Client Surveys and Why They’re Valuable
In the world of constant feedback that we live in, it’s important to know how your business is doing from a customer perspective since it is the customers that are keeping the business thriving. Speaking with every customer on a regular basis would be quite difficult for most, so what’s the best way to get input? One way is through customer surveys and using the Net Promoter Score (NPS).
The NPS is used to help measure and improve customer loyalty. Customers are asked the following question: “How likely are you to recommend the organization to a colleague, family member or friend?” Based on a 0-10 scale, ratings of 9 and 10 are considered promoters; ratings of 7 and 8 are passives, or neutral; and ratings of 0-6 are detractors. An organization’s NPS, which is best viewed over a period of time, is the percentage of promoters less the percentage of detractors.
For example, if a company receives 100 responses with 20 that are 9 or 10, 40 that are 7 or 8, and 40 that are 0-6, its NPS score would be 20% promoters – 40% detractors = -20. Needless to say, getting high net promoter scores is very difficult and most companies are happy to have a positive number. Scores over 50 are considered “Excellent” and over 70 are considered “World Class.”
Consistent positive ranking and/or steady improvement help reinforce internal and external initiatives that drive higher client satisfaction. Higher satisfaction leads to more growth through word of mouth references and client promoters actually doing just that, “promoting!” Still, it takes courage to ask clients how you are doing as there is always the fear that you will hear such a disappointing response that you lose sleep. By asking, you also run the risk that the score might be so high it is hard to maintain.
At Invoice Cloud, we gain valuable feedback – good and bad – from our annual client survey to better understand our areas for improvement. Additionally, we assess our NPS performance trend as a company (this isn’t just a score for Client Services; the product itself and all of our people affect these scores), over time, in our clients’ eyes. While we all love to hear how good we are doing, it stands to reason that most progress starts with understanding our shortfalls so that we can work on correcting them to produce a better experience for our clients and our clients’ customers.
Our results have improved the last three years, beginning with a score of 30, then jumping to a 44 and now a 56. For context, here are some NPS scores in the past few years: BMW 40, Dropbox 32, Constant Contact 20, Google 53, TripAdvisor 36, Netflix 50, Marriott 62, Turbotax 54, Comcast 10, JetBlue 62, Amazon Prime 38.
We are quite pleased with the positive trend, but we fully understand that there’s still work to do to keep our product, delivery and service moving in the right direction. We greatly appreciate our relationship with you, the support and constructive feedback you provide and the trust you have placed in us. As always, please let us know how we can do better!
*Net Promoter, Net Promoter Score, and NPS are trademarks of Satmetrix Systems, Inc., Bain & Company, Inc., and Fred Reichheld