Apr 23, 2024
The most powerfull NPS questions you need to ask
Thomas Moussafer
Cofounder @ Jimo
The most powerfull NPS questions you need to ask
Is the Net Promoter Score (NPS) just another buzzword, or a critical metric for mastering customer loyalty? According to its proponents, it’s undeniably the latter. Understanding the pulse of your customer base is pivotal for any business aiming to thrive, and the NPS provides a streamlined, quantifiable measure of where your customer loyalty stands. At Jimo, we take the pursuit of insightful customer feedback seriously, as it steers our product and service strategies. If you’re unsure of how the NPS can serve your business or find it too abstract, fear not. This article will not only break down the most effective NPS survey questions but also illustrate how you can implement these insights to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty comprehensively. We’ll provide practical examples of NPS in action, demonstrating how a simple score can profoundly impact your business strategy and customer relationships.
What is the Net Promoter Score (NPS)
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a crucial market research metric that measures the loyalty of a company’s customers. The NPS survey asks one simple but telling question: “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our company/product/service to a friend or colleague?”
Customers are then categorized into three groups based on their responses: promoters, passives, and detractors.
Promoters (score 9–10) are the customers who love your product or service and are most likely to recommend it to others, driving your growth.
Passives (score 7–8) are satisfied customers, but their loyalty is not guaranteed. They might switch to a competitor if given a better offer.
Detractors (score 0–6) are unsatisfied customers who could potentially harm your brand through negative word-of-mouth.
With two-thirds of Fortune 1000 companies adopting the NPS as a primary framework for customer success, it's safe to say that NPS has become a popular tool for businesses.
An NPS survey is a straightforward process designed to provide you with valuable insights into your customers’ loyalty. It begins with the primary NPS question, followed by open-ended questions that prompt customers to explain their scores. This approach serves a dual purpose: it quantifies loyalty and uncovers the qualitative reasons behind the scores, largely thanks to the inclusion of open-ended follow-up questions.
Discover how Jimo's highly-rated NPS and survey tools, including versatile survey templates and effective rating questions, designed to engage every respondent. can transform the way your company collects and leverages user feedback, especially when it includes crafting the best NPS follow-up question. With Jimo, creating attractive, in-context surveys with nps survey template is quick and efficient, ensuring you gather actionable insights directly from your users. Enhance your decision-making process with analytics that turn user responses into clear, actionable conclusions. Try Jimo for free and see why over 100 companies trust us to improve their customer engagement and product development.
Powerful NPS survey questions
The effectiveness of your Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey hinges significantly on the precision and depth of the questions you pose. A well-structured survey should balance quantitative rating scales with open-ended questions to gather comprehensive feedback that can drive meaningful improvements. Below are detailed categories of strategic questions that you should incorporate into your NPS survey to maximize insight and engagement.
Core loyalty assessment
Initial loyalty question: "On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our company/product/service to a friend or colleague?" This is the primary question that measures customer loyalty and satisfaction, providing a baseline for your NPS calculation.
Loyalty deep dive: "Based on your most recent interaction, how likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?" This variation narrows down the context to their latest experience, potentially revealing different insights compared to overall loyalty.
Understanding customer motivations
Explaining the score: "Could you please explain your reasons for the score you provided?" This invites customers to clarify what influenced their score, offering direct insight into their experiences.
Feature appreciation can be enhanced by asking targeted questions to gauge how customers feel about specific aspects of your product or service.: "What specific feature or aspect of our service/product do you appreciate the most and makes you likely to recommend us?" This helps identify the strengths of your offering that delight your most satisfied customers.
Service highlight: "What about our customer service makes you likely or unlikely to recommend us?" This focuses on the service aspect, distinguishing it from the product or overall company performance.
Enhancing customer experience
Improvement suggestions: "What enhancements or changes to our service/product would make you more likely to recommend us?" This question is designed to gather constructive feedback from customers who are neutral or passive about recommending your service.
Addressing dissatisfaction: "What are the primary reasons you might not recommend our service, and what can we do to address these issues?" It's vital to directly address any negative feedback by understanding the deterrents for not recommending your service.
Delving deeper with follow-up questions
Detailed feature feedback: "Which features do you find most valuable, and how could they be improved?" This question aims to drill down into specific features or services to gather detailed feedback for potential enhancements.
Customer needs assessment: "How well does our product/service meet your needs, and what could we do better?" Understanding how your offerings align with customer needs can reveal gaps in your product or service strategy.
Future expectations: "What additional services or features would you like to see that would enhance your experience with us?" This anticipates customer needs and desires for future development.
Building further engagement
Invite to discuss: "Would you be interested in a follow-up call to discuss your feedback in more detail?" This offer can engage particularly engaged or dissatisfied customers, showing them that their input is valued and taken seriously.
Positive experience sharing: "Would you like to share a positive experience with our service/product that particularly stood out to you?" This encourages promoters to provide testimonials that can be used in marketing materials and social proof.
By structuring your NPS survey with these categories and specific questions, you can gain a nuanced understanding of customer loyalty, satisfaction, and areas for improvement. This approach not only quantifies customer sentiment but also fosters an ongoing dialogue that can lead to meaningful improvements in customer experience.
Interpreting the NPS Score
Your NPS score is a number that can range from -100 to +100, reflecting the effectiveness of your survey template in capturing customer sentiment. Here's a basic framework to understand NPS scores:
0 to 30: This score range is seen as good. It indicates that you have more promoters than detractors, but there is still room for improvement.
30 to 70: a range that could significantly benefit from targeted follow-up questions to understand the underlying causes of respondent ambivalence. This is considered a great score. It signifies that your company has a strong bond with its customers, with significantly more promoters.
70 and above: This is an exceptional score, indicating overwhelming customer loyalty and satisfaction, often achieved through meticulously designed net promoter score surveys. Scores in this range are rare and signify that your business is excelling in meeting customer needs.
Average NPS across industries
NPS scores can vary significantly across industries. For example, financial services typically have an average NPS of 35 to 55, while retail usually scores between 40 to 70. Understanding the average NPS for your industry can help you benchmark your performance against your competitors.
Optimum timing for NPS surveys
Knowing when to send out an NPS survey can have a significant impact on the quality of feedback you receive. Here are a few optimal times to consider:
After a milestone: Customer milestones, like a purchase or subscription renewal, are moments of high engagement. This makes them ideal for capturing genuine sentiment.
Following customer support interaction: Post-support surveys can help gauge how interactions with your team influence loyalty.
End of a trial period: Capturing the likelihood of trial users recommending your product before they decide to subscribe or churn is crucial.
After product updates or releases: Feedback on new features or updates can guide future development and improvements.
Periodic check-Ins: Regularly gauging customer sentiment helps identify trends and changes in customer satisfaction.
Using NPS survey data to improve customer experience
One of the significant benefits of the Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey is the rich trove of data it provides on the performance of your products or services, customer loyalty, and customer experience. By conducting a detailed analysis of this data, your company can identify key areas of improvement, creating an action plan to enhance customer satisfaction.
Firstly, the NPS survey helps identify promoters, who are satisfied with your products or services. Their feedback can provide insights into what you are doing correctly and how to continue exceeding their expectations.
Secondly, the passives provide an opportunity for growth, particularly through the strategic use of transactional NPS to capture immediate survey responses. By understanding their expectations and concerns, you can fine-tune your products or services to convert them into promoters.
Finally, the feedback from detractors is crucial. They help you identify areas where your product or service is falling short. Addressing these issues can turn a detractor into a promoter and prevent negative word-of-mouth. Using targeted NPS follow-up question helps in understanding their concerns better.
NPS as a tool for continuous improvement
The NPS survey isn't just a one-off tool for measuring customer loyalty. When used appropriately, it can be a powerful tool for continuous improvement. This comes from the ability to track changes in the Net Promoter Score over time and analyze the reasons behind these changes.
For instance, if you notice a dip in your NPS score, it could suggest that some aspects of your product service have deteriorated, or customer expectations have evolved. Open-ended questions, including the best NPS questions, can provide details about the reasons for this decline and guide your improvement efforts.
Moreover, by keeping a close eye on the NPS surveys, you can monitor the impact of any changes you make. For example, if you implement a new feature or service based on customer feedback, you can assess its impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty through subsequent NPS surveys.
Why NPS is essential for business growth
NPS surveys play a pivotal role in fostering business growth. By measuring customer loyalty and satisfaction, they provide businesses with insights that can inform strategic decisions.
High NPS scores indicate a larger base of promoters, who not only continue using your product service but also recommend it to others. This organic word-of-mouth marketing can attract new customers, reducing acquisition costs.
On the other hand, identifying detractors and addressing their concerns can help prevent churn and negative reviews, protecting your brand's reputation.
Moreover, by identifying what drives customer satisfaction and loyalty, businesses can develop products or services that are more closely aligned with customer needs and preferences, driving revenue growth.
In short, the insights gleaned from NPS surveys can provide a roadmap for business growth, making NPS an essential tool for any forward-thinking business.
Here's a concise table providing a quick overview of the key aspects of NPS and its strategic implementation as discussed in the article:
So, if you are yet to incorporate the NPS survey into your business, start today by trying our NPS Tool! It could be the key to unlocking your business's potential and driving unprecedented growth, especially when enhanced with astute survey response analysis.
