was an establishment of vendor held inventory contract between Metso and a local customer to mitigate issues and concerns about deliveries. “In this particular instance based on direct feedback from client, a solution was needed that improved OTD performance to this Metso Global Key account. A business case was raised and both Metso and the customer worked together to achieve this. Metso Vendor Held Inventory program has now been running for two years and we have seen improved NPS, a marked increase in Sales and most importantly the significant improvement in OTD performance has made for one very happy customer”, says Doug Glover, Director, Service Commercial Support.
The customer feedback may have also led to process improvements at Metso, impacting the customer experience globally. Martin Brändström, Senior Manager, Sales Development and Value selling from Beneficiation, Dewatering and Hydro Business Line comments: “It is humbling to receive the feedback! We are able to pinpoint areas in the processes where to fix the root cause of a problem. NPS has helped different teams to establish and commit to the common goals which correlate strongly with certain customer satisfaction attributes. This ensures the development driving the customer value is on top of our agenda.”