How to Improve Net Promoter Score In 3 Steps

By now, it's no secret that great customer experiences can elevate your brand presence, help with retention, and drive low-cost acquisition.

Put simply, Customer Experience (CX) describes how potential and existing customers feel when they interact with your company - from sales all the way through support. Factors that impact CX range from how well a potential buyer's expectations are managed to how quickly an existing customer can get a support ticket resolved.

There's a lot to keep track of here. You're essentially trying to determine how every interaction that a customer has with your company impacts how they feel about it - considering it takes salespeople at least 8 touches just to get an initial response, we're talking about a TON of engagement here.

So what do you do?

Just send out a survey literally every time you speak with an existing or potential customer, right?

Nope.

This should go without saying, but not every interaction warrants a "how'd we do," and different interactions will be weighted differently in the minds of customers.

To get a high-level view of how your brand is perceived, look to Net Promoter Score (NPS). It's a 1-10 scale that measures how likely your customers are to recommend your product or service.

The higher the score, the more likely a customer is to recommend you. Scores from 0-6 are classified as "detractors," 7-8 are "passives," and 9-10 are "promoters."

Tweaking any part of your process (sales, onboarding etc.) can impact your NPS. It's not a perfect metric, but it's the one that's most closely tied to overall customer experience.

Let's take a look at how to improve Net Promoter Score.

Establish the right foundation

Your organization can't become more customer-centric by accident. If you're serious about creating memorable experiences for your customers, you have define what success actually looks like.

Take the time to evaluate your competitors and learn where they're falling short. The issues that customers have with vendors is bound to vary by industry, but they're usually rooted in a functional area of the business.

In some cases, sales teams are overzealous and mismanage expectations throughout their process. In others, customers have a difficult time getting responsive support no matter how quick the resolution might be.

Once you identify the areas you can stand out, create guidelines for how you'll do it. To get it right, you need to have all your departments understand the direction you're moving in, and get internal buy-in before rolling out new initiatives. If you're thinking about how to improve net promoter score, make sure your employees understand why.

Make good on your promises

The most important phase of a customer relationship is the beginning. They've bought into your ability to addresses a real need for them, and do so better than your competitors. It's your job to prove them right.

Take a look at your onboarding experience. Are you transparent about the steps that are involved? Do you provide an accurate timeline for implementation?

If not, that's a great place to start. It's easy to second-guess a purchasing decision, especially if it's a large one with multiple stakeholders. By establishing a transparent onboarding plan and holding yourself to a stated timeline, you can begin to reward your customers for the faith they put in your business.

Find the right times to engage customers

People within your organization won't have all the answers for how to improve net promoter score. To get a sense for how your initiatives are working, you have to find the right times to engage your customers.

The easiest way to get customer feedback is to ask for it after major milestones are completed, or if they've just had a meaningful interaction with your business.

For example, if a sales rep is "handing off" a customer to their CS manager or support team, use it as an opportunity to gauge your new customer's sentiment about how the sales process was managed. Every time that customer has a meaningful support ticket closed, send a follow-up email asking how their experience was.

By establishing the right initiatives, setting the tone early, and gathering customer feedback, you can consistently improve CX across multiple touchpoints. If the experience you're creating for customers improves, there's a good chance your Net Promoter Score will follow.