Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a popular metric used by brands to measure customer loyalty. Companies track NPS over time to make sure they're keeping their customers satisfied and always improving. NPS surveys are often administered over email. However, NPS surveys require only one question (a second question is optional) and text messaging has a much higher open rate and response rate than email. So, in this article, we'll show you how to send brief NPS surveys to your customers via SMS using Textline.
Quick history of NPS
NPS surveys were introduced to the business world by the December 2003 issue of Harvard Business Review with an article that went viral: The One Number You Need to Grow by Frederick F. Reichheld. The article explains, "By substituting a single question for the complex black box of the typical customer satisfaction survey, companies can actually put consumer survey results to use and focus employees on the task of stimulating growth."
NPS: The first question
The first survey question is:
On a scale from 0 to 10, with 10 being highest, what’s the likelihood that you would recommend us (our company) to a friend or colleague?
Customers' answers are scored as follows:
0 through 6: customer is known as a detractor
7 or 8: customer is considered passive
9 or 10: customer is called a promoter
Your NPS score is the percentage of customers who are promoters minus the percentage of customers who are detractors. Passives are not counted in the NPS calculation. A perfect score is 100 and the lowest possible NPS is -100.
NPS: The second question
The second optional question is a follow-up to the first: "Tell us a bit more about why you chose that score?" Companies use this qualitative data to figure out why they got the score that they did: What makes promoters happy? What is it detractors don't like? Using Textline to conduct NPS surveys by text message, you can follow up with any promoter, detractor, or otherwise (using a different Textline phone number).
How to
If you don't have an account already, sign up for a Textline free trial. Your first textable Textline phone number will be the one you use to close the loop with customers post-survey. (You can also use this phone number to handle any other customer support issues over SMS.) You'll get a second Textline phone number for NPS surveys. There are several options for selecting a list of customers to survey. One option is to create a simple spreadsheet and export it as a CSV file (that is, a Comma Separated Value file). See Textline's help center for complete instructions on sending NPS surveys.
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Your customers prefer to text your organization rather than call or email. Sign up for a Textline free trial and get a textable phone number or let us know if you'd like to add SMS capabilities to your existing phone number.
