Learning how to calculate NPS (Net Promoter Score) is easier than you think, but what are you going to do with that information once you have it? Here’s how to boost your NPS and turn Passives into Promoters.
There’s a reason brands are turning to the Net Promoter Score to get control over their customer loyalty and satisfaction. The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a way to identify how many of your customers are Promoters — or super enthusiastic about your brand — versus Passives or Detractors.
Having more Promoters is great for your repeat purchase rate and increasing the number of customers who recommend your products and services to other people.
On the other hand, Detractors aren’t in love with your product and probably won’t be return customers. Detractors can be a source of negative word-of-mouth, so it’s important to keep them under control.
The NPS system isn’t perfect. Because customer surveys come after a transaction, they only capture one moment in the buyer journey. But there’s no denying that the insights you gain from NPS are actionable and valuable.
Here’s how to make the most of your insights and boost your Net Promoter Score:
Key Takeaways
- Don’t let your Passives stay Passive. Target them with NPS surveys that uncover areas of dissatisfaction.
- Identify areas where Passives (and Detractors) say you could improve your performance. Make this your focus.
- Create an action plan for each problem area that Passives and Detractors bring to your attention. Then create SMART goals to help you follow through.
- Pair NPS with CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) data to fill any holes or gaps in your insights. You can apply the CSAT at multiple parts of the buyer journey, unlike NPS.
- You’re paying a lot of attention to Passives and Detractors, but what about Promoters? Keep the biggest fans on your team by letting them know you see them and value them.
What’s your Net Promoter Score?
You can find your Net Promoter Score by subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters. The result is a score ranging from -100 to 100, and that’s your NPS.
Your NPS is a measure of:
- Your customers’ willingness to recommend your product
- Your customers’ satisfaction with the product and experience
- Your customers’ loyalty toward your brand and product
When is your Net Promoter Score high enough?
When it comes to NPS, higher scores are better, so you should aim as high as you can. The ideal NPS is between 70 and 100, which is considered an excellent score.
Between 30 and 70 is a great score, while 0 to 30 is a good score. If you’re at least breaking even, you’re doing well, but there’s always room for improvement. (Unless your score is an elusive 100!)
If your NPS is between -100 and 0, it’s too low. That can be an indicator that your company is having a hard time meeting customer expectations.
What’s the Net Promoter Score benchmark for your industry?
Wondering what the number to beat is in your industry? Some industries are notorious for having low NPS benchmarks, including:
- Education: 71
- Insurance: 70
- E-commerce: 62
- Digital marketing: 61
- Consulting: 51
- Enterprises: 44
- Financial services: 34
- Software as a service: 30
- Logistics and transportation: 29
- Healthcare: 27
If your industry has a low benchmark, then you may have a tough battle ahead of you to improve your NPS. Industries like healthcare, logistics, and SaaS struggle to keep customer satisfaction rates high, but it’s still possible — it just takes some added work.
Turn Passives into Promoters to boost your NPS
If you have room to improve your NPS, you can do so by targeting Passives. They’re your best chance at conversion since Detractors are often unwilling to convert.
Take these five steps to boost your NPS rate:
1. Push surveys to your Passives
The first step is to target your Passives with surveys that will uncover why they aren’t Promoters yet. It’s important to keep the survey short and direct, so think hard about the questions that you’ll include.
Each question (and the answers of your Passives) should give you insight that helps solve your customer loyalty problem.
Consider asking questions like:
- Why did you choose our product?
- Did our product solve your problem?
- Did you have trouble using our product? (If so, why or how?)
- Did you talk to customer support? (If so, how was your experience?)
- What would make our product better for you?
- What feature is our product missing?
2. Analyze where you’re failing to deliver
Your Passives have valuable information that you can use to put them solidly on your side. Once the survey responses start rolling in, you should:
- Look for groups of similar responses so you can find a common solution (maybe an error code many people keep getting while shopping is related to their browser).
- Treat every survey response as if it’s important (because it is). If you can’t implement what one Passive wants, you should still communicate with them and let them know you’re listening.
- Reach out for more information where necessary. This can help you build a solution to their problem that’s as relevant as possible.
3. Take action for every response
Now that you have the insights, you have to act on them. Passives don’t have a problem with your brand yet, but they’re one competitor away from churning. Customers appreciate when you address their problem fast, even if it’s just action in the form of a response that says, “We hear you and we’re working on this.”
For long-term fixes like product development issues, develop SMART goals that keep your product dev team and customer feedback team in sync and on track. Those goals should be Smart, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound (which helps ensure that they’re actually possible to beat).
4. Consider looking at CSAT too
Where the NPS is a multi-question survey that targets buyers at the end of the journey, the Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) is a metric you get from a one-question survey that you can use at any point of the buyer journey. Instead of relying on the NPS alone, consider adding the CSAT to enrich your insights even further.
5. Don’t forget about Promoters
Your Promoters already love you! That’s all the reason you need to give them extra attention. Like any relationship, your Promoters will feel less connected to your brand over time if you don’t give them any love back.
Nurturing your Passives should be priority number one, but that doesn’t make Promoters less important. To the contrary, your NPS strategy should make it a point to lift up Promoters by:
- Finding good moments to say thank you
- Giving targeted offers, deals, and discounts
- Develop products that meet their needs
- And more
Crewhu can help you collect customer feedback, get a handle on your Net Promoter Score, and much more! Besides collecting NPS and CSAT responses in an easy-to-convert 1-click survey, we’ll help you keep employees engaged, increase customer retention and revenue, and reduce employee turnover. Download our 7 Elements of a Successful CSAT Program to learn how to engage customers and recognize your team members!
Topics: Customer experience, Net Promoter Score, customer loyalty, key performance indicators, customer service management
