Many companies utilize Net Promoter Score to analyze their customer base. If you’re not familiar with Net Promoter Score, it’s very simple. By asking customers one simple question – How likely would you be to recommend this company to a friend or family member – and using a 10-point rating scale, customers can easily be grouped into three categories:
1. Promoters: these customers are typically rating this question at a 9 or 10, meaning that they are loyal fans of your brand. These customers are most likely to spread the word, refer your company, and keep coming back.
2. Passives: customers in this group often give ratings of 7 or 8 when asked this question. They may be customers who return on a regular basis, but they’re not tried and true customers. Something is keeping them from becoming true fans and can be swayed to do business with your competition.
3. Detractors: these are worrisome customers, as they will typically rate this question with a 6 or below. They have been dissatisfied in some way and their negative word of mouth may hurt your business.
We’ve seen this type of question asked of customers in feedback programs, as well as on mystery shopping reports. However, many marketers are starting to realize that this data can also be gleaned from social media research.
Incorporating data collected in social media can be helpful in measuring and monitoring your Net Promoter Score. Most programs offer a sentiment rating for each piece of conversation collected. While sentiment is not always 100% accurate when done automatically, manual investigation can be a valuable time expenditure.
Social media conversations are unstructured, and people tend to be more honest when sharing thoughts and feedback with friends and family than they might be on a customer feedback survey. This is a great opportunity to find honest feedback and incorporate it into your Net Promoter Score. To improve your numbers, there are some things you can do using social media:
1. Seek out those who are in the passive group and find out what might turn them into Promoters. Are there customer service issues or policies that need to be changed? Are your product offerings lacking in some way? By finding these customers online, you can learn more about their likes and dislikes and turn them into superfans.
2. Do some competitive intelligence. By researching what customers are saying about your competition, you’ll get insight into what customers want and need from you. In the same vein, research your passive customers using social media as well – what sites do they frequent? Do they talk about your competitors? If so, what do they like more about your competitors? Take time to analyze the information and you may find the key to turning the passives into promoters.
3. Compare your Net Promoter Score from traditional methods to that of your social media sentiment. Often times results from customer feedback surveys will be from the two polar opposites – super fans and those who are extremely dissatisfied. Incorporating social media data and gauging sentiment will let you know if your Net Promoter Score is an accurate representation of your customer base.
It’s not foolproof and not a be-all-end-all indicator of customer satisfaction, but being aware of your Net Promoter Score is important. Using social media conversations to complement your NPS collection methodology can increase your odds of accuracy and help you gain the insight needed to ensure that your customers keep returning and spread the word about your business.
