Net Promoter Score (NPS) has become a staple business metric for many years, ever since The Ultimate Question hit the market in 2006. At Intelligentics, we regularly make NPS a part of our larger Voice of the Customer (VOC) and Customer Experience (CX) survey projects for clients. We even provide an on-going NPS Tracker for clients so they can keep their fingers on the pulse of their customer’s sentiments.
NPS is a valid measure of customer sentiment, but there has also been a growing number of critical voices that question the claim of NPS being the “ultimate question.” This is also valid. NPS has often been perceived as the only question you need to ask customers, and many companies seem to take this seriously. How many times have you received a pop-up survey on-line and it’s the only question asked?
And that’s the issue. If you find out that you have fewer “promoters” and more “detractors” you still have to understand why. This is where “the ultimate question” ultimately leads to more questions. Our team is regularly asked to help drill down to understand why NPS has moved. Clients ultimately need specifics on the problems customers are encountering that to be addressed to move customer sentiment in the positive direction.
Surveying your customers is a powerful tool for providing you with a blueprint for improving sales, service, loyalty, and retention. We’ve seen it happen with our clients time and time again for over 30 years. It takes more than one question, however, and it takes the knowledge and experience to make sure you’re employing the right methodologies to ensure you have reliable and actionable data.
