“We had more than 1000 answers in one day using Survicate's NPS surveys. We redirected those who gave us 9 or 10 to leave a rating online. We went from 4.2 to 4.8 on Trustpilot.”
Robin Tussiot
CRM Manager at Kard
EFFORTLESS SURVEYS
Run multi-channel customer feedback surveys in a snap
“Survicate integration capabilities are great and that’s a big part of the appeal. And the platform itself is very innovative and it’s so easy to set up surveys.”
“The targeting aspect of product surveys, the number of question types to choose and customizable attributes make Survicate the best survey tool I've ever used.”
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is one of the best ways to measure customer satisfaction with your brand. Although the NPS metric is fairly easy to collect and analyze, you need to adhere to some rules to make sure the NPS data you gather is accurate.
In this article, you will learn about NPS best practices for 2023, so you can dive into data collection fearlessly.
From following up with your respondents to using other metrics, read on for actionable tips and strategies to enhance your NPS programs and achieve your customer satisfaction goals.
Table of contents
1. Understand the basics of NPS surveys and what they can do for your business
The NPS survey is a valuable tool as it provides a clear picture of customer loyalty and satisfaction. By understanding how customers perceive their experience with your company, product, or service, you can make informed decisions about how to improve and grow.
However, the first step is to understand what the NPS score means for your business and what you can do with it. You can benefit from knowing the metric in the following ways:
Identify areas for improvement: NPS surveys provide you with a clear measure of customer satisfaction and loyalty, allowing you to identify areas where improvements can be made. For example, if you have a high percentage of NPS detractors, you can investigate the reasons behind the low score and make targeted improvements to address the issues.
Increase customer retention: By identifying your most loyal customers thanks to the NPS metric, you can focus on retaining those customers and turning them into brand advocates. This can be done through targeted marketing campaigns, loyalty programs, or personalized customer experiences.
Improve customer service: Net Promoter Score can be used as a tool to measure the effectiveness of customer service. By tracking NPS for customer service interactions, you can identify areas where customer service can be improved and provide targeted training to customer service representatives.
Monitor competitor performance: NPS can be used as a benchmark to compare against industry standards and competitors. By tracking NPS for competitors, you’ll be able to identify areas where you need to improve to stay competitive.
2. Set a benchmark and track progress
There are two basic types of NPS benchmarks: internal NPS benchmarks (your own NPS data collected over time) and external NPS benchmarks (the average scores of various companies in your industry).
One of the first steps to evaluating your performance should be to establish an internal baseline score and track progress over time. You should also check how you compare to the Net Promoter Score benchmarks for your industry, for instance by referring to Survicate’s NPS Benchmarks Report.
However, do not compare NPS benchmarks across different industries or companies, as customer expectations vary.
3. Use open-ended questions to gain insights
While the NPS score provides a quick snapshot of customer sentiment, it is important to gather more detailed customer feedback to identify areas for improvement. Ask an open-ended question to get the respondent to elaborate on their choice of score.
For this purpose, you can use this template with a follow-up question:
4. Analyze your data to uncover insights and find opportunities for improvement
To get the most out of NPS, you need to analyze the data you collect and act upon it. For instance, if your customers are consistently giving you low scores, take steps to find out why. You could ask an additional question in your NPS survey, send another survey, and or follow up via email to get more context.
5. Actively follow up with customers
Following up with customers who have provided feedback is important to show that their opinions are valued. It also provides an opportunity to address any issues they may have had and improve their experience.
Once you’ve got their responses, you can, for instance
provide updates to let the customers know how their feedback helped you improve your product or service and close the feedback loop at the same time;
offer a reward in the form of freebies, vouchers, gift cards, or access to special product features;
share the results of the survey with your customers;
implement the changes requested by the customers, if relevant, and let them know about it.
Following up shows your customers that you care about building relationships, appreciate their feedback, and that they matter to you. It also goes a long way toward building a customer-centric culture at your organization.
6. Use NPS surveys in combination with other metrics
Net Promoter Score is a valuable metric for measuring customer loyalty and satisfaction, but it is not the only metric you should be using to understand your customers.
In fact, NPS works best when used alongside other metrics that provide a more comprehensive view of the customer experience.
Customer Effort Score (CES), which measures the ease of completing a specific task or interaction. This metric is particularly useful for businesses that have a self-service component, such as online retailers or subscription services. By measuring CES alongside NPS and CSAT, you can identify areas where customers are struggling and make improvements to reduce customer effort and increase satisfaction.
Retention rate, which measures the percentage of customers who continue to do business with you over a specific period of time. By measuring retention rate alongside the NPS score, you can gain a better understanding of how customer loyalty is impacting your bottom line and make targeted improvements to improve retention.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) to measure the total value of a customer over the course of their relationship with your company. CLV takes into account factors such as customer acquisition costs, retention rates, and average purchase value to determine the long-term value of a customer. If you measure CLV alongside NPS, you can gain a better understanding of how loyal customers are impacting your overall revenue and find ways to improve the metric.
Customer churn rate to measure the percentage of customers who stop doing business with you over a specific period of time. A high churn rate could suggest that customers are leaving for reasons such as poor service, pricing, or competition.
7. Use automation to streamline the process
Using automation tools can help you streamline the NPS process and increase response rates.
For instance, with Survicate, you can set up your integration workflow and receive continuous NPS customer feedback automatically. Besides, you will be able to automate sending follow-ups to respondents and analyzing the results in our intuitive dashboard.
8. Continuously review and improve NPS practices
You need to continuously review and improve NPS practices to ensure they are effective. This includes regularly reviewing survey questions and customer feedback processes, as well as monitoring trends in customer sentiment. Before you send out your next NPS survey, ask yourself the following questions:
Are you collecting NPS data through multiple channels? With Survicate, you can launch contextual NPS surveys by email, on websites, in-product or in mobile apps.
Are you collecting data at the right time to capture the customer's experience? Sending NPS the survey too late or too early can skew the results.
Are you collecting NPS regularly? Running a survey once every few months is not enough to get a good sense of your customers’ experience.
9. Share the results with stakeholders
Sharing NPS survey results with stakeholders can help you increase transparency and foster a sense of accountability and trust. It also provides a sense of ownership and encourages everyone to work towards improving customer satisfaction.
You should share the results of your NPS survey with your:
employees, to help them stay up to date with the score and motivate them to deliver a better customer experience as well as foster a culture of continuous improvement;
internal stakeholders, including board members and investors, to inspire trust;
customers, in the form of a thank-you email, via a newsletter, or any other channel you deem relevant, to increase your credibility and build better relationships.
10. Understand the limitations of NPS
While NPS can be a valuable metric, it has limitations. It is just one data point and does not provide the whole picture of customer sentiment. Therefore, you should take other metrics into account.
It is also important to note that NPS is not a predictor of customer behavior. Just because a customer gives a high NPS score does not mean they will remain loyal to the business or recommend it to others.
Implement NPS best practices effortlessly with Survicate
Although the NPS methodology is straightforward, both for you as a business and your respondents, there are certain standards to keep in mind before you send out your surveys.
If you follow the NPS best practices outlined in this blog post, you’ll be setting yourself up for success.
To make it all even easier for you, we have a tool that does all of the legwork for you. With Survicate, you can send, collect and analyze your NPS score for free. What’s more, there is no limit on the number of responses you can collect. Intrigued? Sign up for your freemium plan and send your first NPS survey with Survicate today!
Lidia Kurasińska
Senior Content Editor
Find me on:
Lidia is a Senior Content Editor at Survicate. She’s a passionate customer experience advocate and strives to educate and inspire her readers to improve their own customer journeys. In her blog posts, Lidia focuses on the latest trends and best practices in the industry. She believes that by sharing her expertise she can help businesses of all sizes to elevate their customer experience. When she’s not writing, Lidia enjoys reading books, attending industry conferences, and testing out new customer service technologies.