Determining the quantifiable benefit of business initiatives is challenging though many executives would agree that better customer experiences result in better sales. This quickly leads to an obvious question: how much revenue can be gained -- or lost -- due to customer experience?

A recent article by Harvard Business Review suggests answers mapped to Net Promoter Scores (NPS) for two types of business models: transactional sales and subscription sales.

Customer Experience Impact for Transactional Sales 

The potential impact from customer experience is noteworthy for businesses with a transactional sales model. Customers who report the best experiences purchase 140% more than those who report the worst experiences. Moreover, when compared to NPS Passives:

• NPS Promoters spend up to 63% more
• NPS Detractors spend up to 56% less

Customer Experience Impact for Subscription Sales

The impact of customer experience for businesses with subscription sales models is profound. Customers who report the best customer experience remain subscribers up to four-times longer than those reporting the worst experiences. Moreover, when compared to NPS Passives:

• NPS Promoters stay at least 1 year longer
• NPS Detractors leave up to 4 years sooner

Net Promoter Score Refresher

Determining a NPS generally involves surveying customers and asking them a single question: "How likely is it that you would recommend [company] to a friend or colleague?" Responses are scored based on a 0 to 10 scale and categorized as follows:

• Promoters (score 9-10) are loyal customers.
• Passives (score 7-8) are satisfied customers.
• Detractors (score 0-6) are unhappy customers.

One of the toughest challenges online businesses face is being found during Google searches. The reason this is important is website visits lead to customers and their purchases are a key reason businesses grow. Get your business on Google for free with the new Google My Business.

Google My Business makes it easy for past, present, and future customers to get in touch with you by displaying your information across Google. It works by adding your business information to Google Search, Maps, and more so customers can find you from their desktops, notebooks, tablets, and smartphones.

Even if you don’t have a mobile website, you business can be found on Google by mobile customers no matter what device they're using! This gives customers the right information at the best time, including driving directions, interactive maps, business hours, phone numbers, and more. Plus, you can use Google for Business to build a loyal fan base, manage reviews, share promotions, publicize events, and more using Google+.

Think of Google My Business as a powerful complement to your website that gives your business a presence on Google. If you have used Google Places for Business or Google+ Pages Dashboard in the past, your Google account may have been automatically upgraded to Google My Business for your convenience.

Get started with Google My Business in minutes by watching the Introducing Google My Business video and then signing up at www.google.com/business.

By Omar Barraza

RECOGNIZE YOUR WARNING SIGNS
Leaders expect their staff to meet objectives, whether launching a startup, growing a small or medium business, or scaling an enterprise organization. I trust everyone on your marketing team strives to surpass expectations, but when this doesn't happen these resourceful individuals seek out "proven" fixes with unexpected consequences. Here are five classic warning signs your marketing staff is in trouble and your organization may soon follow:

1. Proposals from staff to implement sophisticated marketing automation systems.
Introducing new systems will ensure your marketing team focuses on mastering tools rather than achieving desirable outcomes. The Internet is flooded with information published by vendors and targeting your marketing team. Proposals indicate your staff has been convinced deploying new automation systems will resolve their marketing challenges. Systems create work.

2. Failure to document strategy, plans, goals, and objectives in advance of activities.
Marketing becomes an endless and wasteful journey without a road map. Leveraging past experiences is not strategy and past performance is not planning. Without goals and objectives, completion of tasks defines success. Instead, predict outcomes and record strategy, plans, goals, and objectives for each activity before execution begins. Expectations drive results.

3. Following the best practices of other companies, major vendors, or industry experts. 
Copying the marketing best practices of others is unlikely to deliver similar results. Your organization is unlike others so their what works for them will not work the same for you. The best practices of vendors involves buying their products and services. Industry experts create value by promoting unproven ideas. Solutions are discovered. 

4. Postponing the introduction of analytics and metrics for campaigns.
Marketing has become an artful science. There are numerous no-cost and low-cost tools available for tracking activities, measuring results, and reporting outcomes so there's no excuse for postponing their use. You can't run a business without financial accounting and reporting and you shouldn't run marketing without analytics and metrics. Winners keep score.

5. Expectations quality and quantity are the leading indicators for success.
Here's a counter-intuitive trap that snags too many marketers. Businesses expect their staff to become more productive and produce better work. Therefore, marketers strive to complete more activities of ever-higher quality. The problem with this approach is repeating activities that don't work at higher frequency and better quality is a mistake. Outcomes matter most.