Companies that exceed customer expectations have a 5X revenue growth rate. But how do you know what your customers think about your business and their customer experience in your store? This blog will discuss measuring customer experience using the Net Promoter Score and how you can influence customer experience with this metric.
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is the gold standard of customer experience metrics; tracking it can benefit your organization. NPS measures the loyalty of customers to your company. NPS scores measure customer perception based on a straightforward question in a post-sale survey.
“On a scale of 0 (not likely at all) to 10 (extremely likely), would you recommend our store to a family member or friend.”
With that knowledge, you could segment your customers into groups and develop a Net Promoter Score or NPS.
9 or 10 are PROMOTERS
7 or 8 are PASSIVES
0-6 are DETRACTORS
To calculate your Net Promoter Score, subtract the Detractors percentage from the Promoters percentage. NPS = % promoters – % detractors. For example, if 60% of respondents are Promoters, 10% are Detractors, and 30% are Passives, your NPS would be 60-10=50.
Knowing what kind of customers were dissatisfied during their journey is imperative. It doesn’t do you any good to spend all that money on advertising to drive a customer into your store only to upset and disengage them to the point where not only will they never come back, but tell everyone they know to avoid your business like the plague.
In practicality, the NPS score is the only benchmark number to understand if your customers love you, don’t care about you, or hate you. However, that number is only the start. What do you do when you realize you have a terrible NPS score? How do you engage with your customers in real-time to head off any bad blood at the pass and take action? Is the culture of your business thinking in terms of pleasing customers, or is it just for a transactional sale?
“What can we do to make your experience better?”
This question is the perfect follow-up to the NPS question. Asking what you need to improve will point to trends in a poor experience and show you where to change the customer experience. It also allows you to follow up with a customer who gave you a low score and close the gap in their journey and perception of your business.
The retailers that excel in the NPS space are those you reward with your business. Leading category killers such as Apple, USAA, Starbucks, Costco, and Southwest Airlines are all well known for how they not only treat their customers, but it’s no shock they also have the happiest employees with retention rates into the stratosphere.
Making every customer count can’t be an empty mantra that rolls off the tongue in staff meetings. We all know that getting new customers is 10X more expensive than keeping the old ones. Your NPS score can be a windfall of retained earnings for your business, or it can shut off your lights. Start measuring your NPS score and see how you can influence your customer experience.
