The Data Is In: Happy Customers and Happy Employees Are Mutually Reinforcing

Our LinkedIn #bigideas2022 gets a boost from data from Glassdoor and NPS Prism.

By Fred Reichheld, Darci Darnell, and Maureen Burns

min read


This article originally appeared on LinkedIn. In December 2021, we were looking ahead to 2022, and we decided that our big idea for the new year would be a universal truth that current Covid-19 circumstances have made especially resonant: Only your customers can make your employees truly happy. We started our #bigideas2022 write-up with the story of an associate at the Apple Store in Boston who shared with us that when she receives a top review from a customer, “It makes me feel like I’m living the right life.” Getting a perfect 10 is like a standing ovation for customer service, and nothing has remained so rewarding for frontline employees over the past two years, during which they have dealt with more than their fair share of extreme customer behavior. Stated simply, happy customers make employees happy. They are the best motivation possible. Net Promoter System℠ Customer Love Customer love blooms with purpose-driven leadership. Meet some of the executives inspiring their teams to lead with love. The connection between happy workers and happy customers became clear again recently when Glassdoor published its 2022 list of the best places to work. Eleven of the 100 companies on the Glassdoor list are also tracked by NPS Prism, and of those, all but one have strong customer Net Promoter Scores. (NPS Prism benchmarks companies in certain industries based on their Net Promoter Scores, a measure of how likely a customer is to recommend a company to a friend or relative.) Take grocery stores, for example. Four grocers made it onto the Glassdoor top 100 based on their current and former employee ratings: Trader Joe’s is at No. 32, H-E-B at 33, Wegmans at 80, and Costco at 93. All four have likewise built exceptionally strong relationships with customers. According to NPS Prism, H-E-B has the highest customer NPS in the industry. Costco is No. 2, Wegmans is No. 3, and Trader Joe’s is No. 5. (Costco also has the best NPS among warehouse clubs.) Read the full write-up of our findings in “Love, Love Me Do: New Data Proves the Value of Customer Love.” Order the Bain Book Winning on Purpose: The Unbeatable Strategy of Loving Customers A new book by Fred Reichheld, Maureen Burns, and Darci Darnell all about delighting customers. Available now. Subscribe to the Customer Obsession newsletter on LinkedIn

This article originally appeared on LinkedIn.

In December 2021, we were looking ahead to 2022, and we decided that our big idea for the new year would be a universal truth that current Covid-19 circumstances have made especially resonant: Only your customers can make your employees truly happy.

We started our #bigideas2022 write-up with the story of an associate at the Apple Store in Boston who shared with us that when she receives a top review from a customer, “It makes me feel like I’m living the right life.” Getting a perfect 10 is like a standing ovation for customer service, and nothing has remained so rewarding for frontline employees over the past two years, during which they have dealt with more than their fair share of extreme customer behavior. Stated simply, happy customers make employees happy. They are the best motivation possible.

Net Promoter System℠

Customer Love

Customer love blooms with purpose-driven leadership. Meet some of the executives inspiring their teams to lead with love.

The connection between happy workers and happy customers became clear again recently when Glassdoor published its 2022 list of the best places to work. Eleven of the 100 companies on the Glassdoor list are also tracked by NPS Prism, and of those, all but one have strong customer Net Promoter Scores. (NPS Prism benchmarks companies in certain industries based on their Net Promoter Scores, a measure of how likely a customer is to recommend a company to a friend or relative.)

Take grocery stores, for example. Four grocers made it onto the Glassdoor top 100 based on their current and former employee ratings: Trader Joe’s is at No. 32, H-E-B at 33, Wegmans at 80, and Costco at 93. All four have likewise built exceptionally strong relationships with customers. According to NPS Prism, H-E-B has the highest customer NPS in the industry. Costco is No. 2, Wegmans is No. 3, and Trader Joe’s is No. 5. (Costco also has the best NPS among warehouse clubs.)

Read the full write-up of our findings in “Love, Love Me Do: New Data Proves the Value of Customer Love.”