Latest Results
Today, I’m going to take a look at the latest Micro Focus Net Promoter® Score (NPS) Competitive Benchmark Results.
(a) NPS Results
We run our competitive benchmark program quarterly using rolling data. In the latest dataset, which I highlight is double-blind and contains a very large sample size of over 15,000 respondents, Micro Focus is ranked 12th for loyalty in the entire software industry (out of 59 competitors) and the average competitor is ranked 25th. The NPS difference between us and the average competitor gives what I call the relative NPS or rNPS. If we are to conduct any trend comparisons it’s this number that we would use as an NPS on its own does not provide enough significance.
Therefore, in the latest dataset Micro Focus has an NPS of 37 and the average competitor has 33. This means the latest Micro Focus rNPS is +4, which is a fantastic win for Micro Focus since going back to FY18’RQ4 we were ranked 28th (out of 48 competitors), the average competitor was ranked 25th, and our rNPS was -3. From that date to present there have been three more quarterly benchmark releases and in all three Micro Focus has a positive rNPS, which shows the great turnaround and customer focus of our company
(b) Touchpoint Results
Every single touchpoint interaction with our customers has increased to be better than the average competitor since FY18’RQ4. Statistically, Micro Focus is better in Account Management, Design and the ability to Install and Implement software. The Quality of our software and services is better, as is both our Web and Sales Experience. These results highlight our customer-centred innovation, the dedication to our customers and partners, and the simple fact that we listen and action feedback. You can see why this methodology is successful, since it is our customers and the customers of our competitors that determine what is important, not us.
(c) Focus Area Results
Another point worth mentioning is that Micro Focus focuses on four market trend areas. These are namely Hybrid IT Management (allowing agility), Enterprise DevOps (allowing the building of better software faster), Security, Risk & Governance (allows you to secure what matters most), and Predictive Analytics (allows you to analyse in time to act). The Competitive Benchmark also gathers data on these areas.
(1) In Hybrid IT Management, Micro Focus is ranked 7th in the industry out of 33 competitors (rNPS +7)
(2) In Enterprise DevOps we are ranked 10th out of 38 competitors (rNPS +5)
(3) In Security, Risk & Governance we are ranked 11th out of 53 competitors (rNPS +4), and
(4) In Predictive Analytics we are ranked 4th out of 10 competitors (rNPS +4).
What is a Competitive Benchmark and Why is it better than simply using NPS?
Being a manager of the LinkedIn Customer Experience Management and Artificial Intelligence group, and prior to this engaging with many Customer Experience professionals around the correct usage of Net Promoter®, I feel it is right to share the aforementioned Micro Focus loyalty results using this best practice Competitive Benchmark methodology. Historically, for background, you may find snippets of this here and a more detailed view conducted by CustomerGauge here. Micro Focus also holds a feature in the 2018 Net Promoter® and Customer Experience Benchmarks Report.
If I may summarise the Benchmarking methodology, it is simply that we at Micro Focus leverage a 3rd party double-blind sampling strategy to ensure the limitation of bias. This also means that if one of our competitors performed the same study they would statistically have the same results. This makes our Competitive Benchmark Industry defensible. On social media, I see time and time again complaints of the ‘inherent bias’ and ability to game Net Promoter®. Our methodology is gaming impervious. Also, we do not focus on the Net Promoter® Score itself. We know that a score is not that useful on its own. If we are to compare scores we do so by comparing to the average competitor (rNPS). This yields something rather special, which is a predictor of future market share. Now given what I’ve said already about the score not being important you may be wondering what we do consider important? It’s actually the touchpoints that our customers and the customers of our competitors go through, along with the verbatim feedback for the “Why?” and “What would you improve?” NPS follow up questions. We have been tracking all of this for many years and the effective tracking and comparison of the touchpoints and verbatim gives great business insight…
Summary
If our improvements have shown anything, it’s that how much we do listen to, and most importantly action on, our customer feedback. I’m looking forward to us becoming 1st for loyalty leveraging our revolutionary Customer Experience Continual Improvement methodology. Find me on Twitter if you want to talk more…..
