Your NPS research: do you send reminders or not?

The Net Promoter Score®– abbreviated NPS®– provides an easy way to measure the customer loyalty of your company or organization. How proactive are you when asking customers to take part in a NPS research?

The Net Promoter Score®– abbreviated NPS®– provides an easy way to measure the customer loyalty of your company or organization. How proactive are you when asking customers to take part in a NPS research?

Do you send only one invitation? Do you remind customers about this invitation? And if so, with what frequency do your customers experience these reminders as junk? Our experience with NPS tells us: If you stalk customers you create the opposite effect.

1. Two times ‘no’ is really a wholeheartedly ‘no’
   Our advice is not to send more than 1 reminder. There is a risk that some customers didn’t notice a first invitation, or they haven’t had any time due to a busy schedule, or they are occupied by everyday humdrum issues.

If you still hear nothing after this first reminder, the chances of cooperation are minimal. You must respect this decision. You would not find it pleasant either if companies were chasing you to complete the questions of a short NPS research. Avoid a situation where customers experience your reminders as spam.

2. Reminders are necessary for the correct score
   There is a correlation between sending or not sending reminders, and the score. Want a high score? Please send no reminder. Do you prefer a real score? Then do send a reminder.

Research shows that 60% of respondents – the so-called Promoters – react quickly on the first invitation. The group that does not respond – the Detractors – is 10%. If you only focus on the Promoters, then it makes sense that the NPS score is relatively high.

‘Tables’ below illustrate this.

Realistic reflection
It is important to remind customers who do not respond immediately, in order to ‘persuade’ them to provide their response. This will affect the relation ratio between Promoters (10%) and Detractors (50%).

The extra opinions in the results you get will give a lower NPS score, but it better reflects the ‘ loyalty-temperature’. In practice it is hard to get an answer from each customer, so there is a chance that these percentages have slightly less deviations.

Research Focus Feedback users
From a survey we did of our relationships that use Focus Feedback, it also shows that the NPS score is much higher if we only measure the reactions from the ‘first responders ‘. This score decreases after the first reminder with sometimes as much as 40 to 50%. On the other hand, you have more management information to grow the enthusiasm of your relationships. And that what it is all about.

How do you get more respondents?
The higher the response rate is, the more reliable your research is. That is a fact. It would be great if you have a rate of 70%. Is the percentage lower and you want to increase the number of comments? Then reap the benefits of the next tried and tested tips:

Send personal invitations:
Impersonal invitations from a standard mail address are more likely to end up in the digital Recycle Bin.

Prepare a short survey:
Customers who decide to respond do not want to spend too much time filling out a questionnaire. The NPS® methodology is perfect in terms of length and time investment.

Give  feedback:
Customers appreciate it when you address their comments. They get the feeling that you are really listening. Moreover, you increase their willingness to participate in a future survey.

More information or do you want to make an appointment?
Would you like to know more about the use of the Net Promoter Score(NPS) to measure the loyalty of your customers? We will give you a full explanation of the ins and outs of this proven methodology. Interested?

Call (+31) 13 571 88 44 to make an appointment.

Dave Wurms