ThePaperboard Packaging Councilis a leading trade association serving suppliers of folding cartons and other forms of paper-based packaging, such as laminated small flute cartons, cylinders and rigid setup boxes. Members include converters of packaging, as well as suppliers of equipment and materials used in the converting process. PPC's stated mission is to (1) grow, promote and protect the paperboard packaging industry, and (2) provide member companies with tools to compete effectively in the marketplace. To learn more, call PPC at 703-836-3300 or visit http://www.ppcnet.org/.

Loyalty Index Added to 2008 Customer Satisfaction Survey

PPC has long been known for industry-focused performance metrics on all areas of management (sales, costs, waste, inventory, safety, profitability, etc.). Member companies participate in surveys that allow performance comparisons to aggregated data for peer groups and the industry as a whole. One of the most popular areas of survey is the Customer Satisfaction Survey (CSS), which will be conducted again in 2008 by the Kenexa research firm. This is the fourth edition of the biannual survey.

At its recent meeting in Chicago, the Industry Information Committee approved launch of the CSS by late summer. This year's survey will incorporate two new metrics of note: a "Loyalty Index" and a "Net Promoter Score" (NPS).

The loyalty measure is a combination of customer responses on overall satisfaction, intent to do further business, and willingness to recommend. This last is the NPS, which is derived from the one question that is considered the best predictor of customer loyalty: How likely is it that you would recommend (Company X) to a friend or colleague? The "net score" is simply the percentage of customers whose answers identify them as promoters, minus the percentage whose response indicates they are detractors. Comparable to a financial net worth that takes the assets minus the liabilities, the NPS provides a customer net worth by subtracting the liabilities (detractors) from the assets (promoters). NPS is believed to be the single most reliable indicator of a company's ability to grow.

"We're really excited by the new metrics," says Committee Chair Mark Hopkinson, cfo of Artistic Carton. "We're all very busy these days, and always on the lookout for quick and reliable ways to find where we stand on competitive performance. We look for trend lines on our historic results to make sure we continually improve, and we look to benchmarking of the industry to set stretch goals. The new Loyalty Index will be very useful."

CSS discussions at the Annual Meeting April 2 were followed by a conference call in mid-April with prospective participating member companies. Kenexa is offering an a la carte approach to services in this survey round, including a webinar on how to best use results in building customer business and ways in which the CSS can be used in 360-degree performance reviews with sales and support staff.

Better Than Last Year Order Volumes up in February

Data presented in PPC's February Market Flash report, the most recent available, show dramatic increases in volume over last year.

See chart, below, of year-over-year carton shipments. This monthly survey of member companies for order backlogs, shipments, and inventory flows reveals that 2008 is starting out to be significantly better than 2007.

While this "better than last year" take on current performance is heartening, we recall that the period from summer of 2006 through the first quarter of 2007 was relatively soft as shown on the chart. More optimistic printer converters are apt to see the current year-over-year increases in sales as signs of improvement in end-use markets for later in 2008.

Market Flash survey participants are urged to study detailed charts and summaries in the reports for more insights. Members attending the PPC Annual Spring Meeting in New Orleans received an in-depth analysis and commentary on these results by both PPC Chairman-Elect Tony Petrelli, president of CardPak, and Mark Wilde of Deutsche Bank.