net promoter survey

4 Things You Can Learn from Your NPS Score

4 Things You Can Learn from Your NPS Score

Survey Tips

Your Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a measure of customer loyalty. It tells you how likely your customers are to recommend you to others on a scale of one to ten.

With this information in hand from your NPS survey, here are four things you can learn from your NPS score.

#1: You Can Learn How to Change

When you get your NPS back from your survey, you’ll know how many promoters, passives, and detractors you have. This gives you a good picture of your overall customer loyalty.

At this point, you can then start your research to learn just exactly why you have detractors and what you can do to change and turn things around.

If you know the names of your detractors, you can either reach out to them in person, or you can look through support tickets.

For example, by looking through support tickets, you can research the customer service experience. This will give you all the information you need to reach out and find a way to smooth things over.clicb

It ultimately helps you make changes to your business model and policies and procedures. It helps you gauge whether you need to institute more training as well to help resolve customer issues.

#2: You Learn How to Involve Passives and Detractors

Passives don’t really care one way or another about your business, and detractors are generally unhappy about something.

You can help turn the tide by promptly responding to their NPS survey. By providing them with a personal response, you can continue the conversation with them.

Not only does this help you learn what you can do better, it lets them feel more a part of the process.

In turn, it might even bring them back into your business.

#3: You Learn How to Segment Your Responses

With your NPS scores in hand, you can segment your promoters, passives, and detractors.

For example, you might find you have the bulk of your promoters attached to one department over another. Conversely, you may find most of your detractors are coming from an experience with a different department.

Instead of overhauling your entire company, you can work on the department(s) that need a little help.

You might also find that customers have pain points at different parts of the customer journey. For example, they are fine through the purchase, but when they need service there’s a specific breakdown.

By learning about your respondents and segmenting them, you can really home in on what areas you need to take action on.

#4: You Can Learn About Product Development

Another area to focus on when looking at your NPS score is areas where you can develop new products.

For example, when you follow up with your respondents you might learn they’d like to see new features or just updates on your current offerings.

You can use this information to create new products or refine current ones.

Final Thoughts

You’ve got your net promoter score, and you know how many promoters (score of nine or 10), passives (score of seven or eight), and detractors (scores of zero to six).

You can now use these to reach out to your most loyal promoters to learn more about what’s positive about your business, service, and products.

In turn you can reach out to your passives and your detractors to find out why they’re unhappy and what you can do to improve.

Empowered with this information from your NPS Score, you’ll find it can help you improve your business, fine tune your customer service, and enhance your product offerings. You’ll be well-poised for success in the future. (tweet this)

Surveys can help you get valuable customer feedback. You can then use this feedback to improve your business. Are you ready to get started with your Survey Town account? Start with your account today.

Image: Christiann Koepke on Unsplash

Make Surveys Work for You 5 Unique Ways to Incorporate Surveys for Customer Feedback

Make Surveys Work for You: 5 Unique Ways to Incorporate Surveys for Customer Feedback

Survey Tips

As a business owner, one of the most important things you can do is build loyal relationships with your customers. Why?

First, it’s much more cost effective to serve current customers than it is to work to generate new ones. Next, your repeat customers tend to spend more with you each time they make a purchase.

To improve your customer retention rate, though, you need to know how they feel about your products and services. You need feedback.

In this article we look at how to make surveys work for you and the five unique ways to incorporate surveys for customer feedback.

#1: Send Surveys After a Live Support Chat

One unique way to make surveys work for you is to use them after customers use the live chat feature on your website.

Most businesses who offer live chat bots on their websites see improved conversion rates from the first question. These live bots also encourage customers to keep coming back.

In addition, live chat encourages your website visitors and customers to share their feedback with you.

While your site visitors will first use the chat feature to get help, find answers to their questions, or even complain about something, you can use some of this information as feedback. You can also set up a survey to go out to these people once they’re done with their live chat to learn more from them.

You can send these surveys out after your live support chat bot has closed. You can include basic questions on whether the chat helped solve your customer’s issue or answer their question.

This live chat feedback can also help you improve your products and services. You can learn where your company is lacking and how to improve customer service.

#2: Add a Survey to Your Website

Another unique way to incorporate surveys for customer feedback is through forms on your website.

You do want to be strategic with these, though. For example, you don’t want them on every page. And, when creating the survey, you want them to make sense on the page they’re on.

These surveys should be relatively short. They should also only include questions that are relevant to the customer’s journey on your website.

By embedding these surveys on your website, you can meet your customers right where they are.

You also want to consider leaving the survey anonymous, or at the very least, making the name optional. You’ll find that customers are more willing to tell you their thoughts and needs when they don’t have to commit their names.

#3: Leverage Email Surveys After First Purchase

After your customers make their first purchase from you is a great time to send out a customer feedback survey.

This survey can deal with things from the customer’s shopping experience on your website, to the product they received, and the promptness of the shipping.

The trick with this survey is to send it at the right time. This depends on the question you ask, but a good rule of thumb is within three to five days of when the customer placed the order.

This is purely a survey for new customers. Why? You don’t want to irritate repeat customers by sending them this survey after each purchase.

To get feedback from repeat customers, send them a Net Promoter Score survey. This will tell you how likely they are to recommend you to others. This makes more sense for repeat customers because they are already invested in you. (tweet this)

For the survey for your first-time customers, here are some ideas:

  • Ask why they chose your company. Answers might include the price, shipping rate, availability, they found you first online, referral, etc.
  • Ask for feedback on the product or service they purchased.
  • Inquire about their overall experience on your website (navigation, usability, etc.).
  • Find out how they feel about your customer service.
  • Gauge how satisfied they are with your shipping.

#4: Use Surveys Right After Order Confirmation

You might consider incorporating surveys for customer feedback right after they receive their order confirmation.

One great place for this survey is right on your order confirmation page.

The questions for this survey should only deal with your website options. They include:

  • A ratings question on how easy or difficult it was to navigate your website.
  • Another question asking if they faced any challenges finding the product(s) they were looking for.
  • A question asking if they like the options you provide.

These questions should be short and generally multiple choice. Always include another box for comments.

Place this survey right under the order summary on the confirmation page. Be sure and thank the customer for shopping with you before you get into the survey.

Finally, you can also include a Net Promoter Score question asking how likely they would be to recommend you to others.

#5: Use an Abandoned Cart Survey

When it comes to unique ways to incorporate surveys for feedback, you want to consider the abandoned cart survey.

It’s extremely helpful to learn why your customer decided not to follow through with their purchase.

By getting their feedback, you can improve your conversion rate and lessen the number of abandoned carts.

This might be in the form of a pop-up on your website, or if the person has an account, you can trigger an automated email.

Make this survey quite simple with just one question. It can be multiple choice and include several options for why they might have left their cart.

Final Thoughts

By incorporating surveys into your customer feedback program, you now have a way to hear exactly what your customers are thinking. You also learn more about their needs and how they feel about your business.

Once you have data compiled, you can then act on this customer feedback to improve your business and your customer retention rate.

If you want to know more about how your customers feel about your products/services, if they’re likely to buy from you again, and if they’ll recommend you to others, the best way to go is to incorporate surveys for customer feedback.

Measuring customer feedback helps you improve their overall customer satisfaction. Ultimately your profits improve, and you build more loyal, brand ambassadors in your current customer base.

Surveys can help you get valuable customer feedback. You can then use this feedback to improve your business. Are you ready to get started with your Survey Town account? Start with your account today.

Comparing Your Industries NPS - What It Means for Business

Comparing Your Industries NPS – What It Means For Business

Survey Tips

Your Net Promoter Score (NPS) tells you about your customers’ experience with your business and measures their loyalty. It can also predict your company’s potential for growth.

Yet, the NPS is much more than just a measurement of customer loyalty. It’s a tool you can use to see how you rank among your competition. For example, if out of 10 competitor’s you’re at the top, great. But, if you’re below anyone, there’s always room for improvement.

You can use the industry comparison to drive your business to the top.

In this article, we look at comparing your industries’ NPS and what it means for business.

What is a Good NPS Score?

Let’s break down the score and see what’s actually a good score. First, any score below zero is a bad score and means you’re in big trouble.

Next, if you score between 0 and 30, that’s a good starting point. You’ve got a lot of room for growth, but things look okay.

If you score higher than 30 but less than 70, you’re doing terrific. Rest assured that the majority of your customers are happy. But, does this mean there’s no room for improvement? No, you do have room to grow.

Finally, if your NPS is higher than 70, you knocked it out of the ballpark. You can assume your highly loyal customers are sharing their good news with all of their friends, family, and co-workers.

Let’s take the example of business A that has a NPS score of 0, and business B that has a NPS of -30. Is business A doing better than business B? Of course. But, in the scheme of things, neither of them can rest on those scores.

While it is nice for business A to know they’re on top of their competition, it’s not going to be good enough. Both businesses will want to improve their customer experience in order to improve their scores.

It is worth noting, though, that you want to be aware of your industry benchmarks because there are some industries that could never realistically reach that 70 mark because no one does. For example, the internet service industry average benchmark is two.

Benchmark Net Promoter Score

You want to compare more than simply numbers. You want to compare your score to the score of your competition.

You can see industry benchmarks, so you know what to compare your number against. Without knowing your industry average as well as the scores of your competition, it’s hard to gauge your standing.

According to Satmetrix, your NPS score can vary not only by industry but by region and customer demographics such as age, income level, and the number of years they’ve been shopping with you.

To accurately measure your score, you want to compare it with your industry and your direct and indirect competitors.

When your score is consistently higher that that of your direct competition, you can count on business growth.

To help you, here are a few industry average benchmarks:

  • Automotive dealers: 32
  • Major Appliances:  31
  • Computers and Tablets:  8
  • Investments:  30
  • Grocery Stores:  20
  • Insurance: 19
  • Hotels: 4
  • Retailers: 1
  • Fast food: -1
  • Credit Cards: 13
  • Utilities: 5
  • TV Service: -5

Where does your business fall in this list? If you fall under retailers, again, you’ll want to consider things such as your size (don’t compare yourself directly to the Gap if you’re a small boutique), demographics, and region.

Industry Average Comparison

Let’s say you are a toy manufacturer. If you want to understand your NPS, you want to first compare it with the average scores in your industry. Then, compare to your direct competition.

This allows you a better marker than comparing it to what experts agree is a “good” score.

You also want to consider your market. Are you an online retailer, or do you sell in a small town or a large metropolis? Some markets have a more positive image than others, so be sure you are comparing against the right set.

In addition, just compare yourself to other toy manufacturers. It doesn’t do you any good to compare yourself to restaurants.

The Regional Comparison

We’ve mentioned that the NPS can vary greatly by industry, but they also vary by region. You might expect a toy company in New York City to have a vastly different NPS than a toy company in a small town in North Dakota.

Different areas of the country are populated by unique demographics. Make sure you know these differences before looking at industry benchmarks.

Your Survey Channel

Another factor that can affect your NPS is your survey channel. It pays to know if the channel you are using is similar to that of your competitors.

For example, you might be surveying all customers, but your competition may only survey customers who’ve purchased in the last six months. You’ll find this can affect the data.

In addition, how you conduct your survey can change data, too. Test different channels – email, SMS, on your website, through social media, etc.

Try to conduct your NPS survey through the same channel as the competitor you want to benchmark so you’ll have something static to base your results on.

Final Thoughts

As you compare your industries’ Net Promoter Score (NPS), you want to keep one thing top of mind: your “good” number is the number that’s better than your previous score.

For most businesses, this is the most important benchmark. Over the course of your NPS surveys, you want to ensure continual improvement.

For example, if you survey customers four times this year, make sure you increase each time. If this is happening, you’re doing great. You can then look at industry benchmarks and comparisons.

If you’re not improving, your company most likely isn’t growing. And, whether or not your score is higher than your competitor’s, if you aren’t scoring better, you’ve got a lot of work to do.

Use your NPS score to drive growth and encourage customer loyalty. Continue on an upward trajectory, and you’ll soon naturally rise above the competition.

Surveys help you make the best decisions for your business. Are you ready to get started with your free Survey Town trial? Start with your free account today, and you can upgrade at any time.

Image: Felix Mittermeier on Unsplash

What to Do If Your NPS Is Below 0

What To Do If Your NPS Is Below 0

Survey Tips

So, you sent out a Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey, and you got a zero. First, all is not lost. It’s only hopeless if you choose to do nothing about it.

Getting a number that’s at or below zero is a unique situation. It tells you that your customers care enough to complete your survey. At the same time, they’re sending you a very clear message. This message says they want to shop with you, but they’re sending a fair warning that you aren’t doing something right.

Ultimately, they have no reason to shop with you or recommend you to anyone, so it’s time to make some changes.

In this article, we look at what to do if your NPS is below zero and look at how you can recover from it.

The Point of the Score

First, the NPS is not a score to hang on your wall. When it’s low, it tells you that something is amiss, and you have a great opportunity for improvement.

Since the Net Promoter Score is the measurement of your customers’ loyalty to your company, a low score tells you they’re unhappy, and they are not going to recommend you to others.

Once you send out your first NPS survey, you can use this initial score as your baseline. If you get a zero, great, you aren’t in the negative numbers, but you do know you have a long way to go to get to 100. If you get below a zero, that’s negative territory, and the climb is longer.

On the positive side, your zero or negative zero may even be well above the competition. But that doesn’t mean you rest there. It’s time for some strategizing to improve your score over time.

Now let’s look at how to improve your Net Promoter Score if it’s below zero.

Get Your Employees on Board

If your score is low, it’s time for a team meeting. It’s important that everyone at your company understands your NPS score is too low, and you must improve.

Your staff should understand that improving your score means making your currently unhappy customers happy. Anyone who has direct contact with your customers needs to understand this. (tweet this)

Converting unhappy customers into your loyal promoters is going to take everyone, not just your marketing team.

Give Your Customers a Hand

Your social media pages come into play here.

Find your happy customers and ask them to share their good experiences on your social media pages. You might ask for good reviews. Or, you can ask them if they’ll do a video testimonial as this really helps legitimize the review.

Don’t get into paid reviews as this can end up causing you problems in the long run.

To encourage customers, make sure they feel appreciated and do what you can to make leaving a good review easy for them.

Be Responsive

Have you gotten complaints in the past and ignored them? Do you have un-responded-to negative (or positive) Google reviews?

One of the most important things you can do with customers is to respond quickly. Communication is key to a great relationship. When customers are angry, respond with empathy and find them a solution.

Always respond to all feedback in a timely manner. By actively engaging with your customers and cultivating relationships, you’ll make great inroads improving your NPS.

Listening to your customers and making effective changes is key to improving your score.

Offer Training

Oftentimes your NPS score is low because of how your customers were treated when working with your staff.

Be sure to offer comprehensive and ongoing training to your team. You also want to ensure they understand their responsibilities when it comes to providing excellent customer service every time.

Final Thoughts

When it comes to your net promoter score, you want to stay on top of it. Make a plan for improving your score and stick to it.

When six months have passed, send another NPS survey, and see if your score improves. If it does, super. Keep up the good work to keep improving.

If it doesn’t, revisit your plan and implement new strategies to increase your score.

The NPS isn’t a once and done. You want to keep making improvements in your customer experience, so you can increase customer loyalty, your NPS score, and ultimately your profits.

Surveys help you make the best decisions for your business. Are you ready to get started with your free Survey Town trial? Start with your free account today, and you can upgrade at any time.

Image: rawpixel on Unsplash

What Is A Good Net Promoter ScoreWhat Is A Good Net Promoter Score

What is a Good Net Promoter Score?

Survey Tips

The Net Promoter Score is an excellent measuring system for your business. It’s a survey method that helps you determine how loyal and happy your customers are. The purpose of it is to pave the way for continuous improvement. (tweet this)

For example, if your score is low one quarter, you can work in each subsequent quarter to improve it. The bottom line is that regardless of your score, your end goal is to always be working towards increasing the score.

Now, in this article, we look at the question, “What is a good Net Promoter Score?”

Understanding the Net Promoter Score Calculation

Once you send out the survey, you get back individual scores from 0-10. Here’s what they mean.

  • Promoters (score 9-10) are loyal enthusiasts that you can expect to keep purchasing from you and referring others which fuels growth.
  • Passives (score 7-8) are satisfied, but they are not enthusiastic customers. They are vulnerable to your competition.
  • Detractors (score 0-6) are your unhappy customers who can damage your brand and hinder growth through their negative word-of-mouth.

Once you have your scores, you should learn how to calculate your NPS or cut out the math and use our net promoter score calculator to work out your score.

Understanding the Net Promoter Score

Once you have these numbers, you subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters to get your Net Promoter Score. The top score you can get is 100, and that’s only if everyone is a promoter.

  • A percentage from -100-0 means you need improvement.
  • A percentage from 0-30 means you’re doing good.
  • If you make it to 30-70 percent, you’re doing great.
  • An excellent percentage is 70-100.

So, the higher your score, the more you can count on your customers to refer your company to others.

To Conclude

So, in the simplest terms, a good Net Promoter Score for your business is the score that’s better than your last one. As long as you’re improving, you’re moving in the right direction.

The single most important thing about your score is that it’s growing. It’s not a set of vanity data. It reflects the health your relationships with your customers.

You want to ensure that your customer is acting on your NPS data, so you continuously work to improve it. Consider surveying your customers every six months to make sure your business is on the right track.

By dedicating your business to improving your Net Promoter Score, you end up with happier customers who increase your business through word of mouth.

Surveys help you make the best decisions for your business. Are you ready to get started with your free Survey Town trial? Start with your free account today, and you can upgrade at any time.

Image: rawpixel on Unsplash