the one number you need to grow

i read this article a couple of years ago and just stumbled over it again while searching for something else with my indispensable google desktop search. so it’s not brandnew but still newsworthy and i wanted to share it with you.

frederick reichheld wrote this article about customer loyalty called “the one number you need to grow” in the year 2003. after years of research for his book “the loyalty effect” he discovered that one question as the strongest indicator of revenue growth.

“how likely is it that you would recommend our company to a friend or colleague?”

when customers were asked to rate this question on a scale of zero to 10, reichheld discovered that those offering a nine or 10 ranking, known as “promoters,” showed the strongest correlation of repurchase and referral rates, while those with a ranking of six or below