CEOs regularly announce ambitious growth targets, then fail to achieve them. The reason? Their growing addiction to bad profits. These corporate steroids boost short-term earnings but alienate customers. They undermine growth by creating legions of detractors—customers who complain loudly about the company and switch to competitors at the earliest opportunity.

Now loyalty expert Fred Reichheld shows how to reverse the equation, turning customers into promoters who generate good profits and true, sustainable growth. The key: one simple question that tracks promoters and detractors and produces a clear, easy-to-understand measure of an organization’s performance in its customers’ eyes. Bain & Company analysis shows that sustained value creators—companies that achieve long-term profitable growth—have Net Promoter Scores two times higher than the average company. And NPS (SM) leaders outgrow their competitors in most industries—by an average of 2.5 times.

Based on extensive research, The Ultimate Question shows how companies can rigorously measure Net Promoter statistics, help managers learn to improve them, and create communities of passionate advocates that stimulate innovation. Stories of leading-edge organizations, including GE, Intuit, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and HomeBanc, illustrate how the ideas work in practice.

Practical and compelling, this is the one book—and the one tool—no growth-minded leader can afford to miss.