Kaizo hires LSE research specialist to further enhance WOM services

Alain Samson has joined Kaizo to spearhead the consultancy’s innovative ‘active listening’ services. Samson will work alongside Crispin Manners to help clients to deliver business growth by increasing their recommendation rates.

Samson is a specialist in the use of the Net Promoter Score (NPS)* – the world-class metric developed by Bain & Company – that identifies the recommendability of a product, service or brand. Kaizo has embedded NPS as its foundation research technique as part of a suite of services that turns clients into ‘active listening’ organisations.

Manners, said: “Web 2.0 has turned marketing on its head. Organisations are being forced to change from telling to listening and allowing their customers to do the talking for them. Alain’s research expertise and strengths in social psychology mean we can give our clients an important edge.

“Active listening represents a totally new approach to engaging with audiences and arms our clients with the insight and the relationships to succeed in a Web 2.0 world. Hiring Alain signals our intent to be the pre-eminent resource for clients who are intent on using Word-of-Mouth to their advantage.”

Samson has previous experience as a market research consultant and psychologist with a specialisation in consumer attitudes and behaviour, particularly Word-of-Mouth (WOM). He has been affiliated with the London School of Economics since 2003, where he has worked as a researcher, statistics teacher and consultant, through Enterprise LSE.

Samson said: “It is exciting to be part of a company that gets why NPS is such a powerful business tool. I have been very impressed at how Kaizo is using NPS to make clients understand the power of recommendations and what can be done to increase recommendability.”

Samson’s publications include ‘Understanding the Buzz that Matters: Negative versus Positive Word of Mouth’ (International Journal of Market Research, 2006), ‘Advocacy Drives Growth’ (Brand Strategy, 2005), as well as various scholarly articles in the behavioural sciences. Alain holds a BA from UC Berkeley, an MA from the University of Michigan and is a doctoral candidate at the LSE’s Institute of Social Psychology.
*Net Promoter is a new business metric that measures levels of customer advocacy. It is a registered trademark of Satmetrix Systems, Inc., Bain & Company and Fred Reichheld. For more information about NPS visit: www.netpromoter.com.