NPS is a very common tool used to measure customer satisfaction. But is it worth its salt and is this a metric we can trust to predict future growth?
Bob Hayes, Chief Customer Officer at TCELab recently undertook some research and surveyed over 80 Customer Feedback Professionals. When asked to compare the NPS with other loyalty indices, only 26% of the professionals agreed that the NPS is a better predictor of growth compared to other loyalty indices.
This study shows that customer experience professionals are fully aware of the limitations of the NPS claims when used as a stand-alone metric. This is supported by Stephen King, CMO of CurveDental.com. Stephen prefers the 3 loyalty dimensions: Will you buy from us again? Would you buy something else from us? Would you recommend us? He says this approach “helps triangulate what’s really going on in the customer mind”.
Here at Feedback Ferret we go one step further. We believe the NPS has merit and, when married up with a customer’s verbatim feedback about their experience, a rounded view of their satisfaction can be gleaned. We advocate asking customers two simple questions:
1. Would you recommend us (on a scale of say 1-5)?
2. Why did you give that score?
This second question allows customers to give honest, open ended feedback about what really mattered to them – the good, bad and ugly of their customer experience.
Our text analytics engine enables us to provide our clients with real time reporting of the results, thus enabling them to take action and either win a customer back from the brink of desertion or thank the customer for their comments.
And surely doing your utmost to win unhappy customers back to the fold or to keep happy customers happy is the best way to ensure future growth for your business?