Hi there,

Since implementing the Account Experience methodology and software, global logistics provider DHL Supply Chain has seen a 10+ point increase in NPS® and a significant improvement in average account renewal success.

In a recent podcast episode, Markus Engel (who was promoted to VP CDO Performance Management at DHL in part thanks to this success 🎉) walked us through the four steps critical to DHL’s CX success:

1. Get early buy-in from senior management
2. Shift away from old approaches to collecting customer feedback
3. Improve survey response rates and close the loop fast
4. Tie the CXM program to revenue growth outcomes

Each of these steps have crucial lessons within them, so in this week’s email let’s take a look at how DHL approached each one:

1. Get early buy-in from senior management

From the beginning, Markus Engel, VP of Sales Performance, made sure the program had a strong endorsement from senior management. 

DHL’s CEO, John Gilbert, mentions the program in company-wide meetings and he even calls customers.

This was critical to success because the culture cascaded down. His endorsement ensured CXM was mentioned in every board meeting and regional business revenue meetings.

We note in our guide to Account Experience that organizational buy-in is a key reason why B2B CX programs fail, and we see it time and again. Lay these foundations first, folks!

2. Shift away from old approaches to collecting customer feedback

DHL’s old process was built around conducting 40-minute phone interviews with only the most important customers. It took almost 4 months to finish the interviews and even longer to follow up on the feedback 🤯.

That meant their customer feedback was less timely, less relevant and less actionable.

Based on our best practice recommendations, DHL shifted to quarterly NPS surveys with an immediate follow-up process.

They focused on achieving transparency with customers regularly, so they were quickly aware of changes in sentiment when issues arose.

3. Improve survey response rates and closing the loop fast

Survey response rates are a leading indicator of customer health; If your customers aren’t bothering to leave you feedback, it’s likely that they’re disengaged and a churn risk.

DHL knew this. Together we put processes in place that increased their NPS survey response rates to an unbelievable 60%.

Those processes include:

• Slowly adding new contacts within each customer account each quarter—around 200-300 additional contacts were nominated by DHL’s customer success team to be included each quarter.
• Closing the loop with 100% of NPS detractors within 48 hours—CX reps ensure that low scoring customers have an effective response quickly, feedback is routed to the right team and senior managers follow up themselves. If the revenue is deemed high value, C-level executives have been known to pick up the phone and close the loop, too.
• Closing the loop with every survey respondent within 7 days. Automation and an easy-to-use management tool ensure that everyone has clear communication, a motivating factor behind completing the survey next time.

4. Tie your CXM program to revenue growth outcomes

We already talked about how DHL invested their time in getting internal buy-in. An important part of that is understanding their CXM program outcomes.

DHL segmented their customers into those actively participating in their NPS surveys and those who aren’t, and they discovered that the CXM program led to higher than average renewal success.

The direct link to growth allowed them to focus on increasing the program’s coverage globally with full support of senior management teams.

Got questions? We look at how others are building a world-class experience program in our NPS Benchmarks report, including 25 case studies!