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NPS Follow-up Questions: Everything You Need to Know

Mathew Maniyamkott

21 April 2022

10 min read

Do you want to learn how to customize your NPS follow-up questions?

No doubt, there are hundreds of ways in which you can understand the psyche of your customers when it comes to your brand. But the real question is, which of these is the most effective one out there in the market. While there is no benchmark for the most effective one, NPS is certainly one of them.

In this blog post, we’ll cover-

  1. Meaning and need of NPS for your business
  2. Reasons why you have to customize your NPS follow-up questions
  3. Examples of some effective NPS follow-up questions
  4. Ways you can personalize your NPS follow-up questions

What is Net Promoter Score(NPS)

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is one of the easiest ways to gauge the satisfaction level of your customers. In fact, there are very few tools that give you a clearer idea of how loyal your customers are, and who among your existing customer base would run at the sight of an incrementally better offering  from your competitors

To gauge NPS, all it takes is just one question. More specifically,  “How likely are you to recommend our business to your friends or family?”

Measured on a scale of 0 to 10, the respondents are divided into three sections:

  1. Detractors– These are the respondents who give you a score from 0 to 6. They are the ones who are more likely to churn. They are also more likely to badmouth you on social media platforms. When you find a detractor, you should get into damage control mode. Any action from them will be bad for your brand. You need to ensure that you can convert them into a Passive customer at least.
  2. Passives– These are the respondents who give you a score of 7 or 8. They are moderately satisfied with your brand and only have a few complaints. Passives are waiting for the right moment to turn to a competitor who might offer them something better. While they won’t send you negative reviews, they are not going to praise you either. But it is certainly possible to push the right buttons and turn them into a Promoter.
  3. Promoters– A Promoter is someone who gives you a score of 9 or 10. They are lovers of your brand and will share to the world why they are in love with your brand. They will go out of their way to tell you that you are doing a great job. These are the people who are perfect partners in your customer loyalty program. If you don’t take care of their needs, they can even turn into Passives or Detractors.

Customize follow-up questions for NPS survey.

When you get feedback from your customers in the form of an NPS score, the next step that you need to do is to ask them follow-up questions. The follow-up questions should come from a point of understanding the customer’s requirements/needs. For that, you need to customize the follow-up question for each customer or for different customer segments.

Why Customize the NPS Follow-up Question?

Get detailed answers

When you respond with an open-ended question that asks specific reasons behind the rating they gave you, they would be able to respond with an answer that is unique to them. It is helpful in terms of strategizing for the said customer or for those in the same customer segment.

Higher engagement

When you customize the follow-up question, you can expect a higher number of responses because the customer knows that it has been crafted for them. You can send a bunch of follow-up questions after the NPS survey.

You don’t have to think of getting all the answers in just a single response. Offer to get on a call with the customer, more often than not, they would be more than happy to do it. If you can think of an incentive for the call, the engagement rates will be even higher.

Branding

Get your customers to understand more about the voice of your brand in the way you frame follow-up questions. That way, they will be able to relate more with your brand and what it does uniquely.

Discover Insights

With the follow-up questions, you will be able to get insights into the customer’s experience so far with you. When someone gives you a particular number in your rating, as a responsible business, it is your duty to understand why they gave you that rating. Knowing the reason behind it and asking them a follow-up question, you might even be able to solve their issues.

NPS follow-up questions should come from a point of understanding of the customer’s requirements.

Survey Personalization and its importance

While this article is about customizing the NPS follow-up question, do not forget that personalizing the NPS survey itself is important. If you use the right branding and ask the right questions, your customers will be more involved in responding to the NPS survey.

You can experiment with power words, subject headlines, and more to find out the ones that appeal most to your audience. Ensure that you are clear with your business objective when you craft the NPS questions.

Run separate NPS campaigns for customers who are in different segments. Find out which kind of open-ended questions fetch the best responses and keep refining them.

With an NPS software like SurveySparrow, you can send transactional NPS surveys which means you can ask your customers survey questions after they take an action on the website. This tool also lets you personalize your NPS surveys any way you like, resulting in 40% more response rates. What’s more, it’s completely FREE!

Sign up and start your personalized NPS survey today 🙂

NPS follow-up questions that you can use – Examples

Give the option for your customers to write as much as they would like to. The option to answer open-ended questions will give you answers that can be pretty useful.

They could be talking about the features of your product, support options that are available, or give you an insight into the overall value they get from your product. So, here are some examples of the NPS follow-up questions that you can use and the insights they can provide. Take a look:

“If there is one thing in our product that you want to be changed, what would it be?”

The respondent will be put in a position where they are forced to think. They might talk about a feature that can be improved or an issue in the customer service section or even the fact that you might be sending too many surveys.

Whatever the answer might be, it will be actionable and can work in your favor when action is taken on it.

“What feature gives you the most value?”

The answer to this question will help the business understand the most important feature of your product. If you see one feature that has been mentioned repeatedly by many respondents, then ensure that at no point of time the feature underperforms. Keep working on strengthening the feature.

“Is there anything you want to see improved in our customer service offering?”

Many customers leave businesses when they witness apathy in the way customer service reps treat them. Customers these days are aware of the kind of top-notch service that is usually provided and they want the same. If you are lacking in that department, it will reflect in your churn rate.

“What is a competitor feature which we don’t have that you want us to include?”

For Passives, this is a great opportunity to tell you what is lacking. If your response to their feedback is appropriate, then you can easily convert them into a Promoter. If you see a trend in the kind of features that your customers keep asking for in their response, try to incorporate them as well.

“How else could our product help your business?”

Understanding the needs of the customer is pivotal when it comes to running a business. If you create something that your target audience doesn’t want, then you will soon be shutting shop. The answer to this question gives you a chance to understand what your customers want. It might even lead you on a path where you end up pivoting your product.

The right branding and right questions improves customer response to your NPS surveys.

How can you Personalize your NPS follow-up questions?

Now that we have helped you understand the reason behind personalizing the NPS follow-up question along with a few examples of them, this is where we concentrate on the ‘How’ part of it. If you use the right survey tool, following up with NPS questions will be a breeze.

Ask the standard question

Most businesses follow up with a simple question after sending the NPS survey. You can use this question for Promoters, Detractors, and Passives.

“Why did you give us this particular score?”

A Detractor will tell you why they are not happy with your present offering. The space to fill their answers might even give you detailed replies on what can be done to make it better. Please do remember that you will have very few responses that will talk in detail, so consider each of these replies as a treasure trove of action-worthy information.

A Promoter will list the reasons why they are happy with you. This will help you understand your strengths and where you are doing well. With the right follow-up question, you can even get more reviews or customer testimonials from them.

A Passive customer will tell you what can be improved and the level of their satisfaction. If given the right nudge, even they will be happy to get on a call to discuss their issues.

Customize the NPS Follow-up Question for Promoters, Passives, and Detractors

No prizes for guessing that each customer would have had unique journeys with you. But based on the NPS scores they gave you, it is easy to segment them as Detractors, Passives, and Promoters.

Instead of sending the above question where you ask them why they gave you a particular score, you can send different questions to each of the three.

You can respond with empathy to Detractors and Passives by admitting that you understand that they didn’t have the best of experiences with you. It is a signal that you care about your customers and are willing to go the extra mile to keep them satisfied.

Offer solutions to both Detractors and Passives. Promise them that you will take follow-up actions to make things right for them. Let them know the steps that you are planning to take and keep them posted.

For Promoters, you can show that you are joyful based on the NPS score and the excellent score they gave you.

A response like-“We are excited that you are extremely satisfied with us. Could you tell us what you love about us?” Use this opportunity to get a customer review or a testimonial.

Inject your brand’s personality into it

The last thing that you want your customers to associate with you is the word ‘boring.’ Any place that you can inject your brand personality when conversing with a customer, do it. Your brand is like no other. It has unique attributes that no one else has.

Write different kinds of copy that are in line with your brand identity in the NPS survey questions. Ensure that you don’t go overboard with it as this is a survey and you might have to encounter Detractors who don’t have a nice word to say to you.

There are a lot of brand voices, if you already have one, then go along with it. Passionate, Quirky, Irreverent, Authentic, Friendly, Helpful, etc., are some of the types of brand voices.

Curate NPS survey questions that are in line with your brand identity.

There is no rule book

You do not have to only go by what is necessary and standard. You can go a step ahead and ask questions that could even be about your brand identity. Ask them if they like your logo.

These should be bonus questions, maybe with an incentive for answering them. If you have a good copywriter, try different varieties of questions to see the ones that elicit the most response.

Ask the right follow-up questions

While there are a thousand questions that you can ask your customer as a follow-up to NPS, are you even asking the right questions? If you don’t happen to ask relevant questions, not only will you not get the feedback that you wanted, they will be wary of clicking on any surveys from your business in the future.

If a detractor said that they have a particular problem, then you need to ask the right question that gives them a solution to it. Or at least you should give them the hope that you are bent on solving it.

The Passives that respond to your NPS survey might only be a small nudge away from being a Promoter. You might be missing out on a small factor that means a lot to them. This is exactly why asking the right questions matter most.

The answers that you get from Detractors, Passives, and Promoters bring a world of insights for your business if acted upon well. There might even be customers who will be willing to get on a call to give detailed answers on what they think about your business.

If you happen to convince a Detractor to get on-call, the feedback that you get might be valuable and you also have a chance to make them at least a Passive with your responses.

You can even automate the follow-up questions with personalization in real-time. Thankfully, there are tools that help you with challenges like this. Because of this, the completion rate is fast as you can send personalized follow-up questions immediately.

When you are planning to send an NPS survey, a tool like SurveySparrow even allows you to send automated and personalized follow-up questions. Use technology to the benefit of your customers.

Final Thoughts

There is a lot of work involved in sending follow-up questions to your customers. But the effort involved is worth it since you are effectively getting to connect with your customers, reduce customer churn, increase loyalty, increase referrals, and so on. By using the feedback that you get, thanks to NPS survey questions, you can build a better business.

In a world where a lot of businesses haven’t been totally great with their customers, you will come across as a winner if you happen to work on the responses to the follow-up questions. All you have to do is check back with your respondents after the NPS survey. Take action based on the feedback that they have given you.

Once your customers get to know that you are a serious business that goes out of its way to solve the issues of its customers, they will be pleasantly surprised and you can even expect a better NPS score next time. All in all, asking the right follow-up question is where the key lies.

Net Promoter, Net Promoter System, Net Promoter Score, NPS, and the NPS-related emoticons are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., Fred Reichheld, and Satmetrix Systems, Inc.

Mathew Maniyamkott

Guest Blogger at SurveySparrow

Regular contributor to various magazines. Passionate about entrepreneurship, startups, marketing, and productivity.

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