CX Redefined #09

A deep dive into NPS and a tweet to reflect on

Welcome to the August edition of "CX Redefined," the holy guide to customer experience. This newsletter is your ultimate resource for customer support, success, and field facing teams. Each edition is carefully curated to provide you with the best articles and insights, ensuring you stay at the forefront of the rapidly evolving world of customer experience. Join us as we redefine CX and equip you with the knowledge and tools needed to deliver exceptional customer experience.

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

---

In today’s edition, we have for you

• From author’s table - Debunking NPS myths

• An tweet on how to design your marketing team

From the desk of author

Debunking NPS Myths: Why Some Businesses Are Wrong About Customer Satisfaction

We've all been there, bombarded with surveys after every single interaction we have with a customer support team, asking us how likely we are to recommend their company to others.

Yep, that's the Net Promoter Score (NPS) in action. But I'm not here to bore you with the nitty-gritty details of what NPS is all about, because let's face it, most of us already have a pretty good grasp of it. What I want to talk about is debunk some of the myths around NPS in the article today.

NPS, if not properly understood and applied, it can lead to disastrous outcomes.

In my previous company, there was a misguided attempt to directly link NPS scores to frontline employees. This approach, while well-intentioned, backfired as employees became more focused on their scores rather than on improving their customer service skills. It became a numbers game, with little regard for the actual customer experience.

I have seen some firms love to showcase their impressive NPS scores to investors without disclosing the methodology behind them. This lack of transparency can lead to unethical behaviours such as employees begging for high ratings to avoid job loss, offering incentives to customers in exchange for top scores, or even selectively sending surveys to less critical customers.

So, lets dive in into what NPS is not.

Myth 1: NPS is the ultimate measure of customer satisfaction

When it comes to understanding the implications of NPS (Net Promoter Score), there's a lot more to it than meets the eye. Simply looking at the NPS score itself might not give your operations team a clear direction on what steps to take next. The responses you receive could be all over the place, without any explanation or context. It can feel like you're searching for a needle in a haystack.

However, if you take the time to follow up with additional questions, you unlock a treasure trove of invaluable information. By digging deeper and asking relevant questions, you gain access to detailed and actionable insights that can propel your business forward. These follow-up questions allow you to better understand why customers gave the scores they did and uncover the underlying reasons behind their responses.

In an organisation where I previously worked, we gave them the opportunity to provide us with open-ended feedback, either through a free text field or through outbound calls. This allowed them to express their thoughts and concerns freely. After collecting this feedback, we noticed some common complaints, which prompted us to make further improvements. We introduced a two level structured form that offers customers the option to select from a list of predefined choices or provide free text feedback.

However, it is important that you understand the importance of avoiding bias when designing these choices. We wanted to make sure that our customers' answers were not influenced by the options we provided. To address this, we decided to divide the questions based on the customer journey. Instead of suggesting potential reasons, we focused on asking them to identify the specific part of the journey that caused the problem. This way, we ensured that their responses were genuine and unbiased. Additionally, once they selected a specific part, we delved deeper into that particular aspect with secondary questions.

A few examples could be

• The customer service agent promised a callback, but I did not get any

• The issue was closed without providing a valid resolution

Myth 2: NPS is a one-size-fits-all metric

Every industry has its own unique set of challenges and customer expectations. This means that NPS benchmarks, or the measure of customer satisfaction, can vary widely across different sectors. For example, a high NPS score in the retail industry may not necessarily guarantee success in sectors like healthcare or technology. So, it's important not to compare your NPS with others. Instead, focus on where your NPS currently stands and take actionable steps to improve it. It's worth noting that the NPS number you receive is greatly influenced by how you measure it, down to even the colors used in the NPS scale.

However, there are cases where organizations may feel the need to compare their NPS with others, especially if their leaders don't quite understand the concept of NPS. They may want to compare their NPS with well-known companies like Amazon or Apple, hoping to reach the same level of success. In such situations, it becomes necessary to educate and convince the leaders about the fallacy of this thinking. One way to do this is to experiment with different methods of measuring NPS and demonstrate how the numbers can vary significantly based on the approach used.

Ultimately, the goal is to help leaders understand that NPS should be viewed as a unique measurement for their specific organization, rather than a comparative tool. By embracing this mindset, companies can focus on improving their own customer satisfaction levels and creating a positive impact within their industry.

Myth 3: Improving NPS is the only way to enhance customer satisfaction

While improving NPS is undoubtedly crucial, solely focusing efforts on enhancing this metric limits the potential to enhance overall customer satisfaction.

There are numerous smaller touchpoints that contribute to the overall customer experience and satisfaction. These touchpoints are often overlooked when businesses overemphasise NPS.

For instance, consider the efficiency of the customer support team. While a high NPS might indicate that most customers are satisfied with the product or service, it doesn't necessarily mean that the implementation team was responsive and helpful.

Similarly, other areas like the ease of website navigation, the clarity of product descriptions, or the speed of delivery can greatly impact the overall customer satisfaction, even if they are not directly linked to the NPS or can be overlooked in the grand vision of going after NPS.

To ensure maximum customer satisfaction, businesses should adopt a holistic approach the gathers feedback for smaller interactions in a focussed way once the broader feedback is gathered using NPS.

In conclusion, it's important to debunk the myths surrounding NPS to truly leverage its potential and improve customer satisfaction. NPS is not the ultimate measure of customer satisfaction, but rather a starting point for deeper understanding.

A tweet

A food for thought around NPS

---

I would love your feedback on the newsletter. Feel free to reply to the email. I will acknowledge each one of your emails.

Subscribe if you liked the content

and don’t forget to share it with your friends.