Gallup recommends a 3 question version. Net promoter, how likely are you to keep using services in the future and overall happiness. I like that balance. Happy doesn't matter unless you will keep buying. Keeping buying doesn't matter if the reason you are only one providing, but customer actually not happy, etc.
That does sound like a nice balance, but there's also value in having a single number. We noticed this going to our current two question system.
For example, with only one question, you can get anyone to rate at any time with a single click of a link (e.g. in an email). As soon as you have more than one question, customers have to visit a form with multiple fields and click a submit button.
This may not sound like a big deal, but it is. Also, having a single, easy to understand number helps us engrain the NPS in everything we do. Everyone on our team knows our NPS. Our experts even have their own NPS. They can recite each others' most recent scores. It's not easy to get an obscure metric like NPS engrained into everything like that.
That said, I do particularly like the question about repeat custom. We can measure it from our data, but intent to repeat sounds interesting.
Great article Todd! Thank you for sharing your experience. Would be good to hear more about how you engaged with your customers post-survey which is one of the most important aspects of Net Promoter. Driving to that direct engagement (to either ask for referrals/recommendations from Promoters or recover Detractors).
We're very excited to have recently launched Promoter.io (www.promoter.io), a platform built specifically to help companies not only measure and track their NPS, but drive more valuable/actionable insights out of the data and open-ended feedback. We also heavily streamline the process of customer engagement post-survey.
We don't allow customers to change (or "break") the survey. Standard single question with an open-ended follow-up about the score.
One important aspect to keep in mind about Net Promoter is that you're attempting to identify what is causing the most loyal customers to feel that strongly about your brand, and who WOULD (not just who is) recommend/refer your brand. Once you know who would you can directly engage those Promoters to drive referral business you might otherwise never see. It's there.
It's interesting you mention this because a lot of typical SaaS metrics don't apply to us. Or at least they're not primary concerns. In many cases we try to minimize user engagement. Engagement is time and time is money.
Similarly, when we talk about NPS to SaaS founders, they seem less interested (for good reasons I imagine). But NPS still does seem quite universal.
Hi mtrimpe, we measure NPS for exactly this reason, to find out how well we're delivering exceptional value and a memorable experience. The NPS absolutely does take dissatisfied customers into account. Dissatisfied customers are some of the quickest to rate :)
In your specific case, it's likely you chose the option for the experts to do everything they can to help you save. The challenge of our business is that some people want more trickery, then some like you want less trickery. It's our job to segment customers early, understand what each wants, then provide the right result. We've made a lot of improvement with this.
For example, you mentioned a few things that don't exist anymore:
- We do not have contests
- We do not have winners
- Experts also do support
We made a lot of these changes to make sure customers like you receive a more personalized service. We realized this is the key to creating consistent value. You can read about those changes here: https://flightfox.com/business/why-we-abandoned-crowdsourcin...
