Using the Net Promoter System Methodology to Deliver Cultural Change in Retail Organisations: Impacting both the Customer and Employee Experience

This study investigates how the Net Promoter Score (NPS) can be developed into a trusted metric within an organisation and expanded into a wider “Net Promoter System” to measure and improve customer loyalty. The study examines how that expanded system is embedded into the culture of an organisation as part of a process of change. The study’s contribution arises from the discrepancy between the extensive corporate use of the NPS as a management tool, and the relatively small pool of academic literature on the subject, especially on its integration into culture.

The empirical material comprises a single holistic case study within a UK Furniture retailer conducted over several years. The research takes a pragmatic approach encompassing positivist and interpretivist approaches to this explanatory case study, which covers the development of the contextual NPS, the surveys that generate it, and its wide adoption and usage to change the operation of the company. Data analysed included all information generated from the NPS surveys, board meeting minutes, committee minutes, training courses, and semi-structured interviews and observations with employees across the organisation. The data was verified both through those meetings and in sessions with senior management to check understanding.

Findings from this thesis describe how it is possible to implement a version of NPS that is robust enough to be integrated wholly into corporate operations, including direct links to remuneration. The thesis suggests that it is the interplay between planned change, emergent change and the leaders and followers of an organisation that lead to the NPS both driving and becoming part of cultural change.

This thesis contributes not only to knowledge but also to practice, as a model is derived from the study to help practitioners to integrate the NPS into their organisational culture as part of a programme to improve customer loyalty.