Imagine you’ve just had a first date with someone you’re really interested in. The evening comes to a close, and you head home, feeling a mix of excitement and uncertainty about how it all went.
You send your date a text with one simple question: “On a scale from 0 to 5, how likely are you to recommend our time together?” It’s a nerve-wracking moment, as you’re not quite sure what response you’re hoping for. Should you hope for a recommendation, or does it not really matter?
In the realm of business, relationships are somewhat akin to a game with clearer rules. This article aims to shed light on some crucial aspects of this game, particularly focusing on Net Promoter Score (NPS) questions:
- The different types of NPS questions available
- How to effectively phrase these questions
- The importance of follow-up NPS questions for maximizing results
What Is an NPS Question?
An NPS question forms a vital part of your NPS campaigns, aiding in the assessment of the customer loyalty and the strength of your brand. It serves as a important metric in determining whether your business can anticipate steady growth.
The most commonly used format for an NPS question is: “On a scale from 0 to 5, or 10, how likely are you to recommend us to your friends or colleagues?”
This classic NPS question boasts ease of response, contributing to high response rates across various industries. On average, NPS surveys typically yield response rates ranging from 30% to 40%.
Types of NPS Questions
- Relational NPS Questions
These queries are aimed at evaluating the quality of the relationship between your business and its customers. Relational NPS surveys are usually distributed at regular intervals, such as monthly, quarterly, or yearly.
By sending them regularly, you can monitor the health of your customer base and establish benchmarks to track your performance.
- Transactional NPS Questions
Unlike relational surveys, transactional NPS surveys are triggered by specific customer interactions or transactions. These may include contacting customer support, making a purchase, upgrading a plan, or using a new feature.
Transactional NPS questions provide insights into customer satisfaction at critical touchpoints, offering actionable feedback on individual interactions or moments in the user journey. However, they may not provide a comprehensive overview of your overall service health.
NPS Survey Best Practices
- Tailor Your Email Lists and Customize Content
Sending personalized emails has been proven to yield better results compared to generic mass emails. To enhance your NPS email campaigns:
Divide your email list into multiple segments based on various criteria like preferences, purchase history, location, and engagement duration. Utilize tools that integrate with marketing automation platforms like ActiveCampaign and GetResponse.
Leading survey tools like Survicate offer features to add personalization tags and embed surveys directly into emails, simplifying the response process. This allows you to send personalized NPS surveys efficiently and on a large scale.
- Pose Targeted and Personalized Questions
Here are a few things to consider when creating your survey:
To attract loyal customers, consider the following factors:
- Targeted customer segment
- Touchpoints in the journey
- Triggering events
- Long-term behavior
- Pain areas
- Survey channels
The answer to a good NPS survey is simple: get to know your audience very well so that you can deliver value and adapt their experience.
Before launching an NPS survey, ensure clarity on your objectives and the audience you’re addressing. By aligning your NPS questions with respondents’ contexts, such as recent transactions or their overall experiences, you foster genuine interactions.
Avoid making customers feel like mere cogs in a machine by demonstrating genuine interest in their experiences and respecting their time.
- Perfect Timing is Key
Imagine that you receive an unexpected phone call from a car dealer during a hectic workday, pressuring you to make a purchase. Despite being busy, the caller persists, disrupting your workflow and leaving you frustrated.
To prevent such experiences, be mindful of when you engage with customers, whether in person or through surveys. Timing significantly impacts survey response rates and feedback quality.
Ensure you reach out when customers are likely to be available and receptive. For instance, refrain from asking about a product’s quality before it’s been received or interrupting important tasks with unrelated inquiries.
By respecting customer’s schedules and preferences, you can enhance their experience and gather more valuable insights.
- Design Polished NPS Surveys
Enhance the effectiveness of your NPS surveys by making sure that they reflect your brand identity. Here’s how:
Customize your surveys to align with your brand’s aesthetics and messaging. Integrate your branding elements, like the logos and color schemes, for a cohesive look.
Optimize survey layouts to ensure they are mobile-friendly, accommodating users on various devices. Prioritizing these seemingly minor details elevates user experience, reinforces brand recognition, and encourages survey participation.
- Persist with Follow-Ups
Engaging customers with NPS surveys requires persistence and strategic follow-ups:
Recognize that amidst the deluge of daily emails, initial survey responses may be limited. Don’t be discouraged. Continue inviting customers to participate in the survey multiple times to improve response rates.
Upon receiving responses, follow up with participants to express gratitude and encourage further engagement. While follow-up emails won’t impact current survey results, they enhance the likelihood of future participation and higher response rates.
Consistent follow-up efforts demonstrate your commitment to gathering feedback and improving customer experiences.
What follow-up questions may you ask about a relational NPS?
Once you’ve asked the question, you can use your audience’s attention to ask similar follow-up questions, like:
- A free text box question
Something like ‘Please explain to us why you provided that rating’ allows customers to elaborate on their response, providing you with the necessary information to evaluate why they replied the way they did.
This can assist you in identifying the motivators for promoters and detractors in your comments. Going through open-text feedback can be time-consuming, so use a text analysis tool like Text iQ.
If you want to be more particular, ask questions based on your own goals. For example, if you’re testing a new product and want to see what consumers enjoyed, you can ask a follow-up question such as Which of the features do you value the most?’.
- A question asking for a customer’s negative review
For example, asking, ‘Is there anything that [brand name] can do to improve your experience?’ allows the respondent to provide input.
The respondent’s suggestions for improving the experience might provide you with practical actionable points to take when considering how to ‘close the loop’ with detractors or organizing your next experiences.
- Ranking survey questions.
These are more detailed, such as ‘How satisfied are you with the [particular] experience with our company?’, followed by a score scale ranging from ‘very satisfied’ to ‘extremely unsatisfied’.
- A request to follow up with the customer(s).
For example, ‘Would it be appropriate for us to follow up with you on your responses?’ With a ‘Yes/No’ response box. This provides you with a future opportunity to clarify with the customer on any areas that require elaboration, to delve further into their response, and to engage with detractors in order to enhance their status with them and address the issue.
Provide a text option to request their phone number or email address so that it can be recorded in the form, especially if your survey is anonymous and does not collect personal information.
How to Distribute an NPS Survey?
When selecting a distribution channel for your NPS survey, consider the purpose of the survey and whether it’s relational or transactional. Here’s how to choose the right channel:
- For Transactional Surveys: For SaaS products or ecommerce platforms, target customers where they engage most:
- In-app surveys: If assessing the user experience within the app.
- Web app notifications: After a checkout process or key interaction.
- Email campaigns: Directly to their inbox, post-purchase, or after key interactions.
- SMS: This is for quick feedback, if feasible, within your user flow.
Always align your choice of channel with the user persona and their journey.
When to Prompt an NPS Question?
There’s no one-size-fits-all answer; the timing depends on your business model and products. However, consider these guidelines:
For ecommerce: Ask transactional NPS questions post-order completion and upon delivery to assess the purchasing experience.
For SaaS: Survey after a trial period or upon utilizing a critical feature to gauge user experience.
Allow sufficient time for customers to engage with your product or service before seeking feedback.
For relational NPS questions, send surveys regularly, perhaps once or twice annually, to gauge overall satisfaction. Transactional inquiries can be more frequently tailored to your product and customer base.
3 Approaches To Boost The NPS Response Rate
Not every consumer you ask will complete your NPS survey. That’s not exactly a stunning fact. How many survey requests have you disregarded over the years?—but here are a few suggestions to assist in improving your response rate and encourage more clients to provide you with that all-important feedback.
1. Segment your audience
If you’re sending an NPS survey by email, split your audience and ask different questions for each group.
By initiating surveys at crucial phases of the customer journey (e.g., after placing a purchase, one week after product delivery, or after abandoning a shopping cart), you can acquire a better insight into why they choose their scoring method.
2. Keep things simple
Ask inquiries in a single sentence and use straightforward, ordinary language. You want to answer your queries to be a pleasure rather than a work.
3. Keep it short
Less is more. Limit the amount of questions to a minimum. You’ll gain significant knowledge from only three questions, and your response rate will increase if everyone completes the survey.
Summarizing NPS Questions
Though simple, NPS questions wield considerable influence in measuring customer loyalty and brand strength. When integrated with other success metrics, they contribute to enhancing NPS and fostering sustained customer growth.
NPS Surveys help measure the strength of business connections and customer loyalty. It covers major areas of NPS questions, be it relational or transactional questions, and offers best practices for maximizing response rates.
Every little step, from personalizing email campaigns to selecting distribution channels, is aimed at improving these NPS surveys in order to deliver better insights.
Learn how to formulate the best NPS questions, schedule your surveys for maximum effect, and apply follow-up methods to ensure increased people engagement with a business.
Suggested read: Market Segmentation: Knowing Your Customer Base
Common FAQs on NPS Questions
How to Increase the NPS Survey Response Rate?
You can divide your audience into segments for segmenting NPS questions based on the interactions customers had with your company, keep the question as simple and short as possible, and mail out a follow-up email to encourage more participation.
What is the optimal time when sending NPS surveys?
Send surveys to the ecommerce businesses post-purchase and after delivery. For SaaS products, solicit users after a trial period or after the usage of a key feature. NPS relational surveys can also be sent periodically. Some do this annually, and some bi-annually.
Why is this important for follow-up NPS questions?
Follow-up questions and communications prove to the customer that their feedback is valued, which improves engagement and chances of participation in further surveys.
