NPS Best Practices

I spoke at the Corinium CCO Fall Conference. One of the discussions we had was on the very popular topic of NPS and its efficacy to gauge customer satisfaction. We had such great engagement that I want to share the wisdom of the CXPA community with all of you.

Here is what CX practitioners across industries are saying:

How You Use NPS Makes a Big Difference

Never compare results across titles. For example, on average a supervisor will always have a lower NPS than an agent since by design, that supervisor gets the more challenging calls. Data proves that the gap is as high as 10pts!

When you communicate to your frontline employees, do not speak in terms of points. Rather, communicate with frontline employees in terms of actions and behaviors. The goals of achieving a certain point should end at the Manager level. In turn, Managers should know what behaviors move the needle and instruct the frontline to practice them.

The Impact of Detractors

It is important note that detractors give 14 times more words in their free commentary than promoters. The difference between a great performer and a poor performer is not that one gets scored as a 10 and the other does not. Everyone gets 10s. The difference is a great performer does not get any detractors.

Never reward an individual high score. Only reward trends. And note, it takes 15 occurrences to have a trend.

Be Careful How You Survey

NPS is the easiest measure to manipulate so be very careful who you survey.

Expect your response rates to go down over time. Make sure you create a buffer when you begin your collection. For accuracy, the prevailing recommendation is to start with 3 times.

The conclusion was unanimous. NPS alone is not a comprehensive measure of customer satisfaction. NPS must be connected to customer journey scores and operational measures in order to carry business value. It is however the metric that your CFO and CEO know and understand.

So make sure you create those connections on the back end, but please do not share complex models with your executives. Keep it simple. Know how to prove the dollar value, and keep reiterating.

Good luck and feel free to reach out if you get stuck along the way!

This article originally appeared on The Petrova Experience Blog.