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Do They Like You, Really, Really Like You? Guide To Gauging Customer Loyalty

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One of the most crucial aspects of any business is the ability to gauge customer loyalty. Metro Detroit business consultant Allen Frantsen, and founder of the online survey platform, SurveyKing, has been doing just that with the help of a simple metric, the Net Promoter Score.

On a scale of zero to 10, with 10 being highest, what's the likelihood that you would recommend our company to a friend or colleague?

That questions is the basic Net Promoter Score (NPS) question that was introduced by Fred Reicheld in his 2003 Harvard Business Review article "One Number You Need to Grow". This powerful survey question was designed to determine overall customer sentiment. Did the company, or whomever the customer was interacting with, do a good enough job to garner a nine or a 10?

The question is graded as a score and falls into three groups. If a customer rates you as a nine or a 10, they are considered promoters, and will likely speak positively about your brand. A seven or an eight indicates they are passive. A score of a six or lower means they are a detractor and likely see your brand in a negative fashion. To determine your overall NPS, take the percentage of promoters (nines and 10s) and subtract the percentage of detractors (six's and lower). A perfect score is 100 and the worst possible score is -100.

"Our data at SurveyKing, shows that most customers don't mind taking a short NPS survey", says Allen. "Giving feedback seems to be important for customers when given the opportunity. Asking additional follow-up questions after NPS, helps extract valuable insights from your customers. Two of our most popular questions to follow NPS is an open ended question asking "Why?" and a question that asks "Will you do business again with us?"

Segmenting the results from here are key to understand what drives your customers. Segment the data into detractors, passives, and promoters. From here you can look at a question that asks "Why?" and see what drives positive and negative scores. You could also ask a question that asks about product prices or customer service. You might see promoters care more about customer service than price. These insights are crucial to future success.

Many online survey tools offer the NPS question, so choose a platform that fits your needs, budget, and one that can segment the results quick and easily for you. NPS is a powerful question, take advantage of it as often as possible in your decision making.

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