Net Promoter Score® (NPS) vs. Customer Satisfaction Survey

If I say that Net Promoter Score® (NPS) is the latest, most fashionable, trend in survey making business; it wouldn’t be too wrong, my friends….because like expensive designer fashion….not everyone gets it.

Many surveyors have heard about it but not everyone knows how to use it effectively. Ultimately, most of us confuse it with a typical customer satisfaction survey (CSS). We think that receiving customer’s ratings on various products are enough to bring about a change in our work environment. What we choose to overlook is that improvement doesn’t come till we get them hitched with our brand for a long time. What big and small business owners really need is the future loyalty and surety from their customers which is difficult to attain through CSS.

What is Net Promoter Score (NPS)?

The entire hullabaloo regarding NPS is for one reason only: it is, so far, the most efficient way to discover a customer’s willingness to recommend or promote his processes or service delivery mechanism rather than his overall relationship with your brand. Once you get one with the NPS, you do eventually enter the whole Customer Experience Management (CEM) arena.

More simply, the Net Promoter Score (NPS) can be defined as the result achieved when you survey your customers with the “would you recommend” question. It follows a simple formula to subtract the percentage of Detractors, i.e. 0 – 6, from the percentage of Promoters, i.e. 9 – 10. Leaving the neutral ones aside, the subtracted sum gives you the NPS.

What is Customer Satisfaction Survey (CSS)?

Customer Satisfaction survey is a great method to know what your customers think about your services. But it won’t be right to interchange it with NPS because it deals with the immediate service experience mainly. From getting a business more Likes on Facebook to receiving an outstanding Yelp review, Customer Satisfaction survey is the best way to engage them productively.

A customer satisfaction review will help you pin exactly what your customer likes and dislikes about your product. Because of the variety of questions, you can understand the client’s needs from pricing to his customer experience.

“Customer Satisfaction” OR “Would Recommend” Score:

The Net Promoter Score can be calculated separately from CSS. However, more typically it is used as a part of Customer Satisfaction Survey.

The greatest benefit a surveyor can achieve by using NPS is that of simplicity. A reliable online survey tool such as SurveyCrest makes the process much easier by offering a ready-made Net Promoter Score template. Also the NPS makes the experience of your customer quantifiable by turning it into one simple metric. In simple words, you can find out whether a client is a detractor or a promoter.

On a different note, it is not always ideal to give so much importance to a single number and set all your targets around it. Sometimes, a full scale Customer Satisfaction Survey is needed to generate more practical data.

Many famous brands are using NPS such as Procter and Gamble, General Electric, American Express, Allianz, and Verizon Wireless, etc. But any successful surveyor would tell you that keeping a balance between “customer satisfaction” score and the “would you recommend” score is important. This works for the perfect comparative analysis an entrepreneur needs to improve his business practice.

The pioneer of NPS, Frederick Reichheld, also added a comparison of revenue surge to correlation of different major indicating questions, including NPS and CSS. The outcome, however, indicates that CSS was weaker in predicting precise results for revenue growth.

What would you recommend?

You, as a surveyor, are welcome to share your experience or thoughts to help fellow entrepreneurs in the industry. Do you think Net Promoter Score® (NPS), alone, is enough to help boost profits and a good name for your brand?

If you haven’t yet experienced the results personally, we encourage you to do so right here at the best FREE online surveys platform.