Organizations looking for the latest quick-fix-cure de jour, guaranteed-to-fix-everything that-ails-the-organization need look no further than the Net Promoter Score (NPS) touted by Frederick F. Reichheld and Bain & Company. Making this silver bullet even more palatable is the fact that it is cheap - all you have to do is get your marketing research department or your current consultant to ask your customers one simple question - "How likely would you be to recommend us to a friend?"
In all fairness Reichheld would say it's not quite that easy and he certainly would not advocate this. But many organizations that give lip service to customers will find this solution to their liking. Most of these companies, if they do gather some sort of customer information, use it simply as a report card, unable or unwilling to use the information to drive operational and strategic initiatives.
Getting the answer to this question may prove valuable to many organizations. However, learning how to manage this number would prove even more valuable.