NPS Survey

What is Net Promoter Score (NPS)?

One of the foremost metrics to assess business health, Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a measure of customer loyalty. It’s a simple, numerical score that companies can use to track how likely their customers are to recommend their product or service to others.

Developed by Bain & Co. in 2003, NPS is comprised of two important questions:

1. On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend {Company name or product} to a {friend or colleague}?
2. The second question is open-ended, e.g. “Care to share any additional details?”

Part I: The rating question

The first question is specific and should not be altered. It asks customers to rate their experience on a scale of 0-10. Based on their selection, the customer will fall into 1 of 3 buckets:

• Detractor (0-6): Customers who are unhappy with your product or service. They're unlikely to recommend you to others.
• Passive (7-8): Customers who are satisfied with your product or service but aren't particularly enthusiastic about it. They may be willing to recommend you to others, but they're not your most loyal customers, and they could easily be swayed by the competition.
• Promoter (9-10): Your most loyal and satisfied customers. They're likely to recommend you to others and continue doing business with you in the future. They are your word-of-mouth growth engine.

To calculate your final NPS, tally up all of the scores and subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. For example, if 70% of respondents are promoters, 10% are detractors, and 20% are passives, your NPS would be 70-10=60.

The higher your score, the better your NPS. The better your NPS, the more loyal your customers.

Part II: The open-ended question

The open-ended question is perhaps more important than the score itself, as it gives customers an opportunity to share feedback in their own words. It goes beyond a simple “Yes/No” response and lets users provide more detail about their experience.

When asking the open-ended question, we suggest dynamically altering the question based on the user’s score. For example:

Promoters:

• What could we do to make your experience 10% better?
• What do you love most about our product or service?
• Which features do you value the most?

Passives:

• Is there anything we can do to improve your experience?
• What could we do to make your experience 10% better?
• What’s one thing we could add that would make our product absolutely essential for you?

Detractors:

• ​​What was missing or disappointing in your experience with us?
• What is one thing we could do to make your experience better?

How often should I send the NPS survey?

It’s important to seek out feedback from your customers on a regular basis so you can learn how they’re using your product. It also helps you uncover issues quickly and rapidly iterate to meet your customers’ demands.

How often you ask for feedback will depend on your business. Some companies may request feedback after every interaction with a customer, while others might do so less frequently (once a quarter, once a year, etc.). 

Asking for feedback does not always need to be in the form of an NPS survey. Maybe you only want to send a formal NPS survey once per customer, or once per year. If that’s the case, you can still collect feedback in informal ways throughout the customer’s lifecycle. You might do this during your customer support interactions, through an in-app feedback button, or through a dedicated email.

Launching your survey

The NPS flow consists of two emails:

Email 1

• This is your NPS survey
• Only send to active customers 
• Send 90 days after your customer’s sign up date
• Send the survey via email or in-app (or try split testing)
• Pro tip: there are many companies that deliver NPS surveys, such as Delighted or AskNicely, or your EMS may have pre-built solutions to collect scores

Email 2

• This is a follow up email
• Only send to recipients who haven’t completed the survey
• Send 2 days after Email 1
• This email should remind your customers to complete the survey, and make it clear that you would appreciate their input as it helps you improve your product

After you finish the feedback collection process, consider closing the loop with any customers who answered the open-ended question. Remember that they took time to share their thoughts in an effort to help your company improve, so you owe it to them to respond to any remaining questions or actionable feedback.