Every business needs to grasp the importance of building strategies to increase sales. It may seem easy, but achieving it in various ways can be challenging. With customer expectations constantly evolving, it’s vital to step up your game.
Net promoter score (NPS) is one nifty way to boost sales and streamline your sales and prospect process if you use it right. Even better, it can help you retain customers and increase conversions.
In this blog, you will understand the following:
- Understanding NPS and its value in boosting sales
- Using NPS to improve customer experience and increase sales
- A real-Life example of how NPS impacted sales through customer satisfaction
- Leveraging NPS to identify high-value customers
- Integrating NPS into your sales process
- Challenges small businesses face when using NPS
- NPS best practices for small business
Understanding NPS and its value in boosting sales
Image from Retently
Developed by Bain and Company, NPS became a well-received strategy by different businesses. It helps gather customer perception with one question:
“What are the chances you will recommend [Organization X/Product Y/Service Z] to a friend?”
Imagine the impact of recommending a product or service with a rating from 0 to 10. Those scoring 9 or 10 are your Promoters – the loyal advocates who passionately endorse your brand to everyone they know.
On the other hand, Passives with scores of 7 or 8 may be content but not enthusiastic enough to spread the word. Lastly, Detractors, scoring 0 to 6, are unlikely to return and might even discourage others.
The power of NPS in boosting sales is undeniable. Your devoted Promoters will naturally promote your brand through social media, generating significant buzz and reach. With consistent, engaging content, your brand gains awareness, ultimately leading to more prospective purchases.
Image from Survicate
Look at the graph above from Survicate, which revealed the NPS results of different industry leaders. As you can see, Starbucks is one of the leading brands, with an NPS of 77.
Starbucks continuously gained more sales and customers over the years. Its global revenue from April 2022 to March 2023 was a whopping $34 billion, with a year-over-year increase of 8.52%. And with its strong social media presence, Starbucks undoubtedly established its mark in the market.
Using NPS data to improve customer experience and increase sales
NPS data is like a treasure trove of insights that can help businesses take their customer experience to the next level. Companies can gain a deeper understanding of what their customers truly want by carefully analyzing the feedback and scores from Promoters, Passives, and Detractors.
Spotting pain points
NPS surveys often have open-ended questions that let customers share their concerns and frustrations. By paying close attention to the feedback from Detractors and Passives, businesses can pinpoint recurring pain points and areas that need some TLC.
Discovering opportunities
On the bright side, Promoters leave valuable feedback about what they love. This feedback can uncover unique selling points and strengths that make the business shine.
Benchmarking progress
Keeping track of NPS scores over time and comparing them to industry standards helps businesses see how they’re doing compared to others. It’s like having a roadmap to set goals and keep improving.
Tailoring the experience
NPS data allows businesses to group customers based on loyalty levels. By understanding each group’s preferences, they can personalize communication and offerings, making customers feel special and appreciated.
Turning things around
Responding to customer feedback, especially from Detractors, can work wonders. Reaching out to unsatisfied customers and addressing their concerns shows that the company cares and is committed to making things right.
A real-Life example of how NPS impacted sales through customer satisfaction
For this section, let us focus on the aviation or airline industry. We all know how this industry has been badly affected during the pandemic. Therefore, it became a challenge for them to gain back customers and boost their sales.
Image from Retently.
Since NPS prioritizes customer experience, airlines must put forth much effort to ensure a seamless travel experience, even under trying circumstances. The critical issues at this point were maintaining passenger safety, reducing face-to-face interaction, and doing everything online. Let’s take a look at Delta Airlines and how they were able to increase customer satisfaction with NPS.
Based on the North America Airline Satisfaction Study for 2021, Delta garnered an overall score of 860 out of 1000, getting the top spot in the rankings.
So how did Delta Airlines achieve this? Delta reached out to their customers through surveys and discovered that many have concerns over the air quality inside the cabin.
In response, the airline often ensured the changing of their air filters, even beyond scientific recommendation. On top of other added safety protocols, this proactive action resulted in Delta becoming the top US airline for pandemic response.
Delta continues to use NPS to improve customer satisfaction, and up to this day, the airline ranks as one of the top brands in travel and hospitality globally.
Implementing advanced airline software solutions can help carriers like Delta streamline operations, enhance customer experience, and improve NPS scores across various touchpoints.
Source: Comparably
Note: The NPS for Delta Airlines is 50, consisting of 67% promoters, 16% passives, and 17% detractors.
Leveraging NPS to identify high-value customers
One of the things you can do with your NPS is to identify your high-value customers. While it is best to understand how each customer responds to your brand, it’s also important to know which of them to focus on.
Customers who give high NPS scores, or your Promoters, are your most valuable assets. They love your product and are more likely to spread positive word-of-mouth, bringing in new customers.
Diving into the world of customer feedback, it’s easy to get lost in a sea of numbers. But here’s the thing: the best NPS tools aren’t just about crunching data. They’re your secret weapon for cracking the code of customer loyalty. Picture this: you’re not just collecting scores, you’re unearthing gold mines of insight. These tools are like having a heart-to-heart with every customer, minus the awkward small talk.
Here are some ways to identify these high-value customers:
Segmenting your customers
Start by segmenting your customer base based on their NPS scores. You should focus on the Promoters, as they have the most potential to drive sales and referrals.
Monitoring customer behavior
Keep an eye on the purchasing behavior of Promoters. Do they make frequent purchases or buy higher-priced products? Analyzing their actions can give you insights into their value.
Increasing engagement
Engage with your Promoters through surveys, emails, or personalized offers. Their responses and interactions can reveal their preferences, pain points, and what drives their loyalty.
Integrating NPS into your sales process
Detractors often make it difficult for businesses to cement a good reputation in the market. You may have noticed little to no sales for a particular week, making you wonder what could have gone wrong.
An essential component of a customer-centric marketing strategy is responding to client feedback. You may make your sales and marketing efforts more effective by incorporating new data into your plan, such as the findings in an NPS survey.
Collecting NPS data during sales interactions
Collect data during various sales interactions to get the most out of NPS. For instance, after completing a purchase or a sales call, send customers a short NPS survey via email or SMS. This approach will provide real-time feedback and insights into their buying experience.
Identifying sales performance patterns
As you gather NPS feedback, patterns may emerge that highlight strengths and weaknesses in your sales process. Analyze the comments from Detractors and Passives to understand their pain points and areas of dissatisfaction.
For example, after analyzing NPS responses, customers frequently praise your responsive customer support team (Promoters) but express frustration with delayed order processing (Detractors). This insight indicates an opportunity to improve order fulfilment speed.
Integrating NPS data with CRM
To maximize the impact of NPS, integrate the collected data with your customer relationship management (CRM) system. This connection will enable sales representatives to access customer NPS scores and comments directly, allowing them to tailor their interactions based on individual feedback.
One scenario would be when a sales representative contacts a customer with a low NPS score, and they can proactively address their concerns and offer solutions to improve their experience.
Turning promoters into brand advocates
Promoters are your loyal customers who are highly likely to recommend your brand. Leverage their advocacy by incorporating referral programs or loyalty rewards. You can tap into a powerful lead-generation source by encouraging Promoters to refer others.
Example: Offer Promoters a discount on their next purchase for every successful referral, incentivizing them to spread the word about your brand.
Continuous improvement through NPS
Integrating NPS into your sales process is not a one-time task. Regularly monitor NPS scores and feedback to track changes and improvements in customer satisfaction. Use this data to make data-driven decisions that enhance your sales strategies.
Let’s say after six months of implementing NPS integration, and you compare the NPS scores to the previous period. If there’s a significant increase, identify the changes in your sales process that contributed to this improvement and replicate those strategies.
Tracking NPS
Lastly, monitoring NPS is crucial because it’s a globally recognized metric that makes it easy to benchmark against industry averages. Use it accordingly to improve your brand’s sales strategy.
For instance, a business offering online accounting programs can benefit from monitoring NPS by gaining insights into improving its curriculum regularly and adapting to trends. This way, the business can ensure that they offer competitive courses and user-friendly interfaces all throughout.
Challenges small businesses face when using NPS
NPS surveys are a good strategy for customer retention. However, for small businesses, they could prove to be a challenge.
One common challenge among startups is the low response rate. There may only be a few respondents since the brand still needs to be more significant. Also, the number of customers may need to be more stable as the business is in the brand awareness stage.
When analyzing the data, it may be hard to calculate the accuracy because there are only a few respondents.
Another common problem is the delivery of NPS surveys. Different customers have different preferences, so it is a challenge to determine which medium you will use. As a brand aiming to capture more leads and sales, ensuring you provide a good experience to them could be a burden.
NPS best practices for small businesses
NPS has proven its importance and impact on any business. Here are some essential best practices that small businesses can follow:
Watch out for the right timing
Assuming that you are a startup brand. You started promoting your brand early this year and have a few promoters on board. Always remember that NPS tracks the overall feedback of the customer to your brand.
Think about how this survey depends on your goals, your industry type, and the kind of customers you have. Perform specific actions that will lead to an NPS survey question. Plan the timing carefully to avoid losing customers.
Ensure that there will be regular intervals when sending out NPS surveys. Frequent monitoring matters as it can make or break your brand.
Communicate regularly with your customers
The feeling of being valued matters most to customers. They trust your brand even more when they know that you value their opinions. Communicate to them everything that needs to be addressed to ensure understanding.
It is critical, especially since it affects their review of your service or product. Assure them that you are doing your best to resolve it in the quickest way possible.
Customize NPS surveys
Although NPS has one goal for every business, it is not a one-size-fits-all template. Different industries require different sets of survey questions. Startup business sales don’t happen instantly. You must understand your customers’ needs to customize them.
Use the subject lines that perform best when customizing your NPS surveys. Make sure the email’s topic will entice the recipient to go through and answer the questions.
Boost your sales through NPS today
Learning about NPS can make or break your business. It is necessary to let you see what people think about your service or product.
Strategizing when to deliver NPS surveys must be well-thought-out. Give it a few days and let your customers think about what they experienced with your brand. Sending it out too soon may only be a reason for losing sales.
If practiced well, NPS is a reliable tool to boost your sales. No matter what industry you are in, carefully plan your strategy when using NPS. It can give out positive results and exponential growth to your business.
Make it a habit to communicate clearly with your customers, too. Assure them that you are working on giving them the best experience. Most importantly, keep track of areas requiring more attention based on your NPS data.