Welcome to the second post in a two-part series about the Net Promoter Score (NPS). Our first post explored what NPS is and why it matters to you as a business owner and app developer. In this post, we’ll look further into why it matters in the context of retaining and growing your customer base.
3 ways you can use NPS to drive business success
NPS is a measure of your customers’ sentiment and loyalty toward your product, brand or service by way of a survey question that asks, “What is the likelihood that you would recommend <XYZ> to a friend or colleague?” (Check the first post for more details on the methodology and how we use it at Intuit.)
Keeping a regular pulse on your customers sentiment by measuring NPS can help you course correct or refine your product roadmap or program/service components. It can also help you prioritize new feature requests as well as known issues and reported bugs.
Here are three tips for leveraging what you learn via your NPS surveys to improve customer acquisition, satisfaction, and retention.
1. Fix problems
How often do you, as a customer, want a company to hear and act on to your feedback? Often. Your experience with their product or service determines what you tell others about the business or app.
As an app developer and business owner, you understand the importance of opening the lines of communication. Providing the NPS survey to your users shows them that you sincerely desire to learn what may not be working best for them. Acting on what you learn by addressing problems quickly helps you build trust with your customers, increasing their satisfaction and loyalty to you and your brand.
2. Find what works
On the flip side, surveying your customers regularly also lets you know what they like about your product or service, which could include some planned (or unexpected) delighters. Studying positive feedback can help you find additional ways to delight your customers. The NPS survey is an effective way to gather this meaningful data.
3. Turn your customers into super beta testers
With NPS, you identify who among your customers are Promoters, Passives, or Detractors. Each type of customer offers invaluable feedback, which can make them perfectly suited for a particularly important job: beta tester.
As app developers, you’re constantly rolling out new features. Who better to test those new features than those who have asked for them via survey responses? By inviting customers with various perspectives to provide beta feedback, you’ll get a more well-rounded and insightful giving picture of how you can make your app the best it can be.
Additionally, there’s a good chance that if your beta test address issues that your Passive or Detractor customers reported, you just might turn them into Promoters. It’s a win-win.
Net Promoter Score: A window into your customer’s point of view
Todd Eby of SuccessHacker understands customer loyalty and says the following via this blog post, Turn One-Time Customers Into Loyal, Repeat Fans, “There’s nothing more useful than talking with customers about why they chose you, how you helped them, and what they’ve done since you worked with them.”
Having a window into the mindset of your customer through the NPS survey gives you insights into how to develop your roadmap, how to keep your current customers happy, and how to attract new customers. This is especially key for subscription-based apps. Competition is fierce and users can be tempted away if you aren’t staying on top (and ahead) of what is—and is not—working for your users.
Are you considering using the NPS survey to grow and retain customers? You can leverage a variety of survey apps to get in the field quickly; a few examples are Delighted, SurveyMonkey, or Typeform.
Here at Intuit, we believe that the Net Promoter Score is a great tool that helps keep customers at the center of your product. Do you use NPS to measure your customer sentiment? Let us know your thoughts on NPS in the comments below!
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