Net Promoter Score or NPS is a common talking point within the B2C and B2B worlds with countless articles explaining the ins and outs of what NPS can provide to your business, such as our own.
So, when Neil Davey asked: Will NPS 3.0 solve Net promotor scores shortcomings? I was intrigued. Why change something a lot of businesses think is working? Neils blog caused me to think again about what we all think we know about NPS!
Background
If Net Promotor Score is not at the forefront of your customer service structure now it should be, you may believe you deliver great customer service but how do you know if you do not ask the people who matter?
In all areas of business, you rely on the customer’s input to make sure the processes that you are following go as smoothly as possible. So, using customer input at the end of the task to make sure the service they have received is of the top calibre should be paramount.
The stigma of a poor Net Promotor Score can drastically affect how your business functions and needs to be investigated further. If you believe you and your team can deliver amazing service to your clients, then what is there to worry about? If you may get the occasional negative response, use it to help improve customer service by changing and improving.
Some businesses do not want to show when they are underperforming to their clients or shareholders. Adjusting your NPS to look better feels like fixing a hole in your ship with duct tape and hoping for the best. You may believe you have sorted your issue short term but over time that quick fix will fail. NPS detractors can and should be used as a positive movement to make your company better. Instead of seeing detractors as negatives, use them to become positives for the future.
Net Promoter Score is merely a score, how can I get this to work for me?
If you continue to get low scoring Net Promoter Score from clients who are not going to be returning to buy again, the higher the scores you can receive the better chance of repeat purchases. On top of this, if you can build a strong rapport with your clients, you will have a better chance of upselling due to the client trusting your judgement as well as scoring higher with NPS.
When deciding on if Net Promoter Score should be reported on, speak with the clients as to why they left the score or give the possibility of a text response. If multiple clients are marking you down and giving the same reasoning this allows you to see the chink in your armour – helping you adapt and give a better service in the future.
Can Net Promoter Scores be used negatively?
Pleading for a positive response is common in a large amount of NPS processes. This can be a result of earlier customers believing scores like an eight reflect satisfactory performance. Sometimes it shows an incomplete understanding of the scoring system.
For instance, if your commission or bonus relies on achieving a specific score you may encourage pleading behaviours asking for a better score.
Having regular in-house reviews on scores will help drive positive scoring. If all employees are following the correct process, then explaining how the system works will drive an uplift in positive scores. Which in turn will build loyal and returning clientele.
If you are not confident in yourself to give great service, the customer can tell and will score you accordingly. A terrific way of wanting to better understand the low scores is by running a report on keywords or sentences in NPS responses. By doing this you can analyse the low score reports which will show that you are looking to identify the issue as well as how you are willing to turn it around.
Does Net Recurring Revenue and Earned New Customers Improve NPS?
When Neil talked about the introduction of these other metrics, I thought it was interesting. One insight shown in the article said, “Some companies will struggle to generate the required data to make the required linkage and a minority will continue to choose the easier route of chasing and then promoting the NPS score purely for PR value.” Using these new metrics will allow businesses to gain deeper insight into how their customers feel by linking the scores with repeat purchases as well as referrals.
Does NPS really need fixing?
There is always space for change, the wants and needs of NPS change over time so we should never believe a set process is complete. The word ‘fix’ can be a harsh word with processes, instead, you need to be ready to adapt with the times as a fix can be a one-time solution whereas adapting allows us to be ready to push forward with anything.
Over the years the technology around Net Promoter Score has advanced drastically meaning if you were not prepared to advance with it you could be left behind, with such advancements you have been able to see things that can be adapted to help better our overall experience and NPS is one of them.
You will find people may love it and others may loath it, but Net Promoter Score is here to stay and I for one have already seen the benefits of what it can do for clients as well as businesses. Unfortunately, NPS is not a cookie-cutter approach to all business, however, if worked with correctly you will be able to see clear improvements in your customer satisfaction.
