Why Mindshare? - Glossary

 

"Ultimate Question":

Some consultants suggest that customer feedback can be simplified down to asking only one question of the customer.  (This method is often used in conjunction with an aggressive method of scoring called The Net Promoter Score1.)  This "Ultimate Question" approach attempts to make customer feedback extremely simplistic, thereby appealing to the masses.  The idea is that you only need to know your customer's answer to one single question to find out how well you're doing (the question is usually some version of "Would you recommend us to a friend?")

However, there are no shortcuts in gathering customer feedback.  Asking only one question will provide you with only one answer.  It doesn't probe any specific need areas.  Instead, you should ask enough diagnostic questions to determine actions you should be taking to improve. (Imagine going to the doctor and asking him to diagnose your condition based on only one question.)  You should ask the "Would you recommend us..." question, just don't believe that that is the ONLY question you should ask.

1Net Promoter, NPS, and Net Promoter Score are trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., Satmetrix Systems, Inc. and Frederick Reichheld