Often clients are excited to have met their NPS target which, of course should be celebrated. However, the limitation of focussing on the score alone is that you may still have problem areas; or areas where further improvements can be made; or it may be masking inconsistencies across your network.
How do I know what my issues are?
By looking beyond the score, we can learn so much more. Consider two hypothetical outlets. They have the same NPS but very different challenges:
Outlet 1 are making very few ‘mistakes’, however there's a chance the ‘wow’ factor is missing. This suggests that while there are a small number of process failures, from here most improvements will be in the 1% adjustments i.e. the tweaks that surprise and delight customers.
In contrast, outlet 2 has a stronger customer experience most of the time, however they are also making more mistakes. In this situation the first step to further improvement is to identify ‘mistakes’ and look for ways to resolve these.
Looking beyond the score immediately gives us insight into the improvements required to drive a greater customer experience.
What can I do to improve?
This is where looking beyond the score really becomes powerful. Good NPS programs typically ask more than just the NPS question, even if it’s a relatively simple follow on open ended ‘verbatim’ asking the customer why they gave a particular rating.
By analysing the answers to other survey questions by NPS group you’ll easily start seeing patterns and you move from a 'benchmarking' program to an 'actionable' program. For example:
- Looking at verbatim responses amongst Promoters to identify the ‘gold nuggets’ i.e. where you’re surprising and delighting customers. These can be both celebrated as wins, and used as ideas to continue momentum.
- Looking at responses to other questions amongst detractors – to identify service failures.
While the NPS score itself certainly serves its purpose and should not be overlooked, to drive true improvement in customer experience you’ll need to look beyond the score – that’s where the magic is.
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Find out more about Customer Experience Management.
