We all know that having satisfied customers is good for business. Satisfied customers are more likely to return, spend more and importantly provide referrals to help generate more customers for you to satisfy. And in today’s social media world, dissatisfied customers have a myriad of ways to tell the world of a bad experience.
But how do we learn whether customers are satisfied or not. We can wait for them not to return, we ca watch the negative comments on our Facebook page or online reviews, or we can proactively get feedback that will help us understand whether or not we are delivering a good customer experience.
If, like me, you are sick of getting long-winded surveys from everyone with who you have a commercial engagement (I recently received a survey to ask what my experience was like at a motorcycle event – it took 20 minutes to complete!!!) So keeping your survey simple and still making it useful is critical. And also making the respondent feel that they are being able to provide feedback that will be impactful is also important. Enter the Net Promoter Score!
Net Promoter Score
Developed in Harvard Business School, the Net Promoter Score (NPS) measures your customer experience with one (but I use 2) simple questions.
Firstly, ask your customer to rate their experience in dealing with you on a scale of 1 – 10. Respondents are grouped as follows:
- Promoters (score 9-10) are loyal enthusiasts who will keep buying and refer others, fueling growth.
- Passives (score 7-8) are satisfied but unenthusiastic customers who are vulnerable to competitive offerings.
- Detractors (score 0-6) are unhappy customers who can damage your brand and impede growth through negative word-of-mouth.
The second question I ask is “Why did you give the score you did?” This allows you to determine what you can do to improve your customers experience with your business and/or address a specific concern the respondent may have.
The full NPS procedure goes into much more detail in calculating further core metrics, but this simple application of a tried and proven method of measuring satisfaction will help you better understand you customers and help you grow your business.