Today it would not be an exaggeration to say that Formaspace is the go-to resource for companies that use technical and laboratory furniture. We are rapidly becoming known as the it brandso much so that our furniture is on the Discovery Channel, ABCs Greys Anatomy, in NASAs mission control center in Houston, and will soon be seen on the sets of more than one major motion picture. Many people import furniture from China: Ours is in sufficient demand that we send it the other way. Because I am a former product manager, this last exchange really hit home. When I served in this role at Progressive Insurance Company, before we turned fully toward a customer orientation, we too were sprouting competitors. Nearly all of Progressives early competition came from former Progressive product managers and executives who simply copied the Progressive rate books and undercut the prices.

Whether its extreme price sensitivity (technically referred to as high elasticity) such as was the case at Progressive, or poor quality or bad service, negative factors like these are invitations to more competition and lower margins. Formaspace engaged its customers, turned high quality to its advantage, and put itselfin brand-speakon a different ladder. To learn more about Formaspaceand to see the great products they

com. As an important note, the Net Promoter may not be for everyone (see sidebar), nor is it the only metric available to you (although if you had to choose only one, it would be a very good choice). Instead, the Net Promoter Score is a great place to start if you dont have a central dashboard or other in-place methodology for measuring suc- cess, as it provides an understandable basis for linking the experiences you create in the marketplace with your organization as a whole, where these experiences are (largely) created. Obviously, there are other metrics that may be specifi cally applicable to your business or simply a better cultural fi t within your organization. One way or another, however, a metric or set of metrics that link your businessas a causewith the con- versations and customer behaviors you observe on the Social Web is fundamental to

The Net Promoter Scoreor your preferred equivalentprovides a quantitative assessment through which you can capture and track the degree to which your custom- ers will sing your praises. In a marketing environment that is increasingly driven by trust in others like me and more so the recommendations of people who are known, the Net Promoter Score stands as a central social metric. Again, is the Net Promoter Score perfect for all situations? Of course not. What single metric is? That said, adopting the Net Promoter Score and supporting methodol- ogy pays big benefi ts: It creates a consistent, trackable metric that can be presented and placed into