How to respond to a weak or falling NPS®*?

The NPS®* or Net Promoter Score is an indicator used by companies across all sectors to assess customer satisfaction and loyalty. But analysing the results and knowing how to react according to the score you achieve is not always intuitive, especially if you discover a low or falling NPS…

What is a good NPS score? When to worry?

There is no good NPS®* per se. Depending on your sector of activity, the country or region in which you operate, and many other factors, your NPS®* score can vary twofold. Annual benchmarks can give you an indication of the score generally achieved by your competitors, but it should under no circumstances serve as your goal.

The NPS®* is, instead, an indicator which should be tracked internally, over time. Your goal should be to improve it continuously, regardless of the score obtained in your first customer survey.

A declining score, or more precisely an increase in the number of detractors or decrease of the amount of promoters should be more alarming than the number in itself.

The score should nevertheless remain positive; a negative score meaning a greater number of detractors than promoters.

How should you react to a falling NPS®*?

If your NPS®* score has fallen significantly, these checks may be carried out:

1. Analyse the number or promoters and detractors

Start by monitoring changes in the percentage of your promoters and detractors. As the Net Promoter Score is obtained from a simple substraction between promoters and detractors, you will achieve the same NPS®* score whether you have 60% of promoters and 35% of detractors (NPS = 25) or 35% of detractors and 27% of promoters (NPS=25). As long as your overall score is positive, a falling NPS®* score may not be that alarming!

2. Check the frequency of your NPS®* surveys

Have you surveyed enough customers and with sufficient frequency so that your results are accurate? We recommend systematically evaluating your customers’ satisfaction (and thus their NPS®*) after a purchase in order to achieve better representativeness of the results. 

It should also be noted that a customer who leaves a low NPS®* score is less likely to abandon your store for the competition than a customer who has not responded at all.

3. Engage in competitive intelligence

Have your competitors developed new services? Opened new stores? Implemented a new communication strategy? Competitive intelligence will help you determine whether your competitors may be responsible for your customers’ falling loyalty rates or whether it is instead an internal problem.

4. Analyse customer feedback

If your NPS®* question is accompanied by an open-ended question, analysing your customers’ feedback should help you determine the main reasons for their dissatisfaction and to quickly implement action plans to improve the customer experience.

Depending on each customers’ category (promoter, detractor, passive customer), their feedback will contain different information :

Promoters: score between 8 and 10

Promoters are the customers the most likely to be loyal and to recommend your brand to their friends and family. In their comments, they inform you of your strengths and highlight everything that sets you apart from your competitors.