The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a valuable tool for measuring customer loyalty and satisfaction. It asks a simple question: “How likely are you to recommend our product/service to others?” While the concept is straightforward, executing an NPS strategy effectively requires careful consideration. Here are some essential do's and don'ts to ensure your NPS is effective and actionable.

Do's of NPS

Do Get Personalized About the Specific Product or Service

Asking for general feedback can result in vague responses. Instead, get specific about which product or service you want feedback on. Personalizing the NPS question to a particular experience helps gather more relevant and actionable insights. For example, “How likely are you to recommend our XYZ product?” is much more insightful than a generic question about the brand.

Do Tailor Your Question to Fit Your Industry

NPS isn’t one-size-fits-all. Depending on your industry, you may need to tweak the wording to resonate better with your audience. For instance, in healthcare, the question might be framed as, “How likely are you to recommend our medical practice to a friend or family member?” which may not account for the social context of the medical practice. Consider if this client is visiting the practice for a ‘socially accepted’ reason; it’s possible they would never speak about their condition, no matter how great the service is. For this reason, the question could be worded to better suite the context of the industry. It might be reworked to account for the privacy and discretion required, for example, “If you knew of a friend or family member experiencing the same condition as you, how likely are you recommend our medical practice to them?” Tailoring the question ensures the context is clear and the feedback is more meaningful.

Do Segment Your Responses for Deeper Insights

Divide your NPS results based on relevant customer segments, such as product type, geography, or customer lifecycle stage. This allows you to understand how different groups of customers view your brand and helps identify targeted areas for improvement. Consider a product has a 3-6 month period before the customer achieves their desired results. Collecting information at critical phases of the product cycle can help identify areas for improvement.

Do Use NPS as Part of a Larger Feedback Strategy

NPS is a useful metric, but it should not be the only tool you use to gauge customer satisfaction. Pair it with qualitative feedback, such as open-ended follow-up questions, to gain deeper insights into why customers feel the way they do. Following up with customers after they leave NPS feedback, both positive and negative, can create a much deeper customer relationship by making them feel understood.

Don'ts of NPS

Don’t Use NPS to Ask Job Candidates About Their Application Process

NPS is designed to measure customer satisfaction, not candidate experience. Sending an NPS survey to job candidates, especially after a rejection, can come across as tone-deaf and may damage your employer brand. Instead, use a more tailored survey to understand their experience with your recruitment process, consult with other industry professionals, or study what recruiting strategies other companies are using.

Don’t Send NPS Surveys Too Frequently

Over-surveying can lead to customer fatigue and diminish the quality of feedback. Sending NPS surveys too frequently risks overwhelming your audience and may result in diminishing response rates or negative perceptions. To maintain engagement and ensure actionable insights, consider a well-paced survey frequency. Typically, administering NPS surveys every 6 to 12 months is appropriate for tracking trends without burdening customers. Adjust this timing based on the nature of your business and customer interactions.

Don’t Ask for NPS Responses for Free

Offering incentives for NPS responses can bias your results by increasing the amount of overstated positive feedback, but never assume that customers should respond to your surveys without any recognition. Instead, you can offer a small incentive like loyalty points, insider access to new product releases, exclusive content, or a donation in their name to a charity of their choice. Show that you value their time by sending a sincere thank-you message or by using the feedback to create noticeable improvements in your offerings.

Don’t Ignore Passives

Many companies focus heavily on promoters (those scoring 9-10) and detractors (0-6) but often overlook passives (7-8). Passives are an important group because they are satisfied but not enthusiastic about your product. With the right improvements, they could easily become promoters, so be sure to analyze their feedback as well. Here, you can understand the real drivers for a promoter rating.

Final Thoughts

NPS is a powerful tool for understanding customer loyalty, but only when used thoughtfully and appropriately. By following these do's and avoiding the don’ts, you’ll be better equipped to gather meaningful feedback, act on it, and ultimately improve customer experience and business outcomes.