There are many ways to evaluate how your customers feel about your brand. From unconventional methods, like social media monitoring, to classic metrics, like customer satisfaction (CSAT), customer effort score (CES), and net promoter score (NPS), it’s important to gauge what your customers are thinking.
What is NPS and how does it work?
NPS stands for net promoter score, and it is a metric used to evaluate customer loyalty or customer satisfaction — usually measured by asking recent consumers to complete a single question survey. Attaching numbers 0 to 10 to assigned values ranging from “not at all likely” to “very likely,” the single question survey generates a percentage rating, which allows a business to then assign them a score. These scores usually range from -100 to 100, with a higher score being more desirable. People are then split into 3 categories: promoters, passives, and detractors. Having as many promoters as possible should be the end goal for every business.
A report published by Deloitte shows the critical importance of having customers that are promoters rather than detractors:
“Research shows that customers are likely to mention a positive customer experience to an average of 9 people, while they are likely tell 16 people about negative experiences.”
What a high NPS means for your business
A high NPS score is a direct indication that your business is consistently pleasing its customers. This means what the company is currently doing is working and that they should continue down that path to keep earning enthusiastic consumers. Working toward a high NPS should be something that all businesses are focused on. The higher the score, the better and the more likely your business will be to find new customers through means such as word-of-mouth marketing.
Improve your customer support
Improving NPS via quality customer service
The main way that a business can improve its NPS is by focusing on delivering exemplary service. The happier a business makes its customers, the more likely customers are to stick around and recommend the business to others. Asking for customer feedback, sending follow-up questions, and reaching out to those who have left a bad rating can help consumers change their mind about your business and give your products or services another chance. The same goes for people who have left more passive feedback.
“In customer support, we listen to the angry customer and we listen to the positive customer, and I think the area we can be most proactive in is listening to the passive customer. We should ask ourselves, what can we do to shift the needle on those passive customers to make them more loyal and what more could we have done to exceed expectations?"
- Garry Gormley, Founder, FAB Solutions
Following up with these passive customers can benefit a business’s NPS and result in a greater level of customer retention. By putting the consumer first, a business can work to improve its customer service procedures and increase its NPS.
Increasing your NPS with automation
One of the many ways you can increase customer satisfaction and brand loyalty is by delegating some of the everyday aspects of your customer service to automation. When tools like AI and NLP-powered chatbots and virtual agents are added to your support team, simple tasks like looking up an order status or changing a password, can be completely taken off your agents’ plates. In fact, virtual agents can automate up to 60% of all incoming inquiries. And if you choose a platform that integrates into your existing systems, such as your CRM, the virtual agent can provide personalized as well as prompt customer service, maintaining an excellent customer experience.