As a small and medium-sized (SME) business, any feedback you can seek from your customer is gold dust. It is the means of improving your offering based on customer experience, and the comments can also be used as testimonials for use in marketing. But how can you seek this opinion? Here we introduce you to the Net Promoter Score (NPS) and what software you might choose.
What is a Net Promoter Score (NPS)?
The Net Promoter Score is a metric that was developed by Fred Reichheld and Laura Brooks. It is a way of finding out how likely it is your customers would recommend you to friends and family members. In short, it is software that can help you track and measure customer sentiment. It is a way of assessing customer loyalty to your brand.
The loyalty to your company is expressed in numbers. If the customer rates you 9 or 10, they are considered promoters of your brand. If you mark you between 0 and 2, they are likely detractors.
However, there is also room for the customer to expand on the scores with feedback. It is possible to ask questions such as “What could we do to make you more likely to recommend us?”
Why is Net Promoter Score important for Small Businesses?
Many large customers, such as GE and Apple, believe that NPS is the most effective way of testing that all-important customer satisfaction and loyalty. As an SME, you are more aware than most that client retention is a crucial ingredient in the success of your venture. Although most think that NPS is for large enterprises and corporations, there is a reason why Fortune 1000 companies hold the position they do.
In some ways, NPS is more effective for smaller companies who have a few customers and a limited product line. The metric offers you a clear view of your whole business.
NPS – What are the pros and cons?
The feedback is only as good as your reaction to the comments. You can collect the data and feel smug or dismiss it as biased or invalid. Here the NPS metric is pointless and a waste of money. The value of NPS is how you seek to improve based on the scores and the comments. It is also only as good as the questions you ask in the survey that accompanies the scoring. You should work hard to write questions that leave no room for part answers or single word responses.
However, with some careful design, the feedback you receive from your NPS software could be central to the work you do to maximise customer experience.
What software could you use for NPS?
According to Capterra reviews, SurveyMonkey Enterprise is one of the top-most NPS software available. While the software is aimed at working for larger enterprises, it does give you the option of integrating survey feedback into automated workflows. More than 335000 organisations are using this software to improve customer experience.
Another option is AskNicely NPS Software. It is the “world’s #1 Rated Experience Management Platform with 750+ 5-star reviews” Over 15000 people have left positive reviews about this software that automatically collects customer feedback.
However, many choices are worth exploring, each software comes with pros and cons. Your most important action now is to use the NPS metric within your business.