Fred Reichheld is the founder of Bain & Company's Loyalty practice, which helps companies achieve results through customer and employee loyalty.

His work in the area of customer and employee retention has quantified the link between loyalty and profits. His previous books, The Loyalty Effect: The Hidden Force Behind Growth, Profits, and Lasting Value (HBSP 1996) and Loyalty Rules! How Today's Leaders Build Lasting Relationships (HBSP 2001), became best sellers. Now, Reichheld is set to unveil his third book, The Ultimate Question, March, 2006.

In The Ultimate Question, Fred reveals that many companies, including GE, Enterprise, Intuit and Dell, have applied this simple metric for measuring customer loyalty. The Net Promoter® Score (NPS) enables companies to differentiate between good profits (created by increasing customer value) and bad profits (earned at the expense of customers). NPS is based on what Fred's research has shown is the "Ultimate Question" for all businesses: "How likely is it that you would recommend this company to a friend or a colleague?"

Fred is a frequent speaker at major business forums and his work has appeared in The Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Financial Times, Fortune, Business Week and The Economist. His most recent byline, "Motivating Through Metrics," appeared in the September issue of Harvard Business Review. Consulting Magazine chose Fred as one of the "25 Most Influential Consultants" in its 2003 annual survey.

He graduated with Honors both from Harvard College (BA, 1974) and Harvard Business School (MBA, 1978)

Topics and trends Fred Reichheld can discuss:

• Why Loyalty Leaders grow revenue at twice the rate of their competitors
• How each negative customer comments neutralizes from three to ten positive NPS points
• How to fix the "delivery gap": Why 80% of companies believe they deliver superior customer service, while only 80% of customers agree
• How a company's "promoters" account for 80 – 90% of positive referrals
• How the airline industry's notorious "loyalty" programs are causing more harm than good to the bottom-line
• Who are the Loyalty Leaders and how can they teach the average company about loyalty?
• Why 80% of the world's top 2000 firms failed to achieve a modest 5% real annual growth in sales over the past decade
• Why the average firm loses 50% of its customers in less than four years
• How the NPS rating is changing the way companies are accounting for "good profits" and long-term growth

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