Looking for a quick guide to Net Promoter Score? You’ve found it. This little guide will give you all the basics.
Many brands today still resort to long customer service surveys to show their customers that they value their feedback, but what they aren’t showing is that they value their client’s time.
Now, be honest, how many times have you deleted an email because it demanded too much of your time? Probably many. As a result, response rates for these lengthy surveys leave results often only minimally viable.
Hence, the evolution into the age of the Net Promoter Score.
The Net Promoter Score does a great job with helping vendors begin to understand their customers and starting meaningful feedback dialogues. The survey is simple. It’s one question: How likely is it that you would recommend [your company] to a friend or colleague?
It offers key insight into how the customer feels about your product or service. When a person recommends something, they’re essentially attaching their name to it. They’re vouching for its efficacy or authenticity. That sort of action isn’t taken lightly. Therefore, knowing the likelihood that one will recommend your brand can often serve as proxy for customer satisfaction. Even if it does not, the question operates as an ice breaker that gets the customer talking — giving feedback.
As a side note we we’ve written a comprehensive post comparing the best NPS software we could find.
This scoring system attempts to categorize your customers into groups: promoters, neutrals and detractors. Understanding these groups of clients will be key to moving forward with advocate marketing.
A typical NPS scale may appear similar to this.
Through a simple 0-to-10 point rating scale, you can easily categorize your clients based on their responses. With all of these confusing numbers, we’ve taken the liberty to make sense of this big number game, with some help from a few friends.
Promoters (9-10)
These clients are excited about what you’re doing, see real benefits, and would probably love to refer your company to a friend. They’re your most valuable assets for growth so be sure to foster these relationships. With a little nudge, these clients might be willing to do something as simple as retweet a recent blog post, or even speak at one of your next events.
Passives (7-8)
These clients may still be digging you in the sense that they feel that they are getting what they pay for, but they’re susceptible to competitors. They might need to see more before they’re fully impressed, but now you can catch them before they walk away.
Detractors (0–6)
While you may have some huge fans of your work, some might still not see the true value. These clients pose a threat to your brand image and have potential for negative word-of-mouth. Now that you know there’s an issue, use this opportunity to improve your customer service. Also bear in mind that perception is reality. Even if you’ve held up your end of the bargain, if your customer is unhappy then you still have a problem to solve. Rather than falling back on rules and policy, treat this as an opportunity to surprise and delight your customer and find a way to intelligently offer them further assistance without overcommitting yourself. Deep down, they’ll know that you did them a solid and may just nudge them out of detractor territory.
Using your Net Promoter Score can help scale your business by tracking your client success and identifying necessary improvements. By mobilizing your top advocates and building additional promoters with reactive measures, your company has the valuable opportunity to fuel growth through positive word-of-mouth. And best of all? All of this valuable insight takes the client almost no time at all.
So when your happiest clients help you close that next sale, go ahead and give yourself a nice pat on the back for being a part of this great era for client engagement.
A Quick Guide to Net Promoter Score was originally published on the Trustfuel blog as Understanding Net Promoter Score.