Tracking Net Promoter Scores (NPS)
Your complete guide to NPS tracking for B2B professional services
Unlocking the Power of NPS
In today’s competitive business landscape, understanding customer satisfaction and loyalty is crucial for the success of any company. B2B professional services in particular rely on client relationships and good service delivery to retain clients and grow.
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a valuable metric that measures customer loyalty and satisfaction. It provides organisations with insights into how likely their customers are to recommend their products or services to others. Implementing NPS tracking allows organisations to gauge customer sentiment and make data-driven decisions to enhance their offerings.
The power of NPS lies in the feedback it generates, which can provide valuable insights for B2B professional services firms to analyse and improve their service offerings.
Understanding NPS and NPS tracking
NPS can provide valuable strategic insights that direct your business where it needs to improve, and where it is excelling. These insights are invaluable for B2B professional services firms working to retain clients, grow and improve their reputation in the most efficient ways. In other words, knowing your NPS enables you to make data-based decisions for the future of your firm.
What is NPS?
NPS measures how likely clients are to recommend your firm to others. It is a tool used in B2B customer experience tracking. We typically measure it using a simple NPS survey question, which is the basis for most net promoter score surveys:
“On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend [firm X] products and services to a friend or colleague?”
Respondents to the survey question are categorised into three groups, based on the scores they give:
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- Promoters (Score 9-10): These are highly satisfied clients who are enthusiastic about your firm’s service and are likely to recommend it to others. They are loyal and valuable advocates for your brand.
- Neutrals (Score 7-8): Neutrals are generally satisfied with your service, but they are not as enthusiastic as promoters. They are neither strong advocates nor strong detractors.
- Detractors (Score 0-6): Detractors are unhappy or dissatisfied clients who are unlikely to recommend your firm. They may have had a negative experience and could potentially harm your firm’s brand with negative word-of-mouth messages.
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How is NPS Calculated?
To calculate the NPS you first need to generate a survey and collect individual scores (above) from clients. After you survey customers, the Net Promoter Score formula subtracts the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. Your firm’s NPS can range from -100 (if all respondents are detractors) to +100 (if all respondents are promoters).
A positive NPS indicates you have more promoters than detractors, suggesting your clients are generally satisfied and likely to recommend your firm’s services. A negative NPS suggests that you have more detractors than promoters, indicating you may need to address some issues to improve client satisfaction and loyalty.
How often should you measure NPS?
There is no one-size-fits-all answer to how often you should measure NPS. It will depend on your goals, profession, and client base. However, many organisations choose to measure it on a consistent basis so they can understand and remain alert to changes in their clients’ perceptions of service.
In industries that have rapidly changing customer or client dynamics and where customer feedback is critical for ongoing improvement, it is useful to measure NPS on a continuing basis. Wondering how to track Net Promoter Scores over time? Our Beaton Debrief platform can streamline this process and greatly reduce the administrative and time costs involved.
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Why should businesses measure their net promoter score?
Net Promoter Scores serve as a critical metric for professional services firms seeking to understand and enhance their performance, customer relationships, and overall market positioning. The value of NPS lies in its ability to distill complex customer sentiments into a simple, actionable number, which in turn offers strategic insights that steer the direction of a business.
Watch our video on the importance of measuring client feedback.
Customer-Centric Improvement:
NPS provides a window into customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy. By categorising respondents into promoters, passives, and detractors, businesses gain a nuanced understanding of what customers appreciate and where they feel let down. This customer-centric approach allows firms to prioritise improvement efforts in areas that matter most to clients, consequently fostering loyalty and retention.
Identification of Strengths and Weaknesses:
Understanding NPS helps identify specific areas where a firm excels and those where it doesn’t. Positive feedback from promoters can highlight strengths that can be amplified to create a competitive advantage. Conversely, insights from detractors pinpoint weaknesses or pain points that demand urgent resolution to prevent customer attrition.
Data-Driven Decision Making:
Armed with NPS insights, firms can make informed, data-driven decisions. Instead of relying solely on intuition or guesswork, these businesses can align their strategies with concrete customer feedback.
Client Retention and Growth:
Retaining existing clients is more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. NPS aids in understanding the pulse of existing client relationships, enabling firms to proactively address issues, nurture strong connections, and subsequently improve client retention rates. Moreover, a high NPS can act as a catalyst for organic growth, as satisfied clients are more likely to refer new business.
Reputation Management and Differentiation:
A consistently high NPS contributes to a positive reputation in the market. Publicly showcasing a strong NPS score can serve as a powerful marketing tool, differentiating a firm from competitors and attracting potential clients seeking reliable and client-centric services.
NPS isn’t just a number; it’s a compass that guides professional services firms toward delivering exceptional client experiences, retaining customers, fuelling growth, and maintaining a competitive edge in the industry. Leveraging NPS insights empowers firms to make strategic decisions that are firmly rooted in customer feedback, leading to more efficient and effective operations.
You might also like to read more on when to use NPS and where it falls short.
The link between NPS and feedback
NPS and feedback go hand in hand. When clients respond to NPS surveys by providing a numeric score, it creates a direct channel for simplified feedback. This feedback is often structured and easy to analyse, as it categorises respondents into promoters, neutrals, and detractors based on their scores.
NPS surveys also offer opportunities to provide optional comments. At Beaton we can help you collect more substantial feedback by including open-ended questions that allow customers to provide qualitative feedback. By elaborating on their score, clients offer valuable insights into what’s working and what needs improvement in your firm. Businesses can improve their service by “closing the loop” on this feedback and actioning customer complaints.
Why NPS Tracking is important
Feedback collected via NPS tracking offers invaluable insights into clients’ sentiment and preferences. This feedback should inform strategic decision-making and customer experience improvements. Tracking NPS over time enables real time NPS monitoring. In essence, NPS serves as a mechanism for ongoing, structured, and actionable feedback collection and service improvement.
Beaton research has found that turning neutrals or detractors into promoters who are likely to recommend your product is a highly profitable exercise.
In fact, promoters are:
2.8 times more likely to still be using the same firm in two years’ time
2 times more likely to be prepared to pay more for the same services
3.4 times more likely to cross-buy additional services from the same provider
15.5 times more likely to continue using a firm after a substantial mistake that cost the client money
Tips for improving your NPS Score
Tracking Net Promoter Scores and their movement over time enables you to identify trends in customer sentiment. It can help your firm gauge whether service is declining or improving in the eyes of your clients. Analysing the scores over time can also enable you to identify correlations between strategic changes and your clients’ satisfaction. When making strategic changes to your firm’s services or products, NPS tracking becomes crucial as a measurement of success in clients’ eyes.
You can easily track NPS with Beaton Debrief, register for a free trial survey and access to the feedback portal.
Tracking NPS over time
Tracking Net Promoter Scores and their movement over time enables you to identify trends in customer sentiment. It can help your firm gauge whether service is declining or improving in the eyes of your clients. Analysing the scores over time can also enable you to identify correlations between strategic changes and your clients’ satisfaction. When making strategic changes to your firm’s services or products, NPS tracking becomes crucial as a measurement of success in clients’ eyes.
Benchmarking NPS
Viewing NPS scores in context can help you understand how your firm is performing when compared to similar firms. After all, a good NPS score only becomes great when it can put your firm ahead of competitors. Beaton’s specialty is in tracking NPS and then comparing your scores to firms of similar size and profession through our competitor benchmarking. This can help you point out unique advantages and marketability for you to use strategically.
How we help you measure and leverage NPS
Beaton Debrief is our market-leading client feedback platform that helps make it easy to survey your clients and track your firm’s NPS.
The platform distributes surveys created with Beaton’s rigour and extensive research experience, to ask your clients how they feel about your firm’s performance at specified intervals or key moments. It will also deliver feedback to you in real-time, collating scores and comments from your clients into an easy-to-use dashboard. Any negative scores are immediately flagged for action and will notify the relevant person to take action.
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Beaton has been helping firms survey clients for two decades with systems that make it easy to track NPS performance over time. Our tracking tools help keep your finger on the pulse, assessing client loyalty and satisfaction by regularly measuring your Net Promoter Score. Learn More about Beaton Debrief
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You will get a survey just like a client would and then view your response in real-time on our interactive dashboard. Trial Beaton Debrief for free.
