Making your customer’s voice actionable with Net Promoter Score

The voice of the customer can be heard in many different ways: through social media, review platforms, Google Analytics and even survey data.

So, let’s say you’ve tapped into each of these different platforms over a period of time. Now that you have all of this great customer data, how can you make it actionable? That’s where establishing your own Net Promoter Score can be used to improve and optimize your marketing efforts.

What is a Net Promoter Score?

A net promoter score (NPS) is a formula that helps determine how loyal your customers are based on satisfaction survey responses on a scale of 0 to 10. What does that mean for you? Basically, it helps you determine if your customers had a positive experience, a negative experience or somewhere in between.

NPS isn’t a new concept, but it is seeing a recent revival as B2B companies try to stay ahead of competitors and put their customer’s needs first.

• Promoters (9 - 10) - These customers are your advocates and raving fans. They’ve responded that they are very likely to recommend your business to a friend or colleague.
• Passives (7 - 8) - These customers aren’t dissatisfied, but they also aren’t incredibly blown away by their experience with you. They don’t take away from your net promoter score, but they also aren’t adding value and aren’t super likely to spread the good word about your business.
• Detractors (0 - 6) - If you have a high percentage of detractors, you need to immediately pinpoint and address a problem. These are your customers who have expressed that they would not recommend your services and may potentially even share negative reviews with friends or worse — the Internet.

How to calculate NPS

The math is super easy. Just subtract the percentage of detractors from your percentage of promoters.

For example, if you have 100 survey responses with 60 promoters, 30 passives and 10 detractors, your NPS will be calculated like this:

So, what should your NPS be? Glad you asked...

NPS benchmarks

Hopefully, your business falls in the category with a high, positive net promoter score. What constitutes a “good” net promoter score

• A good net promoter score = anything greater than zero.
• A great NPS = 50-74,
• A phenomenal net promoter score = 75+

If you want to benchmark your company against other companies, there are a number of resources that track and analyze NPS benchmarks. (Note: some industries or verticals may have different target rages than others.)

Another way to evaluate your net promoter score is to track and measure your own NPS over time. Decide how often you’d like to pull these numbers. (keeping in mind your customer’s sanity so as not to become an annoyance). Your send frequency should depend on the volume of customers you have and the cadence you’d like to set in following up with people based on the length of your sales cycle.

A good starting point would be to send a NPS survey to your customers quarterly. Track your NPS scores and look at your period-over-period increases or decreases. Again, positive numbers are good, but showing improvement over time may prove to be more valuable in the long-run.

Improve your NPS

Changing your customer’s perceptions requires time and TLC. Use the information you gain from NPS survey results to show gratitude to your loyal customers, ask for suggestions from your passives, and express regret to your detractors while finding out what you can do to change their mind about working with you.

Remember, positive or negative net promoter scores are the result of your customer’s good or bad experiences of working with you. The only way you will be able to improve your NPS is by improving the experience of your customers.

Here are some common reasons a customer may have a bad experience and what you can do to improve them:

• Aggressive Salespeople - start a sales enablement program or hold training sessions for sales
• Poor Website UI/UX - get with the times and consider a website redesign
• Poor Customer Service - listen to calls and determine necessary changes
• Issues with Implementation or Logistics - hold a “meeting of the minds” with the heads of each department; these issues often arise when teams are working in silos
• Under-Delivered Products, Software, Services - revisit your positioning and messaging and make sure everything you’re promising is what customers will get

Give your customer a megaphone

Don’t stop after collecting your net promoter score survey responses. Follow up with your promoter customers and ask if they’d be willing to give a review on Google, Facebook or offer a testimonial on your website. The more you can amplify your customer advocate’s voices, the more free word of mouth you can increase the positive image around your brand.