Turn that frown upside-down: the Openprise secret to measuring and evaluating customer satisfaction with Net Promoter Score

In this crowdsourced digital economy, people constantly ask you to review their product or give them feedback. And though you may have heard of the Net Promoter Score (NPS), like many, you probably need a reminder of what it means and how to calculate it. I’m going to share how the industry calculates NPS and let you in on the secret of how we use that sacred number. (Spoiler alert: We use it for the good of our community!)

Measuring Net Promoter Score

The NPS is a metric developed by Fred Reichheld, Bain & Company, and Satmetrix. Reichheld introduced in his 2003 Harvard Business Review article, “The One Number You Need to Grow.” It works like this:

As part of the customer satisfaction measurement, you ask at least one straightforward, quantitative question. “On a scale of 1 to 10, How, how likely is it that you would recommend the product to a friend or colleague?” In this question, the scale goes from 1 – not at all likely, to 10 – extremely likely.
Based on the answers you receive, group the respondents into three cohorts:
1. The Promoters – Anyone who gives a score of 9 or 10
2. The Neutrals – Anyone who gives a score of 7 or 8
3. The Detractors – Anyone who gives a score of 6 or less

Then, you can calculate NPS
NPS = Promoters (% of total) – Detractors (% of total)

Interestingly, a “passing grade” of 7 or an 8 actually has minimal impact on NPS. So, if you believe that “even God gets an 8,” if you like your vendor, you may want to bump up your score to a 9 and offer some constructive feedback in the qualitative section.

Deciphering the number

So, what’s the big fuss about the Net Promoter Score number? Beyond the fact that NPS is one of many indications of customer satisfaction, how happy (or unhappy) your customers are with you, you can also use it at the account level to track customer satisfaction over time. For example, if your main product users have traditionally been happy, but suddenly one of them gave a low rating, it’s time to reach out individually to understand how you can help them. Conversely, if previously only hands-on users were providing feedback, and suddenly you receive a 10 from the CMO, it’s a signal that you’ve piqued the interest of an executive, and it’s time to engage further. The number itself is only significant if you do the corresponding outreach to understand the customers better.

Though the NPS score may be a lagging indicator, we use it as part of our customer engagement modeling. Using Openprise, we combine the Net Promoter Score with other inputs like product engagement behaviors, advocacy activities, and community participation to measure overall customer engagement. We use this model’s results to help the front office teams spot behavior patterns, predict possible outcomes (renewal vs. churn), and take precautionary actions.

Net Promoter Score: It’s more than the number

We care about more than just that one number. As part of the customer satisfaction survey, we also ask for qualitative feedback around the product, services, support, and training; everything we can do to ensure your success. We send each team a detailed feedback list to take appropriate actions, whether it’s to create a focus group around product features or have our VP of Customer Success & Services personally reach out to understand the issues better.

Now you know how to calculate and measure a Net Promoter Score. Our big secret is what we do with your responses. So, please indulge us with our semi-annual requests and let us know how we can better serve you!