Why Should Businesses Send NPS Surveys?

After you buy something from a business, you mostly have three reactions based on your purchase experience and satisfaction. A product or a service either makes you so happy that you want to recommend it to others, or it doesn’t suit you enough, so you’ll use it but not recommend it to anyone else. Lastly, if you hate the product or service, you’re discouraged from purchasing it by others as well. 

In 2003, Bain and Company designed NPS to track how likely customers are to recommend a service or a product to others. Today companies send NPS surveys to millions of customers worldwide, and it is regarded as the gold standard customer experience metric. 

These reasons are enough for any large or small business to send NPS Surveys at the earliest. We’ll discuss what NPS is, how NPS can benefit your business, and how to conduct a valuable and effective NPS survey.

Getting To Know The Term “NPS”

The acronym NPS denotes the “Net Promoter Score” of a business. Companies utilize Net Promoter Score (NPS) to get valuable input from customers that can be used to shape company strategy. Unlike other standard customer satisfaction questions, it is believed to be more accurate at gauging customer loyalty.

For instance, you can use it to determine how likely your customers will recommend your products or services to others.

In order to do this, you need to send an NPS Survey with a simple question, “How likely would you recommend [Product X/Service Y, Organisation Z] to a friend or colleague?” 

In the answer box, you’d give respondents the option to choose from 1 (Not likely at all) to 10 (Very Likely). Responses can be categorized into three groups based on their answers.

• First is the group that answered 9 or 10. These people are promoters. They are very likely to recommend your product or service to others and will be loyal to your brand as well. 

• The second group is the people who answered 7 or 8. These people are passives. They would use your service or product, but they are not very likely to recommend it to others. 

• In the end, the third group is the people who answered between 0 to 6. These people are detractors. As the name suggests, this group will discourage others from using your products or services at all. 

RELATED: 8+ NPS Email Tips That Work Like Magic 

What Are The Final Steps In Calculating NPS?

It is simple. By subtracting detractors from promoters, you get the percentage of detractors. 

For instance, in your NPS Survey, you found that 20% of responders are passives, 50% are promoters, and 30% are detractors. To calculate NPS, you will subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters which will be like this:

NPS = 50 – 30 = 20

Your Net Promoter Score will be 20. NPS can range between -100 to 100. The greater the NPS, the better. 

Major Types of NPS Surveys

Generally, NPS surveys fall into two categories:

• Transactional NPS surveys – Transactional NPS surveys are conducted after the customer does some transaction with you or interacts with you. For example, you can ask the customer to rate their experience after a feedback call. 

• Relational NPS surveys – Relational NPS surveys are done quarterly or annually to check the overall customer sentiment about your company. But while conducting NPS surveys, you should make sure that a substantial number of people participate in your NPS surveys. 

Thus, it is crucial to send NPS surveys strategically and with a clear objective in mind.

How Businesses Benefit From Sending The NPS Surveys

Getting customer feedback

If you have a large base of customers, then collecting detailed feedback forms and processing them can be a huge hassle. In contrast, NPS surveys let you see how your customers are interacting with your business and what comments they leave. 

You can, for instance, check what the most common problems detractors face are and what the features or services promoters like best. This will help you know the issues are well are future opportunities for your business to grow.

Track performance

There are many ways to track the growth of your business. But nothing is more effective than NPS. Getting your business off the ground starts after you’ve sold a product. Monitoring your customer’s happiness is essential. Eventually, you can track performance as you collect NPS data one month after another. 

Make improvements

If your NPS score decreases over time, it is a wake-up call for you to make improvements in your product or service. It is also helpful to analyze what pain points detractors are experiencing by analyzing their comments.

Make data-backed decisions

Every day brings with it a new round of decisions when running a business. Some of these choices may turn out to be incorrect, while others will prove to be appropriate. You want to maximize the proportion of correct decisions you make while minimizing the number of mistakes you make.

Decisions supported by data almost never backfire. If you send out an NPS Survey and then study the results, you can decide whether to remove a feature or add a new one.

RELATED: Promote Your Business with the Net Promoter Score

Tips To Conduct Fruitful NPS Surveys

Now that we know why it is crucial to conduct NPS surveys, let’s look at how to send NPS surveys effectively.

Time It Right

Responses to an NPS Survey vary across time. Your customers will be more able to answer your questions if you send NPS surveys after they’ve had a chance to interact with your product or service. 

As soon as that time passes, customers will forget how they felt, and you won’t be able to get good-quality responses. Send transactional NPS surveys right after customers interact with your service or product to ensure you get the best response. 

Keep it Short

The best practice is to limit your questions in an NPS survey to 1-2. Don’t ask more than two questions because if you ask more, the respondents won’t be willing to answer all of them.

Ask Easy Close-Ended Questions

Your questions in NPS Surveys should be easy to understand and close-ended. Customers should be able to provide an answer to the question with the options you have provided. Don’t use confusing language, and keep it to the point.

Test on a Smaller Sample Size

We recommend piloting NPS surveys with a small sample size before rolling them out to a wider audience. Observe how well they grasp the material and respond. Sending out NPS surveys to a small sample of consumers beforehand will show any issues with the survey’s structure or questions.

Add an incentive for respondents

Respondents can be enticed with discounts, special offers, rebates, etc. Respondents’ likelihood of taking part will increase as a result. In the end, you can add a note of gratitude to the respondents.

Conclusion

You may learn a great deal about customer happiness and loyalty from the data provided by the Net Promoter Score. Make better decisions about your products and services based on this information, and show your consumers how much you value them.

Determine the percentage of your target market: Detractors, Passives, and Promoters. Put the data to use in making choices that will have long-term effects on your customer’s perception of your company. Use Net Promoter Score (NPS) to boost customer satisfaction, retention, and advocacy.