As far as business KPIs go, Net Promoter Score is a simple metric. It's easy to implement through customer surveys and also easily understood across all levels of a company, from frontline staff through to boardroom execs. Because of this, it’s no surprise that businesses around the world love it, including us!
However, while NPS is a useful measure and powerful indicator of customer advocacy, it has two critical weaknesses that can skew its data:
- Brand misanthropic customers: these customers don’t recommend or like brands in the general sense.
- Anti-perfectionist customers: these customers don’t believe in giving a perfect score.
In both these instances, customers may not give a score that accurately reflects their experience with your brand—even if it was exceptional. Moreover, despite NPS categorising customers as detractors, passives and promoters depending on the score they give (detractors 0-6, passives 7-8, and promoters 9-10), it is difficult to understand the extent to which consumers actually promote or detract by sharing their brand experiences with others.
Fortunately, this is where additional research can help add new layers of insight and understanding that NPS on its own lacks.
Layering in emotion for greater insights
NPS, when it comes down to it, is a functional, hard measure that asks customers to perform a rational judgement on the brand. However, in reality, how a customer feels about a brand and their likelihood to recommend it is often affected by a range of both rational and emotional considerations. Humans are inherently emotional creatures, so it’s important to look beyond NPS to explore the factors that are driving this rationalised result. How we feel about a brand can influence our own decision making as well as the extent to which we advocate or recommend the brand to others.
For example, a customer might give a poor NPS result for a cell centre they used. The reason: it took ages to get through to anyone. From a practical standpoint, this is something to be addressed. However, what this insight lacks is emotional context. Why was the wait time an issue?
“It can be useful to understand why taking so long was a problem,” says Mark Vincett, Strategy Director at Perceptive. “Having the emotional context can reveal another, important layer of customer understanding, such as ‘the brand wasn’t there for me’ or ‘the brand let me down when I needed them’.
Using the above example of a call centre taking ages to answer, let’s add some hypothetical context. The customer has been trying to get in touch with their bank to resolve an account issue. However, they live rurally and there are few branches near them; the closest is a 40-minute drive away but they have no appointment availabilities for the next two weeks. As a result, the customer has had to contact the call centre and has been on hold for an hour trying to get their issue resolved.
By getting a clearer picture, including an understanding of how frustrated the customer is, we’ve uncovered more than the call centre wait time issue. We’ve also learned that accessibility to the bank’s services is an issue in their area, and that the one bank branch available is likely overwhelmed.
“The emotional impact certain situations can have on a customer can leave them with a very negative emotion and experience,” Mark said. “Or a very positive one. So much so that your brand becomes THE choice over all other competitors because nothing else resonates as strongly with them.”
By understanding emotions tied to your brand experiences, brands can start to understand the heuristics—or mental shortcuts—customers take when choosing products and/or services in your category.
“It’s easy to dismiss NPS because it is simple, but it’s power is that very simplicity,” says Mark. “The opportunity lies in enriching our understanding around the NPS. What factors informed the score the customer gave? What could the brand do differently next time? Is this additional context useful for the customer team—or does this knowledge have potential to unlock opportunities for comms or marketing?”
From a practical CX side, these deeper insights help organisations lift customer experience. Meanwhile, on a brand level, these insights can inform your communications and advertising and help your brand connect with consumers on an emotional level.
Read more: Love is not enough: how CEPs drive effective brand consideration
Depth versus breath: when do you need what?
In the case of using NPS to inform your understanding of customer experience, the score and initial customer commentary can be a good starting place to gather context. However, if you’ve been tracking your NPS for a while or find your results are starting to plateau, there’s an opportunity to add the emotional layer to reframe what you’ve learned. By looking beyond the score to the factors underlying it, how the consumer feels about your brand, and how they talk about your brand, you’ll add a rich new layer of insight—and value—to your experience programme.
“Consider not just what they’ve said but why they’ve said it and the unmet need that their feedback suggests,” says Mark. “This may take your brand further than simply fixing a practical customer service issue.
"Not viewing your brand through one dimension is where the real value comes."
Want to know more about how brand and experience insights can support your business growth? Read our free Building Your Brand guide.
