—Can Behavioral WOM Measures Provide Insight into the Net Promoter^© Concept of Customer Loyalty?

We examine the ability of the “Net Promoter” of Morgan and Rego (2006) measure constructed using behavioral word-of-mouth (WOM) data to provide insights into the Net Promoter^© customer loyalty concept popularized by Reichheld (2003), which is indicated by a score constructed using attitudinal “intention-to-recommend” data. We show that despite differences in data and operationalization, the two measures are very closely correlated and behave remarkably similarly when examined relative to a third related variable, customer satisfaction.