Strong NPS is the backbone of a thriving customer experience.

Net Promoter Score is a measure of how positively your customers rate you and your products. This metric is predictive of how likely they are to repurchase from you in the future, which makes a good NPS score a strong indicator of future success and growth. 

Measuring your NPS is important because it enables you to identify areas for improvement and allows you to track customer sentiment over time. It also allows you to compare your performance to competitors and the industry as a whole. By actively tracking your NPS, you can quickly identify any issues, take corrective action, and ensure that your customers are satisfied. For instance, businesses with an NPS score of 50 or above are twice as likely as those with an NPS score of 0-10 to grow by up to 10% each year.

The NPS Question

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is measured by asking customers if they would recommend your company to a friend or colleague. The traditional Net Promoter Score question is always phrased in the following way:

How likely are you to recommend X Company to a friend or colleague?

1 – 10

Customers who reply with a score of 6 or lower are considered detractors. Customers who reply with a score of 9 or 10 are promoters. Those who answer 7 or 8 are passive. You can then use the NPS formula to calculate your overall score, which results in a number between -100 and +100. 

NPS = (% of responses who are promoters) – (% of responses who are detractors)

For example, if you received 100 responses back from a recent NPS survey question, where 40 of them responded as Promoters, 30 were Passives and 30 were Detractors, then your NPS calculation would be 40 minus 30, for a score of 10. 

Fred Reichheld dubbed this metric the “one number you need to grow.” His studies show that a high score leads to faster company growth. This is thanks to loyal customers who not only keep buying but also refer new customers. The standard NPS question is more than just a question; it’s based on years of thorough research. So, you can trust and act on the data you collect. This makes the results meaningful and worth your attention.

When to use NPS surveys

Knowing the right time to send out NPS surveys can greatly impact the quality of data you gather and the insights you gain. If you send a survey at the wrong time, you might get misleading or unhelpful results. This can set back your efforts to make your customer experience better. In this part, we’ll look at the two main kinds of NPS surveys—Transactional and Relational. We’ll also talk about the crucial moments in the customer journey when these surveys can be most effective.

Transactional NPS Surveys

What They Are:

Transactional NPS surveys are deployed immediately after a customer has had a specific interaction with your company, such as making a purchase or talking to customer support.

When to Use:

• Post-purchase: Within 24 to 48 hours after purchase
• After customer service interaction: Right after a support ticket is resolved
• Post-onboarding: Once a user has completed the onboarding process

Why They Matter:

Transactional NPS surveys are excellent for understanding the customer’s feelings about a particular transaction. They provide quick, actionable insights that you can use to optimize specific stages of your customer experience strategy, from sales and onboarding to customer support.

Relational NPS Surveys

What They Are:

Relational NPS surveys aim to gauge the overall sentiment a customer has towards your brand, independent of any specific transaction.

When to Use:

• Quarterly or bi-annual check-ins
• After a significant amount of time has passed since the last transaction
• On the anniversary of a customer’s account creation or subscription renewal

Why They Matter:

Relational NPS surveys provide a bird’s-eye view of customer sentiment, capturing trends over time. This allows customer experience professionals to understand long-term customer satisfaction and identify areas for strategic improvement.

Key Touchpoints in the Customer Journey for NPS Measurement

To effectively measure and manage customer experience, it’s critical to identify the key touchpoints in the customer journey where an NPS survey will be most impactful. Here are some critical touchpoints to consider:

1. Initial Onboarding: This is an optimal time for a transactional NPS survey to understand the first impressions your service leaves on new customers.
2. After a Major Update or New Feature Release: Collecting feedback after you’ve added new features or made significant changes helps assess if you’re moving in the right direction.
3. Post-Support Interactions: Understanding the effectiveness of your support team through a quick transactional NPS survey can offer immediate insights into what’s working and what isn’t.
4. Subscription Renewal: This is an opportune moment for a relational NPS survey to gauge overall satisfaction before a long-term commitment is made.
5. Customer Churn: An NPS survey when a customer leaves can tell you why they’re going. This is crucial for enhancing your customer retention strategies, which can lower churn and boost loyalty.

Identifying the appropriate timing for each type of NPS survey ensures that you’re collecting relevant and timely data. The result is a continuous refinement of your customer experience strategies, allowing you to take more targeted actions.

Designing your NPS survey

Crafting an effective NPS survey involves more than knowing when to send it. Design elements—questions, length, language, and customization for specific customer segments-play crucial roles in obtaining valuable data. Poorly designed surveys can lead to low response rates and inaccurate insights. We’ll take a closer look at these design aspects that customer experience professionals should take into account when conducting an NPS survey.

Questions to Include

The NPS Question

The core of any NPS survey is the NPS question itself: “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend [Your Company/Service/Product] to a friend or colleague?” This should always be the starting point of your survey.

Follow-up Questions

While the NPS question provides the score, it doesn’t give context. Including 1-2 follow-up questions can be helpful in understanding the reasons behind the score. Some common follow-up questions include:

• “What is the primary reason for your score?”
• “What could we do to improve your experience?”
• “Is there anything specific you’d like to highlight about your experience?”

Length of the Survey

The length of your NPS survey should be short enough to encourage completion but long enough to gather meaningful data. For transactional NPS surveys, stick to the core NPS question and one or two follow-up questions. Relational NPS surveys can afford to be slightly longer, but it’s best to keep them under 5 questions to ensure high response rates.

Language and Tone

Your survey should reflect the tone that aligns with your brand and resonates with your customers. If your brand voice is casual, use conversational language. If you serve a more corporate or formal customer base, stick to a professional tone. Regardless, the language should be clear, concise, and free of jargon to make it accessible to everyone.

Customizing NPS score questions for Different Customer Segments

By Customer Lifecycle Stage

Customers at different stages of their journey with your brand may have different perspectives. Consider modifying the survey to cater to new users, long-term customers, or those who have recently interacted with customer support.

By Product or Service Line

If your company offers multiple products or services, customizing your NPS surveys to address experiences related to each can yield more targeted insights.

By Geography or Demographics

Localization isn’t just about language; it’s also about cultural norms and expectations. If you serve a global customer base, adapting your surveys to fit different cultural expectations can be beneficial.

By B2B Client Hierarchy

If you’re a B2B organization, you may find it valuable to customize surveys based on the respondent’s position in the client organization. A decision-maker may have different feedback than an end-user, and both are valuable in their own right.

Designing your NPS survey with these factors in mind will help ensure that the data you collect is both accurate and actionable. The end goal is to provide customer experience professionals like yourself with the insights needed to continuously improve your customer relations and, by extension, your NPS scores.

When you might use a different NPS question

Even with Reichheld designing the one true NPS survey question, there are as many net promoter score question examples as there are customer support influencers online. Everyone has a different opinion on how to survey customers. 

Why the Default Question Doesn’t Always Work

The standard NPS question assumes that customers have the freedom to recommend your service or product to others. This may not hold true in certain industries or scenarios:

Sometimes, the traditional NPS survey questions don’t make sense to use. For example, when working in an industry where customers are required to use a service, they may not have a chance to recommend the company to their friends or family. Or, as the funny tweet illustrates with a funny NPS survey example below, most of us don’t talk to our friends and family about our work tools.

Tailoring NPS Questions for Specific Use Cases

If you find that the traditional NPS question doesn’t resonate with your customer base, it’s time to adapt. Customized NPS questions can gather the same core information—customer satisfaction and loyalty—but in a manner that is more relevant to your specific context.

For example, in a B2B setting, you might ask: “On a scale of 0-10, how satisfied are you with the ROI our product provides?” For mandatory services, you might consider: “On a scale of 0-10, how satisfied are you with the service quality you received today?”

By tailoring your NPS questions, you’re more likely to obtain actionable feedback that accurately reflects your customers’ experiences, allowing you to make data-driven decisions aimed at improving customer satisfaction.

29 Ready-to-Use NPS Survey Questions Templates

Creating effective NPS survey questions involves selecting the right template for your needs. Below are 28 ready-to-use templates specifically designed for various touchpoints in the customer journey. These NPS question examples can be easily integrated into your NPS software and customized to fit your branding and specific requirements.

The default Net Promoter Score template

• How likely is it that you would recommend X Company to a friend or colleague?
• Follow-up question: What could we improve?

Post-Purchase Survey template

• On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our product to a friend or colleague?
• Follow-up question: 
  • What is the main reason for your score?
  • How was your checkout experience?

Product Onboarding Survey template

• On a scale of 0 to 10, how easy was it to get started with our product?
• Follow-up question: What could make the onboarding process better?

Customer Service Interaction Survey template

• On a scale of 0 to 10, how would you rate your recent customer service experience?
• Follow-up question:
  • What did we do well?
  • What can we improve upon?

Quarterly Relationship Survey template

• On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?
• Follow-up question:
  • What do you like most about our products or services?
  • What areas do you think we could improve in?

Event Feedback Survey template

• On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our event to a friend or colleague?
• Follow-up question:
  • What was the highlight of the event for you?
  • What could make our future events more valuable for you?

B2B Client Survey template

• On a scale of 0 to 10, how satisfied are you with our partnership?
• Follow-up question:
  • What do you consider the strongest aspect of our business relationship?
  • How could we serve you better moving forward?

Subscription Renewal Survey template

• On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to renew your subscription?
• Follow-up question:
  • What benefits have you gained from your subscription?
  • What could make you consider not renewing?

Feature Update Feedback Survey template

• On a scale of 0 to 10, how would you rate our recent feature update?
• Follow-up question:
  • What do you like about the new features?
  • Are there any issues or suggestions you have regarding the update?

Exit Survey for Churning Customers template

• On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to return to our service in the future?
• Follow-up question:
  • What made you decide to leave?
  • What could we have done differently to keep you as a customer?

Software Update Survey template

• On a scale of 0 to 10, how satisfied are you with our recent software update?
• Follow-up question: What could have been done better in the update?

Training Session Survey template

• On a scale of 0 to 10, how valuable was the training session?
• Follow-up question:
  • What was the most useful part of the training?
  • What could make our training sessions better?

Customer Retention Survey template

• On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to continue using our services?
• Follow-up question: What is the primary reason for your score, and what could we do to improve your experience with our services?

Customer Referral Survey template

• On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to refer our services to others?
• Follow-up question: What would make you more likely to refer to us?

Annual Feedback Survey template

• On a scale of 0 to 10, how satisfied are you with our services over the past year?
• Follow-up question:
  • What was the highlight of your experience with us this year?
  • What could we improve in the coming year?

Pre-Sale Survey template

• On a scale of 0 to 10, how satisfied are you with your pre-sales experience?
• Follow-up question:
  • What convinced you to consider purchasing from us?
  • Is there anything that almost deterred you from purchasing?

Billing Experience Survey template

• On a scale of 0 to 10, how easy was it to understand your bill?
• Follow-up question: What could make the billing process smoother?

Online Community Survey template

• On a scale of 0 to 10, how valuable do you find our online community forums?
• Follow-up question:
  • What do you gain from participating in the community?
  • What could make our forums more engaging?

Educational Content Survey template

• On a scale of 0 to 10, how useful do you find our educational content (blogs, webinars, eBooks)?
• Follow-up question: What topics would you like us to cover more?

Mobile App Experience Survey template

• On a scale of 0 to 10, how would you rate your experience with our mobile app?
• Follow-up question:
  • What features do you use the most?
  • What could improve your mobile app experience?

Customer Onboarding Follow-Up Survey template

• On a scale of 0 to 10, how supported did you feel during the onboarding process?
• Follow-up question:
  • What resources were most helpful?
  • What additional support could we have provided?

Post-Trial Period Survey template

• On a scale of 0 to 10, how satisfied were you with your trial experience?
• Follow-up question:
  • What convinced you to either subscribe or not subscribe?
  • What features would you like to see added or improved?

Product Usability Survey template

• On a scale of 0 to 10, how easy is our product to use?
• Follow-up question:
  • What aspects of the product are most intuitive?
  • What usability issues have you encountered?

Partner Feedback Survey template

• On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend us as a partner?
• Follow-up question: What could make our partnership stronger?

Project Completion Survey template

• On a scale of 0 to 10, how satisfied are you with the completion of the recent project?
• Follow-up question: What could have been done differently?

Beta Testing Feedback Survey template

• On a scale of 0 to 10, how satisfied are you with the beta version of our product?
• Follow-up question:
  • What did you like about the beta?
  • What issues or concerns do you have?

Remote Support Survey template

• On a scale of 0 to 10, how would you rate your remote support experience?

• Follow-up question:
  • What did the support team do well remotely?
  • What could improve your remote support experience?

 Webinar Attendee Survey template

• On a scale of 0 to 10, how would you rate our recent webinar?
• Follow-up question:
  • What did you find most valuable about the webinar?
  • What topics would you like us to cover in future webinars?

Employee NPS Survey template

• On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend [company name] as a place to work?
• What could we improve? 

With these NPS survey examples, you’ll be set to collect feedback at all important customer touchpoints. This enables you to make data-driven decisions to enhance the customer experience.

Tips for Effective Survey Distribution

Once you have your NPS survey designed, the next crucial step is distribution. The medium through which you deliver the survey can significantly impact response rates and the quality of data you collect. Below are some distribution methods and best practices tailored for customer experience professionals.

Email Surveys

Best for: Transactional and relational NPS surveys

Tip: Use personalized subject lines and introduce the survey with a short explanation to encourage responses.

In-app Surveys

Best for: Website experience and feature update feedback

Tip: Position the survey non-intrusively within the user interface to encourage real-time feedback without disrupting the user experience.

Best Practices for Increasing Response Rates

• Use reminders sparingly: One or two follow-up reminders are generally enough.
• Offer incentives: A small discount or entry into a giveaway can boost response rates.
• Time it right: Distribute transactional surveys promptly after the transaction, while relational surveys should be timed to avoid busy periods or holidays.

By selecting the appropriate template and distribution method, you can increase both the quality and quantity of the feedback you receive. This, in turn, offers more actionable insights for continuous improvement in customer experience.

Conclusion

In conclusion, knowing how your customers feel is a must-have in today’s competitive world. Our detailed list of 29 NPS Survey Question Examples is here to help. Paired with advice on when and how to send them, this guide offers a complete toolkit for getting insights you can act on.

But remember, a successful NPS strategy goes beyond just asking the right questions. Acting on the feedback you get is crucial. Tailoring your NPS questions to your specific industry and needs can make the data even more useful.

So, go ahead and try out these templates and tips. They’ll help you fine-tune your approach to keeping customers happy and loyal.

The post 29 NPS Survey Question Examples [+ Free Templates] appeared first on Customer Happiness Blog.

Craft a perfect NPS email with our step-by-step guide.

“Mastering NPS emails opens the door to understanding your customers’ experiences.”

Are you looking to measure customer satisfaction and guide your brand’s success? Net Promoter Score (NPS) email surveys can be your most effective market research tool.

By including NPS surveys in your emails, you can ask your customers, ‘On a scale of 0 to 10, would you recommend our brand/product/service to friends or colleagues?’ Their survey response rate allows you to categorize them as promoters, passives, or detractors. This feedback provides critical insights that can guide and refine your business strategy.

But crafting the perfect NPS email takes more than just the right question. It’s a nuanced process involving timing, presentation, and follow-through. 

As email continues to be an essential marketing channel, getting your NPS email just right is essential.

In this blog post, we’ll help you master NPS email by covering the following:

• Practical tips and strategies to craft a successful NPS email.
• Email subject line best practices, along with examples.
• Ready-to-use NPS email survey templates for various needs.

Move from guesswork to data-driven decisions with NPS emails. With our insights, you’ll have everything you need to make NPS email surveys a vital part of your success strategy.

Understanding Net Promoter Score (NPS) and NPS Emails

First, let’s gain a quick understanding of the Net Promoter Score itself.

Net Promoter Score (NPS) measures customer loyalty using customer feedback. Respondents to customer satisfaction surveys are categorized into three groups based on their responses to a specific question. How likely are you to recommend our product or service to someone you know? Take the example below:

The Net Promoter Score is calculated by gathering feedback from these customer surveys and subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters.

A positive score signifies strong customer loyalty.

With this understanding of NPS, let’s explore how to weave NPS surveys into your email strategy to gather valuable feedback and enhance customer satisfaction.

Why NPS Email Surveys Are Essential

NPS email surveys provide valuable benefits and services for businesses:

• Direct Feedback: They offer an unfiltered connection to customers’ opinions.
• Actionable Insights: They allow tailored strategies to address specific needs.
• Predictive Power: They can guide future growth and strategy.
• Builds Relationships: More than just a number, NPS fosters genuine connections with customers.

By understanding NPS and utilizing it effectively in email campaigns, your company can unlock new growth opportunities and foster stronger customer relationships.

Best Practices and Tips for Successful NPS Email Surveys

Crafting the perfect NPS email requires attention to detail, empathy, and strategic thinking.

Here are the best practices and tips to turn your NPS emails into powerful tools for building customer satisfaction and loyalty:

1. Personalize Your NPS Email Survey for Better Connection

In a world filled with generic marketing emails, making your NPS email survey personal isn’t just a pleasant detail; it’s essential. Personalizing your emails can increase your open rate by 26%.

Here’s a complete guide to why personalization matters and how you can implement it:

• Speak Directly to the Customer: Addressing the customer by name creates a connection. It’s not just a survey request; it’s a conversation. For example, starting your email with “Dear [First Name]” instead of a generic “Dear Customer” can increase engagement.
• Tailor Content to Their Experience: Reflect the customer’s interaction with your brand. If they recently purchased a product, acknowledge it. “We noticed you bought our [Product Name]. How did we do?” is more engaging than a general inquiry.
• Segment and Target: Some customers are different. You can send tailored NPS emails by segmenting your email list based on behavior, purchase history, or other factors. For instance, long-term customers might receive a different NPS email than new customers.
• Use Dynamic Content: Many email platforms allow you to insert dynamic content based on customer data. This could include product images, specific purchase details, or even a special offer related to their interests.
• Measure and Adjust: Track how personalized emails perform compared to generic ones. Adjust your strategy based on accurate data to keep improving.

Remember, personalization is more than just a name. It’s about creating a one-on-one dialogue with your customer, making them feel seen, heard, and valued.

In the context of NPS emails, this boosts open and response rates and can lead to more insightful and honest feedback.

Customizing the content might be the deciding factor for your email being ignored or receiving a thoughtful response.

2. Use Friendly But Concise Language

Creating an NPS email that resonates with your audience is like striking up a casual conversation with a friend. You want to be warm and engaging but straight to the point. Here’s how you can master this:

• Reflect Your Brand’s Tone in Your Emails: Suppose your brand is known for its friendly vibe. In that case, your NPS emails should echo this. “Hi there! We’d love to hear your thoughts on our service. Can you spare a minute?” feels inviting.
• Simplicity Is Key: Skip the jargon and fancy terms. A simple “Thanks for choosing us! How was your experience?” is more transparent and engaging than a complicated corporate message.
• Make Survey Questions Clear and Friendly: Treat your survey questions similarly. Keep the language friendly and straightforward to encourage better engagement.
• Use Direct Follow-up Questions in Your Emails: Specific follow-ups, such as “What did you enjoy most about our service?” rather than just “Comments?” encourage more detailed and honest feedback.
• Don’t Hesitate to Use Professional Templates: If crafting the perfect NPS email feels daunting, pre-made templates with friendly language can be a great place to start.

A short, direct NPS survey email shows you value your customers’ time and opinions. And in return, they’re more likely to appreciate your request for additional feedback too.

3. Design for Mobile: Make NPS Emails Responsive

Research from HubSpot shows a growing trend of more email opens occurring on mobile phones compared to desktops and other devices.

Make your NPS email mobile-friendly to ensure a better chance of your Net Promoter Score survey being read.

Utilize responsive design to ensure it looks and functions well on all screen sizes. Focus on clarity, keeping essential elements like the NPS question front and center. Make clickable elements like buttons easily tappable, and always test on various devices before sending. 

This approach ensures higher engagement and taps into where your customers are most active.

4. Choose the Right Time to Send NPS Email Surveys

The right timing for sending NPS survey emails is essential and should be tailored to your audience’s behavior. Consider sending emails shortly after a purchase or service experience when the interaction remains fresh in the customer’s mind.

If targeting international customers, time zones become crucial. Fortunately, most email marketing tools have customizable sending options based on time.

Testing different sending times and analyzing response rates will help you find the optimal timing for various customer segments. Factors like holidays, local work schedules, or typical vacation times in certain regions also influence when your emails should be sent.

In summary, the timing of NPS emails requires a blend of understanding general best practices and your specific audience’s habits. Thoughtful attention to these details can lead to increased engagement and valuable insights.

5. Keep Your Email List Up-to-date

For a successful NPS email campaign, the relevance of your recipient list is crucial. An updated list ensures that your feedback requests reach the right people at the right time.

Outdated or incorrect addresses can skew your results and reduce response rates. Conversely, a fresh list brings timely, actionable insights from engaged customers.

Here are some tips on how to do this:

• Periodically remove bounced or inactive emails to boost efficiency.
• Honor unsubscribe requests swiftly to maintain trust.
• Segment and tailor emails based on recent interactions, enhancing engagement and the richness of feedback.

A well-maintained email list amplifies the impact of your NPS email campaign.

6. Offer Incentives

Offering incentives in your NPS email not only encourages responses but also shows appreciation for your customer’s time and insights. 

Whether it’s a discount code like “Complete our survey for 15% off your next purchase!” or access to exclusive content such as a webinar or e-book, incentives can turn a request into an engaging opportunity.

Even intangible rewards like a thank you note or a promise of improvements can resonate with your audience. 

The key is aligning the incentive with your brand and understanding what excites your customers, whether it’s discounts, early access to new products, or contributions to a meaningful cause.

7. Segment Your Audience

Segmenting your audience in NPS emails helps create tailored communications that enhance relevance and engagement. Consider these strategic ways:

• By Product Interaction: Survey new users about initial experiences; ask seasoned clients about long-term satisfaction.
• By Demographics: Tailor language and approach by understanding age, occupation, or technological proficiency.
• By Geography: Craft region-specific messages, considering cultural differences or seasonal trends.

Segmentation also plays a crucial role in determining the sample size for each segment. If targeting customers who’ve purchased a specific product, knowing the size of that segment helps you decide how many emails to send. This ensures statistically significant feedback.

Segmentation allows you to address different customer needs and preferences. You can adjust your message, visuals, and incentives based on where they are in the customer journey.

8. Send From a Human Voice, Not a Brand

Automated, impersonal marketing is everywhere. A personal touch can set you apart. Send your NPS email from a person, not a faceless brand. 

Turn a survey request into an invitation to talk. Compare “Hi, it’s Sarah from XYZ, we’d love your feedback” to “Do our survey.” The difference is clear. It’s warmer, more human.

This approach changes everything. 

Customers feel they matter to real people. They’re not just data points. Swap a brand name for a person’s name. It’s simple but powerful and can help build relationships instead of just collecting data.

9. Use A/B Testing on Your NPS Survey Emails

An A/B test is a way to find what connects with your customers. By creating two versions of an email and comparing the responses, you can find what works best. You can experiment with:

• Visual Elements: Different images or layouts to see what’s more appealing.
• Send Timing: Different days and times to find when people are most responsive.
• Tone of Voice: Maybe one version is formal, and the other is more casual.
• Subject Lines: Use different wording to see what attracts more opens.

Why do this? A/B testing helps you understand what your customers prefer. It leads to more effective emails, higher response rates, and valuable insights.

10. Add Follow-Up Questions to NPS Emails: Deepen Insights

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) gives us the “what,” but follow-up questions reveal the “why.” Here’s how to approach each group:

For Detractors (Scores 0-6): Finding Ways to Improve

• Example question: “We value your feedback and want to do better. Could you share what we can improve for you?”

For Passives (Scores 7-8): Unlocking Potential Satisfaction

• Example question: “Thank you for your positive rating! What small change could make your next experience a 10?”

For Promoters (Scores 9-10): Understanding Their Love for Your Brand

• Example question: “We’re glad you love our service! Can you tell us what you liked the most?”

Extending an Invitation to Leave a Review (Optional)

• CTA for promoters: “Enjoyed our service? We’d appreciate your sharing the love in a review. Thank you!”

Crafting thoughtful and engaging follow-up questions allows a company to dig deeper into the customer’s mindset.

By addressing detractors, passives, and promoters with targeted questions, you can gain invaluable insights to improve and innovate. It’s a strategic way to turn a simple score into actionable knowledge that fuels growth and fosters customer loyalty.

11. Embed the Survey in NPS Emails: Enhance User Experience

Embedding the NPS survey directly within your email is a highly recommended strategy that offers a seamless and engaging experience for your customers. By including the survey question(s) within the body of the email, customers can respond without leaving their inboxes. Here’s why this approach is often preferred:

• Immediate Interaction: It allows customers to provide feedback quickly and effortlessly, fostering higher engagement.
• Increased Response Rates: By eliminating extra steps, the likelihood of participation often rises, capturing more valuable insights.
• Enhanced User Experience: Integrating the survey within the email creates a frictionless and appealing interface, aligning with today’s fast-paced digital interactions.

An alternate method involves linking to an external website or survey page. There is no wrong or right choice in this matter. However, keep in mind that these extra barriers can discourage engagement. This can lead to missed opportunities for gathering vital customer feedback.

Embedding the NPS survey within your email presents a streamlined and efficient way to connect with your audience.

12. Implement a Real-Time Feedback Response Strategy

A strategic approach to handling real-time feedback can make the difference in converting a detractor into a passive or promoter. Here are some steps you can take:

Step 1: Establishing Alerts for Low Scores

Creating automated alerts for low scores. These alerts will facilitate quick action from your customer success team and show customers their feedback is valued.

Step 2: Evaluating Scores and Related Feedback

Analyzing the low scores and associated feedback helps identify recurring problems or specific areas of discontent. This understanding guides in crafting a tailored approach to address individual concerns.

Step 3: Making Contact with Dissatisfied Customers

Swiftly addressing dissatisfied customers is pivotal for your customer success team. It showcases your commitment to resolving issues.

By empathetically listening and creating effective solutions, you can convert detractors into promoters, enhancing customer satisfaction and reinforcing your brand reputation.

Are you looking for NPS survey email template?

Have a look at our FREE resource with email templates 

that generate trust & loyalty!

Strategies for Creating Compelling NPS Email Subject Lines

Creating compelling subject lines for NPS emails can unlock higher response rates and deeper customer engagement. Here’s a breakdown of five effective strategies:

Use the Magic of Personalization in the Subject Line

Personalization is about creating a unique connection. By addressing customers by their first name or referencing past interactions, you transform a standard email into a tailored and exclusive conversation that resonates personally.

Example: “John, we value your opinion! How did you like your recent purchase?”

This approach creates a connection between the brand and the customer, increasing the likelihood that they will take the time to respond.

Keep the Subject Line Concise

Being brief and to the point is refreshing in a world of information overload. A concise subject line that conveys the request shows respect for the customers’ time and encourages them to engage.

Example: “Quick Feedback on Your Order?”

Keeping it short makes you more likely to grab attention and prompt action.

Build a Sense of Importance or Urgency

Creating a sense of urgency can motivate quicker action. Phrases like “Last chance!” or “Share your thoughts now” instill a feeling that immediate action is necessary.

Example: “Last Chance to Share Your Experience with Us!”

This method plays on human psychology and can lead to increased open and response rates too.

Stand Out with Humor or a Unique Tone of Voice

Using humor or a distinctive voice can help your email get noticed and remembered. Just make sure it matches your brand and what your audience likes.

Example: “Heads up! We’re on a mission to read minds, but until then, we need your feedback!”

Adding a touch of fun or uniqueness can give your email an edge, making it something recipients look forward to.

Prioritize Clarity to Boost Response Rates

Keeping the subject line clear, straightforward, and free from jargon or ambiguity ensures that the recipient knows what is being asked of them.

Example: “Help Us Improve: Your Feedback Needed.”

By being clear and direct, you are more likely to see higher response rates as there’s no confusion about the email’s purpose.

Quick-Start NPS Email Survey Templates

Crafting the perfect NPS survey email can be a simple task. Here are three ready-to-use templates that cover different scenarios and approaches. These NPS email examples can be personalized to fit your specific needs and target audience.

1. The Standard Follow-up NPS Email

This template is a straightforward approach that emphasizes gratitude and the importance of the customer’s opinion:

Subject: “Your Opinion Matters to Us, [Customer’s Name]!”

Body:

Hi [Customer’s Name],

Thank you for your recent purchase of [Product/Service]. We hope you’re enjoying it!

Your feedback is crucial to us. Could you take a moment to let us know how likely you are to recommend [Brand Name] to a friend or colleague?

[Embedded NPS Scale or Link to Survey]

Your insights help us improve, and we truly value your opinion. Thanks for being part of our community!

Best,

[Your Name]

2. The Incentivized Feedback Request

Offering an incentive can increase response rates, and this template blends the request with an appealing reward:

Subject: “Share Your Thoughts & Get a [Discount/Free Gift]!”

Body:

Hi [Customer’s Name],

We noticed you’ve recently tried [Product/Service]. How did we do?

We’re always working to improve our offerings, and your feedback is essential. Click the link below to rate your experience:

[Embedded NPS Scale or Link to Survey]

As a thank you, enjoy a [Discount/Free Gift] on your next purchase. Your input makes a difference!

Cheers,

[Your Name]

3. The Personal Touch NPS Email Example

This template uses a more personalized tone, emphasizing a connection between the customer’s feedback and the brand’s ongoing efforts to improve:

Subject: “How Was Your Experience with [Product/Service], [Customer’s Name]?”

Body:

Dear [Customer’s Name],

I hope you’re enjoying your new [Product/Service]. At [Brand Name], we take your satisfaction seriously.

Could you please share your thoughts on your recent experience? It’s as simple as clicking on the link below:

[Embedded NPS Scale or Link to Survey]

Your feedback directly influences our continuous improvement, and I read every response.

Thank you for choosing [Brand Name].

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

These quick-start templates offer diverse approaches to soliciting NPS feedback via email.

Use gratitude, incentives, or personal touches to make NPS surveys, and emails fit your audience. 

They’re a foundation for creating messages that match your brand, helping you connect with customers in a way that feels right and gets them involved.

Conclusion

NPS email surveys are an essential tool for understanding and engaging with your customers. By implementing the best practices discussed, such as concise language and targeted follow-up questions, you can create meaningful connections. 

Nicereply can simplify this process with survey software that offers continuous tracking, visual insights, and easy identification of dissatisfied customers. Ready to elevate your NPS email strategy? Start your free trial today with Nicereply, and let your customers know you’re truly listening.

The post NPS Email Masterclass: All You Need to Know [+Examples] appeared first on Customer Happiness Blog.

Find out what is a good Net Promoter Score & get out the most of your surveys!

It can be really hard to discern how your customers truly feel about your company, product, or service. 

This gray area is a pain point for all businesses and leaves them without a clear path to improving offerings and meeting customers’ needs. 

Fortunately, your Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a solid metric to combat the gray area, and understanding it will give you strong insights into your customers’ perception of your business. 

This article will discuss a good NPS score in 2024 and how you can measure your NPS.

What is a NPS Score?

A NPS score is a market research metric that measures customer loyalty, satisfaction, and the likeability of a company’s performance.

What is a Good NPS Score?

Bain & Company says a good net promoter score is anything above 0.

20+ is considered great, and 50+ is fantastic. Anything above 80 is considered prestigious due to the difficulty of achieving such a score in a competitive market. 

However, it’s important to note that industry standards for NPS scores may vary and that benchmarking your score can serve as a good Northstar to reference.

What is a Good NPS Score by Industry?

Average NPS by Industry

The following infographic is provided by SatMetrix, the creator and owner of the NPS trademark. The infographic shown is the U.S. Consumer 2023 Net Promoter Benchmarks.

NPS Leaders by Industry

The following infographic is provided by SatMetrix, the creator and owner of the NPS trademark. The infographic shown is the U.S. Consumer 2023 Net Promoter Benchmarks.

Benchmarking your Net Promoter Score

As you can see, the average net promoter score for industries varies quite significantly. Most industries have an NPS above 0. According to Bain & Company’s scale, this should mean their NPS is considered good.

By definitive measures, yes. But theoretically speaking, no. 

Using your industry average, compare your NPS score with other companies in the same industry. This method is known as relative NPS and will serve as a benchmark for your net promoter score.

Measuring NPS scores by company provides a more contextual view, showing where your company stands relative to direct competitors. The relative NPS score helps to benchmark your customer loyalty against others in your market, which could highlight competitive advantages or areas needing improvement.

Counterwise, the absolute NPS method is more applicable to benchmark your net promoter score among companies across all industries. This method compares your company’s NPS score against a general, agreed-upon standard or ‘good score.’

A significant drawback of this method is that it doesn’t consider the specific nuances or averages within your industry. The absolute NPS score could be seen as a standalone measure of customer loyalty, irrespective of competition.

What is a Good NPS Score for SaaS?

According to the U.S. Consumer 2023 Net Promoter Benchmarks, the average NPS score for software & apps is 27. And TurboTax is the leader with a solid 40 for their NPS score.

That being said, it can be concluded that:

NPS Score Range 0-10 = Not good

NPS Score Range 0-20 = Okay

NPS Score Range 21-30 = GoodNPS Score Range 31+ = Fantastic

What is a Good NPS Score for an Event?

There are no definitive guidelines when assessing NPS scores for events – determining a good score can be challenging.

An event isn’t normally viewed as a “product” therefore, it is not as easy to compare against a benchmark.

But having a clear understanding of customer feedback and expectations can be beneficial in creating a successful event. 

To establish a good score, event organizers must consider feedback from multiple sources, including a question from each attendee and reviews on social media platforms.

For your question, simply ask, “How likely are you to recommend this event to others?”. 

Using this data, event organizers can gain insight into what aspects of their event resonated with attendees and how they can improve for future events.

Additionally, understanding the needs and wants of their target audience is important because it helps organizers create an experience that caters to their preferences.

Which NPS Method Should You Use? 

The absolute NPS method might be more beneficial for internal performance tracking and understanding how well you’re doing regarding customer loyalty. 

Meanwhile, the relative NPS method would give you a competitive perspective, helping you to know how well you’re doing compared to other companies in your industry.

Both methods, used together, can give you a comprehensive view of your company’s performance in terms of customer satisfaction and loyalty.

How to Calculate NPS in Three Steps

Calculating your Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a simple yet powerful way to gauge customer loyalty. The process is straightforward and provides actionable insights and a reliable performance metric. 

By determining your NPS, you gain a window into your customers’ experiences, allowing you to pinpoint areas for improvement and celebrate successes.

With its ease and effectiveness, NPS calculation is a tool you must pay attention to when pursuing business growth and customer satisfaction.

Follow these three steps to get started:

1. Ask the golden question.
2. Segment your customers.
3. Calculate your NPS core.

Ask the golden question:

o calculate NPS, you need to use a customer survey tool and ask your customers a single question: “How likely are you to recommend our company/product/service to a friend or colleague?”
They will respond by selecting a number from the rating scale from 1-10.

Simple? Yes. Effective? Very!

 You are calculating a metric that will help you better understand the following benefits:

• Customer loyalty
• Customer satisfaction
• Customer pain points

Segment your customers

Having a data set of customer metrics is great, but what do you do with that information? Customers are segmented into three groups: Promoters, Passives, and Detractors.

• Promoters (9-10 ratings): Customers who will likely recommend your company/product/service Promoters contribute to increased profitability by maintaining long-term customer relationships and are more inclined to endorse your business. They provide valuable assets through testimonials, reviews, and potential future recommendations.

• Passives (7-8 ratings): Customers are neither likely nor unlikely to recommend your company/product/service. Passives exhibit a neutral stance. Their experience isn’t positive nor negative, resulting in an “I don’t really care” feeling toward your business. 
• Detractors (0-6 ratings): Customers are unlikely to recommend your company/product/service. Detractors are individuals who’ve primarily had negative experiences with your company. If not addressed properly, these customers may discontinue their relationship with your business, leave bad reviews, and spread damaging word-of-mouth.

Calculate your NPS score

Finally, the NPS score can be determined by taking the difference between the percentage of detractors and the percentage of promoters.

For example, let’s say your data set consists of 100 customers. If you have 80% promoters, 5% passives, and 15% detractors, your NPS score would be 65.

A high NPS score indicates that your customers are very satisfied with your company/product/service and are likely to recommend it to others. 

A low NPS score suggests that your customers are unsatisfied and are unlikely to recommend it to others.

Analyzing your NPS and Identifying Areas for Improvement

Once you have your NPS score, it’s time to analyze it to understand what drives your customers’ satisfaction and identify areas for improvement. This will help you keep your customers happy and loyal and, ultimately, grow your business.

Here are eight tips for analyzing your NPS and identifying areas for improvement.

Segment your data

Once you have your NPS score, you can break it down by customer segment, product, region, or channel to see how different groups of customers are feeling about your company. The goal is to gain a good understanding of your customer feedback. This can help you identify areas where your customers are particularly happy or unhappy and focus your efforts on improving those areas.

If your NPS score is low for a particular product, you should investigate why. Is there something wrong with the product? Is the marketing for the product not reaching the right people? Take time to understand the issue and develop the steps to fix it.

Look at the open-ended comments

Your customers’ comments can provide valuable insights into why they gave you the score they did. Look for common themes in the comments to identify areas to improve. 

For example, if many customers have trouble understanding your product’s instructions, you may need to clarify those instructions. Or, if many customers say that they were not satisfied with the customer service they received, you may need to improve your customer service training. 

Paying attention to all your customer’s comments and addressing their concerns will provide the leverage you need to identify areas of improvement for a better customer experience.

Compare your NPS score to industry benchmarks

As previously discussed, the relative or absolute NPS method will gauge your performance among average net promoter scores.

You can compare your sales, marketing, and customer service data to your competitors’ data to see where you stand. You can also look at your competitors’ websites and social media pages to see what they are doing well and what you could do better. Or you can ask your customers what they think of your competitors to understand their preferences better.

Focus on the drivers of satisfaction and prioritize your efforts

Not all areas for improvement are created equal. Some will have a bigger impact on your customer satisfaction than others, and it’s important to prioritize the ones that move the needle.

Look at the data you gathered from your NPS survey to identify the most critical factors to your customers; these are the areas where you should focus your improvement efforts.

Double down on successful drivers and eliminate the unsuccessful ones.

Make changes that are easy to implement

Don’t try to do too much at once. Start with small, simple changes that you can make quickly to help build that initial momentum. Doing so will make success more likely in converting unhappy customers into happy customers.

Measure your results

Once changes have been made, track the results to see if they’ve had the desired impact. Improving customer satisfaction is ongoing, and measuring your efforts to improve a positive customer experience is crucial. The only way to see if your efforts are working is if you track your NPS score over a period of time. Establishing a quarterly, semi-annual, or yearly audit is a good place to start.

Channels to Deliver NPS Surveys

There are several reasons why delivering NPS surveys via different channels is effective. Common reasons include increased response rates, improved data quality, and more actionable insights.

• Increased response rates: Using multiple channels increases the chances that your customers will see and respond to your survey.
• Improved data quality: Collecting feedback from various sources can give you a more accurate picture of your customer satisfaction.
• More actionable insights: Tracking NPS scores over time and across different channels allows your company to identify trends and patterns that will help improve the business.

Whether the delivery time or frequency, each channel method has unique characteristics.

Email

Email is by far the most popular channel for customer interactions because it is easy to use and has a high return on investment. Email marketing tools and software can automate sending customer surveys, saving time and money. However, like most things, email marketing has some drawbacks, such as low response rates and a lack of personalization.

In-app

Unlike email surveys, in-app surveys tend to have a higher response rate. This is likely because users who are browsing your website or mobile app already have an interest in your company/product/service. 

Phone

Companies tend to be big fans of phone surveys. Phone surveys tend to have a high response rate because a live representative directs the conversation between them and the customer. The representative can create an engaging conversation, be more personable, and address questions or concerns. 

Text Message (SMS)

The average open rate for text message marketing campaigns is 98%, compared to 20% for email marketing campaigns. With an open rate of nearly 100%, you can almost guarantee your customers will see your surveys. However, converting them to survey completers is another challenge. 

Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)

Measuring customer loyalty and satisfaction is a great way to understand your customers. But what about the people who work for your business? The ones who take care of your customers? 

Companies can also measure loyalty and satisfaction with employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS to get a pulse within their organization.

There are many benefits to measuring eNPS:

• Improved employee engagement and satisfaction
• Reduced employee turnover
• Increased productivity and innovation
• Improved customer satisfaction
• Increased brand loyalty

eNPS helps you assess employee engagement and the likelihood of your employees recommending your company as a workplace. eNPS is typically part of a larger employee engagement survey that allows you to identify areas for improvement based on engagement levels. Tracking changes in your eNPS score and analyzing employee feedback will help you increase employee engagement and foster an overall positive work environment.

The best way to learn is to try. Get your free trial now and unlock the potential of feedback surveys.

The post What is a Good Net Promoter Score (NPS) in 2024? appeared first on Customer Happiness Blog.

What is a Net Promoter Score (NPS)? Tracking this metric is one of the most important things you can do for your business.

What’s the one number your business needs to grow?

You might think it’s revenue—with good reason.

While revenue is undoubtedly crucial, it’s only a part of the equation. Growing revenue can be a short-term strategy that brings immediate gains, but focusing on customer loyalty is vital for long-term, sustained growth and success. 

Many argue that the real game-changer is the Net Promoter Score (NPS). 

NPS unlocks the door to customer loyalty, organic growth, and the true potential for lasting success. 

Here’s how.

What is NPS score?

NPS stands for Net Promoter Score. It’s one of today’s most widely used metrics to measure customer loyalty.

The NPS score is calculated with one simple question. Customers are asked, 

“On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our company or product to a friend or colleague?” 

Based on their responses, customers are classified into three categories:

1. Promoters (score 9–10): These are delighted and loyal customers who will likely recommend the company to others.
2. Passives (score 7–8): These customers are generally satisfied but less enthusiastic than Promoters. They’re considered neutral and might be easily swayed by competitors.
3. Detractors (score 0–6): Dissatisfied customers who are likely to spread negative opinions about a company, potentially harming their reputation.

How to calculate your NPS score [formula]

The NPS formula looks like this:

NPS = Percentage of Promoters – Percentage of Detractors

In other words, it’s calculated by subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters. The score can range from -100 (all customers are Detractors) to +100 (all customers are Promoters). 

A positive score indicates that there are more Promoters than Detractors, while a negative score means the opposite.

Here’s an example. A company’s NPS survey responses might look like this:

• 60 customers are promoters, scoring 9–10. 
• 20 customers are passives, scoring 7–8. 
• 20 customers are detractors, scoring 0–6. 

Out of 100 customers, 60% are promoters, and 20% are detractors. That means their NPS score is +40.

60% Promoters – 20% Detractors = NPS of +40

What NPS means for your business

NPS was popularized by Frederick Reichheld in an article titled The One Number You Need to Grow, published by Harvard Business Review. 

It fulfills a unique role in metrics that a company might work with. 

Ultimately, the NPS score is a measure of customer sentiment. But it isn’t only a measure of sentiment. It provides a way for companies to predict customer behavior, such as their likelihood of making a repeat purchase or referring a product to their friends.

That’s where the real power of NPS lies. 

Reichheld’s research suggests that the percentage of customers who are enthusiastic enough about a product to refer it to a friend or colleague directly correlates with growth. 

And this has been supported by multiple studies since:

• A tenfold increase in NPS score correlates with a 3.2% increase in upsell revenue.
• Around 80–90% of referrals come from promoters. 
• Detractors are responsible for over 80% of negative word of mouth.

This doesn’t mean that NPS is a perfect Key Performance Indicator (KPI), nor does it mean that chasing a high NPS score is the right thing for every company. NPS isn’t guaranteed to correlate with growth—but by and large, it does.  

In most industries, it remains the single most effective question to ask that will give you a snapshot of customer sentiment in a way that implies loyalty—the kind of loyalty that has a direct impact on your bottom-line metrics.

What is a good NPS score? [NPS scores by industry]

Unsurprisingly, NPS scores vary wildly by industry. 

Looking at your absolute NPS score independent of the industry you’re in is a fool’s errand. A score of +30 might be fantastic in some sectors and abysmal in others. Benchmarking against similar companies is the best way to contextualize your score. 

SurveyMonkey broke down NPS across three industries:

• Professional services (legal, financial) had a median NPS of +50. 
• Technology companies (telecommunications, and computer manufacturers) had a median NPS of +40.
• Consumer goods and services (retailers, restaurants) had a median NPS of +50. 

Retently did similar research, looking at B2B and B2C companies. There may be other NPS score categories:

• Internet software & services had the lowest average NPS score of +9.
• Insurance had the highest in the B2C space, with an average score of +27.
• NPS in B2B companies is significantly higher, where cloud & hosting is the lowest performing category with an NPS average of +39. 

Any positive score is a good sign because you have more promoters than detractors, but your industry’s norms dictate what target you should set.

Potential pitfalls of NPS

Like all metrics, NPS has some drawbacks.

When used in isolation, NPS can become a vanity metric—something that looks and feels good but doesn’t drive meaningful actions or translate to results in your business. The trick is to use it with additional context. 

These are the top four shortcomings of NPS:

• Passives aren’t considered in the NPS score.
• Even a stable NPS can mask underlying problems.
• NPS scores fluctuate.
• NPS alone is not actionable. 

Passives aren’t considered in the score

Passives don’t directly count towards the NPS score. 

That results in many companies neglecting those respondents. The tendency is to aim to reduce the proportion of detractors or increase the proportion of promoters—and simply ignore the passives. 

Even if passives aren’t directly represented in the score, a high proportion of passives restricts how high your total NPS can get. And it will likely take less effort to turn someone who’s passive about your brand into a promoter than it would to turn a detractor around. 

Even a stable NPS can mask underlying problems

Say your NPS survey distribution looks like this:

• 20% are promoters.
• 70% are passives.
• 10% are detractors.

Your NPS score would be +10.

Next time you run an NPS survey, the numbers shift a little. Now you’re looking at:

• 40% promoters.
• 30% passives.
• 30% detractors.

Your NPS score is still +10, and you’ve doubled your promoters, which is great. But you’ve also tripled your detractors, and that’s a big red flag. 

A stable NPS score might give the impression that customer sentiment toward your product is the same as it was before. In this scenario, sentiment towards your product has become significantly more extreme than it used to be—in both directions.

The point is that looking at the number alone is not enough. 

NPS scores fluctuate

Like most KPIs, NPS is influenced by many factors, like seasonality, product launches, and marketing campaigns.

Some amount of noise is normal, and the amount that’s considered normal will vary from business to business. It also depends on your response rates and sample sizes. 

A sudden decrease might not reflect an actual change in customer sentiment or loyalty. Companies that rely too much on NPS as a metric might pivot and respond to minor changes too fast and too early.

NPS alone is not actionable

An NPS survey says nothing about what needs to change or what you can improve.

At the end of the day, what you have is a number. That number indicates areas you might need to look into, but that’s the most it can do.

When a customer rates your product or service higher, you can track the change, but the NPS survey isn’t enough to know why. It doesn’t deliver actionable insights. To actually address feedback, you’ll likely need to track additional data and combine it with qualitative insights as well.

How to use NPS effectively

The shortcomings of NPS don’t mean that there isn’t room to use it. 

It’s a valuable tool for the majority of businesses. It’s especially useful because there’s so much industry-specific benchmarking data available for it. 

Here are some ways to make the most of an NPS survey:

• Encourage survey participation and response rates.
• Follow up with open-ended questions.
• Segment and analyze the data.
• Tie NPS to actionable goals.
• Track trends in NPS over time.
• Use NPS appropriately as part of a broader feedback strategy.

Encourage survey participation and response rates

All surveys become more reliable and more meaningful with higher response rates. NPS is no different.

Here are some ways you can increase your response rate:

• Find the right frequency. Sending surveys too often will increase the likelihood of people ignoring it or getting frustrated by it.
• Send it at the right time. Ideally, it would be sent after someone has interacted with your product (e.g., purchased something) or with your service (e.g., through support). But there should also be enough of a gap that the case is fully resolved, or the customer’s had time to really use your product.
• Engage and address customer feedback. People are always more likely to respond to something when they realize there’s someone on the other end who really cares about their thoughts.
• Make it as easy as possible. Use tools that let you capture feedback instantly without asking for a ton of information or making your customers click around. Instant Ratings on Nicereply do just that.
• Use an engaging subject line. If you’re sending your NPS survey via email, the subject line makes a huge difference.

It’s so much easier to leverage NPS and invest resources here when you can trust the insights that you’re pulling.

Follow up with open-ended questions

Go for the right nps score question. Open-ended questions are a simple way for your customers to tell you what’s on their minds in their own words. They’ll likely give you a few good hints about where to focus your energy if you want to improve your NPS score. 

Collecting any qualitative insights does mean a bigger time investment when analyzing the data, but that time is well-spent if it translates to actions. 

Note that making your survey longer will hurt your response rate—so there’s always a tradeoff to be made. 

You’re choosing between getting more answers with less depth or fewer answers that might give you actionable insights. Your choice will depend a lot on what other sources of data you might have. If you can already supplement your NPS data with other insights, it might not be worth it.

Segment and analyze the data

There are a million ways to segment NPS data to get better insights. 

You can segment based on:

• Customer demographics, like age or gender. This can help you see where your product already performs the best and which demographics might need something different. 
• Customer type, which would involve differentiating between repeat customers and new customers. Understanding how different customer groups perceive your brand and their loyalty levels can guide targeted retention and acquisition strategies.
• Customer journey touchpoints, like presales, purchase, onboarding, or post-purchase. Pinpointing areas with low NPS scores within the customer journey can help prioritize improvements.
• Customer feedback themes. You might notice some recurring issues that most detractors mention or that promoters often reference one or two features. 

Segmentation is ultimately about finding the right opportunities for the right customer groups. 

Tie NPS to actionable goals

Having access to mountains of data is great! Translating that data into actions is extremely challenging.

Tracking NPS just to know where your business sits is still worth it. If your NPS seems stable over time and you’re happy with where you are in comparison to your industry, there’s no reason to make huge changes.

That said, NPS is most effective when you set concrete and actionable goals. Ideally, these goals should also be tied to your company’s broader goals.

Some examples might look like this:

• Increase promoters or reduce detractors by x%.
• Improve the NPS score at a key customer touchpoint.
• Turn x% of passives into promoters.
• Increase the customer retention rate by x% (using NPS as a potential lever). 

Track trends in NPS over time

Your NPS score might tell you a little about customer sentiment. 

How that score changes and develops over time tells you so much more. 

An increase in NPS scores over time is a great sign for your business. And an increase in the proportion of promoters, especially if it stays consistent over a longer period, is an even better one. Promoters are:

• More than 4x as likely to repurchase from a company.
• More than 5x as likely to forgive a company if it makes a mistake.
• More than 7x as likely to try new offerings from the company.

Monitoring changes in NPS can also help you see the impact of any improvements you’ve made. 

Remember that the score isn’t absolute, though. Even if there’s a positive change but you see a dramatic increase in the proportion of detractors, you should still look into it.

Use NPS as part of a broader feedback strategy

NPS is only one metric. It has its place, but other metrics might be more suitable depending on what you’re looking for. 

NPS is intended to measure customer sentiment towards your company or brand as a whole.

• If you want to measure a specific support interaction, CSAT might be a better option. CSAT is useful to assess satisfaction at specific touchpoints or moments in the customer journey.
• Another option might be CES if you want to reduce the effort that customers are spending. Higher CES scores indicate a smoother and more effortless customer experience.

If you want to get more specific, NPS data might not provide all the information you need.

Having trouble deciding between NPS vs. CSAT? To get the most out of both, read our article.

A feedback strategy that works

NPS is a powerful metric that goes beyond measuring customer satisfaction—it measures customer loyalty. Incorporating it into a broader feedback strategy creates an opportunity for you to understand your customers’ sentiments, needs, and preferences.

The good news? Nicereply provides an effortless way to get started with NPS. Your customers can give you feedback in just one click, while you collect meaningful feedback for your business.

Try a free trial here today!

Want to dive even deeper first? Check out our free ebook on NPS here!

The post What Is Net Promoter Score? How to Calculate & Analyze NPS appeared first on Customer Happiness Blog.

Timing is crucial in all aspects of life. Don’t underestimate it even when sending your surveys.

Understanding customer satisfaction is essential for success in today’s cutthroat business environment. The use of Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys to measure customer loyalty and pinpoint areas for development has become increasingly popular.

The timing of these surveys, however, has a significant impact on their effectiveness. In this article, we examine the importance of timing in deciding the best time to send NPS surveys. Businesses can gain insightful information and improve their customer-centric strategies by strategically timing these surveys.

What is NPS and how to calculate it?

The NPS survey is specifically centered around the question:

“How likely is it that you would recommend Company to a friend or colleague?”

Customers can then respond on a scale from 1 (very unlikely) to 10 (very likely). Those responses separate customers into three categories:

How is NPS calculated?

The total NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters.

What is good NPS?

Customers who answer lower than 6 are detractors, while those who respond with a 9 or higher are promoters. Customers responding 7-8 are passives.

Difference between transactional NPS vs. relationship NPS

In order to figure out the most appropriate time to send out a survey, we first need to examine the differences between transactional NPS and relationship NPS.

Relationship NPS

Let’s first take a look at the relationship with NPS. This type of NPS is designed for you to get a sense of the general vibe of what the relationship between an organization and its customers is like. 
It’s about giving you the broader and bigger picture when it comes to things like customer loyalty and really allows companies to get a sense of their brand’s health and how it improves on a yearly basis.

How often should relationship NPS be issued?

A good metric for deciding the frequency is just how much change is possible in a company during a short period of time and how that change can quickly impact a customer’s perception of a company’s brand. Some examples include turnover of staff, price changes, release of new products, and special promotions. 

Numerous changes, both positive and negative, can occur within the span of a year (or even less time), and those changes will determine whether your customer base grows or decreases.

That’s why sending out NPS relationship surveys around 2-4 times during the year is crucial. Otherwise, you risk neglecting important feedback and criticism from an unhappy customer base and are not able to make the necessary changes or improvements in a timely manner. You could potentially lose a substantial amount of customers.

While it’s good to send out the NPS survey at a regular rate, make sure not to overdo it. You could potentially create survey fatigue by sending it way too frequently. As we previously mentioned, 2-4 times during the year is the sweet spot. You don’t want to create a scenario of low response rates because your customers are sick of getting spammed by your surveys.

Always make sure to express your gratitude at the end of the survey when you send them out. It demonstrates that you value the amount of time your customers take out of their day to fill in your surveys.

Make Sure To Survey Your Customers Together And At Consistent Intervals

There are a lot of advantages to take into consideration when surveying customers grouped together. 

First off, it’s much more straightforward to collect and upload the survey data when you survey customers that have been grouped together. This makes your data analysis much less of a hassle. 

Another perk is that creates a more consistent timing when you release the survey. People will be more ready to answer your survey if everyone is getting it within the same time window. And overall, it just makes data gathering so much faster, which is key for making speedier improvements in response to complaints or feedback.

There are also quite a lot of perks when it comes to sending out surveys at consistent intervals. By issuing out surveys at constant intervals, you can prevent situations where your team might end up getting overwhelmed with too much work. 

This could potentially negatively impact the follow-up or replies from the feedback of those surveys. It also creates a more consistent and easier-to-manage data stream. 

And on top of all of that, it creates a much faster turnaround time in determining whether the changes your company/business has made are working, which then frees you up for faster follow-up actions. 

There are some additional factors to take into consideration when deciding the timing of your relationship NPS surveys. Say, for instance, that your customer’s contract will be renewed in three months’ time. In a situation like this, it’s a good idea to find out how said customer feels about your business/brand. 

It’s also a good opportunity to iron out any issues if you suspect that they might not want to renew. If your company will be conducting a business review, then sending out surveys a couple of weeks beforehand is also a good idea in order to collect valuable data for the review.

Transactional NPS

Whereas relationship NPS surveys are about the broader, bigger picture, transactional NPS surveys are all about the nitty-gritty details. 

They are designed primarily to figure out how your customer base feels about specific interactions they’ve had with your company, e.g., purchase of one of your products, support tickets, promotions, etc. This type of survey is more about trying to understand what specific aspect or minutiae of your business needs to be adjusted or improved based on the data you’ve collected.

How often should transactional NPS be issued?

Figuring out the timing and frequency of transactional NPS surveys is much more straightforward than it is with relationship NPS surveys. Timing plays a much bigger role than frequency when trying to decide when to send out transactional NPS surveys.

First off, it is essential that you immediately send one as soon as a customer has made a purchase or transaction with your brand. A survey being sent out too late can lead to a low response rate. This is less than ideal if you’re hoping to get accurate data and feedback.

That being said, that window of time isn’t universally the same and is heavily dependent on the type of transaction or interaction the customer has with your business. For example, if the interaction is something like a follow-up/resolution of a support call, repair work, or a doctor’s appointment, you would want to send it within 0-24 hours after the interaction.

If it’s after the purchase of a product that requires some testing or tinkering, then you would want to send it 0-3 days after the transaction. In situations where a product needs to be shipped to an address, you should send it after 7-10 days since it will take some time for the product to reach the customer.

All you need to know about NPS

Bad or good NPS gives incredibly actionable feedback that helps improve your customer’s loyalty over time. Learn how to understand your NPS and get the most out of it.

By reading this ebook, you will learn:
-What is NPS & why you should measure it
-How is NPS calculated
-How to read the results of your score
-How to follow up after the NPS survey
-Combining NPS with other metrics
-NPS in practice

Other useful resources

NPS vs. CES vs. CSAT Metrics: Which One(s) Is the Best For You?

Building Customer Loyalty: 9 Proven Steps to Boost Customer Retention

Best Tips for Creating & Customizing NPS Follow-Up Questions

The post When to Send NPS Surveys? A Guide To Choosing the Ideal Time appeared first on Customer Happiness Blog.

Employee Net Promoter Score: why you should care about it?

Employee engagement has become a key metric for high-performing businesses to track since it was introduced over three decades ago.

Why?

Year after year, statistics have shown a clear link between highly engaged employees and better business outcomes. Gallup’s tenth employee engagement meta-analysis report found the following results of high employee engagement:

• An 81% reduction in absenteeism
• 18% less turnover in high-turnover organizations
• A whopping 43% less turnover in low-turnover organizations
• 41% fewer product defects
• A 10% increase in customer loyalty and engagement
• An 18% increase in sales productivity
• A 23% increase in profitability

Clearly, employee engagement is something you want to track. Thankfully, tracking employee engagement has evolved over the years with different tools and methods. 

And one of the best metrics to track is eNPS.

What is Employee Net Promoter Score?

eNPS stands for Employee Net Promoter Score. Like its customer-facing counterpart, it measures loyalty and satisfaction—only this time with your employees. 

eNPS helps you assess employee engagement and the likelihood of your employees recommending your company as a place to work.

eNPS is usually part of a larger employee engagement survey that allows a company to identify areas of improvement based on engagement levels. Tracking changes in your eNPS score, combined with analyzing the feedback you receive from employees, will keep you on the right track to increasing employee engagement and fostering a positive work environment.

How to calculate employee net promoter score?

eNPS is typically measured by asking one simple question: “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend this company as a place to work?”

Just like the regular Net Promoter Score question, there are three groups employees will be categorized into based on their responses. Those groups are Promoters, Passives, and Detractors.

• Promoters are employees who scored a 9 or 10. These employees are highly satisfied and engaged. They are likely to speak positively about their experience working with your company and would recommend it as a workplace to others.
• Passives are employees who score a 7 or 8. These employees are moderately satisfied but are most likely not actively promoting the company.
• Detractors are employees who score 0 to 6. These employees are dissatisfied and most likely disengaged. They may speak negatively about the company and may be at a higher risk of leaving.

To calculate your eNPS, subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of employees identifying as promoters. Scores can range from -100 (all detractors) to +100 (all promoters).

(% of Promoters) – (% of Detractors) = eNPS

For example, if 100 employees responded to an eNPS survey with 50 Promoters, 20 Detractors, and 30 Passives, the Net Promoter Score would be 30 (because 50 – 20 = 30). 

The goal is to continually improve and increase your score.

6 reasons you should measure eNPS

eNPS should be considered a crucial metric for employee-centric companies, and here are six reasons you should be tracking it.

1. It’s a simple metric

eNPS provides a quantitative measure of employee engagement within your company, and one of its strengths is its simplicity. You ask the question, track your employees’ answers, and calculate your score. It’s easy to ask and easy to track because it’s just one question. 

And using a tool like Nicereply makes it even easier. 

eNPS provides a quick way to track the overall health of your workforce. By understanding overall engagement levels, you can identify areas of strength and opportunity.

2. Increased employee satisfaction and retention

Measuring eNPS helps you assess employee satisfaction levels, which in turn affects employee retention because it helps you spot employee engagement trends that may lead to employee turnover.

Engaged employees are more likely to be satisfied with their work and your organization as a whole, which means they’re more likely to stick around. The reduction in turnover indicated by Gallup’s research leads directly to fewer costs for an organization. 

Since employees are less likely to seek opportunities elsewhere, the associated costs with employee turnover are reduced. 

And just how much can an organization save by retaining employees?

Work Institute research shows that replacing an employee can cost an organization about 33% of that employee’s base pay. 

So losing an employee making $50,000 will end up costing your company over $16,000 in addition to their salary. And replacing a $100,000 salaried employee costs a massive $33,000 just to find someone new.

Retaining employees also leads to less risk of losing institutional knowledge and helps drive the long-term success of the business.

3. Insights into the company culture

eNPS offers insights into how well your company fosters a positive work environment and overall employee well-being. By monitoring eNPS over time, you can track the impact of your actions to improve company culture and identify areas that are and aren’t working.

For example, if you launch a big culture initiative at the beginning of Q1, you can take an eNPS survey at the beginning of Q3 to see what effect it’s having on your employees. If eNPS scores have improved, you know the initiative is working. If they haven’t, you may need to tweak the initiative a bit or go back to the drawing board entirely, possibly using employee feedback as a guide. 

Either way, by tracking eNPS, you can lean into what is working and discard what isn’t. The beauty of eNPS is that you’ll know directly from your employees if something is working or not.

4. Tracking where company profitability may be heading

Since Gallup found a link to employee engagement and the bottom line, you can use eNPS to track the potential impact on your company’s profitability. If you’ve had a consistent decline in eNPS scores, you can assume two things based on those results. 

First, employee performance may decrease. This can affect general productivity, mistakes being made by employees, and how satisfied your customers are. 

Recognizing this allows you to pivot and invest in employee engagement where necessary. 

Second, since it can take some time to course correct, you can lean into other areas temporarily that may help level off the potential decline in profit, like an increase in your sales force or a decrease in customer discounts. 

While the connection isn’t always a direct one, your historical eNPS numbers can inform your decisions about where your business profitability may be heading.

5. Gauge where you are compared to other companies

Tracking eNPS allows you to benchmark your company’s performance against industry standards or competitors. 

Comparing your scores against others helps you set realistic goals so you can make continuous improvements in employee engagement. 

You’ll also gain some perspective into areas where you may be excelling or falling behind others in your industry.

6. Higher levels of trust and rapport

Focusing on eNPS shows your employees you value their opinions. By actively seeking feedback and taking steps to improve engagement, you show that you prioritize their well-being, satisfaction, and overall engagement. This promotes the development of trust and loyalty among your employees.

Taking it one step further, encourage transparency by keeping your eNPS survey anonymous so your employees don’t feel the need to sugarcoat their responses. This also protects employees from any backlash from higher levels of management and forces leadership to focus on the results rather than on particular employees. 

Challenges with using eNPS

While eNPS should be an essential metric, you definitely have to watch out for how you use it. 

Many of the drawbacks associated with eNPS are the same drawbacks that come with the customer-facing NPS. For example, the eNPS score itself can be a little ambiguous. 

You might have an eNPS score of 20 based on 100 employees taking the survey. But the actual breakdown of that score can look quite different.

• You could have 60 Promoters and 40 detractors, leading to a score of 20
• You could have 20 Promoters, 0 Detractors, and 80 Passives

You may think having 0 Detractors is the better outcome, but you also have a lot fewer Promoters in your workforce. 

Solely focusing on your eNPS won’t give any context into why your employees gave the score they did, either. If you have an eNPS of 15 with some detractors and have no other context, how will you know what to improve in order to increase employee engagement and satisfaction?

To avoid these pitfalls, always use your eNPS score in conjunction with at least one open-ended feedback question to determine what is driving your score. This way, you can take targeted actions to address concerns, hone in on the things working well, and align engagement initiatives with employee needs.

eNPS Follow Up Questions

eNPS is a great way to measure employee satisfaction but it’s best used in context of the open ended questions. Your employees are more likely to complete surveys than customers so asking one ore more follow up questions to dig deeper is a great way to complement the standard eNPS scale. Here are a few examples of questions you can ask:

Why did you give the score you did?

Why do your employees feel the way they do about the company? Get the reason behind the employee NPS score and keeping it open ended. Employees will be encouraged to share what’s important to them if given the opportunity.

How can we improve?

Your employees will have great ideas on how you can improve their work environment—if they’re asked. They know themselves better than anyone so ask what you can do to improve. Then, hone in on the common themes and take action to make it happen.

Start, Stop, Continue

This three-part questions is great for drawing out specific suggestions from your employees. Ask employees what the company should start doing, stop doing, and continue doing. It’s essentially asking your employees what is going well (continue), what’s not working (stop), and what they think you should be doing instead (start).

• “What should we start doing.” This question is perfect for finding ideas for new initiatives direct from the people who matter most.
• “What should we stop doing? This question identifies processes that aren’t going over well—and may be completely unnecessary—with your employees.

“What should we continue doing?” Highlights things that are going well and that are real culture drivers.

Do you want us to follow up with you?

Employee surveys are generally anonymous, and that encourages more open communication, especially if you’re working on a lack of trust. However, your employees will sometimes reveal something that requires follow up. This isn’t always a negative situation either. 

For example, an employee may reveal they’re not getting along well with their manager, which is something that should be addressed and followed up on. But an employee may also give you a killer idea for a new intitiave. You may want pull them in to help build it or at least get more info. Both these examples would benefit from talking to the employee involved.

Give your employees the option to leave their name and get a response from senior leadership so you can continue the conversation started in the survey. If they don’t feel comfortable bringing it up in other arenas, this is a great way to address it.

Other eNPS Considerations

If you’re looking to tip the eNPS scales, you may be wondering how often you should survey your employees, how to improve response rates, and how to improve your overall eNPS score.

How often should you survey your employees?

Since e​mployee happiness isn’t a one time initiative, Nicereply recommends quarterly surveys. Depending on your company initiatives and overall size, every six months may also be a good cadence. That leaves you enough time to make changes while also being infrequent enough that employees aren’t tired of being asked. A regular cadence also helps you easily spot trends throughout the year and keep focusing on improvements.

How do you improve response rates?

It’s no secret that employee NPS works best with high response rates. The higher the number of employee responses, the more meaningful the data.

There are two key things that drive eNPS response rates: how leadership talks about the survey before it’s given and what leadership does with the results. When the survey is released, leadership should stress the value of receiving employee feedback. They should also make sure the team is given enough time to complete the survey during work hours. 

It’s also crucial that survey responses lead to real improvements. If your employees don’t see any changes, they’ll disregard surveys because they’ll feel their feedback isn’t taken seriously.

How do you improve your employee NPS?

Most survey software will calculate the score for you automatically which leaves your most important job to find the why behind the score.  To do this, read through the responses and look for themes.

Is one department’s eNPS score significantly lower than the rest? Ask your that team’s leadership to identify what isn’t working. Is one team significantly outperforming other team’s with eNPS? Dive into what’s making them tick!

See what commonalities you see in the data. What concerns come up often?  Focusing on—and then improving—these common themes is the most effective way to improve your eNPS scores.

eNPS is even more powerful combined with other engagement tools

eNPS is an essential metric for businesses, but it’s even more powerful when used in conjunction with other engagement tools like employee engagement surveys and eSAT (employee satisfaction) scores to give you a complete view of your employee culture.
To get started with eNPS, check out a free trial of Nicereply. There’s no easier way to measure your employee Net Promoter Score and uncover ways to improve your employee experience.

The post Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS): What it is? [Full Guide] appeared first on Customer Happiness Blog.

How can you combine customer satisfaction metrics? It might seem overwhelming, so we’ve put together our favorite matchups to help you get started.

In the world of customer support metrics, Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) is king. Teams of all sizes, stages, and industries measure CSAT to shed light on the quality of their support. They identify customers who need extra attention, improve their operations, and increase customer happiness. It’s no wonder that it’s arguably the #1 support metric.

But, it can be lonely at the top. When CSAT is put on a pedestal, focused on too strictly, or isolated from other customer satisfaction metrics, you lose valuable context and insight.

How to combine CSAT with other metrics?

No one metric is a silver bullet for team success — customers and teams are far more complicated than that. And no metric lives in a vacuum. Customer satisfaction metrics overlap and intersect. As such, looking at them in combination helps paint an even richer picture of your customer experience and team operations than looking at just one alone.

With all the different customer satisfation metrics and potential intersection points, the thought of looking at to combine CSAT with other metrics might seem overwhelming, so we’ve put together our favorite matchups to help you get started.

CSAT + Speed metrics

If CSAT is king of the customer support metric scorecard, then speed metrics like time to first response and time to full resolution are the crowned princes.

Nearly every support team includes a measure of speed in their metric lineup. It makes sense – customers really love getting help fast. In fact, Forrester found that 73% of consumers believe valuing their time is the most important aspect of quality customer service.

While we all know that response speed in support is important, different customer bases have different sensitivities to response speed. Underestimate it, and you won’t be getting back to your customers as quickly as they expect.

Overestimate it, and you risk being overstaffed or wasting valuable team resources where they could be better used elsewhere.

Speed is Important

Lining up CSAT and speed metrics side shows you just how important speed is to your particular customer base. Plot your response time and CSAT side-by-side. Take note of places where your CSAT drops. Are those places also inflection points for your response time?If your CSAT drops as your response time rises, then work on bringing your response times down in order to increase CSAT. If your CSAT drops at the same time as your response time, this could mean that your team is rushing through tickets — so while customers are getting fast responses, they’re not getting quality responses.

You might also notice that after a certain point, you’re running up against diminishing returns in your efforts for speedy replies.

As your responses get faster and faster, the increase in CSAT will likely get smaller. Eventually, you’ll reach a point where additional decreases in response time won’t matter much for CSAT, so you should turn your resources to other endeavors.

Together, CSAT and speed metrics help you prioritize your efforts and operate efficiently while keeping customers happy.

CSAT + NPS

Another powerful metric match up is between CSAT and Net Promoter Score (NPS). NPS was developed specifically to measure customer loyalty, based on a customer’s likelihood to recommend your product to others. Unlike CSAT, it refers more broadly to a customer’s overall experience instead of just one support interaction.

By lining up both the CSAT and NPS scores of individual customers, you can start to sort them into groups based on their satisfaction with your support. Also, based on their overall loyalty to your product.

• High CSAT and high NPS

These are your dream customers, your advocates. They’re happy with your support, loyal to your company, and likely to recommend your product to others. These customers can be tapped for case studies, testimonials, referrals, product feedback sessions and interviews, or to participate in customer advisory groups.

Consider showing these customers your appreciation by sending them a thank-you email or gift.

Read: How to work with your Promoters

• High CSAT and low NPS:

These customers, although happy with your support, aren’t loyal to your product and could be at risk of churning. Follow up with them to find out what’s driving their low NPS score. Since they’ve recently had a positive support interaction with you, they’ll be even more likely to be receptive to your outreach.

Their low NPS score might be the result of needing education on some of your product features. You can then provide that education to help them get more out of the product. Or, the low score could be due to bugs or problems with your product. In that case, your proactive attention may be enough to keep them invested for long enough until the issues are fixed. And when that happens, you can score extra bonus points by following up with them again to let them know.

This type of thoughtful update demonstrates your commitment to customer experience, sets you apart from your competitors, and creates more advocates.

• Low CSAT and high NPS:

Although these customers love your product overall, they’ve had a poor support experience and are now at risk of loving your product a lot less. If you’re not already investigating low CSAT scores and reaching out to the customers who leave them, try to at least follow up with these customers to see if you can provide a better support experience and turn them into advocates.

• Low CSAT and low NPS:

This group is at the highest risk of leaving, and they’re nearly a lost cause. You can follow up with them if you’ve somehow got idle hands, but otherwise, they’re best left alone.

By sorting your customers into these groups based on their combined CSAT and NPS scores, you can take meaningful actions to strengthen your relationships with them.

CSAT + FCR

First contact resolution (FCR) is a measure of the percentage of inquiries that are solved in a single interaction. Many teams shoot for a high FCR and to reduce the number of touches it takes to close a ticket, in the interest of agent efficiency as well as customer satisfaction.

With few exceptions, customers don’t like to go back-and-forth about their issue. In fact, one report by the SQM Group claims that every 1% improvement to FCR comes with a 1% improvement to CSAT.

Low FCR

A low FCR could indicate that inquiries aren’t being routed correctly. Inquiries are being answered by the wrong people, that your team isn’t properly trained. Or that your team is rushing through responses, resulting in poor quality answers that don’t account for all the details or the situation or anticipate other customer questions or needs.

High FCR

But a high FCR doesn’t automatically lead to high CSAT. Your team could be giving poor quality responses, resulting in dissatisfaction so severe that customers don’t even bother to reopen their inquiries. Or, customer issues are truly being resolved in one interaction, but with no finesse or care.

Look at FCR alongside CSAT. If CSAT is low in spite of high FCR, dig deeper into the responses your team is sending and the CSAT commentary to ensure that quality isn’t suffering. You might see that customers are submitting a series of tickets that are all resolved in one contact – but that the customer is still struggling.

Taking the time to fully understand and resolve the customer’s concerns is more important than the immediate FCR.

To combine CSAT and FCR together, you’ll ensure you aren’t over-incentivizing one at the other’s expense.

CSAT + Agent Metrics

If you’re tracking and managing individual customer satisfaction metrics for each member of your team, then it’s likely that CSAT is on your scorecard. But focusing too narrowly on CSAT for performance can lead to biased evaluations of performance. Be sure to have a balanced scorecard and a holistic point of view that takes into account all aspects of an agent’s work.

For example, an agent with a low CSAT score may be handling more difficult tickets for which there’s no clean answer, which leaves the customer dissatisfied with the general resolution even if the agent’s handling was good.

To get a view of the overall level of difficulty and composition of each agent’s tickets, you can cross CSAT scores with ticket tags. Also to take a more manual approach and read through individual responses to get a pulse on where the scores are really coming from.

Raising individual CSAT is an important and worthwhile goal, but don’t be too single-focused. Even if a lower CSAT score is within the agent’s control, remember that your team members have different strengths and be sure to celebrate those.

Drivers of Dissatisfaction (DSAT)

While most teams focus big goals around average CSAT scores, looking beyond the average helps you uncover specific drivers behind dissatisfaction so you can work to fix them. Measuring the Drivers of Dissatisfaction, sometimes called DSAT, involves collecting, codifying, and reporting on dissatisfied scores.

Start by reviewing the commentary left alongside low scores. You’ll notice trends from which you can develop a system of categories that might include things like support operations, bugs, or feature requests.

After you have your system, review each low score and assign it to a category. There’s some subjectivity to this, so it’s best for this process to belong to one person.

Your volume is so high that you need more than one person involved. So be sure to do regular calibration among the group.

From there, you can start reporting on your data to show which categories are contributing most to low CSAT scores. And from there, you can work on tackling the problems with those categories- improving your customer experience and your CSAT in the process.

Going through a DSAT process is also a good time to identify cases.

Where you can follow up with a customer to clarify a response or offer more help, ensuring they’re happy and possibly getting them to change their CSAT rating. In these instances, be tactful and speak in a helpful tone that won’t be mistaken for defensiveness.

Level Up

The popularity of CSAT is understandable. On its own, it’s a great start for any team looking to get better at helping their customers. But going to the next level and combine CSAT with other customer satisfaction metrics reveals additional layers of information. Also it nuance that you can use to level up your customer experience — and that’s worth the extra effort.

UložiťUložiť

UložiťUložiť

UložiťUložiť

UložiťUložiť

UložiťUložiťUložiťUložiť

UložiťUložiť

UložiťUložiť

UložiťUložiť

UložiťUložiť

The post How to Combine CSAT With Other KPIs for the Bigger Picture appeared first on Customer Happiness Blog.

Building customer loyalty requires a strong bond and trust with customers through quality experiences and exceptional support.

In today’s highly competitive market, customer service has become a key factor in the success of many businesses. To maintain long-term customer loyalty, it is important to build a relationship that can generate repeat business and positive word-of-mouth. It’s cheaper to retain customers than it is to acquire new ones, so companies should make customer loyalty a priority. Of course, not everyone knows this. Michael Scott had to be reminded of this in an episode of The Office.

In this blog, we will discuss nine ways for building customer loyalty, retain customers and create brand champions in the year 2023. These steps will help businesses create customer-centric cultures, strengthen relationships with customers, and retain more clients. By actively pursuing these steps, businesses can create a more loyal customer base and reap the benefits of increased revenue.

1 Put Customers First

Putting customers first should be a top priority for every business. Sounds simple, right? Sadly, so many businesses fail to put their customers first with their actions. Putting customers first means taking a customer-centric approach to all aspects of the business, from product development to marketing to customer support. Companies can avoid short-term thinking by focusing on customer needs and expectations for long-lasting growth.

For example, customer support staff can prioritize customers’ needs by working quickly and communicating well with their clients so that they feel valued rather than just getting automated responses. By focusing on customers, companies can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. This enables product development teams to meet real-world needs and improve the experience of using their products. By understanding customers’ pain points and designing solutions to solve them, businesses can attract more loyal customers.

It’s not just about customer service professionals focusing on customers. It’s about the entire company. Even the accounting department can prioritize customer needs by creating a seamless billing and payment process. It’s about every aspect of the customer journey being focused on the customer.

2 Empower Employees

When employees are empowered to make decisions that benefit customers, customer satisfaction and loyalty can improve significantly. By giving workers autonomy from their managers so they don’t feel afraid of repercussions for making unpopular choices on behalf of the company, businesses create cultures where exceptional customer service is not only possible but encouraged. And this is only one of many ways in building customer loyalty.

When employees are empowered to make decisions, they feel more invested in their work and motivated to go above and beyond for the sake of customer satisfaction. In turn, customers feel valued and appreciated, leading to increased loyalty and positive word-of-mouth. The Ritz-Carlton Hotel franchise is known for its high customer service, and one way it achieves this is by empowering its employees to spend up to $2,000 per guest in order to resolve any issues or provide special accommodations.

3 Reward Loyal Customers

Customers are the lifeblood of any business, and it is essential to reward loyal customers to maintain their loyalty and keep them coming back. Unfortunately, many businesses offer better deals to new customer than existing ones, but there are plenty of ways to show a long-time customer you appreciate their business. One effective way to reward loyal customers is through loyalty programs. For example, Starbucks’ rewards program allows customers to earn points for every purchase they make, which can be redeemed for free drinks, food, and other rewards. This not only incentivizes customers to continue buying from Starbucks but also makes them feel appreciated for their repeat business/addiction.

4 Make it Easy to Do Business With You

Making it easy for customers to do business with you is crucial to improving their experience and enabling better retention. Businesses that offer convenience and simplicity to their customers will stand out from the competition. Here are three areas where businesses can make it easier for customers to do business with them:

1. Sign-Up Process: Many potential customers find the sign-up process too complicated, so businesses should simplify this by reducing required fields, allowing social media sign-ins and offering guest checkout options. By making the sign-up process easier, businesses can increase conversion rates and improve the customer experience.
2. Asking for Support: The more support channels you offer, the better equipped your company will be to handle customer service queries quickly and efficiently. Additionally, providing self-service options such as a knowledge base or FAQ section can enable customers to find solutions on their own—resulting in an improved customer experience and reduced support costs.
3. Referrals: Referral programs can be an effective way to acquire new customers, but they can also be a way to reward loyal customers for their business. Businesses that offer incentives for referrals can encourage satisfied customers to promote their products or services, which increases revenue and reduces customer-acquisition costs.

5 Listen to Feedback (All Feedback is a Gift)

Listening to customer feedback is crucial for businesses that want to improve their products or services. All feedback, whether positive or negative, can provide valuable insights into what customers want and need. Building customer loyalty must start by listening to customers’ feedback, examining their suggestions carefully… and then making changes based on what has been learned is a way for businesses to improve customer satisfaction and generate positive word-of-mouth.

Customers who take the time to provide feedback want their voices heard and valued. By listening to suggestions, businesses can show that they care about customers and are committed to providing a positive experience by making changes based on those suggestions. For example, a restaurant that receives negative feedback about slow service can implement changes such as hiring more servers or reorganizing the kitchen to improve efficiency. By doing so, they can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty—two factors that are crucial for success in today’s competitive marketplace.

6 Embrace Technology in Building Customer Loyalty

Embracing technology can enhance the customer experience and help businesses stay competitive. By using tools such as chatbots and automated ticket responses based on message context, businesses can provide quick and efficient customer support—as well as freeing up employees’ time to focus on more complex issues.

Chatbot technology allows businesses to provide 24/7 support for common issues and answer customer questions. It can also help companies respond to inquiries faster by automating ticket responses based on keywords. While it’s crucial to provide customers with an automated self-service solution, you should also make sure that they have access to a human representative if needed.

Text-expansion utilities like TextExpander can make your human agents more efficient, more consistent, and dramatically improve how quickly they handle tickets. SketchUp’s customer support team saves 2,160 hours per year thanks to TextExpander.

7 Proactively Address Problems and Acknowledge Mistakes

Proactively addressing customer problems and concerns is crucial for maintaining customer satisfaction and loyalty. When something happens that affects its customers, a business should let them know right away and keep them informed about the situation. Being proactive and transparent reassures patrons of your business’s reliability.

By acknowledging and addressing customer problems and concerns, businesses can also prevent negative reviews—proactively addressing issues can help turn a negative situation into a positive one. Owning up to mistakes and taking responsibility for customer dissatisfaction are essential if you want customers to remain loyal.

When a business makes a mistake, admitting it and apologizing for the inconvenience can often save the relationship with customers. Acknowledging mistakes allows businesses to provide their customers with a positive experience by showing that they care about customer satisfaction. It’s important to take responsibility for the mistake and work to make it right.

8 Focus on Employee Satisfaction

There is a direct relationship between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction. Happy employees tend to provide better customer service, and that could lead to increased loyalty and positive word-of-mouth.

By focusing on employee satisfaction, businesses can:

1. Create a culture of exceptional customer service.
2. Build customer loyalty much easier.

When employees are trained and equipped to do their jobs well, they become more satisfied with their jobs—and the company benefits from lower employee turnover. Providing rewards for good service encourages other employees to provide exceptional levels of customer satisfaction.

9 Offer A Strong Value Proposition With Your Products/Services

A strong value proposition is the foundation of a successful business. All businesses should focus on communicating clearly what they offer and why it will benefit people to do business with them.

By clearly defining their value proposition and delivering on it consistently, businesses can create loyal customers who will come back again and again. It’s important to regularly evaluate how well the business is fulfilling its value proposition, and make adjustments as needed in order to maintain customer loyalty over time.

Wrap up about building customer loyalty

Competition between businesses is fierce in today’s marketplace, and building customer loyalty is the key to success. By focusing obsessively on giving their customers what they want, businesses can create great experiences for them and generate positive word of mouth. Businesses that devote too much attention and resources to internal affairs, rather than concentrating on their customers’ needs, risk making decisions that are not in the best interests of those customers.

By following the 9 actionable steps outlined in this article—putting customers first, empowering employees, making it easy to do business, listening to feedback, proactively addressing problems and acknowledging mistakes, focusing on employee satisfaction, and offering a strong value proposition—businesses can create a culture of exceptional customer service and create brand champions who will recommend their products or services to others.

Businesses that obsess over providing value to customers will retain loyal ones and attract new ones. By keeping your customers happy, you can create a positive reputation, increase revenue—and grow the business!

The post Building Customer Loyalty: 9 Proven Steps to Boost Customer Retention appeared first on Customer Happiness Blog.

Get most of your NPS survey by asking the right follow-up questions.

As a business, it’s your responsibility to improve your customer’s Net Promoter Score (NPS). To do this, you have to have multiple questions at your disposal.

The NPS follow-up question is the key to improving customer satisfaction. Creating, customizing, and answering follow-up questions is an art form that can be learned and perfected with practice.

If you’re unsure how to create effective NPS follow-up questions, we’ve made these expert tips on creating and customizing efficient NPS follow-up questions for your company.

Keep the Questions Simple and Specific

The most effective NPS follow-up questions are direct and specific. They’re not open-ended, don’t ask for explanations or reasons, and don’t ask for more than one answer. The goal of NPS follow-ups is to get your customers to either:

• recommend your product or service (or explain why it’s excellent),
• give feedback on a specific aspect of what you offer, or
• provide suggestions for improving it.

The best follow-up questions are simple and specific. They’re straightforward, easy to understand, and don’t require any different explanation from the customer.

If a customer has just taken your survey and given you some feedback, he or she is probably not in the mood to talk about it anymore—especially if one has been on hold for 20 minutes waiting for one’s turn.

Your follow-up questions should be easy to understand and quick to answer. The simpler they are, the more likely people will complete them. 

If a customer has just feedback on their experience, it can be tempting to ask why they feel that way and then delve deeper into the issue. But this isn’t always necessary or helpful; sometimes, asking what went well or could have gone better is enough.

Ask Only One or Two Follow-Up Questions

An NPS survey offers a powerful way to ask customer satisfaction questions.

You can ask one or two follow-up questions, but don’t ask any more than that. The customer will appreciate it if asked only a few questions, and you’ll be able to use the answers you get to help tailor your follow-up email.

If you ask too many follow-up questions, your customers won’t have time to answer them all and will be more likely to skip them. Asking just one or two follow-up questions can help increase your NPS score by up to 10 points.

It’s tempting to go for more follow-up questions, but the fact is that it can be difficult for customers to answer long forms. You want your NPS survey to be as short and easy to complete as possible, so you get high response rates. The best follow-up questions require more than a yes or no answer but don’t include too many options.

For example, “What else is important to you?” would be better than “What else could we do to improve our service?”

Offer Suggestions Why Respondents Left Low Scores

If you can segment your NPS survey results by the score that customers gave you, you’ll see what respondents say about their interactions with your company.

For example, someone left a negative score because he or she didn’t like a previous experience with your company, and rated how he or she will likely recommend your brand in the future. Thus, it might be worth offering suggestions for improvement based on this information.

Give customers a chance to provide feedback on why they left a low score. You may ask what they would have done differently and how their experience with your company compares with similar ones. This information can help you improve the product or service and the overall customer experience.

When you ask for suggestions about why a respondent gave your company a low score, it helps you understand what you could do differently in the future. In addition, it can help you avoid repeating the same mistakes and fix them before they happen again.

For instance, you can offer suggestions (in question form) such as “What could we have done differently?” or “How was this experience different from others you have had with similar companies?”

You can also include a section for respondents to offer suggestions for why they left a low score. This approach will help you identify what you’re doing wrong and make changes quickly. Make it easy to take action on the survey results.

Use Open-Ended Follow-Up Questions

Employing open-ended NPS follow-up questions helps encourage customers to be specific about their experiences. This technique can help you better understand how to improve your product or service.

For example, if you ask customers to rate their experience with a number between one and 10, they may say they enjoyed it but not give any specific details. By asking them what they liked most about the experience and what could be done differently in the future, you’ll get far more helpful feedback.

This approach can help you identify common problems and opportunities to improve.

Suppose a customer says he or she loves to see more of your product, ask why. If one says that the price is too high, ask him or her what would make it more affordable. This can help you identify specific problems and opportunities to improve the customer experience.

If someone says he or she will recommend your company because it has great customer service, ask him or her what makes it so great. This will help you understand why a customer left a high score instead of assuming everything is fine. 

You can ask questions like “What do you like about our product or service?” or “What would make it better?”

You can also ask questions like, “How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?” This will help you learn how satisfied customers are with your service and what improvements need to be made.

This can help you understand what they liked and didn’t like about your product or service. It also enables you to figure out how to better cater to their needs in the future.

For example, if someone gives you a low score, ask why so you know exactly where to make changes. This can help prevent future negative reviews from happening again.

Keep the Language Conversational, Not Technical

If you’re writing an email, don’t use very formal words. This is especially important if you’re writing comments in response to a negative review.

If you are trying to be professional and use proper grammar, it can come off as cold and unempathetic. Instead, keep the language conversational and friendly by using contractions like “you” instead of “the customer.”

This will help show that you are on their side and want to ensure that they leave with a positive experience instead of feeling like they have been talked down to by someone who doesn’t care about them or their experience.

If you want people to take your feedback seriously, use language they can relate to. This is especially important when responding to negative reviews because it shows that you’re listening and willing to adjust your business practices accordingly.

For instance, you can ask simple, easy-to-understand questions like “What was the most helpful thing about our service?” or “What would you like to see us change about our policies?”

Make sure that everything you write sounds like something a real person would say, not a business owner who is just trying to cover his tracks.

Preview Your Questions and Make Changes in Real-Time

It’s easy to get caught up in the moment when you’re writing a response and forget about the small details that can make or break your reply. You don’t want to write something only to realize later that it sounds nonsense.

Aside from using sales tools for marketing, one of the best ways to get better at giving feedback is by practicing. You can preview your questions and make real-time changes while writing them out.

Suppose you notice that one question sounds too aggressive and the other sounds too passive. Then combine those two into a single question that still gets to the heart of what you want to know from the customer.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to write a question that’s too long or complicated for someone to answer. It would be best if you also avoided questions that ask people to explain something in detail because they’ll feel like they have to spend time explaining things instead of simply answering your question in one sentence.

Getting things right the first time is vital if you’re writing a response to a negative review. You don’t want to go back and fix mistakes because that can make your response look unprofessional or, even worse, make it seem like you are trying to hide something.

This is an integral part of the process but can also be time-consuming. If you have many questions to ask your reviewers, create your survey questions and then export them into Google Forms or ProntoForms so you can edit them on the go.

You can also easily integrate NPS tracking with Nicereply. This approach will help significantly in retrieving more feedback from your customers.

In that way, when someone leaves a review or comment on Facebook or Yelp, you can immediately jump over and add their answers to your survey without having to type in all new information from scratch.

NPS Follow-Up Questions Should be Strategic and Well-Considered

NPS follow-up questions are one of the most critical steps in your ongoing customer relationship management strategy. These questions help you to measure NPS goals, upgrade a failing customer experience, and defuse bad star ratings. 

A carefully crafted and strategic follow-up questions can make all the difference in ensuring that your customers keep returning for more. If you want to know more about NPS, it’s best to seek guidance from NPS experts.

The post Best Tips for Creating & Customizing NPS Follow-Up Questions appeared first on Customer Happiness Blog.

Measuring your customer experience (CX) can feel complicated.

There are so many different CX metrics you could track. But which one(s) should you actually use? 

Studies show that focusing on creating a great customer experience reduces customer churn, creates loyal customers, and increases customer engagement. All of this increases revenue and makes your business more profitable. Here are more great benefits of making sure your customers are satisfied:

• Bain & Company, the creators of NPS, found that just a “5% increase in customer retention produces more than a 25% increase in profit” in some industries. 
• Esteban Kolsky found that 72% of customers tell 6 or more people if they’re truly happy.
• SuperOffice says that 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience

A good customer experience management tool should make it easy to track and report on how your customers feel about your business, take the data you gather from customers, analyze it, and then distill it into an easy-to-digest report or dashboard. This helps you take action more quickly because it’s easy to figure out what your customers are happy with and what they’re not happy with. That’s exactly what NPS, CES, and CSAT metrics do. 

In this guide, we’ll explain the difference between these three most common CX metrics so you can make an informed decision on what’s right for your biz.

What is Net Promoter Score (NPS)?

NPS is a metric that measures your customers’ likelihood of referring others to your business. The theory is that if a customer would refer someone to you, then they’re likely satisfied and you can consider them a loyal customer. It does this by asking one simple question:

“How likely are you to recommend our company/product/service to a friend or colleague?”

Customers rate their likelihood on a scale of 0-10. The NPS score itself is calculated based on the difference between the percentage of Promoters (9s and 10s) and the percentage of Detractors (0s-6s). Customers who rate their likelihood as a 7 or 8 are considered Passives.

For example, if 100 people responded to an NPS survey with 50 Promoters, 20 Detractors, and the rest Passives, the Net Promoter Score would be 30 (because 50-20 = 30).

The benefits of Net Promoter Score

NPS is a proven way to measure loyalty. As humans, we like to tell people about things we love, like our favorite restaurants or gadgets. Word of mouth is powerful, and if you have a lot of excited and happy customers talking about your business, that’s undoubtedly valuable. 

Speaking of simplicity, one of the main benefits of NPS is its simplicity. 

We’ve all been asked to take a, ahem, short survey before, then been surprised when we get hit with dozens of questions on our experience. Long and complicated surveys ask a lot of your customers. 

NPS solves this. At its core, Net Promoter Score asks one simple question that takes only a few seconds to answer. While it’s a good idea to ask a follow-up question that helps you understand the context behind your NPS, at its simplest NPS, consists of one core question.

The drawbacks of Net Promoter Score

NPS is a good way to measure customer loyalty, but it’s not perfect. 

While the question is simple, the score itself doesn’t always give a clear picture of how satisfied your customers are. For example, say you have an NPS score of 20 from a survey of 100 people:

• You might have 60 Promoters, 40 Detractors, and no Passives (60-40 = 20)
• Or you might only have 30 Promoters, 10 Detractors, and 80 Passives (30-10 = 20)

Obviously, the first situation is better, because you’ve got twice as many customers likely to recommend you. But if you’re only looking at your NPS score, you’d think that both of these businesses are exactly the same. Looking at the data more holistically is the only way to understand your customer feedback accurately. 

You can also have a higher NPS—usually a good thing—while your number of Detractors increases. Let’s look at two examples from a 100-person NPS survey:

The NPS score in scenario 2 is better. While the number of promoters increased (+15), the number of detractors also increased (+10). 
What’s the right approach here? Should you celebrate that your NPS is increasing? Or should you be concerned that your number of detractors has doubled? 

NPS can be simple, but it doesn’t always make it clear what the best action to take should be.

What is Customer Effort Score (CES)?

CES is designed to measure how easy it is for customers to get the help they need. As you’d guess from the name, it’s attempting to measure the “customer effort” in a given situation. Customer effort score is measured by asking customers how strongly they agree with a statement, such as:

How strongly do you agree with the following statement: [Company] made it easy to resolve my issue

Customer effort score is usually measured on a spectrum from 1 – 7, with 1 indicating the lowest agreement and 7 being the highest agreement. 

According to Gartner, the proper way to measure CES is to calculate the percentage of respondents who at least “somewhat agree” (which usually means a 5 or above on a 7-point scale) that the company made it easy to get the help they needed.

Similarly to NPS, adding an open-ended follow-up question is generally considered a best practice with CES.

The benefits of Customer Effort Score

Like NPS, CES is measured by asking a single question, so it’s also very easy for customers to respond to.

Unlike NPS, a higher CES score is a definite sign you’re moving in the right direction. More customers indicating that they’re able to resolve their issues more easily is always a net positive improvement. 

The other big benefit of a customer effort score is that it gives you a clear indication of where your focus should be. Zeroing in on the customers that disagreed in your survey (those that responded with a 1-4) enables you to understand what made it difficult for them to resolve their issues. 
Focusing on those low scores pays off: as noted in this post on benchmarking CX metrics, studies have shown that improving CES responses from 1 to 5 increased loyalty by 22% (as opposed to a 2% increase when improving the 5-7 range).

The drawbacks of Customer Effort Score

One of the biggest drawbacks of CES is that it doesn’t automatically explain why the customer scored the interaction the way they did. Asking an open-ended follow-up question can help, but you won’t always get additional context. 

The impact of this is that your customer effort score may actually only reflect a small percentage of your customers. You can remedy this by comparing the CES score with other data you have, such as the issue type, the customer’s demographics, and how quickly it took your support team to respond.  

Exploring these different data points together paints a fuller picture. For instance, maybe you notice that the low scores are from new users, but experienced users score you highly. Perhaps that means you don’t need to overhaul your support experience, but you’ve found a great opportunity to improve your user onboarding process.

What is customer satisfaction (CSAT)?

CSAT is probably one of the most common metrics used across businesses. While it can be used to measure customer satisfaction on a broad level, it’s primarily used to measure a customer’s happiness with a recent interaction with your support team. This means that you’ll usually survey users shortly after they’ve contacted support—via email, within live chat, or anywhere else you can think. 

Companies sometimes measure CSAT in different ways, but the standard way is often best:

(The total number of positive responses) ÷ (Number of total responses) x 100 = % of satisfied customers.

For example, if you had 45 positive responses out of 50 total, your CSAT score is 90%. 

The benefits of CSAT

CSAT is simple to use, implement and understand. It’s also highly customizable. You can use it to ask one question to your customers (”How satisfied are you with your purchase/interaction/product/etc.”) and can follow it up with questions about specific areas of your service. 

And unlike NPS and CES, you can change the CSAT rating scale to match your varying needs. CSAT can accommodate anywhere from a simple yes/no response to a full 10-point scale.

CSAT also allows you to directly see the correlation between other support metrics and KPIs and how satisfied your customers are. By comparing your trending CSAT scores to your KPI trends such as wait times, handle times, and time to resolution, you can make an accurate determination about what your customers want.

For example, if you see CSAT scores trending downward along with an increase in the amount of time customers have to spend on the phone with your agents, that indicates improving handle times would most likely improve customer satisfaction.

The drawbacks of CSAT

The biggest drawback of CSAT is that the definition of satisfied can vary significantly between customers. What does “satisfied” really mean? 

Some customers may be satisfied with a longer resolution time as long as you’re working on it and communicating well, while others will be highly dissatisfied in the same situation. This variation can make it difficult to understand if your CSAT score actually tells you something significant.

CSAT also tends to measure only short-term sentiment because the focus is on the most recent interaction. You could have a customer highly satisfied with your product but unsatisfied with a particular support interaction or vice-versa. By itself, CSAT may not give you a complete picture of how satisfied your customers really are across the board. 

Five questions to ask to determine which CX metric is right for you

To determine if you should be using NPS, CES, or CSAT, ask yourself the following questions:

• What is your overall CX goal? If you have a specific goal of raising loyalty, for example, focus on gathering CES data and improving those scores in the 1 – 4 or 5 range. 
• How much effort will it take to implement one or more of these metrics? The right tool can make capturing customer feedback effortless. But when you’re in a bind, it’s often easiest to start measuring the metric that’s easiest to implement, then add in additional metrics over time.  
• Will this be a company-wide initiative or just a customer support initiative? CSAT measures customers support interactions really well. CES can measure both customer support interactions and purchase interactions. NPS is better for tracking overall company and brand loyalty. What’s your focus? 
• Are you more concerned with individual interactions or overall sentiment? CSAT and CES measure short-term satisfaction with a particular interaction or set of interactions. NPS measures how customers feel overall and is a better fit for understanding customers’ long-term sentiment. 
• Is there an opportunity to implement all three metrics? Using NPS, CES, and CSAT will give you the most complete view of customer sentiment, loyalty, and satisfaction. You probably shouldn’t ask them all in the same survey, but implementing each at strategic points in the customer journey can be really effective. 

More resources to help you take action

NPS, CES, and CSAT may work well alone (despite their flaws), but combining them across your customer journey can give you the most holistic view of your customers. Measuring the right CX metrics is the first step in using customer feedback to drive your business forward. 

Remember, there is no perfect metric. Use your best judgment, follow best practices where possible, and do what makes sense for your business. The important part is consistently taking action to improve the customer experience, getting more feedback, and then taking more action on that new feedback.

This post only scratched the surface of these three popular CX metrics. For more in-depth information on NPS, CES, and CSAT (and tons of other stuff), check out Nicereply’s resources page, and in case you have any questions visit Nicereply’s help center.

The post NPS vs. CES vs. CSAT Metrics: Which One(s) Is the Best For You? appeared first on Customer Happiness Blog.