Staying connected with consumers is more important now than ever. According to a recent CMO Survey of about 300 marketers, consumers are placing more value on digital experiences and trusting relationships. In addition, most marketing employees have turned their focus to reaching out to customers and improving user experience. How do you even begin to reach out to customers? More importantly, how can you turn feedback into actionable tasks? Gauging customer satisfaction should be succinct and focused in order to produce results that you can work into your business and marketing strategy.
There are three common scores used to identify the health of your customers and users: Net Promoter Score, Customer Satisfaction Score, and Customer Effort Score. Each score serves a different purpose, and each one has advantages and disadvantages. You may have run into one of these surveys while surfing the web. Often times they pop up as you’re leaving a site or once you’ve taken action on a website.
Once you understand what your goals are, we can help implement these short surveys on your own website.
NPS | Net Promoter Score
The net promoter score measures how satisfied customers are with your product and/or services, brand loyalty, and how likely customers are to recommend your company to others. In addition, this score can also tell which customers are likely to drop off, that way you can plan to boost your outreach to these particular individuals.
This survey is a simple question, usually, “On a scale from 1-10 how likely are you to recommend [Sevaa Group] to a friend or colleague?” Sound familiar? This will give you quantitate data. You can follow up with a qualitative question by asking the user why he/she chose that particular score to get more specific feedback. For example, “Why did you choose this particular score?” or “How can we improve your experience?” This survey is usually triggered when:
- A customer takes action on your website (make a purchase, request a demo, start a trial, etc.)
- After a client contacts the support team (you see this a lot after ending an online chat with a team member)
- You want to keep a pulse on your relationship with users
- Before a meeting with a lead to gauge their mood (this would be great to incorporate during the sales process after you’ve done the initial meet and greet with your lead)
- Right before a subscription/trial ends
Put a Number on It
Taking the results of the first question, you can segment customers into three categories:
- Promoters – gave you a score of 9-10
- Passives – gave you a score of 7-8
- Detractors – gave you a score of 0-6
We obviously love promoters. They’re the customers who will loop you in on an email with a potential new lead or will get involved with RFPs and references.
Although 7-8 seems like a B+, it signals indifference. These customers are passive and they could leave you for the competition…or not. The point is, there’s room for improvement here, about 2-3 points worth. Judging from their response to the second question, the effort it takes to get those final points may be minimal. This is low-hanging fruit that you can act on immediately. Don’t get comfortable with a 7 or 8, strike while the iron is hot.
Anything below 7 means you have a detractor. Consider these customers unhappy and at risk of leaving you. If their score is really low, you risk negative word-of-mouth marketing. On the upside, people who usually rate this low, often have some choice words, so you should have substantial feedback to take action and make improvements.
To calculate a Net Promoter Score, subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. Here’s a helpful NPS calculator from SurveyMonkey.
NPS Calculator
Why It Works
The nice thing about the NPS is that your results are organized and your customers are segmented. This way you can pinpoint the customers that need reassuring and determine where you need to improve. This score reflect the larger referability of your company as opposed to one-off individual customer experiences. Lastly, since this survey is short and sweet, you’re more likely to get more responses.
Keep in Mind
Most NPS surveys do require follow up, even with the option of that second question offering qualitative data depending on your detailed a user gets or if they even answer the second question at all. On the flip side, an A+ score can make you think everything you’re doing is right and there’s no need to take action. There is always a way to grow and improve. Regardless, don’t let a good score stop you from engaging with your customers. Use the NPS to keep a pulse on their loyalty throughout the year.
CSAT | Customer Satisfaction Score
The CSAT measures, you guessed it, customer satisfaction. Use this score determine how happy a customer is with a specific action you took or specific aspects of your business. This survey is usually prompted during a meaningful phase in the partnership, for example after onboarding or after the completion of a big project. You can also use this score to check in with clients on a regular basis, every 6 months or ahead of an executive business review.
A CSAT survey usually features one question which asks users how satisfied they are with an interaction, service, or product. This can take the form of a rating (like the NPS), scales, emojis…get creative with it. Just remember, you’re measuring satisfaction, so you want to delineate between “satisfied,” “neutral,” and “dissatisfied.” This way you can quantify your customers’ satisfaction. This survey offers a little more flexibility in that you are not limited to just one question. Of course, you’ll want to keep your survey short to capture as many responses as possible.
Put a Number on It
The Customer Satisfaction Score an average of your results, usually a percentage from 0%-100%. A good score falls between 75% and 85%. Take to total “very satisfied” and “satisfied” responses and divide it by the total number of responses, then multiply by 100. This will give you a score for general customer satisfaction.
Why It Works
Not only is this survey flexible in terms of how many questions and their format, but it also allows for more detailed responses. Of course, you want to strike a balance between engagement and having too many questions. The results are tied to context that translate into actionable follow up. It shows you a zoomed out view customer satisfaction while also giving you individual feedback that allows you to identify pain points in a specific process.
Keep in Mind
This survey only captures the customer’s mood in the short-term. And depending on how many questions you include, some “neutral” or “dissatisfied” customers may not feel the need to fill out the rest of the survey.
CES | Customer Effort Score
The Customer Effort Score measures a user’s experience with a specific product or service. Using a seven-point scale, customers indicate whether their experience was “very difficult,” “very easy,” or somewhere in between. The purpose is to determine how much effort the user needs to use a product or fulfill a service, and more importantly, if they’ll continue to pay for it.
These surveys are commonly prompted:
- After an interaction with support
- After an interaction with your product or service
- After an action or conversion has been made (purchase, subscription, review, etc.)
- Whenever you want to check in with customers regarding a specific product, service, or action.
For example, you might’ve been hit with a confirmation after completing an online order that asks “How easy was it to complete your order?”
Put a Number on It
Scoring for effort is pretty straightforward. Since responses have numeric value, the higher the score the better the user experience. As a baseline, responses of five or more are generally pretty good scores.
Why It Works
This score is a great indication of whether or not users will take action or make a purchase from you again.
Keep in Mind
There’s not much to this survey and doesn’t allow for customer segmentation like the NPS does. It also doesn’t offer a lot of feedback that you can use to improve. You just know you need to improve. With that in mind, you may need to do some follow up with any individuals who didn’t have a positive response. But that’s just another reason to engage with customers!
Engaging with customers is such an important aspect of marketing, and business in general. It can often be the most difficult with countless follow ups after a conference, trying to engage on social media with a conversational post, sending out routine email campaigns, and the list goes on. For marketers, with consumer behaviors changing, think of yourself as a consumer. Ask yourself – “What would make me more likely to respond to a survey?” “What brands am I loyal to and why?” “What aspects of a brand do I value most?” Let this inform your goals and how you implement tasks. Let Sevaa Group help you reach those goals.
