How you can use NPS to turbo drive your customer experience…

When Edible Blooms was first introduced to the NPS (Net Promoter Score) scoring system in 2012, I didn’t anticipate the huge impact that the data would have on our business years down the track. 

Just in case the concept of NPS is new to you, here’s a really quick run down of how this benchmark works (for further info, visit www.netpromoter.com): 

NPS measures customer experience and is globally trusted as an indicator to predict future business growth.  In a nutshell, it scores you out of 10 on how likely your customers would be ‘happy to recommend (your company) to their family and friends’: 
 
                     
 

Using a simple Subtracting the percentage of Detractors (score 0-6) from the percentage of Promoters (score 9-10) yields the Net Promoter Score, which can range from a low of -100 (if every customer is a Detractor) to a high of 100 (if every customer is a Promoter).  Note that a score of 7 or 8 doesn’t even rate in the process.  These customers are ambivalent to your brand.

Key to measuring your performance is to recognize that all industries are different.  For example, it is not uncommon to score a less than 0 (ie a negative score) for utility companies.  Initially it’s important to improve your own personal best NPS result, but in the long term you strive for best in your industry.  Here’s a guide to how NPS scores vary across different sectors:

Source : https://www.netpromoter.com/compare/

It’s an easy system to use.  At Edible Blooms, we send the NPS survey question to all customers using a scheduled email delivered 2 days after the customers requested delivery date.   It has given us outstanding information to continually improve our business, processes and product development. 

When we first started measuring our NPS score we achieved a national result of 72.  This was a great score (our industry benchmark is 58), however we knew we could do better.  Initially we set ourselves a target of 75.  Month on month, beating our best score is a badge of pride for our entire team.  Now in 2016, each of our stores aim for a minimum score of 80 each month to hit their KPI targets and recently we have been scoring above 85.

Here’s how we have turbo charged our customer experience using NPS:

1. Less is more

Keep the survey simple to get a high customer engagement.  Customers are time poor so the last thing you should do is embed the NPS questionnaire within a long customer survey.  For example, our automated email asks the NPS question and leaves an open text box for customers to provide any other feedback that they wish to share.   

The simple format and ability for customers to quickly respond means that we receive a 25% engagement from all customer orders.  Importantly, this monthly volume of data enables us to create an NPS score for each of our store locations and a blended national score each month.  This qualitative information we receive in the open text box below the NPS score is key to quickly addressing any customer issues and it’s a valuable source of customer endorsements that we actively use on our site.  Check them out here: http://www.edibleblooms.com.au/testimonials/

2. Start by listening 

Listening to customer experiences and taking ownership for any issues encountered, even if it’s a third party provider such as your delivery company, has been key for our continued score improvement.   No-one is perfect, as much as we try, and the NPS feedback encourages customers to contact us first if they have had an issue, rather than reverting to social media channels.   If a customer feels like they are being listened to, it’s possible to turn a brand detractor into a brand promoter. 

3. Share the results with your team

NPS results, and the qualitative information we receive following customer scores are shared with our entire team in the first week of each month.   In particular we highlight the positive responses which makes everyone feel great about the joy they have helped to spread for our customers. 

When a customer issue arises, we get the team involved in creating the solution.  This helps to highlight an issue so that we can reduce the risk of it happening again.  We also tell our customer that our team have been involved in the solution as it shows that we genuinely care about the outcome.

4. Action

 Every customer feels valued when they know that their feedback has been listened to and followed through with an action.  Since 2012 when we started measuring our NPS results, we have had an increased volume of customer feedback to follow up but it has been worth the investment.  Every single customer that scores us 6 or below is contacted personally with a telephone call to follow up.  

Culturally in our business, the NPS score is embedded into the way we do things at Edible Blooms.  Ultimately this consistent approach to ensure our customer experience delights at every level has paid a huge dividend to the long term success of our business.