Category: Experts Talk

Net Promoter Score (NPS): the “holy grail” of Customer Experience (CX metrics). If you are not familiar with it, its pros and cons and ways to incorporate it into your customer satisfaction strategy, you only need to keep reading.

What is Net Promoter Score (NPS)?

Net Promoter Score is the most used CX metric and measures the willingness of consumers to recommend your product/brand/service to someone they know. It gauges your potential word of mouth (WOM) and it is also employed when you need to check whether your customers are becoming loyal to your brand or can be categorized as passives or even detractors.

How do you measure NPS?

The main question on an NPS survey is along the following lines:

Based on their answers, survey respondents can fit into 3 different categories:

• Promoters (Score: 9 or 10)
• Passives (Scores: 7 or 8)
• Detractors (Score: 0 – 6)

By subtracting the percentage of detractors from that of promoters you get your Net Promoter Score.

% Promoters – % Detractors = Net Promoter Score

What is considered a “good” Net Promoter Score?

Net Promoter Scores range from -100 to +100, and what is considered ‘good,’ ‘bad,’ or ‘neutral’ can vary greatly across industries. Some count a positive score (i.e. any score over 0) as good, since it shows some customer loyalty and customer satisfaction. But to be more specific, in the e-commerce world a score of 50 or higher is generally considered a very good NPS score. 

Various factors, such as the time you send an NPS survey, can influence not only your final score but also your surveys’ response rate.

What are the Pros & Cons of NPS? 

There are many myths surrounding NPS, but as is the case with other metrics like Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) and Customer Effort Scores (CES), one thing is true: NPS cannot be regarded as your only solution for gathering and analyzing customer feedback. It should be combined with other metrics and strategies that should work together with the aim of offering your customers the best possible level of satisfaction.

That being said, let’s move on to the best and not so good aspects of NPS:

NPS Pros (+)

• It is a simple, easy to compare index that measures the brand’s efficiency and not just the satisfaction from a single transaction. 
• It employs a clear and specific wording. There are no double meanings or misunderstandings for the customer when asked to answer. 
• Its measuring is straightforward. NPS is easy to calculate, even without any prior statistical knowledge.
• It is easy to implement through all survey channels (phone, online, SMS).
• NPS results may act as the trigger for further investigation of a negative score or as a reminder to apply engagement actions.
• NPS is an indicator that can enhance internal communication and corporate culture. It can form the basis of a common -measurable- goal equally understood by all departments,
• It has been proven to be one of the best indicators of loyalty as the customer puts his own reputation on the line when he/she refers a product or service to a peer.

NPS Cons (-)

• NPS is by no means a cure-all when it comes to all the customer-related problems that brand is probably facing.
• NPS surveys need to incorporate open-end questions so that respondents will be able to justify their score.
• It can become a cause for considerable fireback if customers realize that a brand takes no action even after they have provided their feedback.
• Its measuring method is a bit more complicated compared to those of CSAT and CES.

Setting up and running an NPS survey is a great first step towards using customer feedback to your advantage. And with the right tool, the whole process can be streamlined so you can really grasp the power of listening to your customers’ voice.

If you’re expecting a… battle of the CX metrics to get to the winner, well this is not the right article for you! Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Effort Score (CES) and Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) are three different metrics that do three different jobs, so it’s no use pitting them against each other. 

So, let’s examine them one by one in an effort to clear any misconceptions and help you be sure that you use the right metric for your objectives and purposes.

Net Promoter Score (NPS): Where do you stand in terms of “Word of Mouth”?

What is NPS? NPS is the most popular CX metric and measures the willingness of consumers to recommend your product/brand/service to someone they know. 

What is the standard NPS survey question? “On a scale from 0-10, how likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?”

What is NPS good for? NPS is perfect when you want to segment your customers into promoters, passives and detractors and to use this segmentation to personalize the content that each will receive in the future in an effort to enhance their experiences with your brand. 

+NPS Tip:  Incorporate open-end questions in your NPS surveys so that respondents will be able to justify their score and provide you with a better understanding of what makes them like or dislike your products/brand/service.

Customer Effort Score (CES): Are you “too much work” or “easy breezy”?

What is CES? CES measures how easy or difficult it is for customers to get involved with your brand or products.

What is the standard CES survey question? “How easy was it for you to (e.g. complete your transaction)?” 

What is CES good for? CES provides more accurate future loyalty predictions than the other two metrics since it is well documented that customers with high effort experiences with a brand become disloyal.

+CES Tip:  Use CES surveys to pinpoint the “high effort” points in your customer journeys and see what changes can make things easier for your audience.

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): Satisfaction guaranteed or is there more to be desired?

What is CSAT? CSAT is a popular metric that tracks how satisfied customers are with their experiences with a brand, product or service.

What is the standard CSAT survey question? “How satisfied were you with our product?” 

What is CSAT good for? CSAT helps you separate satisfied from unsatisfied customers and discover your strong and weak points and come up with ways to enhance the former and fix the latter and boost engagement and retention.

+CSAT Tip:  Share the results of CSAT surveys with employees in different departments of your brand and brainstorm ideas on how to improve customer satisfaction in a holistic way that your audience will definitely appreciate.

So, which CX metric is the best?

As stated in this article’s introduction, comparing the three metrics to come up with the one considered “best” is a waste of time and effort. Instead, we believe that metrics synergy is the key to success when it comes to improving your customer experience, collecting valuable feedback and making your audience feel heard and esteemed. Opt for a platform, like e-satisfaction.com, that helps you incorporate NPS, CES and CSAT surveys into your strategy and let them work their magic into shining a light on what your customers want and see the results this can bring to your customer loyalty and revenue.

November 27th has come and gone and we hope that it has been an opportunity for you to gain new customers, see others return to you and make a significant increase in your sales. 

Black Friday 2020 might be over but your efforts to boost customer satisfaction, engagement and retention can now begin! 

All you have to do is to try some tried and trusted practices and capitalize on the Black Friday-generated buzz and the upcoming holiday shopping season:

• Collect and analyze all the Black Friday-generated raw data and feedback. This analysis will not only provide valuable insights on how to be better prepared for Black Fridays to come, but it will also highlight any need for fine-tunings that should be implemented regardless of whether a sales period is looming.
• Send an ad hoc survey to your Black Friday customers as a means to engage them and generate data. The survey can include questions concerning the evaluation of the buying process, a prompt for google reviews, an invitation for recipients to leave a product review or an incentive -in the form of a reward or a significant benefit- for the customers to repurchase during January and February, a period that sales tend to be on the low side. 
• Black Friday shopping means impulsive purchases for a lot of people, so it is natural if some of them change their minds and wish to return their products. Make sure that your return policy does not “punish” them and deters them from ever coming back to your brand. A simple return process can boost customers’ trust, as showcased by two interesting statistics from Return Magic:

– 72% of consumers said they would spend more and buy more often with merchants that make the return experience simple.

– 89% of repeat customers who had a good return experience are likely to buy again.

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Are you ready for some action? Before you begin, we have something that will come handy in your efforts. Download our free Black Friday eBook to find all the practices mentioned above in printable, checklist form!