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Net Promoter® Score (NPS)
In this article we’re going to take a look at the Net Promoter® Score (NPS) question type. We’ll cover when you would want to use it, how to use it, plus we’ll take a look at a few examples.
Overview
Businesses use their Net Promoter® Score (NPS) to gauge their relationship with customers. It’s a customer satisfaction benchmark that measures how likely your customers are to recommend your business to a friend or colleague.
By asking customers a simple question (see examples below), companies can measure customer loyalty and overall sentiment about a brand. This is because the question that’s asked makes customers think holistically about a company/product/service, rather than about their perception of a singular interaction or purchase.
The basics
The Net Promoter® Score question should be the first question asked on your ONFORM
It should be followed by no more than 2 or 3 follow-up questions. Resist the temptation to add more.
The NPS question is a prescribed question with limited scope to change it
The NPS question is: “How likely is it that you would recommend [company/product/service] to a friend or colleague?” with the possibility of adding an open-ended follow up question, such as: “What is the primary reason for your score?”
If you want to ask a different question to the one prescribed as the NPS question then use the rating scale question type, it offers a similar experience for respondents to the NPS question.
The Net Promoter® Score (NPS) question consists of 2 parts. The first part asks your customers to rate your business, product or service on a scale of 0 to 10. The second is a follow-up and is open-ended and asks why the specific score was given.
By consistently asking the same question, and keeping the ONFORM as short as possible (preferably just using the NPS question and no more than a few follow-ups), you can measure your NPS over the medium/long term, helping you to measure and analyse customer sentiment towards your business.
The answers customers provide are classified as follows:
- 0–6 = Detractors—unhappy customers who can hurt your brand through negative word-of-mouth
- 7–8 = Passives—satisfied but indifferent customers who could be swayed by the competition
- 9–10 = Promoters—loyal customers who will keep buying and referring others
The NPS question works well for most mature, competitive industries. If you operate in an industry that isn’t mature/competitive, then you may want to consider tweaking the question asked, by using the rating scale question, instead of the NPS question. The reason for this is that if you operate in a niche, or the industry isn’t mature, then this could skew how your customers perceive you. You could have a good NPS, and still lose business, but for a different reason that the NPS question won’t pick up (like customers no longer needing your services). Also, the question can be confusing if your customers don’t feel like they can go elsewhere. For example, lets say you provide in-house support to other staff (like in-house IT or HR services), if you were to ask the NPS question in this case then respondents could end up being confused, as they can’t go elsewhere (unless they left the company – which would be quite drastic!) – so assessing their loyalty probably wouldn’t be the most helpful metric to measure.
Examples
Here’s an example using just the Net Promoter® Score (NPS) question type:
And here's an example with the Net Promoter® Score (NPS) question type and 2 follow-ups:
How to use the Net Promoter® Score (NPS) question type
01 When on the ONFORM editor, click the "+" button and select "Question"
A new question block will then load
02 Click on the "Question Type" dropdown and select "Net Promoter® Score (NPS)"
03 Add your company/product/service in the "Question" box
The question that will be asked will be “How likely is it that you would recommend company/product/service to a friend or colleague?”
04 Adjust settings as necessary by clicking the options tab and choosing the relevant settings
The available settings are:
- Note (allowing you to provide additional supplementary information)
- Required (the respondent will have to provide an answer to the question)
Follow the steps below 👇 if you want to add a follow-up question.
05 Click the "+" button below the NPS question and select "Question"
A new question block will then load
06 Click on the "Question Type" dropdown and select "Paragraph Box (Textarea)"
07 Add your question in the "Question" box
For example: What is the primary reason for your score?
08 Adjust settings as necessary by clicking the options tab and choosing the relevant settings
The available settings are:
- Placeholder (provide extra context or a description to your respondents)
- Size (choose small, medium or large)
- Min/max character length (the minimum/maximum number of characters that can be entered)
- Note (allowing you to provide additional supplementary information)
- Required (the respondent will have to provide an answer to the question)
09 Ask the respondent if they would like to leave their email address so you can follow up with them (optional)
You could end your ONFORM asking the respondent if they would like to leave their email address to allow you to follow up with them. To do this add a single textbox question type with the email validation.
10 Done!
When you start receiving responses your score will display on the responses screen