ForeSee CEO Larry Freed Introduces Enhanced Tool for Measuring Word-of-Mouth Recommendations in New Book - INNOVATING ANALYTICS

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Sept. 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- In today's ultra-competitive business environment, accurately measuring both positive and negative word of mouth is a crucial element in gauging customer loyalty and recommendations.  But according to Larry Freed, author of the new book INNOVATING ANALYTICS (Wiley; September 2013; $26.00/hardcover), "The most popular tool for obtaining this measurement, the Net Promoter Score (NPS), has outlived its usefulness as a metric."

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In INNOVATING ANALYTICS: Word of Mouth Index—How the Next Generation of Net Promoter Can Increase Sales and Drive Business Results, Freed—president and CEO of ForeSee, a customer experience analytics firm whose Fortune 500 clients include Sears, Kellogg's, Kraft, Lockheed Martin, and Capital One—introduces the Word of Mouth Index (WoMI), an innovative metric that builds on the decade-old NPS to create a modern metric that business leaders can use improve business results.  Visit: http://wordofmouthindex.com/womi-news/womi-book/

Extensive research by ForeSee, with more than two million customers from hundreds of companies across industries over the past two years, found that NPS was in need of an overhaul.  Freed explains why NPS is often inaccurate (many companies base executive bonuses on NPS milestones, proven to be off by as much as 270%) and shows how to implement WoMI to obtain results that truly measure both positive and negative word of mouth.

With NPS, customers answer a single question: "On a zero-to-10 scale, how likely would you be to recommend this company?" Responses are categorized as follows:  brand promoters (9-10), passive customers (7-8) and brand detractors (6 or lower).  ForeSee's data shows that this method of classifying detractors is often inaccurate and often vastly overstates detractor behavior.  Many people that NPS would label detractors are actually neutral toward or even advocates for a brand, so allocating budget to win them over represents wasted spending.

In addition to introducing the Word of Mouth Index, Larry Freed presents a thoughtful explanation of the entire customer experience measurement ecosystem in INNOVATING ANALYTICS.  He discusses all aspects of customer satisfaction, including customer acquisition, loyalty, and conversion and explains how to:

• Use behavioral data, feedback, observation, and satisfaction to predict customer behavior;
• Implement best practices for improving customer experience;
• Improve the effectiveness of marketing and merchandising by using Big Data; and
• Avoid common measurement mistakes such as confusing causation and correlation.

"To succeed in today's ultra-competitive environment, where consumers are in control and switching costs are low, measuring the customer experience is more important than it has ever been.  Businesses cannot stand still in the field of customer experience analytics; they must continue to push the envelope and evolve – not only products, services and marketing but also analytics," concludes Freed.  INNOVATING ANALYTICS is the perfect guide to help companies measure the satisfaction of the customer experience and turn that data into an actionable strategy that benefits their businesses and their customers alike.

For more information about INNOVATING ANALYTICS, please contact:

Jane Wesman
Jane Wesman Public Relations, Inc.
[email protected]
212-620-4080 x11

SOURCE ForeSee