All About Net Promoter Scores

Being able to identify your customers, and their level of happiness with your company, can be extremely helpful in running a successful business. Tracking customer happiness, and the levels it goes up or down, might sound very abstract, but it is a powerful and measurable tool. Net Promoter Scores help you understand and improve customer loyalty, and are a great tool for many ecommerce businesses.

What Is A Net Promoter Score?

A Net Promoter Score (sometimes referred to as NPS) measures the percentage of people who are promoting your company online. These promotions typically do not involve actual promotions- rather they are customers who would recommend you to friends or family. Net Promoter Scores are determined by asking customers to rank how likely they are to recommend you to someone they know on a scale of 0-10. The exact Net Promoter Score is the percentage of Promoters minus the number of Detractors.

Net Promoter Score Customer Categories:

Customers who rank you are split into three categories. The first category is the Promoters. These are customers who answer with a 9 or 10 when asked how likely they are to recommend you to someone they know. The next category is the Passives. These customers answer the question with a 7 or 8. Passive customers usually turn into Promoters or Detractors, so it is your job to turn them into a Promoter before they switch to your competition! The last category is Detractors. These customers rank 0-6. They are your unhappy customers, who risk sharing their bad experience and convincing other customers to switch to your competition.

After you send out and receive your customer satisfaction surveys back and have your customers split into their groups by response, see what consistencies you can find within the Promoter group and the Detractors group. Why does one group love your company, while the other is unsatisfied? What can you do to keep pleasing your Promoters, while improving the Detractors experience?

How To Get Started With Net Promoter Scores:

First, create a survey. Ask your customer how likely they are to recommend you to friends and family on a sale of 0-10. Then, ask them why you earned that rating, with an open text box. Even if their answers are short, you might be able to find some helpful patterns. If you have any other questions that you feel as though you should ask, go ahead! Just keep in mind that the longer the survey is, the less likely your customers are to finish it.

After you’re writing your survey, send it out to your customers. Make sure that you are sending it to customers that have had recent interactions with your company, so their experience is still fresh. This will also increase their willingness to respond to you! You can include these after recent purchases, customer service interactions, or anything else that might help or hurt their relationship with you.

After you start getting results back, analyze them. See what your customers like, and what they are unhappy with. Then plan on how you can improve things that the Detractors didn’t like. Set specific goals for how you are going to fix issues and stick with them! As you continue to make improvements, communicate with your audience that you hear them and you are implementing the changes they’ve asked you to make. 

Net Promoter Scores can make a bigger difference than you realize, so be sure to keep up with your customers and their needs! Pleasing your customers and meeting their needs is the best way to have a successful business with loyal and happy customers. Do you keep up with your Net Promoter score? What steps do you take to keep it high?