“What is measured improves.” – Peter Drucker

We all know measurement drives improvement. Want to get fat? Just wear sweatpants for a month and avoid the scale. For most of us, our appetites (left unchecked) will drive our bodies to places they shouldn’t go.

Want to spend more than you should? Live your life on credit cards and without a budget. Most of us will naturally spend beyond what we make. It’s unfortunate, but our natural tendencies left unchecked generally result in bad long-term outcomes.

That is why measurement is required for excellence in life and business. But why is it such a pain to establish a measurement system at work?

Because establishing a measurement system is not an urgent need. Sure, we want our monthly financial statements, but often wait 15-30 days for those after the end of each month. And that information is merely a history report.

What about measuring the leading indicators that drive your financial success? That is where most organizations fail, but where you can excel.

We’ve discussed in multiple columns the incredible return on investment of creating raving fan customers. But how, as a busy leader, can you ensure your customers are being treated well and served with excellence? You don’t have the time to speak with every customer and watching your workers every time they interact with clients is impractical. What can you do?

You can quickly and easily create a measurement tool that will let you know if your employees are creating raving fan customers.

The simplest, easiest and most effective tool I have found is the Net Promoter Score, also known as The Ultimate Question – as noted in the book by the same name. In our numerous columns on the return on investment of customer excellence, we’ve pointed to the dramatic increases in revenue and profitability most firms experience when their Net Promoter Score is higher than their competitors.

Let me give you four reasons you should implement a Net Promoter System in your organization.

It Works: As we’ve discussed in numerous columns, the return on investment from increasing your Net Promoter Score is measurable and well worth the effort.

It’s Simple: How many requests to fill out surveys do you ignore daily? From the survey at the bottom of each receipt to the email in your inbox, customers are tired of being surveyed.

It takes too long and we see too little tangible benefit from our effort. Offering your customers a one or two question survey that can be taken easily from a smartphone will help entice your customers to respond. Telling your customers what you’ve done with the data will close the loop and create customers that love you and your business.

The Net Promoter Score is also something you can do yourself or (preferably) hire someone to do for you at a very low cost. You don’t need a team of consultants to interpret the results. Determine your score by customer segment and compare it to your competition. Take action to improve your scores. Measure and repeat – pretty simple.

Benchmarks: Having a great Net Promoter Score can be a big feather in your organization’s cap and make everyone in the organization feel great about the work you do for your customers. But you will still get your tail handed to you in the marketplace if your competitors have a higher score. It’s proven that the return on having a high score is not in the score itself, but in the score as compared to your competitors.

If you have three dry cleaners to choose from on your way to work, you’ll chose the one that creates the most value for you. Value creation is what the Net Promoter measures. Your score must stay higher than your competitors to win.

The Net Promoter Score is a widely used system and benchmarks are available in most industries. Companies like Southwest Airlines, Apple, Chick-fil-A and Vanguard all use it. If benchmarks are not available in your industry and geography, you can quickly run a Net Promoter survey on your competitors.

It’s Cheap: While the cost of starting and continuing a Net Promoter system in your organization is a factor in the return we discussed earlier, there is a bigger reason cost matters. It is called friction. If the cost and effort required to start a customer excellence system in your organization is too great, it will never happen. That is why cheap and easy matters!

I could easily show most organizations how spending $100k on a system like the Net Promoter is well worth the cost, but could most small business owners get over the cost hurdle? Not many.

Once you get started using a system like the Net Promoter, you will quickly wonder how you ever operated your organization without it. But you’ll never know that feeling if I can’t convince you to start. That is why cost and simplicity are huge benefits of the system.

Are you ready to get started?

Curt Fowler is an organizational growth expert and president of Fowler & Company, a business advisory firm dedicated to helping leaders create and achieve a compelling vision for their organization. He has an MBA in strategy and entrepreneurship from the Kellogg School, is a CPA, and a pretty good guy as defined by his wife and four children.

Have a business growth topic you’d like me to cover? Send suggestions to cfowler@valuesdrivenresults.com.