Most companies are overly focused on growing customers and growing profits. However, it is very important to understand the fact that it is like fishing with a holey net. It seems that you managed to "catch" a lot of fish, but as a result you are left with nothing.

Customer retention is not the goal, but consumer loyalty to the company is. The problem is that this indicator is very difficult to measure, as it is not quantitative. Fortunately, there is a blueprint to help you meet customer needs and build long-term, rewarding relationships with them. In addition, you will be able to predict their loyalty to your brand.

This article will focus on the basic concepts associated with such an indicator as the consumer loyalty index (NPS, Net Promoter Score). You'll learn how a simple one-question survey can help you measure your customer satisfaction. You will learn how to start using and further apply this indicator in your marketing campaigns.

Loyalty measurement methodology

The founder of the NPS measurement methodology is Frederik Reicheld. His research was published in the Harvard Business Review in an article titled "One Number You need to Grow." In it, Reicheld criticized traditional customer satisfaction surveys. He said that all of them do not allow "to keep abreast" and assess how happy the buyers are.

As a result, Reicheld and his colleagues developed a simplified schema that linked consumer responses and behavior.

At the heart of measuring the consumer loyalty index is the belief that loyalty is nothing more than a person’s willingness to contact a company again and, more importantly, recommend a product or company to their friends. This indicator is determined very simply. We will talk about this now.

How to conduct a survey

So, NPS is an index that measures the desire of a consumer to recommend your company's products or services to their friends. To calculate it, you need to ask customers two questions:

1. On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to recommend a product (service) of our company to your friends or colleagues?
2. What exactly influenced your answer?

Next, you need to create a survey and send it to your customers. Typically, such questionnaires are sent by e-mail, via SMS, offered in the form or asked by phone. Ideally, the survey should be completed in less than 24 hours.

Once your clients have answered both questions, you will need to divide them into the following categories based on their rating:

• 9-10: Brand Adherents (Promoters). They value your company's products and tend to recommend them to their friends and associates. They also often make repeat purchases. These customers are the most valuable.
• 7-8: Neutral consumers (Passives). They do not spread negative reviews about your company, but if someone makes them a better offer, they will refuse your services. Such customers do not often recommend you to their friends.
• 0-6: Detractors. They are dissatisfied with the quality of your company's products or services and want to ruin your reputation by spreading negative reviews.

How to calculate NPS?

Based on the audience segmentation data (see previous section), the consumer loyalty index can be calculated using a simple formula:

NPS = (% Brand Adherents) - (% Critics)

The value you get will be between -100 and 100. If the consumer loyalty index is 100, this means that absolutely all of your customers are fans of your brand (most best script). If this indicator is equal to -100, then on the contrary, all your customers criticize you (worst case scenario).

Why is it worth tracking the consumer loyalty index?

Periodic tracking of the consumer loyalty index is necessary, since this indicator:

• easy to understand - this system is very easy to understand and adapt for your company;
• easy to calculate - the survey is very short, and your customers will be able to quickly and easily answer the proposed questions;
• gives feedback having practical value;
• helps to identify the target audience segment (if you combine the information received with);
• will allow you to develop a plan to improve products or services;
• will help build a “customer cult” in your company – each department will be aimed at building long and fruitful relationships with customers;
• Gives you a competitive advantage - insights from NPS analysis will allow you to make decisions quickly, while your competitors will have to spend several months on it;
• is available for any business - conducting such surveys will not greatly affect the budget, and you will be able to "keep your finger on the pulse" of consumer sentiment.

Using the NPS Score to Grow Your Company

1. Sustainable growth and customer retention

• Extensive research has shown that NPS is one of the top indicators of growth. If it is higher than that of competitors, this means that your company has a larger market share.
• According to a Gartner study, 65% of start-up companies already have a ready-made customer base. Attracting new customers costs 5 times more than retaining old ones. The Customer Loyalty Score is an affordable way to measure customer satisfaction and retention.
• NPS can be used as a growth metric to turn a company's current growth into sustainable growth.

2. Sales management

• The consumer satisfaction index can be used to make decisions about the company's product itself.
• NPS allows you to properly prioritize based on . They can get feedback very quickly and make changes to the marketing process.

3. Marketing

• Verizon research has shown that 85% of new customers come to small companies thanks to. Keeping your NPS high will help you reach more customers without spending money on advertising and marketing campaigns.
• The Consumer Loyalty Index helps marketers measure customer sentiment and opinions and then provide feedback to all team members. Thus, all departments of the company will be able to work more harmoniously in order to achieve one common goal - customer satisfaction.
• NPS, combined with analytics tools, can help you predict consumer behavior and create so-called behavioral patterns.

4. Employee potential management

• A customer loyalty score can help you determine the satisfaction level of your employees. This is especially important for companies operating in the service sector.
• NPS can also be used to select a new vector corporate culture. In addition, with the help of this indicator, you can find out the opinion of your employees about the new corporate policy.

5. General KPIs and reporting

• You can use NPS as the only customer satisfaction metric. To do this, the indicator must be measured by permanent basis and make quarterly reports. This will help you get meaningful insights and build a long-term plan for the development of the company.
• If you link NPS with financial statements, then you can draw a conclusion about the general state of development of the company. For example, if profits are growing and NPS is declining, then this is an alarming sign regarding the long-term development prospects.

6. Benefits of the consumer loyalty index

• Increasing profits per customer: Brand loyalists tend to spend more on the company's products and services than the average customer.
• Reducing ongoing costs: Brand adherents are tolerant and tolerant of problems that arise in the company, so they are less likely to complain. This helps to reduce maintenance costs. In addition, loyal customers decrease as they spread positive feedback.
• Churn reduction: By reducing the number of neutral customers and critics, you can reduce customer churn.
• Motivation for employees: all departments of the company will work together to achieve a common goal.

Increasing customer lifecycle value

Only 14% of customers stop using the company's services because they are not satisfied with the quality of service or the product itself. 69% of consumers stop using a company because they feel like they've been forgotten.

Most dissatisfied customers will never come to complain directly. They will just leave silently and then start leaving negative reviews online. That’s why it’s so important to keep “connected” with your customers all the time.

Continuous measurement of NPS will allow you to identify those customers who:

• are going to refuse the services of the company;
• ready to act as “advocates” of the brand;
• see any shortcomings in your product or services, but do not talk about them.

With this valuable information, you can prevent.

When to conduct a survey?

Often, the effectiveness of an NPS campaign is not about how you ask questions, but when you ask them. Here are a few "right things":

1. After the potential client has used the free test period (Post Free Trial). If the trial period has expired and the customer does not want to purchase the paid version, then this is an indication that he is interested, but not yet sufficiently involved in the purchase process. Why not ask him to give you feedback to find out what went wrong.

2. Before the client finally refuses the services of the company (Exit Survey). The price is a repulsive factor for a person only when he does not see the value of the product. If a client decides to break off their relationship with a company after having already used their services for a while, this means that you are doing something wrong. Instead of just letting him go, you can re-engage him by asking him to take a survey. Even if that client leaves anyway, you can learn valuable insights.

Criteria for evaluating the consumer loyalty index

You can't draw objective conclusions just by looking at your customer loyalty score. It is necessary to take into account the position of the company in the chosen business area. For example, NPS big store may be 30, but it will still be the worst on the market. At the same time, the telecommunications company's NPS will be 32, and it will be the leader among competitors.

What factors influence the NPS evaluation criteria? How do you know if your customer loyalty score is good? First of all, there are three factors that affect the criteria for evaluating the consumer loyalty index:

1. Level of competition

If you are in a highly competitive industry such as insurance, banking, or medical service, then the average NPS indicator will be considered normal. But if your company only covers a small segment of the market (such as electric cars or wireless headphones), then you need to make sure that your NPS is high enough. This will be an indicator that your offer is unique and that your customers perceive your brand positively.

Optimal NPS indicators for different business areas: banking (0), auto insurance (22), health and life insurance (27), airlines (36), tourism (38), hotels (43), online shopping (45), Internet -services (48).

2. Tolerance

Customer tolerance is another key factor, which defines the NPS evaluation criteria. This is due to the fact that people are peremptory about how good the product or service they use regularly is.

To visualize how this factor affects NPS, you need to give an example. Verizon's Consumer Loyalty Index is 38, which may seem like a very average value, but this company occupies one of the leading positions in the market. By comparison, their competitors (AT&T and MediaCom) have scores of 15 and 22. This low score is not due to the company's lack of quality service. This means that these firms operate in a highly competitive environment where customers are absolutely unwilling to tolerate even minor "errors" in the quality of service.

3. Obstacles

Usually, a person cannot afford to improve ("upgrade") the purchased product or start using the services of another company without certain financial losses. Thus, in order to appear consistent in their decisions, the client prefers to remain committed to the same brand.

SaaS companies face this problem all the time. To become a client of one of these firms, you need to deposit a certain amount, so it is very difficult for a business to retain its customers and maintain their loyalty. In this regard, the NPS indicator of SaaS companies is kept at “below average” levels.

What is considered a good indicator of NPS?

So, there is no quantitative indicator that can be called good, since this value varies depending on what kind of business you are in. But there are a few questions that you can ask yourself to understand how high your consumer loyalty index is:

1. Is my NPS higher than my direct competitors? If yes, then this is a good indicator. However, this is not enough to consider your business successful.
2. Is my NPS going up? If after 3-6 months the consumer loyalty index has grown, then this is a good indicator.
3. Is my NPS above zero? If your NPS is -50, which is higher than your competitors, then don't jump to conclusions. Such a low NPS is a sign that your customers are not satisfied.

It must be remembered that the consumer loyalty index should not be taken literally. Most companies are simply obsessed with growth rates and do everything possible and impossible to make performance indicators grow. NPS is not a quantitative metric. It is rather a qualitative indicator that gives you food for thought.

In general, while NPS claims to be the new standard for measuring customer satisfaction and loyalty, it has been criticized for its simplicity. Some experts claim that the index does not give an accurate picture of how satisfied a company's customers are. For example, they highlight the fact that companies with the same NPS may have different percentages of adherents, neutral consumers, and critics. Therefore, entrepreneurs need to focus not on the indicator itself, but on what these numbers tell them.

What to do after measuring NPS

This section will summarize the goals of measuring the loyalty index and will also close the customer feedback loop. This inclusive strategy will give you consistent growth and keep track of customer churn.

1. Critics: Make a Personal Touch

According to a study by Lee Resources, 70% of clients are ready to use the services of the company again if an unpleasant situation is resolved in their favor. Your goal here is to show your customers that you care.

Most companies believe that the category of customers called "critics" is impossible to convince. However, this is not at all the case. In fact, those customers who want to end their relationship with the company and spread negative reviews are the future adherents of your brand. They just want you to pay attention to them and solve their problem.

Perhaps e-mails with questions about possible problems and how to solve them, for example:

• What would you like to do with our product but can't?
• Could you formulate an ideal solution to your problem that would completely satisfy you?
• If you had a magic wand, what changes would you make to the product?

Once you receive feedback, you can take the following actions to keep your customers:

• provide them with instructions (if your product has the desired function);
• extend the trial period and give access to premium features;
• offer any third-party service that would help solve their problem.

By offering solutions to problems, you can turn critics into brand followers.

2. Passive Consumers: Engage Before They Leave

Passive customers are a very interesting category of customers: they don't love your product, but they don't hate it either. It seems that they are just waiting for something good or bad to happen in order to make a specific decision.

However, passive consumers are not inclined to respond to open questions and give business owners feedback. For example, Zendesk found that only 37% of this customer category responded to a survey. While 50% of critics and 55% of the company's supporters share their opinion about the company's services with pleasure.

It seems like passive consumers can't ruin your brand's reputation. But they, like critics, are more likely to refuse your services. Here are the steps you can take to keep these customers:

• By offering discounts or upgrades, you can re-engage passive consumers in the buying cycle.
• Send them introductory user guides: they may not be involved in the purchase process due to an unfavorable first impression, as a result of which they never return to the site. You can periodically send them various brochures that tell them about the latest releases or new features of your product.

3. Brand Adherents: Show Your Appreciation

Brand loyalists are, without a doubt, the ideal customers for any company. But most firms take them for granted in vain. They make no attempt to reward or thank those clients who bring them the most income.

Undoubtedly, gratitude will help strengthen your relationship with this category of buyers, and will also contribute to the development of the company.
Here is what you can do for this:

According to statistics, the average share of people responding to an NPS survey is 60%. Thus, each company will have at least 40% of those customers who did not answer the questionnaire. Surprisingly, according to several studies, this category of customers is more likely than others to refuse the services of your company in the future.

In fact, you're more likely to re-engage a critic than you are to convince a customer who didn't take the survey. If no action is taken, then usually 40-70% of these people stop contacting the company within the next 6 months.

The only way to interest them is the methods described above. The same tactics are suitable for them as for critics and indifferent consumers.

Conclusion

Gathering information about how customers feel about your brand is an integral part of a long-term growth perspective. Of course, the consumer loyalty index has its drawbacks, but they can be overcome through the active implementation of effective metrics.

The customer loyalty index (NPS - Net Promoter Scope) has been successfully used by companies for more than 15 years. This is a fairly simple way to assess customer loyalty to the company.

NPS or Consumer Loyalty Index is a relatively young research method. The concept was pioneered by Frederick Reicheld, who published it in 2003 in the Harvard Business Review, calling the study One Number You Need to 'Grow'. In his study, the author insisted that in order to find out about the attitude of customers to the company, it is enough to ask just one question: “How likely are you to recommend the company/product/brand to your friends/colleagues?” After collecting and analyzing the answers, you can calculate the index, which consists of several steps:

1. Consumers are asked to rate on a scale of 1 to 10 the likelihood that they would recommend a company/product/brand to their friends/colleagues;

2. Based on the ratings received, all consumers are divided into three groups: Those who gave nine and ten points - "promoters", seven and eight points - "neutrals", six points and below - "critics";

3. The NPS index is calculated as the percentage difference between the number of "supporters" and "critics". The assessment range is from -100 to +100, where NPS 100 is the best scenario, in which all your customers are “supporters” of the brand, and NPS -100, respectively, is the worst.

It should be noted that in the West, loyalty studies are carried out with enviable regularity, unlike in Russia. For example, the global retail leader Amazon has an NPS of 61%, while electronics manufacturer Apple has an NPS of 89%*. Unfortunately, there are no consolidated data on the NPS indicators of Russian companies, and the study is not carried out often. In the summer of 2017, UBS Evidence Lab published figures for Russian retailers: of the 14 largest players, five have positive values. The highest NPS was received by "Lenta" - 7% and "Okay" - 3%. In the banking sector, Sberbank's loyalty reaches 59%, in telecommunications Tele2 has 35%, Megafon has 17%, and Beeline has 25%.

Nevertheless, despite the fact that the method has quite a few followers, NPS has 5 main problems, which we will consider in this article, and we will also offer solutions, knowing which and successfully applying in practice, you will be able to manage customer focus and service level .

Problem #1:NPSdoes not answer the question "Why?"

The first problem is that most companies stop at the stage of collecting NPS data. Suppose a company with a wide regional network of divisions has an NPS of 38%. When they get this data, they can say, “How wonderful, in the past year our score has increased from 32 to 38.” But at the same time, they will not find out the reasons why the index is moving (it should be noted that the movement can be in the opposite direction).

Therefore, the first thing to find out is why the company received this particular assessment, why the changes took place. Ask a series of questions, for example,

• Why did you give us this rating?
• Why did you choose 5?

Find out the reasons, and then dig even deeper, for example, using the philosophy of "Kaizen" (continuous improvement and improvement in business).

Issue 2: Be aware of the differences between regions and segments

Very often, when calculating the NPS index, regional values, customer segmentation are skipped, and the ranges can sometimes be very wide. For example, you can compare the NPS of customers who buy from you a lot and often with the NPS of new customers or those customers who had problems interacting with your company. Find out what the difference is in their NPS, because if you have a higher NPS with less important clients or your more difficult clients, that's a problem as they won't influence other people's opinions.

You should also pay attention to regional differences, because sometimes the difference between NPS indicators in different locations can reach tens of percentage points.

Problem 3: Inconspicuous middle

As we noted above, in order to calculate the index, the highest indicators (those who put 9 and 10 points) and the lowest (from 0 to 6 points) are taken. At the same time, when measuring, those respondents who put 7 and 8 points, the so-called middle of the rating, are ignored.

Mathematics and, as a result, analysts miss these clients, but you must understand that they are very important. Clients in these ranges can become both "promoters" and "critics". What can motivate them to move up and what can keep them from moving down the rankings is up to you to find out.

Problem 4:NPSnot measured widely and frequently

The problem is that NPS (like any category of surveys) are conducted more often than once or twice a year. Given the high pace of today's life, price changes and the dynamics of competition, this is too little. NPS should be a constant review of your work for you, and not just a check from time to time.

Problem 5: Always use the same communication channel

When interviewing customers, always try to use the same communication channel to evaluate NPS. For example, if you are conducting a telephone survey to compile an index, continue to use this channel for future surveys. Using different ways collecting data, you run the risk of getting very scattered data. As practice shows, the results obtained through different communication channels can differ by tens of percent.

/ NPS customer loyalty index as a company reputation metric

NPS customer loyalty index as a company reputation metric

Customer loyalty indexNPS (NetpromoterScore, net support index) - This is an easy-to-calculate metric aimed at assessing the loyalty of a company's customers or buyers of a product. It is believed that the NPS index is closely correlated with the company's revenues and a company with a high NPS score tends to grow much faster than its competitors. This indicator is based on the assumption that customer loyalty to the company consists of:

• Willingness to make repeat purchases
• Positive attitude towards upselling (buying additional accessories)
• Recommendations of the company in the circle of their acquaintances and friends
• Honest and open feedback about the company's products and services

The NPS index is considered by many foreign and domestic experts to be one of the best indicators of loyalty to a company or product. The standard approach to measuring the consumer loyalty index usually consists of several stages. At the first stage, immediately after making a purchase, buyers are invited to participate in a small survey and are asked next question:

The answer to this question is given on a ten-point scale, where the minimum score of 0 means “Categorically I will not recommend under any circumstances”, and the maximum of 10 points corresponds to “I will definitely recommend”. Based on the ratings collected, all buyers are divided into three categories:

• Those who put 9 or 10 points are supporters (promoters, promoters). This category of people is loyal to a company or product and with a probability of more than 90% will recommend the company or product to other people, as well as make repeat purchases. "Promoters" are often "overwhelmed" by the quality of the products and/or services they provide, which exceeded their wildest expectations, so they are willing to actively recommend them.

• Those who gave a score of 7-8 points are neutral buyers (neutrals). This category of people is quite supportive of the company or product, but the likelihood that these people will consistently recommend the company or product is much lower than the category of promoters. In addition, representatives of this category can easily prefer competitors if there is a discount or offered to them. better conditions to make a purchase.

• Those who rated 0-6 points are critics (detractors, detractors). Representatives of this category are dissatisfied with the company and are unlikely to ever use its services again. And those who put the lowest scores can go as far as writing negative reviews on the Internet or in a complaint book. Given the availability of information on the Internet, criticism and negativity from this category can cause significant reputational damage to the company, negatively affecting sales and demotivating its employees. The company can be especially troubled by active Internet users, who, by their actions, can “drive away” many potential customers from the company, replicating negative reviews on company review sites, social networks, blogs and websites of commodity aggregators.

The final step is to carry out the calculation, the NPS calculation formula is as follows:

For example, we collected a total of 100 reviews from our customers, of which 5 reviews were received from "critics" (0-6 points), 10 reviews were received from "neutrals" (7-8 points) and the remaining 85 reviews came from "promoters". ”, who gave us high marks of 9-10 points. From 85, we subtract 5, 100 by 100 falls under the reduction, and we get a total NPS value of 80. The indicator can be from -100 (extremely low value, when all buyers are "critics"), up to 100, when all buyers are " promoters."

In addition to the main question, one or more clarifying questions can also be asked, for example - “Why did you put this particular mark? Please answer in as much detail as possible and preferably give an example. Or, depending on the scores, one or another clarifying question is asked. For example, if the buyer put 9 or 10 points, then he is invited to additionally answer the question “What did you especially like ...”, and those who rated 0-8 points are asked the question “What, in your opinion, should be improved ...”. In some cases, NPS research can be conducted to assess the loyalty of business partners and even among their own employees, who are asked the question “Will you recommend working in our company to your acquaintances, friends?”

How to correctly interpret the resulting calculationNPS?

How to collect customer reviews?

How to keep the NPS at a high level?

NPS

NPS

NPS

NPS and why

The history of the creation of the techniqueNetpromoterScore

How to correctly interpret the resulting NPS calculation

Knowing the NPS indicator clearly demonstrates the “reputational weight” of the company in the eyes of customers, and the calculation of this metric is a good indicator from the category of “are we all right”? Thus, ease of calculation, fast data collection speed and comparability with the main players in the industry are the main advantages. this method. General rule NPS methodology states: "The indicator must not be negative".

A positive value of the indicator indicates that the share of supporters of the company's "promoters" exceeds the number of "critics", therefore, there is a certain potential for a natural growth of the client base solely due to customer loyalty, in the very case when a satisfied client brings another client.

A zero or negative indicator indicates that the number of "critics" prevails over the number of "promoters", and this, in turn, is a clear signal that there is no potential for growth in the client base and even a possible outflow of buyers due to the company's low rating.

Because The NPS loyalty metric is quite simple to calculate and understandable to everyone, it can be taken as a benchmark as a generally accepted standard and used as a comparison with the performance of other companies in the same industry, catching up with the leaders or increasing the gap from competitors. An NPS index of about 50 and above is considered good. Some experts believe that at this level, you can even do without advertising, because. the client base grows by itself, but this is not the case in all cases. If the index is significantly less than 50, then this is not a reason to panic. For example, if your company's index is only 20, but on average competitors in the industry have even less (10 and below), then in this case your index will be high compared to competitors.

NPS studies conducted for various segments corporate business show that different industries may have their own norms (the so-called reference values) of customer loyalty. For example, among Western companies, digital retail may have a figure of 30 or more, and in the banking sector from 10. For airlines, this figure is at the level of 15, and for grocery retailers, about 49. In different countries, these figures may also differ. Therefore, it would be logical not to compare the performance of companies operating in different markets.

It should be noted that the index needs to be updated periodically. Recalculation of the index is usually recommended to be done no more than once a quarter and no less than once a year.

How to collect customer reviews

A modern way to collect customer feedback at points of sale or service offices is to use mobile devices, in particular tablets, which are optimally suited to the size of the display and can be compactly located, for example, at the checkout. The NPS survey uses specially designed applications that display response options on the tablet screen and save data on the selected ratings. A tablet with a running survey can be placed in a special stand with a theft-proof holder on a short or long “leg” for convenient location in the room.

Some companies (especially in banking and insurance) keep cards with colored "smileys" at the customer service counters. The green smiley is taken by "promoters" satisfied with the service, "yellow" - neutral customers, "red" - dissatisfied "critics". Customers are invited to drop the cards taken into a special box at the exit.

To collect reviews in an online store, special plug-ins are usually used, if some well-known “boxed” CMS acts as the “engine” of the online store, or the refinement is carried out by the company’s full-time specialists. It is also possible to use third-party web services that offer the installation of an NPS counter on the company's website and provide the functionality of conducting surveys to collect feedback along with the provision of final reporting. The disadvantages of self-collection of feedback through the site include the potential for incorrect design of the survey form, which can be implemented in the form of an annoying “pop-under” banner that pops up when entering the site, which users can instinctively “shrug off”, mistaking it for advertising and immediately closing, often without even reading what they are asked to do.

There are also "telephone", "email" and "sms" methods for collecting customer feedback, if a contact database is available. "Ringing" customers is usually carried out by call center operators some time after the customer has made a purchase or provided a service to him. Also used are systems of pre-recorded voice messages IVR (Interactive Voice Response), which can carry on a dialogue with the buyer without the participation of an operator. These methods are often practiced by large online stores and mobile operators, because. they own the contact information of their customers. The disadvantages of collecting reviews through email and by phone, it can be attributed that the “critic” can simply refuse to participate in the survey, having received a questionnaire on his email (or dropping the call) due to dislike for the company or product, so he will simply drop out of the total number of respondents. In the same way, an email that accidentally falls under the spam filter on the email of a promoter client will exclude him from the total number of respondents. Therefore, technical overlays and incorrect Contact Information can seriously affect the final calculations.

In addition to using the above methods, some companies further extend the functionality of their CRM systems to solve tasks like data collection and NPS calculation. True, it is worth noting that not all “boxed” CRM systems can be modified in this way without the help of key developers.

How to keep the scoreNPS at a high level

We will look at how to set up a feedback collection system and systematically, at the proper level, control NPS using the example of one of our customers, who is one of the leaders in digital retail in Russia, operating on the market for more than 15 years. Hundreds of the company's stores operate in almost all regions of the country, offering customers the widest range digital and household appliances from well-known brands of leading world manufacturers.

We launched a system for collecting reviews on mobile devices for calculating NPS in the company as part of a project for a quality control system for a chain of stores called Retailika. The implementation of the Retailika cloud service was aimed at enabling the company's employees to quickly perform any type of on-site and cross-checks in all stores of the company's network using electronic checklists on their own mobile devices, thereby identifying possible flaws in work, violations and deviations from accepted corporate standards.

Quick response of management to the received information on violations in real time, systematic identification and elimination of shortcomings, permanent job over the mistakes was aimed at creating a perfectly built interaction with customers, control of the display of goods, cleanliness and tidiness, general order, which, as a result, has an extremely positive effect on sales and the growth of the NPS level.

Many of our clients note that through the systematic conduct of checks against electronic checklists, sales assistants begin to demonstrate thorough knowledge of their official duties, because each re-check is a kind of training, filigree honing the observance of the standards adopted by the company and the ability to win over a potential buyer as much as possible, leading him to make a purchase. And each satisfied customer is highly likely to return for shopping again and will advise the company to his friends. And if we return to the formula for calculating the customer loyalty index, which says that the more “supporters” (promoters) we have in the numerator and the fewer “critics” we have, the higher the final NPS will be and the longer it will be maintained at a decent level. level.

Eliminating possible violations when working with clients through self-checks and systematic improvement of the processes built in the company, based on the use of innovative methods and technologies, has a significant positive impact on Company NPS.

Our solution for collecting feedback for the NPS study compares favorably with other solutions in that the work is carried out in a single information space with the company's quality control service. The system for collecting customer feedback is not a separate mobile app, which is the same application of the Retailika quality control system, but with a special interface, in which each review made by the buyer is a separate “check” according to the NPS checklist, which is automatically closed after the completion of the survey and automatically re-created to receive feedback from the next customer.

Another distinguishing factor is that the mobile application of the service works on any modern smartphones and tablets that operate under operating systems Android or iOS, so our customers didn't have to buy exotic "devices" of certain models or be limited to using mobile devices of only one platform. To collect feedback, tablets can be temporarily used during any limited period of surveys, being released later for other tasks. Also, in addition to the “main” question “How likely is it that you will recommend purchases in our company…”, we have included a number of additional questions in the feedback collection system that are displayed on the tablet screen depending on the scores. For example, if a buyer is a "promoter" and gives a score of 9 or 10, they will be shown the following question like this:

And if the buyer turned out to be a "critic" or "neutral", estimating the work of the store at 0-6 or 7-8 points, respectively, then he will be asked to answer another question:

It is worth noting that the “main” NPS question takes scores as an answer, and the above “clarifying” questions take a value from a given list of criteria for the attractiveness or disadvantages of the store in the eyes of buyers as an answer. As we mentioned above, a survey in our Retailika system is a checklist with a special interface, which is created in the same way as the rest of the "standard" checklists using the checklist constructor. The checklist constructor allows you to create checklists of any complexity with different types of ratings (“Yes/No”, “Points on a scale”, “Value from the list”, “Numeric value”, etc.)

All collected information from NPS surveys and other “standard checks” of stores (which are performed by employees on their mobile devices) is automatically accumulated in a single database and immediately becomes available in reports to managers. The advantage of this approach when calculating NPS is that the survey results of each customer immediately fall into a single database and, accordingly, into reports, and the NPS index is recalculated in real time on the fly. While other methods of data collection require first to carry out the stage of collecting information, and then the stage of additional processing, before providing the final result on them.

Additional maintenance measuresNPS

In addition to systematic “working on yourself” through self-checks using electronic checklists on mobile devices, as described above, there are many additional ways that positively affect the level of NPS. This may be the introduction of standard discount loyalty programs with various discounts, bonuses, sales. discount cards with the "cashback" function, when up to 5% of the purchase price is returned back to the card and can be used to cover the next purchase or even cashed out. Online stores, by analogy with cashback cards, can use the so-called. loyalty bonuses, accruing a percentage of the order value to the personal account of the user account, which can be spent on the next purchase. “Referral systems” are widely used, when a buyer who has made a purchase in an online store for the first time receives a personal referral code, which he distributes among other buyers as a discount code and encourages them to make a purchase, he receives bonuses to his account. It will not be superfluous to issue and distribute gift cards and certificates, as is done, for example, by the companies Eldorado, Sportmaster, Letual.

The so-called. "coalition programs", when companies cooperate, giving a discount on purchases from those who are part of the "coalition". For example, when buying a product, the buyer can receive a discount if he pays with the cards of the bank that serves the company from which the purchase is made. This is beneficial for all participants involved in the purchase process - both the bank and the company, together with the buyer, who ultimately receives his discount.

An important role is played by a competently built pricing policy using competitors' price monitoring services and the provision of discounts and special conditions to VIP clients. All of these methods also affect the NPS score.

Economic and emotional customer loyalty

The above methods of motivating and retaining customers, based on bonuses and discounts, undoubtedly work and encourage buyers to make repeat purchases. But do they actually make them loyal in the fullest sense of the word? If a company is only working on improving its bonus system and pricing policy, ignoring everything else or acting on a residual principle, then in this case loyalty is based only on economic factors in the form of acceptable-favorable prices that the buyer is willing to pay for a product or service, or receiving additional preferences in the form of bonuses and discounts. If it is impossible to implement a bonus pricing policy to maintain economic loyalty during a crisis in the company itself or in the economy as a whole, the relationship between the company and the buyer, based solely on economic loyalty, can be easily destroyed and the client will go to competitors, or stop making purchases, waiting for the "difficult days" to pass. This is because, apart from relatively favorable prices, the buyer is no longer tied to the company.

It can be assumed that it is enough to bind a client to himself with some unique product that simply has nowhere else to purchase. However, as world practice shows, no matter how technically complex the product is, sooner or later the same Chinese will copy it, unless it is a rocket engine or a fifth-generation fighter.

You can emotionally (strongly) bind a client to yourself only by providing a high-quality service in which there is no room for error and where streamlined technological and business processes are combined in the right proportions, multiplied by the high competence of the company's employees who comply with the prescribed internal standards and rules from "A" to "I". All internal mechanisms of the company work "like clockwork" and gears are well lubricated and fitted to each other. All this together creates that very unique atmosphere of a “cool company”, in which the client feels as comfortable and “protected” as possible, and in which that very strong connection is established in the form of “emotional loyalty”.

A vivid example of the formation of emotional loyalty is the American shoe company Zappos, whose employees, wanting to please their customers as much as possible, could consult on the phone for 5 hours without a break for a hesitant buyer who could not decide which shoes suit him. In his book Delivering Happiness, Zappos founder Tony Shay recounted how, as a joke, he called his company's support service and, in a drunken altered voice, tried to find out where he could order pizza. Within five minutes, he had contacts for several nearby pizzerias. No less informative in terms of the formation of emotional loyalty is the story of the formation of Carl Sewell's car dealership, described by him in the famous bestseller "Customers for Life".

Criticism of the effectiveness of the indicatorNPS

Despite the simplicity and effectiveness of the NPS index, there are a number of weighty arguments aimed at criticizing this metric. It has already been mentioned above about the need to divide loyalty into economic (weak) and emotional (strong). The indicator is also often criticized for linking loyalty only to probable desire recommend but not firm intention make a specific action (purchase), repeat purchase or make a repeat visit to the point of sale. The very form of posing the question, when the buyer is asked to evaluate probability,"Psychologically" relieves him of further responsibility for the seriousness of his intentions. At the same time, important facts from the company’s point of view, such as the presence / absence of purchases from competitors, the presence / absence of criticism of the company or product, “turning a blind eye” to minor flaws and shortcomings in work, etc. are not taken into account. The buyer may be an ardent supporter (promoter) of a company or product, but this does not mean at all that he has never bought anything (and will not buy anything in the future) from competitors, or that he cannot criticize the work of the company (product quality) at the same time. In addition, one must take into account the factor that a person by nature is a poor predictor of his own future, and what he promises now (I will or will not recommend) does not mean at all that after some time factors that cause him to change his decision or opinion. As the saying goes, "man proposes, but God disposes."

It should be noted that loyalty and satisfaction buyers are not always directly proportionally interconnected and often do not go, as they say "nostril to nostril". Although, it would seem, the more satisfied the client, the more loyal he is and vice versa. It is clear that a dissatisfied customer is unlikely to be loyal, however, there are situations when a satisfied customer will not be loyal within the framework of the NPS methodology. For example, when buying a new car of a brand, 90% of buyers are quite satisfied with their purchase, but according to statistics, only 40% of them will show loyalty and re-buy the same car model. Therefore, customer satisfaction and loyalty in some cases should be considered separately.

A lot of important information is lost if you ask the buyer only one “main question”, and this clarifying information is also extremely important for the systematic work on improving the level of customer loyalty, because how else can you find out what exactly the consumer is dissatisfied with if he rated 9 points? Why not 10? Why was one point deducted? That is why the standard NPS survey should be expanded with a number of additional clarifying questions in order to get to the root of the problems. In addition, when conducting surveys, it is necessary to ensure the maximum “sparseness” of respondents (“fans” and ordinary buyers) and sometimes take into account additional factors that can distort real estimates. For example, the start of sales of a new model of a popular smartphone generates a temporary rush demand, fueled by which the most devoted “fans”, who are ready to rate “11 out of 10” without looking, sweep away everything that is from the shelves of company stores with a hurricane. But after some time, when the raised hype and "hype" subsides, and buyers with a "sober view of the world" come to the store, "real" reviews and points will go from them in surveys.

Additionally, it is worth considering the factor of when exactly the review is taken, because the positive from interacting with the company tends to naturally decline over time. In some cases, even the onset of disappointment or indifference in the client is possible, which ultimately directly affects the calculated loyalty indicator. For example, a review from a buyer who purchases something from a company for the first time is taken in the store immediately after buying a new monitor. If everything went smoothly, a polite consultant, an attractive affordable price, a discount, no dead pixels on the monitor display during testing, and a satisfied customer, being under the influence positive emotions in anticipation of the joy of owning a new thing, puts the company at the exit of the store with a score of 10 points. After a week of operation, it suddenly turns out that there are "lights" at the corners of the monitor, which are visible only in complete darkness from a certain angle of view, which is a manufacturer's defect. No fault of the company that sold this product not in this, and she is ready to fully fulfill her obligations warranty obligations up to a refund, but the buyer will be clearly disappointed, because the goods were sold to him in the company's store (it is their fault, not the manufacturer!) And he will at least have to spend time returning the goods, waiting for its repair or replacement, or even looking again another monitor. And if at that moment the buyer gets a call from the call center for a survey for NPS analysis, the buyer’s assessment under the influence of negative emotions may turn out to be completely different than the 10 points that he gave immediately after buying in the store a week ago. Although the store in terms of sales and work with the client worked as clearly as possible, deserving the initially set 10 points. It should be noted that the buyer's assessment may change again if the company went to meet him halfway and solved his problem with defective goods as painlessly as possible. As we can see, the timing of collecting feedback in some cases can make significant adjustments to the estimates.

Some experts rightly point to the existing “distortions” in the logic of dividing buyers into unequal groups, since even within the same group of “critics”, the loyalty of a customer who scores 0 may differ significantly from the loyalty of a customer who scores 6. The NPS formula prescribes to completely "throw overboard" neutrals, thereby losing very valuable information. There are studies indicating that a customer who scores 6 and is not inclined to recommend a company and buy something from it "offline" is more likely to make a purchase from the same company on the website "online". For example, a company has stores that are inconveniently located for a particular customer in terms of transport accessibility, or in which the work of employees is poorly organized and queues are observed even with a small crowd of people. But with all this, a very convenient order from the site is organized and there is a fast delivery of goods to your home. The company's website is well-designed, has a beautiful functional design, the product search is successfully implemented, painstaking work has been done to improve the usability. A “critic” who once “burned himself” buying goods “offline” (in a store), but “tasted” orders through the site, receiving the goods courier delivery, in the "online" easily turns into a "promoter". Therefore, the NPS index often has to be calculated for each “touchpoint” of the client company separately, which will be discussed in the next subsection of this article, which describes “advanced techniques”.

The NPS metric may not be suitable for everyone, because. there are companies or even entire industries on the market in which buyers do not have the desire to recommend the company or its products to everyone, even if they are one hundred percent "promoters" in body and soul. For example, it is unlikely that a normal person would recommend toilet paper to all his acquaintances and friends, based on his daily pleasant tactile sensations after going to the toilet. However, following the algorithm for calculating NPS, it must be written in "neutrals". For this reason, a low index does not mean that a company has serious problems with customer loyalty if it brings a specific product to the market or operates in an industry where people do not tend to make recommendations.

Advanced techniques for using and enhancingNPS

Taking into account the above criticism about some "one-sidedness" of the NPS indicator, many companies perform calculations for different "points of contact" with the client, resulting in the final total NPS rating, which is formed from the calculation of separately collected indicators, each of which may have a certain "weight coefficient ", for example:

• The customer has just made a purchase at the point of sale
• The buyer revisited the company's point of sale
• The buyer continues to use the product after the specified period
• The buyer has contacted the technical support service
• The buyer went to the company's website
• The buyer made a purchase on the site
• The buyer left his feedback on the Internet or in the book of complaints and suggestions, etc.

Above, we have already mentioned that in addition to the main question, you should ask an additional “clarifying” question “Why did you give this particular rating? Please answer in as much detail as possible and preferably give an example. Or, depending on the scores, "What did you especially like ..." or "What needs to be improved ...". Using additional clarifying questions will allow you to collect more useful information about the client and his attitude towards the company, and the client will be forced to take his assessment of the company's work more seriously. Some experts recommend expanding the survey to 5 or even 8 additional questions.

The NPS survey can be applied not only to the company's clients, but also to its own employees, who are asked the question "What is the probability that you will recommend a job in our company to your acquaintances and friends?" In addition, questions are asked to clarify what exactly attracts or repels employees in the company (the level of salary, the atmosphere in the team, adequate management, working space etc.) This question will allow you to assess the loyalty of your own employees in relation to the company, the level of loyalty to which in some cases can be an unpleasant surprise for managers. Also, the survey can be conducted among the partners of the company, who are asked the question "What is the probability that you will recommend cooperation with our company to your business partners?".

As a measurement of loyalty, many companies use not only NPS, but also a number of other metrics - ASCI (American Customer Satisfaction Index), CES (Consumer Effort Evaluation), CXi (Consumer Experience Index), CSat (Customer Satisfaction), RAPid, and, on in our opinion, the most interesting one is WoMI. WoMI (Word of Mouth Index) - the word of mouth index is a refinement of the NPS methodology. The authors of WoMI argue that the NPS index artificially inflates the number of “critics” who are ready to actually discourage other people from buying from a company or its products. The WoMI metric proposes to adjust the number of real “critics” by adding an additional question to the NPS survey “What is the probability that you will dissuade your acquaintances and friends from shopping in our company? The creators of this technique believe that this will identify "fake critics" who fell into the category 0-6 on the standard NPS question, but also responded with low scores on the WoMI survey (0-6), in fact refusing to dissuade other people from cooperating with company. Thus, the WoMI index adds another category of buyers who are intermediate between "critics" and "neutrals", not recommending a company or product, but also not discouraging others from interacting with a company or product.

Some companies, not being able to obtain statistics on the level of NPS from competitors in the "open access", independently calculate these indicators among their customers, adding to the NPS survey to the main question a tricky question about the competitor's company - "What is the probability that you would prefer a purchase in our company buying from another company? If the respondents on this question give a score of 9-10 points, it doesn’t matter if they are “critics”, “neutrals” or “promoters”, an additional clarifying question is asked in order to find out which competitor they are talking about. The statistics collected in such a simple way allows you to roughly “estimate” the NPS rating of the closest competitors.

In addition to using different customer loyalty research metrics and introducing various bonus systems, which we have already mentioned above, another additional “advanced technique” for increasing NPS is the widespread use of innovative software products and services that are massively created in recent times not only abroad, but also in our country. We will dwell on this in more detail.

In addition to scheduled NPS surveys, which collect data using mobile devices, phone calls and email, companies can use systems to analyze “natural feedback” from the Internet. Natural reviews come from the buyers themselves on their own initiative, they can be both sharply negative and extremely positive. Review analysis systems collect information on an ongoing basis from aggregator sites for goods and services (Yandex Market, price.ru), social networks, blogs, forums, video content sites for reviews or references to a particular company or product. The collected information is combined into a single whole, giving an “information squeeze” at the output, which shows the “reputational weight” of the company and can be automatically interpreted using machine learning algorithms, including as part of the Net Promoter Score calculation. At the same time, especially “advanced” systems allow you to determine who left this or that review, a real person or a “paid bot” that operates as part of an unleashed campaign to denigrate a competitor. Thus, “bots” can be thrown out of the NPS calculation, and at the same time, the company will additionally receive a signal about an information attack against it through “stuffing”. Having received up-to-date information about potential threats and reputational risks, the company can respond in a timely manner and take measures to prevent a drop in the level of customer loyalty and maintain its NPS level.

Other software products include "intelligent assistants" - artificial intelligence programs that can conduct rather complex dialogues with a company website visitor around the clock, in the absence of a human consultant. These can be various recommender systems that make useful tips and recommendations to the buyer during the purchase. These can also be quality control systems for the company’s work, like our cloud service RITEILIKA, in which, with the help of systematic self-checks using electronic checklists, you can qualitatively improve compliance with the company’s standards and positively influence the alignment efficient processes interaction between the company and the client.

If a company has an industry average NPS rating, then the higher it tries to raise and maintain it, the more effort it will have to spend. And this means that in the arsenal of such a company should be all possible tools to achieve this goal.

Who actively uses the loyalty indexNPS and why

Net Promoter Score is widely used by many companies around the world, from small start-ups to huge multinational corporations. ease of calculation, fast data collection speed, direct correlation with income and comparability with major industry players are the main advantages of this method. All these advantages make it possible to widely use this metric as one of the assessments of a company's movement in the right direction. Based on this metric, important management decisions, KPI is calculated, entire directions are opened or closed, bonuses are paid or “cut off”.

Many companies use the metric because NPS tracking will allow you to quickly identify imbalances and “skews” in the company-client relationship. And the high level of competition, when in Western markets the client has a huge choice of where to leave his money, and the ever-increasing cost of attracting a new client, lead to the fact that a quick reaction to abnormal fluctuations in this indicator to a lower side can not only “level the situation ”, but also in some cases to return the business back from the “point of no return”. A company's current earnings can be a universal indicator of its overall "success" in the market, but this indicator can be a poor indicator of future growth, especially when the NPS index has plummeted for any reason. AT modern world taking into account the almost complete availability of the Internet for the population, information is spreading rapidly and any "mistakes" in relations with customers from famous companies can lead to grandiose scandals, which, being savored and replicated in the yellow press and various Internet tabloids, bring significant financial and reputational losses.

Among Western companies, NPS is used almost everywhere, in Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Zappos, Dell, Walmart, Procter & Gamble, Sony, Costco and tens of thousands of other lesser-known companies, becoming in a certain way a kind of “de facto standard”. Amazon for example, has an NPS of about 70, and Apple - 72, Costco - 77, but the little-known financial and investment company USAA in Russia has an indicator of 87.

In the Russian market, the method of calculating the customer loyalty index has also been successfully adopted and is included in the arsenal of many well-known companies operating in the field of retail, insurance, telecommunications, banking services, restaurants and hotel business, air and rail transport. Among them are MTS, MegaFon, Beeline, Ingosstrakh, Rosgosstrakh, Alfa-Bank, Aeroflot, etc.

The history of the creation of the techniqueNetpromoterScore

This technique was developed by American marketer Frederick F. Reichheld, who is the author of the bestseller The Ultimate Question. Fred Reicheld is widely known in the business world for his innovative approach to customer loyalty. The methodology for calculating the net support index under his authorship was first published in 2003 on the pages of the Harvard Business Review. With the goal of identifying which metrics had the most impact on customer loyalty, Reicheld processed and analyzed a gigantic amount of collected data from over four hundred companies, concluding that the most strongly associated with loyalty was the willingness of customers to recommend a company or product to their friends and relatives. and acquaintances.

Customer loyalty is calculated by various indicators. One of the main ones used by most companies is NPS (Net Promoter Score). Literally translated as "net indicator of support." AT business environment Russian business use the designation "loyalty index". It allows you to identify the percentage or number of customers who trust the company and its services (products), as well as recommend the company to friends and acquaintances at any opportunity.

Who Invented NPS

The technology for determining NPS appeared in 2003. It was developed by business strategist Fred Reicheld. The innovation of the development was to avoid long and tedious surveys for the buyer about the quality of goods and services. He identified loyalty in hundreds of enterprises in various industries. Sending out a bunch of questionnaires, he realized that it was impossible to conduct an analysis through questionnaires.

The researcher suggested asking only 1 question, which most accurately describes the degree of trust of the client (according to his personal assessment): “How pleasant is it for you to recommend our company to your friends or colleagues?”. The answer is given in points (0-10). Then the number of the most loyal customers who put 9 or 10 points is calculated. And their share in the total number of respondents is estimated. Good loyalty is considered to be 50 percent or more.

Why you need a Net Promoter Score

The Loyalty Index was created for the purpose of unification. According to the author, NPS can be applied in any industry. In addition, the index characterizes the projected sales volume. That is, in addition to a personal opinion about the company, the manager will receive data about the people who interest him most.
With such clients continue to work in other areas.

Sometimes additional questions are asked regarding the desires and preferences of the client: “Why did you give the company such a rating?”, “What did you like about the service the most?”, “What can the company do to become better?”. Additional questions (no more than 2) help to more clearly interpret the answer in points.

Also, index calculation serves as a form of customer care. Questionnaires are sent according to a certain algorithm, most often after purchase. Their forms are diverse: a questionnaire by email, a call or a report with an online questionnaire.

The most important advantage of NPS is the ability to determine the relationship between the amount of customer loyalty and the company's growth rate. Direct correlation according to Reicheld's research will be traced in all other industries that he has not yet had time to study. This hypothesis was accepted by many businessmen and consulting companies, but she did not receive a scientific explanation.

Consumer loyalty index NPS formula

NPS Formula

NPS = (P-C)/N ×100% where:

• P is the number of promoters;
• C is the number of critics;
• N is the total number of respondents.

Option 2 of the formula: NPS = share of promoters - share of critics (from the total number of respondents).

What values ​​can the NPS index take?

Depending on the company, the index takes a value from -100 to 100. If customers are absolutely not loyal, the index is -100, and vice versa. A good trend is the constant growth of NPS, starting from 50%.

How to determine the customer loyalty index

The loyalty index is calculated based on the results of the questionnaire (1 main question). Its results are collected over a long period of time. The most practical option is considered a period of 90 days. It is this period according to statistics that is necessary to determine those interested in buying. As a rule, within 3 months, disloyal customers deactivate applications and personal electronic accounts that are of no interest to them.

Questions are asked as purchases are made. Therefore, the calculation of the index is most relevant at the end of the trimester.

During the collection of information, the respondents are divided into groups in accordance with the points assigned:

• Detractors or critics (0–6).
• Neutrals (7–8).
• Loyal customers or promoters (9-10).

Detractors are not considered as buyers with whom it is necessary to conduct an individual dialogue. They will go to a competitor in any case. Neutrals do not feel emotional attachment to products. What drives them when making a purchase is also unclear. Promoters are considered fans. Just for them, commercial proposals are being developed.

After calculating the total number of people in each group, they proceed to the calculation of the index using the above formula.

Grade Collection Methods

• Email survey.
• Call.
• Reminder.
• Popup window in the application.
• Interface hints when designing a product.
• Poll in the trading floor.
• Presentation of the questionnaire at the checkout.

These methods are only used in online sales. Such statistics are ineffective due to the lack of data (answers) on disinterested clients. They do not read mailing lists and do not participate in surveys.

Sampling for NPS

Surveys are conducted selectively and non-massively. It is necessary to create a sample of customers that would have the same consumption characteristics. For example, buyers who did not buy anything during the last month while there were sales in the previous ones. That is, the time frame (the period of use of the product) and the degree of involvement (constant purchases) should be the same. This allows you to determine customer loyalty most objectively, all other things being equal.

Often, samples are drawn illogically and non-randomly. The surveys involve buyers who have made purchases recently or for a large amount, which does not characterize the overall dynamics of sales in the future. Therefore, surveys are often sent repeatedly or regularly.

Poll frequency

The frequency of requests depends on the scale of the client base, the cycle of introducing a new product to the market, and the time the responses themselves are collected. So, if there are many buyers, you can form a small group of respondents. Here the rule of probability theory will apply. Small businesses will have to approach sampling more responsibly and on a larger scale, which requires additional time.

It is advisable to conduct a repeated survey on loyalty only after improving the product, service or product refinement (modification, substitute). This is the only way to assess the dynamics of mood changes.

Analytical team

In addition to client surveys, they conduct surveys of employees who are directly related to product development: PR specialists, designers, marketers, technologists, managers. It is important to evaluate their opinion for satisfaction own work. And also to clarify unresolved problems of the consumer (meetings, round table, monthly reports).

Comment analysis

Many companies for researching consumer experience in the column with a survey insert a chat for writing comments. The buyer gets the opportunity to express his opinion about the features of using the product. Analysis of comments allows you to identify the narrowest topics and focus on solving key problems, if any.

Behavior of supporters

It is also necessary to study the positive experience of the consumer. But the analysis of the comments themselves does not help here. You must have information about the purchased product. This can be site statistics, the number of times a product has been viewed by specific users, and the history of their purchases. Only through this knowledge it is possible to reveal the relationship or correlation of the loyalty index and a positive assessment.

Methodology

The research methodology should clearly describe the purpose of the NPS. Additional questions are designed to learn more about the client's intentions. It also helps to orient the client in understanding the main issue. After all, each person can understand it differently and will be able to give a yes / no answer. But the score will not justify his true moods. He will prefer the answer “rather yes” and give 6 points, being a regular customer who does not like to impose his opinion.

The following are considered as directions for the formation of the question:

• consumer interest.
• His motives.
• Product commitment.
• The importance of the company to him.

Leading questions and references to competitors in the questionnaire should not be. The questionnaire is compiled as natural and understandable as possible for the reader.

Acceleration of data collection occurs through the use of both desktop and mobile versions of the site or application. The methodology must be developed independently or resorted to ready-made solutions using the SurveyMonkey service. The most important thing is to use this methodology constantly without changes, because it affects the index itself. The order of the questions also matters. The questionnaire should be compiled wisely and arranged in a logical sequence.

seasonality

The loyalty index is seasonally dependent. Such a correlation is typical for any type of business, both in the service sector and in the production of daily used goods. Measuring the loyalty index for an annual period allows you to get more accurate estimates of customer trust with the right sampling. NPS analysis is carried out on a short-term and long term. At the same time, temporal factors that influenced the estimates are identified.

NPS limits

The NPS metric has 3 disadvantages:

• Not suitable for operational management. More accurate methods for measuring satisfaction (A/B tests) and continuous stimulation of demand (customer retention and new acquisition) are needed.
• The error of the metric depends on the sample. The smaller the number of respondents will be involved in the survey, the greater the error will be allowed. The results of the next tests will vary.
• NPS analysis is not used to change the strategy and brand concept. NPS indicates the number of loyal customers.

An example of calculating the NPS loyalty index

For example, the company is engaged in private orders for the manufacture of pottery. 10 restaurants, 20 cafes, 10 souvenir shops and about 60 individual customers act as clients. The survey identified the following number of priority groups:

• 30 promoters;
• 65 neutrals;
• 5 critics.

NPS = (30-5)/100×100%;
NPS = 25%.

The indicator is considered insufficient for the development of the company. The fewer regular customers, the less income will be in the future. But from the point of view of business features (ceramics manufacturing), such a low percentage can be compensated by comparing competitors and their individual indices.

Reichel's research identified three types of companies. The first group included firms with NPS=5-10%. Customer churn was negligible, but profit growth is not expected in the future. Companies with NPS=45% do not have leading positions in the market. But they are able to achieve heights through investors and the right marketing/branding. Firms whose index exceeded 50% experienced accelerated growth and advanced positions.

Advantages and disadvantages of the NPS index

• It is easy to calculate, while not straining the buyer.
• The indicator is informative: it shows the share of loyal customers who will not change their attitude to the product.
• Ongoing focus group analysis.
• Ability to compare with competitors.
• Availability for any company (independent analysis or use of services, for example, surveymonkey, testograf).
• Setting the right goals and bypassing competitors.
• Customer feedback and maintaining contact.
• Requires comparability of customers in the sample.
• Neglect of neutrals when counting.
• Cannot be used as a primary indicator for a business.

What affects the NPS score

The index's primary value lies in determining the number of committed consumers. If you do not evaluate NPS, the further check will decrease, new products will no longer be in demand due to a lack of understanding of the desires and priorities of customers. The pace of sales slows down and the company is on the verge of bankruptcy.

But the index in various industries does not indicate a similar state of affairs. For example, your small store is positively characterized by the majority of buyers. After conducting a survey, you came to the conclusion that NPS = 90%. For comparison, Apple has an NPS = 72% with such a high level of sales.

Therefore, the main limiting factors in determining the index are the industry and the rating of the company within the industry. These are the 2 main pillars that are focused on when considering low or high NPS. They also take into account the competitive environment and the tolerance of the customers themselves.

How to Implement NPS

The introduction of technology depends on the scale of the company's activities. In banking and insurance, there are already terminals that allow you to evaluate the service and quality of services. Middle-level business structures use special software products that store information in databases. AT small firms using questionnaires and analysis.

Ecommerce allows you to directly use a survey to determine NPS. At the same time, the technique is limited by the desire of the client himself to answer a particular question.

The relevance of introducing such a system depends on the prestige of the company and the belief of customers that the company really cares about their opinion.

How to keep your NPS high

The loyalty index does not change if there is a customer retention policy. All work with consumers should be promptly controlled by both the staff and management. To do this, clear intra-company communications should be built, claims departments organized, as well as online or telephone support services.

Since the customer retention policy does not only deal with complaints, it is necessary to develop VIP offers for regular customers, which are rewarded through frequent or large purchases. In other cases, you must choose a bonus or discount one, not forgetting about gifts or raffles.

How to increase the NPS index

• Improve the product in accordance with the claims, make a public report on them.
• Hone your communication skills with customers by consistently informing when there is interest from the buyer himself.
• Arrange after-sales service, as a minimum, hotline who can be called to resolve the issue.
• Show human interest in the buyer. To do this, it is necessary to maintain databases / dossiers.
• Be honest with the buyer, do not promise the impossible.
• Set up staff to openly interact with the buyer when there are disputes.

Why NPS is being implemented so slowly in Runet

In the absence of free money among the population of Russia, it is difficult to calculate the real NPS. Therefore, it is not justified by businessmen: regular customers want higher service, and rare customers are not interested in building relationships.

Most Russian companies have never heard of the loyalty index. They are implemented only by state corporations or large pools. While the States have long calculated the average indices for each enterprise in various industries (npsbenchmarks.com).

For those who decide to try out America's best practices, it's worth starting with the free version for online stores - SatisMeter and Google Tag Manager, for example. For administrative purposes, the analysis can be done independently through a questionnaire, but with a preliminary sample of customers. This will allow small businesses to get an answer to the question - in which direction to develop.

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The customer loyalty index (NPS) is an easy-to-calculate metric that determines the degree of customer loyalty to the company as a whole, to a product or service in particular. Here, commitment refers to a person's willingness to recommend a service they like to friends and acquaintances, as well as the willingness to make a repeat purchase.

What does NPS measure?

It is believed that this indicator is in a statistical relationship with income: the higher it is, the faster the company develops economically. This is determined from many parameters, but the main result consists of the following criteria:

1. The likelihood that a person will apply for repeated services again.
2. The degree of positive attitude of the buyer to an unplanned or more expensive purchase at the time of paying for the current one (this can be accessories, insurance, etc.).
3. Reviews on the company website or third-party forums.
4. Service recommendation to friends and acquaintances.

According to many domestic and foreign experts, the loyalty index is one of the best tools with which you can find out how well (or positively) potential clients related to the product being offered. The results of the study help to evaluate and understand how to improve the quality of service and, accordingly, the degree of customer loyalty.

If insufficient efforts are made in this regard, complications in activities are possible. In particular, the amount of income is reduced, equal to the entire volume of purchases made for a certain period, and the LTV indicator is also falling (that is, the amount that one person brings to the organization is reduced). Other negatives include:

• The inability to create a portrait of the average client.
• Lack of interest and demand for a new product.
• An increase in the "dump" indicator, that is, a temporary or permanent loss of customers (they refused the service, went to competitors, etc.).

Ultimately, a low NPS loyalty index negatively affects sales, total profit. To correct the situation, it is necessary: ​​firstly, to regularly (preferably every month) conduct research, and secondly, to analyze the information received and, on its basis, build a further trade policy.

What allows you to measure NPS

You can make appropriate measurements of indicators using a customer survey. To do this, you need to send them an e-mail or a number mobile phone a letter with a request to evaluate the level of service on a ten-point scale, as well as the likelihood that a person will recommend the organization's services to friends and acquaintances. In addition, you should ask for recommendations or advice on how you can improve the service.

You can conduct a survey not only by email or via SMS. For these purposes, it is recommended to use calls to numbers from the collected database, make a special form on a web resource, create a survey on official pages on social networks, etc. In order to obtain as much information as possible, it is also necessary to interview partners through whose networks the goods are sold.

How NPS is calculated

To make the calculation, you need to create several groups and distribute the surveyed customers among them based on the ratings received. The first category should include those who were dissatisfied. Typically, such buyers give a low score: from zero to six (if used ten-point system ratings). Such people will not recommend the service to others and may not re-apply.

The second category is passive buyers. The average score here is 8 units out of 10 possible. As a rule, they are satisfied with the service, but will not talk about the company and recommend it. This is due to the lack of interest. The third group includes permanent supporters - these are those who regularly use the services and give high marks.

The calculation of the customer loyalty index is made according to the formula: "Number of supporters/total number of respondents", "Number of dissatisfied/total number of respondents". For example, a survey was conducted among one hundred respondents. At the same time, five people were in the range from 0 to 6 points, thirty - from 7 to 8, the remaining sixty-five - from 9 to 10 points. Therefore, the calculation of the shares in each group will be 5, 30 and 65%, respectively.

Organizations with a low index cannot develop and increase the turnover of goods. Consequently, they cannot compete and will suffer losses. The average value - from 30 to 45% - indicates that the company is developing and can fight for a market leader. To do this, it is necessary to analyze the shortcomings and correct them, increasing the NPS customer satisfaction score. From 50% or more - this is the market leader, which the consumer will contact on an ongoing basis.
However, despite the high positions, it is necessary to constantly calculate and try to increase the indicators for further growth.

Naturally, this is the maximum average scheme, which cannot be used in practice. In reality, many factors should be taken into account - both general and individual for each industry.

Techniques for measuring and increasing the consumer loyalty index

Considering that “good” statistics look different in each area of ​​business (in insurance - 30%, online store - 20%, consulting - 40%, etc.), most companies use different techniques and methods of communication with target audience, getting overall score based on individual indicators. Among such methods for measuring the NPS consumer loyalty index, one can note when a person:

1. Made a purchase at a point of sale (office or store).
2. Regularly pays a visit (it doesn't matter if he buys a product or not).
3. He contacted the support service to resolve the problem or get advice on the issue of interest to him.
4. Visited the company's website or placed an order for a product.
5. Left a review on a web resource, a third-party forum, in the book of complaints and suggestions, or in any other sources.

It is worth noting that after the rating is set, it is necessary to ask a clarifying question about the reasons for which the service was rated in this way and not otherwise. This will make it possible to collect as much useful data as possible about the person and his attitude to the organization.

Why is it important to count the index

By calculating and analyzing the NPS score, you can get invaluable information about what the real attitude of consumers towards the company and the services it provides. Upon receipt and processing of this data, it becomes possible to work on improving the service and promoting products.
In conjunction with other communication tools, such as a feedback form, NPS allows you to reduce customer churn by building long-term and cost-effective relationships with them. Knowing the net loyalty index, specialists can work to "turn" dissatisfied and passive consumers into their permanent audience, correcting the mistakes made earlier, improving the service and the quality of the goods and services offered.

However, despite the importance of customer satisfaction, they should not be treated like numbers. Many businessmen suffer from this, wanting to create an ideal customer base. Such a policy can alienate the audience and disrupt communication channels.