Measure your Service

The 2010s was a decade of tremendous growth for Fortis.??But I had a nagging concern during the early years of the decade.??Were we measuring the quality of our service the right way???If so, our growth could be short lived and easily replaced.??Were we receiving the loyalty and engagement we wanted from clients???How could we be sure?

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The first thing we tried was measuring our net promoter score.??This measures the likelihood that someone would promote you to someone else.??The problem was – and is – Fortis principals don’t tend to be referrers, they tend to be guarded about sharing service providers they trust.??I was relieved many years ago to find other companies that serve ultra high net worth clients have the same problem.????Their teams may refer Fortis – they often do – but that’s not the person we are transporting.??We needed to know our rating from the person that pays the bills.??

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We settled on the Gallup survey – CE-11.??It’s eleven questions that measure client engagement.??They steadily get more audacious until the last question – “I can’t imagine a world where Fortis doesn’t exist.”??Principals can agree strongly, agree somewhat, disagree somewhat, or disagree strongly.??It’s an embarrassing question to ask, but Gallup insists all questions must be asked to get an accurate score.??

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The next question – how do we get our principals to fill out a survey???They travel via private jet and use Fortis because their time is very valuable.??They don’t do phone or email surveys.??They have to be caught at the right time in the right way.??Over the years, we’ve partnered with some of our best chauffeurs to get the survey done directly with the principal at just the right time of the ride – and still we only get 1/3 to fill it out!??Even with Ocean’s 11 level planning our CE-11 results are hard to get.?

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Why try so hard to get the surveys done???Why not rely on the principal’s teams to gauge our service???Because it’s the gold standard for us – we need to know how engaged principals are with our service and our brand.??The stakeholders matter, but they aren’t ultimate.??One must know who’s the ultimate judge of the relationship.??And for Fortis, that’s the principal.?

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The survey results provide us a report card.??If our scores track lower, we may need to follow up with certain principals to understand how to improve.??If scores are high, we can confidently continue to grow and know we are growing in the right way.??

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The CE-11 results are even useful to the principal’s teams.??Most of their team members don’t travel with them and sometimes the expectations of the team don’t align with the principal.??Sometimes the team doesn’t know how engaged the principal is with Fortis.??Sharing those results can help get everyone on the same page – helping the principal achieve more.

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Finally, the Gallup results give us a benchmark.??The Fortis marriage of concierge and security in the secure private travel space is unique.??Our CE-11 score allows us to benchmark against luxury hotels, restaurants, resorts.??That level of benchmarking is essential to helping us see ourselves as the principals would.??

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This one number helps keep us from flying blind.??It may help you too.??