As businesses continue to evolve their customer listening channels as a part of their Integrated CX strategy, one source of feedback will always be around – customer surveys.
All types of businesses leverage customer surveys, and they’re as important for small, growing businesses as they are for established corporations. When you’re creating a customer survey, whether it’s for the first time, or something you do each year, it’s helpful to understand what to expect. What is a good survey response rate? What are best practices for customer surveys? What is the competition encountering?
We’ve collected customer survey statistics to help you understand the customer survey landscape. Whether you send out a standard survey via email or leverage the Net Promoter Score question in-app, knowing some statistics and trends can help you ensure that you get adequate feedback that helps build your business.
Customer Survey Statistics You Need to Know About…
Hearing from Customers
The average business hears from 4% of its dissatisfied customers. (Source: “Understanding Customers” by Ruby Newell-Legner via Help Scout)
For every customer who complains to a business, 26 other customers don’t voice their feelings. (Source: White House Office of Consumer Affairs via Help Scout)
95% of customers share bad experiences with others. (Source: Zendesk)
Asking for Feedback via Customer Surveys Statistics
Monday is the best day to get the highest amount of complete email surveys for B2B businesses. (Source: CheckMarket).
For B2C companies, there is not a best day to send surveys: Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays all lead to a relative high response rates and Thursdays and Sundays can better be avoided. (Source: CheckMarket and SurveyMonkey)
The average response rate for email surveys is roughly 24.8%, according to a calculation by FluidSurveys.
The average response rate for telephone surveys are in the 8-12% range (Source: FluidSurveys)
Response rates can soar past85% when the respondent population is motivated and the survey is well-executed. (Source: People Pulse)
Response rates can also fall below 2% when the respondent population is less-targeted, when contact information is unreliable, or where there is less incentive or little motivation to respond. (Source: People Pulse)
Best practice is to keep your survey as short as possible. Data suggests that if a respondent begins answering a survey, there is a sharp increase in drop-off rate that occurs with each additional question up to 15 questions. (Source: SurveyMonkey)
Responding to Feedback Statistics
It takes 12 positive experiences to make up for one unresolved negative experience. (Source: “Understanding Customers” by Ruby Newell-Legner via Help Scout)
Resolve a complaint in the customer’s favor and they will do business with you again 70% of the time. (Source: Lee Resources)
Net Promoter Score (NPS) Survey Statistics & Benchmarks
Entelo saw 2x response rate using in-app NPS surveys versus email. For example, when Entelo, a recruiting software, first began to use in-app NPS survey, their response rate quickly jumped from around 24 percent to around 60 percent, before leveling off at about 50 percent. (Source: InMoment)
The top 10 NPS leaders (those with the highest NPS scores) are USAA Insurance (80%), USAA Banking (78%), Costco (78%), Apple – Laptop (76%), Dillards (75%), and Nordstrom (75%). (Source: Customer Guru)
Fortune 500 companies such as Delta Air Lines, General Motors, Zappos, Lego, and Procter & Gamble all use NPS to help gauge customer happiness. (Source: Net Promoter System)
Thinking Beyond Customer Surveys
While surveys remain a great way to learn about the experiences you are providing your customers, you are more than likely only hearing from 10% of them. To understand the other 90% companies are moving to a more integrated feedback signal approach to their customer listening. With InMoment’s Integrated CX, companies are now able to easily combine, analyze and act on multiple signals (i.e. surveys, phone/chat transcriptions, social, CRM notes, etc..) to improve CX.
WHITE PAPER
The Art and Science of Email Survey Invitations
The problem with your survey response rate may not be the survey itself. In fact, most non-responses are due to people not participating in the survey at all. Hence the question: what is in an invitation?
If you are looking for technical and non-technical solutions to create the ultimate e-mail survey invitation, look no further. Take a step towards higher response rates by downloading the document below!
Employee loyalty refers to the dedication, commitment, and allegiance exhibited by employees towards their organization, resulting in long-term engagement, productivity, and a willingness to go above and beyond in their work.
Why Is Employee Loyalty Important?
Employee loyalty is crucial in the workplace as it fosters a sense of stability, trust, and mutual benefit between employees and the organization. Loyal employees are more engaged, productive, and committed to achieving organizational goals. They contribute to a positive work culture, enhance team collaboration, and are less likely to seek opportunities elsewhere, reducing turnover costs. Moreover, loyal employees become brand advocates, attracting top talent and positively influencing the organization’s reputation and success.
How Leadership Impacts Employee Loyalty
There is a strong relationship between employee satisfaction and employee loyalty. There is also a strong connection between employee loyalty and customer loyalty and, ultimately, profitability. So what is the secret to fostering employee loyalty and preventing employee turnover? Effective leadership.
A staggering 79% of employees who decide to part ways with an organization cite a lack of appreciation as their primary reason for departure. This emphasizes the pivotal role leadership plays in acknowledging and valuing the contributions of its workforce. When employees feel seen, recognized, and appreciated, it fosters a sense of belonging and loyalty that transcends beyond mere job satisfaction.
Leaders who make a concerted effort to express gratitude and recognize the efforts of their team not only boost morale but also contribute significantly to the establishment of a loyal and committed workforce. Regular acknowledgment of achievements, both big and small, builds a positive work culture where employees feel their contributions are integral to the success of the organization.
Investing in Employee Development
Equally noteworthy is that a substantial 94% of employees express a willingness to stay with a company that actively invests in their professional development. This statistic underscores the importance of leadership in shaping a workplace environment that not only recognizes the potential of its employees but actively seeks to enhance and nurture their skills.
Effective leaders understand that supporting employee growth is a two-fold benefit. It not only equips the workforce with the tools needed for personal and professional advancement but also demonstrates a commitment to their long-term success. This commitment, in turn, fosters a deep sense of loyalty among employees, as they perceive their employer as a partner in their career journey.
Factors That Influence Employee Loyalty
Organizational culture and values
Leadership and management practices
Career development and growth opportunities
Recognition and rewards programs
Work-life balance initiatives
Employee well-being and support
8 Tips for Fostering Employee Loyalty
These tips, which are drawn largely from the experience of customer service reps (CSRs), are meant to serve as a comprehensive guide for organizations seeking to not only retain their valuable workforce but to cultivate a workplace environment where loyalty is not just an expectation but a natural outcome of thoughtful leadership and employee-centric practices.
1. Cultivate a Culture of Appreciation
Showcasing gratitude and recognizing the contributions of employees is foundational to building loyalty. Regularly acknowledge individual and team achievements, whether through formal recognition programs, team meetings, or personalized messages. A culture of appreciation makes employees feel valued and integral to the organization’s success.
2. Ensure Effective Onboarding
Investing in a thorough and effective onboarding process significantly influences how long an employee remains with the company. A well-structured onboarding program goes beyond introducing new hires to the basics; it immerses them in the organizational culture, values, and expectations. Clear communication about roles, responsibilities, and the broader mission of the company during the onboarding phase sets a positive tone for the employee’s journey.
3. Invest in Professional Development
Demonstrate a commitment to the growth and advancement of your employees by investing in ongoing training and development opportunities. This not only enhances their skills but also communicates that the organization is dedicated to their long-term success. Employee loyalty often flourishes when individuals see their careers evolving within the company.
4. Provide a Clear Path for Career Progression
Outline transparent career paths and advancement opportunities within the organization. When employees can see a future where their contributions lead to meaningful career progression, they are more likely to stay committed. Regularly communicate about potential career trajectories and provide guidance on skill development aligned with organizational goals.
5. Foster Open and Transparent Communication
Create an environment where communication flows freely between leadership and employees. Address concerns promptly, provide constructive feedback, and encourage an open dialogue. Transparent communication builds trust, a crucial element in fostering loyalty, as employees feel informed and included in the decision-making process.
6. Offer Work-Life Balance Initiatives
Recognize the importance of work-life balance and implement initiatives that support it. Flexible work hours, remote work options, and policies that respect personal time contribute to employee satisfaction. By promoting a healthy work-life balance, organizations not only enhance loyalty but also contribute to employee well-being and overall job satisfaction.
7. Recognize and Address Burnout
Proactively identify signs of burnout and implement strategies to mitigate its impact. Burnout can erode loyalty and productivity. Encourage employees to take breaks, use their vacation time, and establish boundaries. Implement wellness programs and provide resources to manage stress. Addressing burnout demonstrates a commitment to the health and happiness of your workforce.
8. Offer Perks and Incentives
Provide enticing perks and incentives that go beyond standard compensation. This could include wellness programs, travel discounts, recognition events, or even unique benefits tailored to your workforce. Such offerings not only enhance the overall employee experience but also contribute to a positive and loyal work environment.
Remember, these tips are interconnected, and implementing them collectively can create a robust foundation for fostering lasting employee loyalty. Tailor these strategies to fit the unique dynamics of your organization, and consistently reassess and adapt them as your workforce evolves.
Fostering Loyalty with An Employee Loyalty Program
In the pursuit of fostering a workplace culture that prioritizes employee satisfaction and longevity, organizations are increasingly turning to Employee Loyalty Programs. These initiatives go beyond traditional employee recognition strategies, offering a structured framework designed to acknowledge, reward, and retain valuable talent. Let’s explore the compelling benefits of implementing such programs and highlight some noteworthy examples.
Benefits of Employee Loyalty Programs
Employee loyalty programs can have numerous benefits that range from increased engagement to completely changing company culture.
Enhanced Employee Engagement
Employee Loyalty Programs serve as catalysts for heightened engagement. By recognizing and rewarding employees for their contributions, these programs instill a sense of pride and ownership, fostering a positive and motivated workforce.
Increased Retention Rates
Retaining skilled and experienced employees is a perpetual challenge for many organizations. Loyalty programs create a bond between the employee and the company, reducing turnover rates and the associated costs of recruitment and training.
Boosted Morale and Job Satisfaction
Acknowledgment and rewards contribute significantly to job satisfaction. Loyalty programs elevate morale by demonstrating that the organization values the efforts and dedication of its workforce, resulting in a more content and committed team.
Improved Productivity and Performance
Motivated employees are more likely to go above and beyond in their roles. Loyalty programs act as incentives, inspiring employees to excel in their responsibilities and contribute actively to the overall success of the organization.
Positive Impact on Company Culture
A well-designed loyalty program becomes an integral part of the company culture, emphasizing the importance of loyalty, collaboration, and mutual appreciation. This cultural shift promotes a harmonious work environment and strengthens the employer-employee relationship.
Employee Loyalty Program Examples
Employee loyalty programs can take many forms. Depending on the purpose and structure of your organization, there are many different types of programs that you might find success with.
Recognition and Rewards Platform
Many companies utilize online platforms that allow peers and managers to publicly recognize and reward employees for their achievements. These platforms often offer a variety of rewards, such as gift cards, vouchers, or even personalized experiences.
Professional Development Opportunities
Some loyalty programs focus on the long-term growth of employees by providing access to training programs, workshops, and certifications. Investing in the professional development of employees not only enhances their skills but also reinforces their commitment to the organization.
Flexible Work Arrangements
Recognizing the evolving needs of the workforce, some loyalty programs offer flexibility in work arrangements, such as remote work options, flexible hours, or compressed workweeks. These initiatives demonstrate an understanding of work-life balance and contribute to employee satisfaction.
Wellness Programs
Employee well-being is a key aspect of loyalty programs. Organizations may offer wellness programs that include gym memberships, health screenings, mental health resources, or even on-site fitness facilities. Prioritizing employee health contributes to a positive and caring workplace culture.
Service Milestone Celebrations
Recognizing employees for their long-term commitment through service milestone celebrations is a classic loyalty program approach. This can involve personalized gifts, public acknowledgments, or special events to commemorate significant anniversaries with the company.
Employee loyalty programs represent a strategic investment in the overall success and sustainability of an organization. By implementing these programs, companies not only retain valuable talent but also create a workplace where dedication, engagement, and mutual appreciation thrive.
Increase Your Employee Loyalty with InMoment
InMoment client alphaborder was able to increase their employee loyalty by 10% year-over-year utilizing tools such as Moments. Your organization can see similar success. Schedule a demo to see how we can help you increase your employee loyalty!
References
The Hill. Only 21% of U.S. Employees Trust The Leadership At Work (https://thehill.com/lobbying/4001575-only-21-of-u-s-employees-trust-the-leadership-at-work/) Access 12/4/23.
As e-commerce becomes increasingly global and competitive, business leaders understand that technology can be a valuable tool in reconnecting with consumers.
In particular, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a powerful tool, revolutionizing the way companies understand and enhance the customer experience. As we delve into the realm of AI in Customer Experience (CX), we will explore how this technology is reshaping the customer-business relationship.
What is AI in CX?
AI in CX stands for artificial intelligence in customer experience. It involves harnessing advanced technology, specifically artificial intelligence and machine learning, to enhance the way businesses connect with their customers. It goes beyond the traditional methods of customer feedback analysis, offering a sophisticated approach that enables brands to stay ahead in an intensely competitive landscape.
At its core, AI in CX is about leveraging technology to gain a deeper understanding of customer experiences. It empowers businesses to make informed decisions that drive positive change, all while significantly reducing the time and effort spent on analyzing vast amounts of unstructured data, such as customer feedback.
How AI can improve Customer Experience (CX)
Artificial Intelligence for Customer Experience is the use of technology and machine learning to enhance customer experiences. With AI, brands spend less time analyzing text-heavy analytics and more time making smarter decisions to drive change. AI-driven insights provide consumer behaviors and preferences, as well as uncover new trends and overall a more personalized experience.
With these findings, brands can convert data to real actionable change. Customer retention rates and customer service can be improved by using AI to actively listen for qualitative feedback and elicit more valuable responses.
Another way AI is changing the customer experience realm is the detection of customer feedback themes to condense the main issues facing customers and present them back as valuable insights to improve.
The Benefits of AI Customer Experience
The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Customer Experience (CX) strategies brings forth a multitude of advantages for businesses and their customers. Here are five key benefits that illustrate how AI is reshaping the CX landscape:
1. Enhanced Customer Insights
AI-driven CX analysis enables businesses to gain a profound understanding of their customers. It goes beyond traditional methods of data collection and offers real-time insights into consumer behavior, preferences, and sentiments. By processing vast amounts of unstructured data, such as social media interactions and customer reviews, AI extracts valuable information that can be used to tailor products, services, and marketing campaigns to meet the evolving needs of the customer base.
2. Personalization at Scale
One of the standout benefits of AI in CX is the ability to deliver personalized experiences to customers on a large scale. Machine learning algorithms can analyze individual preferences and behaviors, allowing businesses to recommend products or services tailored to each customer’s unique interests. This personalization not only enhances customer satisfaction but also drives sales and fosters brand loyalty.
3. Improved Customer Retention
AI’s ability to actively listen for qualitative feedback and identify pain points allows companies to proactively address customer concerns. By resolving issues before they escalate and offering tailored solutions, businesses can significantly enhance customer satisfaction, leading to higher retention rates. Satisfied customers are more likely to remain loyal and continue their engagement with the brand.
4. Operational Efficiency
AI-powered CX platforms can streamline the analysis of vast amounts of data and provide actionable insights in real time. This efficiency reduces the manual effort required for data analysis, freeing up resources and enabling teams to focus on strategic decision-making and customer interactions. In addition, AI can automate routine customer service tasks, such as answering frequently asked questions, which enhances efficiency and reduces response times.
5. Predictive Analytics
AI’s predictive capabilities are a game-changer for CX. By analyzing historical data, AI can anticipate customer trends, identify emerging issues, and provide recommendations for future strategies. Businesses can stay one step ahead by proactively addressing potential customer concerns, adapting to market shifts, and optimizing their offerings, ultimately leading to improved customer experiences and long-term success.
Incorporating AI into CX strategies offers businesses the opportunity to unlock these benefits and stay competitive in a rapidly evolving global marketplace. The ability to harness technology for deeper customer insights, personalization, enhanced retention, operational efficiency, and predictive analytics positions companies to excel in delivering exceptional customer experiences. In the following sections, we’ll explore how InMoment, as a pioneer in AI-powered CX, is leveraging these benefits to empower businesses and set new standards in the realm of customer satisfaction.
The Benefits of AI in Customer Service
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing customer service in profound ways, streamlining and enhancing common interactions to benefit both businesses and their customers. Let’s look at some of the key advantages of AI in the realm of customer service, where it is proving to be a game-changer.
1. Decision Making
AI-driven decision-making tools are transforming the way consumers choose products and services. Smart recommendation engines analyze vast amounts of data to provide tailored suggestions, making it easier for customers to make informed choices. These recommendations consider factors such as previous purchase history, browsing behavior, and even customer reviews, ensuring that decisions align with individual preferences. By enhancing decision-making processes, AI not only improves the overall shopping experience but also contributes to higher conversion rates and customer satisfaction.
2. Shopping Experience
The shopping experience itself is undergoing a significant overhaul thanks to AI. Chatbots and virtual shopping assistants provide real-time guidance and assistance to customers. They can answer questions, offer detailed product information, and even assist in finding the right sizes or styles. Additionally, AI is making in-store experiences more interactive through augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) applications, allowing customers to visualize products before purchasing. As a result, the shopping experience is becoming more engaging, informative, and convenient, leading to higher customer retention rates and increased sales.
3. Customer Interaction
AI is taking customer interactions to new heights. Chatbots and virtual assistants can engage in natural language conversations, making customers feel heard and understood. These AI-powered entities are capable of resolving routine inquiries, managing complaints, and even assisting with returns and exchanges. The use of AI in customer interactions ensures consistency and quality in every interaction, regardless of the channel customers choose. AI also empowers human customer service agents by providing them with relevant information and insights, enabling them to deliver a more personalized and effective service.
4. Checkout/Transaction
The checkout and transaction process is a critical moment in the customer journey. AI simplifies this stage by streamlining the payment process and enhancing security. For instance, AI can enable frictionless checkouts by automatically filling in payment details and addresses for returning customers. It also plays a vital role in fraud detection, flagging suspicious transactions to protect both customers and businesses. By making the checkout process quick and secure, AI reduces cart abandonment rates and fosters trust in online transactions.
5. Post-Transaction
Post-transaction engagement is often an overlooked but crucial aspect of the customer journey. AI ensures that customers feel valued even after making a purchase. Automated post-purchase surveys and feedback mechanisms gather insights to assess customer satisfaction and identify areas for improvement. AI-powered recommendation engines continue to engage customers by suggesting complementary products or services based on their recent purchases. This post-transaction interaction not only fosters customer loyalty but also contributes to additional revenue through upselling and cross-selling opportunities.
Examples of AI in Customer Experience
Businesses across various industries are leveraging AI to enhance interactions, streamline processes, and provide unparalleled services to their customers. By integrating AI seamlessly into their operations, these forward-thinking enterprises are not only keeping pace with technological advancements but also setting new standards for customer-centricity, efficiency, and innovation. From personalized recommendations to predictive analytics, let’s look at a few AI customer experience examples:
1. Chatbots for Instant Support
One of the most recognizable implementations of AI in customer experience is the use of chatbots. These virtual assistants, powered by AI and natural language processing, enable businesses to provide instant and personalized support to customers. Whether answering queries, assisting with product selection, or guiding through troubleshooting processes, chatbots enhance the overall customer service experience by delivering timely and accurate information.
Example: Many e-commerce websites deploy AI-driven chatbots to engage with visitors, address queries, and facilitate seamless browsing and purchasing experiences.
2. Personalized Recommendations
AI algorithms excel at analyzing customer data to offer personalized product recommendations. Whether it’s suggesting similar items based on past purchases or showcasing products aligned with individual preferences, these recommendation engines significantly contribute to a more tailored and enjoyable shopping experience.
Example: Streaming platforms like Netflix use AI to analyze viewing history and provide personalized content recommendations, keeping users engaged and satisfied.
3. Predictive Analytics for Anticipating Needs
AI’s predictive analytics capabilities empower businesses to anticipate customer needs and preferences. By analyzing historical data, AI systems can forecast trends, helping businesses stay ahead of customer expectations. This proactive approach allows companies to offer relevant products or services before customers even express their requirements.
Example: Retailers use AI to predict inventory needs, ensuring products are available when customers want them, thus reducing stockouts and improving overall satisfaction.
4. Voice Assistants for Seamless Interactions
The rise of voice-activated AI assistants, such as Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri, has transformed how customers interact with devices. These virtual assistants enhance convenience by allowing users to perform various tasks, from setting reminders to making purchases, using natural language commands.
Example: Smart home devices leverage AI voice assistants to provide hands-free control, creating a frictionless experience for users.
5. Sentiment Analysis for Customer Feedback
AI-driven sentiment analysis tools sift through vast amounts of customer feedback, including reviews and social media comments, to gauge sentiment. This valuable insight allows businesses to understand how customers feel about their products or services, enabling them to make data-driven improvements and respond to issues promptly.
Example: Airlines use sentiment analysis to assess customer feedback on social media, addressing concerns and improving overall customer satisfaction.
These examples showcase the versatility of AI in enhancing various facets of the customer experience. As technology continues to advance, the integration of AI will likely become even more sophisticated, offering businesses new and innovative ways to exceed customer expectations.
How AI Has Improved Customer Experience
Artificial intelligence has emerged as a driving force behind significant improvements in the customer experience industry. These technologies have enhanced the way businesses engage with customers, and have enhanced every step of the customer journey. Here are just a few areas where AI has contributed to creating a more seamless, personalized, and satisfying customer experience.
1. Personalization at Scale
AI has ushered in an era of hyper-personalization, allowing businesses to tailor their offerings to individual customer preferences at scale. Machine learning algorithms analyze vast datasets, including customer behavior, purchase history, and interactions, to provide personalized recommendations and content. This level of customization not only delights customers by offering what they want but also fosters brand loyalty and long-term relationships.
Example: E-commerce platforms leverage AI to analyze customer browsing and purchasing behavior, presenting personalized product recommendations that align with individual tastes and preferences.
2. Proactive Customer Service
AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants have redefined customer service by offering instantaneous and proactive support. These intelligent systems can handle routine inquiries, provide product information, and assist with problem-solving in real time. By addressing customer needs promptly, businesses enhance the overall service experience and ensure that customers feel heard and valued.
Example: Customer support chatbots on websites provide instant responses to frequently asked questions, guiding users through common issues and ensuring a swift resolution.
3. Streamlining Customer Journey
AI optimizes the entire customer journey by streamlining processes and reducing friction at every touchpoint. From browsing products to making a purchase, AI technologies analyze user behavior to identify potential pain points and optimize the journey for a smoother experience. This results in reduced wait times, faster transaction processes, and an overall more efficient and enjoyable customer journey.
Example: Mobile banking apps utilize AI to analyze user interactions, streamlining the process of transferring funds, checking balances, and completing other financial transactions.
4. Data-Driven Decision-Making
AI empowers businesses to make informed decisions by extracting actionable insights from vast amounts of customer data. Through predictive analytics, businesses can anticipate customer needs, identify trends, and tailor their strategies accordingly. This data-driven approach ensures that businesses stay ahead of market dynamics and provide services that align with evolving customer expectations.
Example: Retailers use AI to analyze purchasing patterns and predict future trends, enabling them to stock inventory strategically and offer products that are likely to be in high demand.
5. Enhanced Security and Fraud Detection
In an era where online security is paramount, AI has significantly improved customer trust by enhancing security measures. AI algorithms can detect and prevent fraudulent activities, protecting both businesses and customers from potential threats. This not only safeguards sensitive information but also instills confidence in customers when engaging in online transactions.
Example: Financial institutions deploy AI to analyze transaction patterns and detect anomalies that may indicate fraudulent activities, ensuring a secure banking experience for customers.
New AI Trends in Customer Experience
As businesses continue to embrace the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the landscape of customer experience is witnessing dynamic shifts driven by emerging trends. These trends not only reflect the ongoing evolution of AI technologies but also offer a glimpse into the future of customer interactions.
1. AI-Powered Visual Search
Visual search capabilities are on the rise, enabling customers to search and discover products using images rather than text queries. AI algorithms analyze visual data, allowing users to find products similar to what they capture with their cameras or upload as images. This trend enhances the efficiency of product discovery, making the shopping experience more intuitive and visually driven.
Example: Retailers incorporate visual search capabilities in their mobile apps, allowing users to take pictures of products and find similar items in their inventory.
2. Augmented Reality (AR) for Immersive Experiences
The integration of Augmented Reality (AR) into customer experiences is becoming increasingly prevalent. AI enhances AR applications by analyzing user interactions and tailoring augmented content based on individual preferences. This trend offers customers immersive and interactive experiences, particularly in industries such as retail, where virtual try-ons and product visualizations are gaining popularity.
Example: Furniture retailers use AR applications to allow customers to visualize how a piece of furniture will look in their homes before making a purchase.
3. AI Ethics and Responsible AI Practices
As AI becomes more integral to customer experiences, the ethical implications of its use are garnering increased attention. The trend towards AI ethics involves implementing responsible AI practices to ensure fairness, transparency, and accountability. Businesses are recognizing the importance of addressing bias in AI algorithms and adopting ethical frameworks to build trust with their customers.
Example: Companies are actively working on minimizing biases in AI algorithms to ensure fair and equitable treatment of all customers, regardless of demographics.
How Can AI Upgrade Customer Experience Analysis?
On a basic level, customers aren’t going to shop at or buy from a company if they don’t have a good customer experience. But the customer experience can be incredibly complicated, involving everything from the visual appeal of the product to the way a customer service representative walks them through a technical problem. Thus, a huge pain point is created for businesses in that they need to sort through the nuances and make informed decisions at the executive level that also positively impact the end user.
As an example, here is what InMoment is able to pull from a simple review compared to our biggest competitor. While our competitors are limited to surface-level observations, InMoment empowers your organization to delve deeper, unveiling richer insights that include uncovering customer intent. Whether it’s an intent to purchase or a potential churn, InMoment equips you to promptly take the necessary actions.
InMoment’s Award-Winning AI Technology for CX
InMoment can give you the tools to utilize AI for customer experience, but it doesn’t end there. We have also helped customers like Foot Locker and La-Z-Boy manage loads of structured and unstructured data, uncover the voice of the customer, and improve their key metrics. You can see what InMoment can do for your business by booking a demo today! But if you’re still curious to learn about the latest trends with AI in CX, read our latest consumer trends report.
With so much riding on each interaction with your brand, you can’t afford to leave a negative customer experience unresolved. Research shows that it takes about 12 positive experiences to make up for one unresolved negative experience. In fact, a study by Lee Resources reveals that 91% of unhappy customers won’t return to your brand at all. That’s where a closed-loop system comes in!
What Is a Closed-Loop System?
A closed-loop system is “the ability to identify and resolve individual customer issues and larger organizational patterns and trends based on those issues while communicating solutions back to customers and employees,” as defined by Bain & Company in “The Ultimate Question 2.0.”
This system consists of an inner loop, the ability to identify and resolve individual customer issues while communicating solutions back to customers and employees, and the outer loop, the ability to identify and resolve larger organizational patterns and trends based on individual customer issues while communicating solutions back to customers and employees.
Why Is a Closed-Loop System Important?
And though closed-loop systems have been around for a while now, they are still just as vital to your customer experience (CX) program! Here are just a few reasons why:
A closed-loop system gives you a competitive advantage. Many organizations don’t have a formal process for closing the customer feedback loop. If you have one, that places you above more than half of the competition in terms of making your customers feel seen and heard.
A closed-loop system increases your customer loyalty. Did you know that 83% of customers feel more loyal to brands that respond and resolve their complaints? Getting feedback is one thing, but acting on that feedback is what will keep your customers coming back time and time again.
A closed-loop system will decrease customer churn. By reducing your customer defection rate by just 5% using an effective closed-loop system, you can increase profits by 25-95%!
Additional benefits that come from putting effort into closing the customer feedback loop:
Prevent problems – By implementing a closed-loop element into a customer feedback program like Net Promoter Score, you can identify problems before they escalate. Using automation and data analytics, you can recognize recurring themes in customer surveys that need to be addressed to avoid those same problems for future customers.
Discover upsell opportunities – Even satisfied customers can have great feedback on how you can improve your product or service. Maybe you don’t offer a product in a certain color, or something on the website is confusing. Either way, there is always room for improvement, and those improvements can become upsells for your customers.
Create and foster long-term relationships – When a customer feels that you listen to their concerns and respond to them, they are more likely to be return customers and bring referrals. Every time you acknowledge your customers for taking the time to provide feedback, you are strengthening your relationship with them.
Retain current customers – studies show that returning customers spend 60% more money on purchases and provide more referrals than new customers. It is also 5 to 25 times more expensive to find new customers than to retain existing ones. By closing the customer feedback loop, you help customers feel more loyal to your brand and come back for more.
Avoid customer churn – 89% of customers switch brands after a bad experience with a company if the company does not respond to their problems or complaints.
Are you convinced? Great! Now that you’re on board, we’ve outlined the 7 most important steps you need to take to get started with an effective closed-loop system.
Getting Started with a Closed-Loop System
1. Get Executive Buy-In
Customer experience is an investment, and for your program to have a positive impact—and succeed—you need buy-in from your executive team. For best results, we’ve found that closed-loop pilot programs focused on a few locations usually are the easiest for executives to get behind. With fewer locations, it’s easier to prove the efficacy of the program without straining your brand’s resources too much.
2. Prioritize Initiatives
Implementing a closed-loop system is a marathon, not a sprint. No matter the size of your company, setting up your program will take time. As your program matures, look for the easy wins to gain credibility and prove success within your organization. Once you’ve found your stride, gradually move on to more complicated issues.
3. Harness Existing Business Knowledge
Identify employees with an understanding of your organization’s operations, and empower them to resolve customer issues as they occur. Your employees know your business and are in a unique position to help your customers and quickly close the loop on customer issues.
4. Commit to Faster Resolution
As technology advances and the customer experience evolves, consumers expect more and more from your brand. Expectations have risen to the point that 42% of consumers said that if they contact your brand for support, they expect a response within 60 minutes. Resolve customer issues in a timely fashion, and your customers will reward you with repeat business and brand advocacy throughout the years.
5. Increase Organizational Agility
Don’t get too comfortable with the way things have always been done in regard to your CX program. Treat every customer issue as you would if you were a small business, and resolve it as quickly—and personably—as possible. Customers want to feel special, and the quicker you’re able to adapt to individual customer issues, the more you’ll be able to reduce customer churn and ensure organizational success.
6. Make Individual Contact
Your customers don’t care about the size of your business; they care about how your brand treats them on a personal level. Study your brand’s customer journey, gather feedback, and identify ways to increase the amount of personal contact during the process of resolving a customer issue. A simple note or phone call can have a profound impact on the success of your program.
7. Empower Your Employees
As mentioned earlier, your employees understand the way your organization operates better than anyone else. This knowledge puts them in a unique position to understand customer issues and know the right solution for resolving the problem. Have faith in your employees and give them the autonomy they need to address customer issues on a case-by-case basis and resolve them as efficiently and personably as possible.
The Value of Closing the Loop
Closed-loop systems are one of the most effective ways to not only reduce customer churn but proves the financial impact of your brand’s customer experience program. One client of ours implemented a closed-loop system that helped them identify nearly $23 million in potential revenue.
Other studies have found that closed-loop programs help retain customers, which can increase company value (up to 30%) and increase profits (up to 125%).
You can learn more from InMoment expert Jim Katzman about the value of closing the loop in his article here.
3 Myths Around Closed Loop Systems
When developing an effective closed-loop system, it is just as important to think about what to do as well as what NOT to do. We’ve put together a list of 3 myths revolving around closed-loop systems—and what you can do to avoid them.
Myth #1: Closed-Loop Systems Are Not Profitable
An effective closed-loop system will not only help you break even, it will help save you money! While many people think that closed-loop systems handle singular cases, they actually help you identify business trends and get ahead of them! By anticipating, not merely reacting, to your customer’s needs, you’ll be improving experiences before they even happen.
Myth #2: Closed-Loop Systems Are Only Relevant for Certain Industries
There is a stigma surrounding closed-loop systems—that they only belong in certain industries, such as retail or food service. While those industries definitely benefit from closed-loop systems, they are not the only ones with something to gain! Every business, regardless of the industry they operate in, can benefit from a system that gives you the ability to identify the next best action for a customer and address the root cause of issues to ensure continuous improvement.
Checkout this case study to see how one of our Financial Services clients utilized a closed-loop system to improve their NPS score as well as other business-specific metrics!
Myth #3: Closed-Loop Systems Are Too Complex
A system that allows you to quickly respond to customer complaints, analyze data to identify customer trends, and share knowledge within your organization to create a holistic view of the customer experience? It sounds like it would be a headache to implement. Well, that couldn’t be further from the truth—if you have the right partner!
Automating the Customer Feedback Loop-Closing Process
Closing the loop shouldn’t be a complex process, with automation you can simplify the method. For example, if you use Intercom to communicate with customers, you’re in luck. It’s extremely easy to implement a customer experience (CX) program that will close the customer feedback loop with InMoment’s entirely code-free Intercom Messenger Integration and start gathering feedback right in Intercom chat. InMoment’s NPS microsurvey can be integrated with Intercom Messenger with one click and survey responses automatically appear in Intercom user records. This makes it easy to set up automated follow-up messages to survey respondents based on their sentiment. Whether or not you use Intercom and InMoment, you can adapt a closed-loop process to your own systems as you handle customer feedback.
Real-Life Example of an Automated Closed-Loop System
Lead-gen software startup Albacross recently shared how they were able to swiftly automate a full-cycle NPS program. While the team started by simply sending NPS surveys through Intercom, they quickly realized the value in closing the customer feedback loop with all of their respondents–detractors, passives, and promoters. For Albacross, automating a close-the-loop process took just a few simple steps and the results have been incredible. Albacross has been able to understand its detractors on a whole new level, and they’ve been able to leverage promoters to drive more business.
Ask Detractors for Product Feedback
Sure, it might not feel great when you’ve received some low scores from valued customers on your customer surveys. But, qualitative feedback from detractors can become a guiding light for your organization as it chooses what issues and insights it wants to prioritize in closing the customer feedback loop. You should also pay attention to detractors because a low score is often an indicator of customers who are at higher risk of churn. In other words, it’s crucial that you leverage your detractors – there is so much that you can learn from them. And, it’s quite simple – here’s how Albacross automated their messages for detractors:
For users who rate their app low (0-6), Albacross sends two Intercom messages that ask for additional feedback. The main purpose of asking for additional customer feedback is to start the conversation and gain a deeper understanding of how the customer feels, what they’re struggling with, and why they’re disappointed.
Albacross sends messages via email:
and via in-app messages that appear immediately after the user completes the survey:
When creating these automated messages, it’s important that you pay great attention to the simplicity and brevity of the message you’re sending out. In this case, Albacross only asks users for a single thing that they can improve to make it as easy as possible for customers to answer.
Ask Promoters to review you on Capterra or G2 Crowd
What about all of your promoters? How can you make use of all this praise and admiration coming from your customers?
Here’s the answer: close the customer feedback loop by getting your promoters to share their experience on online review sites.
Online reviews are of utmost importance in a buyer’s evaluation process, especially in the B2B world, since these transactions often involve many people and large investments of money. According to a study done by G2 Crowd and Heinz Marketing, 71% of B2B buyers look at online reviews during the consideration stage. In addition, 92% of B2B buyers are more likely to purchase after reading a trusted review. By getting happy customers to share their positive experiences online, your organization can build credibility, improve trust, and increase brand awareness among potential buyers. If you’ve got happy customers, the momentum is already there – it’s now your job to transfer that positive momentum from your surveys to review sites.
Let’s take a look at how Albacross closes the loop with their promoters.
For users who give the app a passive rating (7-8), Albacross sends an email of gratitude to let them know that they appreciate the user’s feedback. This is sent via in-app message.
You’ll notice that Albacross’s message is short and sweet, and at the end, they ask their users to leave them a review on Capterra.
For users who rate the app very high (9-10), the Albacross team sends an email with similar content, but this email is sent from their CEO.
Closing the Customer Feedback Loop with Automation Leads to Results
Automating your close-the-loop process is guaranteed to uncover invaluable insights and drive high-impact action, whether that’s fixing a common issue for detractors or sending promoters to a review site to share their praise for your product. We cannot stress the value of closing the customer feedback loop enough.
In the case of Albacross, their efforts in closing the customer feedback loop and automating their program saw two key tangible effects:
Albacross’s NPS Score is consistently climbing. In just a short period of time, Albacross has more than 2x’ed their NPS score. Anyone with any experience with NPS knows that this is not an easy feat.
Secondly, Albacross now has a rating of 4.5/5 and 100+ reviews on Capterra. Most of the reviews that they’ve gathered recently have come from promoters who were directed to Capterra from Albacross’s automated Intercom messages.
So, go forth and close the customer feedback loop with survey respondents. It’s easy when you automate!
For more tips and tricks on closing the customer feedback loop, read our whitepaper designed to help you learn all you need to know to help you make a difference in your company using customer feedback.
Get the Closed-Loop System Starter Kit with InMoment’s Closed-Loop Action Package
Not sure where to start? No worries, we are here to help. We have developed a Closed-Loop Action Package that contains everything you need to get started with a system that will improve your business tomorrow, today!
Our Closed-Loop Action Package consists of four products: Case Management, Alerts & Notifications, Moments, and Reporting. Let’s break down what those are and what they mean for your business.
Case Management: Manage, track, prioritize, and resolve customer experience cases. Supports the ability to track communications with customers about their experience and helps to surface the root cause of customer issues from the employee perspective. Case Management is available on all managed survey programs purchased with XI Platform and allows for flexible filtering, for example, case status (closure or expiration), case owner, or case timer
Alerts & Notifications: Provides the ability to notify designated users based on specified criteria which may include scores and/or verbatim content tags. Includes up to 5 notification workflows per survey program from employee recognition, phrase/score recognition, and customer rescue alerts. Alerts can be sent via email, text, or other custom systems.
Moments: Case Management integrates with the Moments mobile application to enable the creation of cases and close the feedback loop on the go. With Moments, users can create and amend favorite collections, share feedback, create a case, mark moments invalid, or complete and close the loop so they get the insights they need to take immediate action.
Reporting: Offers insights into closed-loop data. Users can visualize and monitor cases at a high level. Program owners can immediately see stats such as average days to close a case, hours to first action, and number of escalated cases.
Voice of Employee: Supports the ability to track communications with customers about their experience and helps to surface the root cause of customer issues from the employee’s perspective. Incorporate the voice of the employee tasked with case resolution with a built-in questionnaire to uncover actionable intelligence from your employees; including customer and employee sentiment, and the root cause of the customer issue.
Khoros. Must-Know customer service statistics of 2023 (so far) (https://khoros.com/blog/must-know-customer-service-statistics). Accessed 3/12/2024.
Forbs. Don’t Spend 5 Times More Attracting New Customers, Nurture the Existing Ones (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jiawertz/2018/09/12/dont-spend-5-times-more-attracting-new-customers-nurture-the-existing-ones/). Accessed 3/12/2024.
Help Scout. 107 Customer Service Statistics and Facts You Shouldn’t Ignore (https://www.helpscout.net/75-customer-service-facts-quotes-statistics/). Accessed 3/12/2024.
In the modern consumer-led environment, the customer experience is of paramount importance. Whether you’re offering omnichannel contact center solutions like we do at RingCentral or work in online retail, you must go the extra mile to ensure that your customers enjoy the best possible client experience. Because if you don’t improve customer experience, you can rest assured that your competitors will.
Where once the emphasis might have been on clever publicity schemes or B2B affiliate marketing, now businesses recognize that these methods – though they remain hugely important and valuable—need to be complemented by a laser-like focus on customer experience. Without that focus, you’ll find that consumers explore other options, and take their business where they feel it’s more valued.
Delivering exceptional customer experiences requires a wholehearted commitment across your company. That’s from the most senior management at the top, to the staff dealing directly with customers on the shop floor (or in the call center). It also requires a willingness to ask awkward questions about your own business, and a preparedness to confront – and address – any failings you might identify.
To improve customer experience and make your client encounters the best they can possibly be, you need to ensure that each interaction a consumer has with your business is smooth, consistent, and straightforward. You must also attend to their needs and concerns. Whether you’re showing customers how to record a webinar or helping them find the right furniture for their home, the same fundamental principles apply.
With all this in mind, then, it should be apparent that customer experience is vitally important to scaling a business. But what particular customer experience competencies can boost your business’s growth? This is what we’ll discuss in this guide, but first, we’ll look in more detail at exactly why the customer experience is of such overwhelming importance.
Furthermore, it is important to note that these expectations have changed quite dramatically in a relatively short period of time. The sheer choice available online has made it easier for consumers to shop around and explore alternative options. It’s no longer a matter of competing with businesses in your local vicinity, as there is (almost literally) a world of options out there for people to choose from.
Offering an exceptional customer experience, then, can have all sorts of welcome consequences. As we’ve discussed, it’s essential to ensuring long-term customer loyalty, thereby putting your whole business on a firmer footing. In addition, it also encourages positive word of mouth. Customers promoting your business to their friends and colleagues, and thereby (hopefully) bringing more custom your way.
The most important thing to remember with regard to customer experience is that the power these days lies with the consumer. No longer is it possible to pull the wool over their eyes with sub-standard products and services. The bar has been substantially raised, and this is the reality you must adapt yourself to.
Understanding Customer Expectations
Understanding customer expectations is crucial for businesses seeking to improve customer experience. It begins with identifying customer needs and desires, diving deep into what truly matters to them. By actively listening and gathering feedback, businesses can uncover valuable insights to tailor their products and services accordingly. Recognizing key touchpoints, such as initial contact, purchase, and post-sales support, allows businesses to focus their efforts and resources where it matters most. Mapping the customer journey provides a holistic view of the entire customer experience, enabling businesses to identify pain points and opportunities for improvement. By thoroughly understanding customer expectations, businesses can deliver personalized and exceptional experiences that leave a lasting positive impression.
So, now that we’ve clarified just why customer experience is so vital, we need to discuss the competencies that can transform your business for the better and send its growth soaring into the stratosphere, as well as creating a healthier business environment for everybody involved.
Here are five customer experience competencies which you must be continually focused upon:
1) Prioritize the Customer
It might seem like an obvious point to make, but to deliver the best possible customer experience, you need to genuinely prioritize the needs of the customer. This is of the utmost importance whether you’re promoting a video hosting platform or trying to tempt people to try a new restaurant.
The exact experiences that people expect differ from sector to sector, of course, but prioritizing the customer must remain constant across the board.
Customers need to feel that they are the focus of your attention at all times. They need to feel valued at all times. This needs to involve more than just rhetoric or platitudes. Your plan to improve customer experience must be backed with a plan for action, including the resources necessary to back it up. Set clear metrics and use hard data to measure customer experience management.
2) Be Prepared to Engage
Another point that needs to be kept in mind is that customer engagement is an integral part of delivering exceptional experiences. Consumers these days love to give their opinions, and most of the time they don’t require much prompting to do so. This is something your business has to be properly prepared for. Customer engagement, therefore, needs to be a leading priority for your business.
It’s best to take the initiative yourself. Be proactive in your efforts to seek customers’ opinions, and provide your own outlets where clients can offer them. Of course, people will use social media too, so be alert to any discussion of your business there. Also, when customers provide feedback, listen to it. They may highlight issues of which you were previously unaware, and it’s always frustrating for customers to feel their views aren’t taken seriously.
3) Demonstrate Firm and Open Leadership
Much is often made of the importance of purposeful and strong leadership in business, and there’s little doubt that this can make a huge difference. The value of entrepreneurialism has been proven over many years, from the largest multinational corporations to the smallest mom-and-pop retail outlets. But when it comes to customer experience, business leaders themselves must be prepared to be led by customers.
Business leadership must, therefore, accept the necessity of customer-centric growth. This involves heeding the views of consumers and maintaining an intimate understanding of exactly what they’re looking for. This doesn’t mean following the whims of customers blindly, however. It’s a question of distinguishing the good ideas, ones that can genuinely advance your business, from the fly-by-night suggestions.
4) Get Employee Buy-in
Following on from the previous point, leadership isn’t about dictating from on high and then leaving everybody else to make sense of the latest diktat. If we’re working to improve customer experience, we need to make sure that an ethos of prioritizing the consumer’s needs saturates the whole business. This means that the entire team, from top to bottom, needs to buy into the idea.
Employees must be provided with the resources, tools, and training they need to provide customers with outstanding experiences. They could be helping a customer find the perfect holiday gift or undertaking a Google Analytics health check for a client. Either way, they need to be supported and encouraged in their efforts to enhance customer experiences.
5) Build Strong Brand Values
We’ve touched upon the importance of having a clear and compelling ethos. This also needs to inform the general values of your brand. You have to remember that customers will hold you accountable if your business, its products, and services don’t live up to the various values you espouse. Whether it be a commitment to attentive customer service, unbeatable value for money, or simply a pledge of consistent quality in all areas.
Also, it’s crucial that your values aren’t just hot air. They have to relate in a concrete way to what your business is doing. Your team must understand how the work they do ties into the broader values your business has articulated. It’s not enough to reel off some superficial platitudes and then try to present these as a mission statement. They have to actually mean something, and what’s more, they have to be seen to mean something by customers.
6) Designing Intuitive User Interfaces
Designing intuitive user interfaces is essential for creating a seamless and satisfying digital customer experience. One key aspect is simplifying website navigation, ensuring that users can effortlessly find the information or products they are looking for. By organizing content in a logical and user-friendly manner, businesses can reduce frustration and improve engagement, ultimately leading to higher conversion rates.
Optimizing mobile responsiveness is another crucial element in today’s mobile-centric world. With more users accessing websites through smartphones and tablets, it is imperative to provide a seamless and enjoyable mobile experience. Responsive design ensures that websites adapt to different screen sizes and resolutions, allowing users to easily navigate and interact with the content. By prioritizing mobile responsiveness, businesses can cater to the needs and preferences of their mobile users, enhancing their overall satisfaction.
Streamlining the checkout and conversion processes is vital for minimizing cart abandonment and maximizing conversions. Long and complex checkout procedures often deter users from completing their purchase. By simplifying the steps, minimizing form fields, and offering convenient payment options, businesses can create a frictionless experience that encourages users to convert. Streamlining the conversion process not only improves the user experience but also increases the likelihood of repeat purchases and fosters customer loyalty.
Measuring and Analyzing Customer Experience
Measuring and analyzing customer experience is vital for businesses to understand and enhance their interactions with customers. Key metrics serve as valuable indicators of customer satisfaction and loyalty. Metrics such as Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), and Customer Effort Score (CES) provide quantitative insights into the overall customer experience. Collecting and analyzing customer feedback through surveys, reviews, and social media monitoring allows businesses to gain qualitative insights into customer perceptions and identify areas for improvement. By actively listening to customers, businesses can address their pain points and meet their expectations more effectively. Additionally, utilizing customer journey analytics provides a holistic view of the customer’s end-to-end experience across multiple touchpoints. This helps businesses identify moments of friction or delight along the customer journey, enabling them to optimize each stage and enhance the overall experience. By measuring and analyzing customer experience, businesses can make data-driven decisions, implement targeted improvements, and ultimately deliver a more personalized and satisfying experience that fosters customer loyalty and drives business growth.
Conclusion
It’s very easy to tell customers how important they are and how concerned you are to ensure their happiness. There’s scarcely a business in the world that doesn’t tell its customers how important they are, and how valued their opinions are, and so on. But far fewer businesses actually uphold standards like these. The crucial test for your business is to prove to customers that their welfare and satisfaction is your number one concern.
That said, if you can prove your sincerity, then improving the customer experience is the natural result. After all, when clients know that you are on their side, then they’re likely to be much more willing to work with you to optimize all aspects of your business.
In this guide, we’ve listed some of the core competencies which your business will need if it is to make these commitments into an everyday reality. Of course, the exact steps your business has to take to improve customer experience will vary according to a number of factors. They include the resources at its disposal, what competitors are offering, the sector it’s competing in, and so on.
You should also remember that your focus will inevitably change as your business prospers and expands. Nevertheless, you must redouble your efforts to ensure that your customers remain at the heart of what you do, and that you don’t lose sight of your original mission and purpose.
John Allen is Director, Global SEO at RingCentral, a global UCaaS, VoIP, and cti software provider. He has over 14 years of experience and an extensive background in building and optimizing digital marketing programs. RingCentral is a Wootric customer.
Customer experience (CX) surveys are foundational to soliciting the customer feedback you need to power your CX program, and many of these surveys are sent via email. However, the first step to receiving that survey feedback can be one of the most difficult: getting your customer to open your email.
When it comes to open rates, your email’s subject line is more important than you might think it is. Two helpful email stats drive this point home:
69% of recipients will look only at the subject line before flagging an email as spam.
47% of recipients decide to open an email based only on the subject line.
If you’re trying to figure out all the possible reasons why your survey emails aren’t getting decent open rates, it makes sense to start with your subject lines.
5 Tips to Help You Write Engaging Email Survey Subject Lines
Tip #1: Establish the Right Tone
Effective customer interaction is super dependent on speaking your audience’s language. This doesn’t just refer to the words and terms you use in your emails, even though that is obviously also extremely important.
No, we’re referring to your “voice” here – where you pitch the subject line on the “familiarity” spectrum. On the one side of this spectrum is “ultra conversational,” and on the other side, “ultra professional.”
On the conversational side, you’ll use language that makes your recipients feel like they’re being asked a question by a friend or a trusted colleague. These subject lines should make the recipient feel comfortable because they have an approachable tone.
Here are some examples:
“A quick question for you”
“Leslie, got a sec? ”
On the professional side of the spectrum, you’re using language that builds trust in your brand’s ability to take your service seriously. You don’t have to come off pompous or like you’ve swallowed a thesaurus. Stick to the point, and treat the recipient like someone who appreciates professionalism in the workplace.
“We’d genuinely appreciate feedback on our performance.”
“Leslie, how can we make you more productive?”
There are quite a few things to consider when choosing the tone of your survey email subject lines. Your brand image is arguably the most important, but things like recipient demographics and the industry you’re playing in should also play a role.
Building buyer personas is a standard practice in digital marketing. Many successful businesses go through this process to understand exactly who they’re selling to. This data is invaluable when deciding on the tone of your survey email subject lines.
What you use to customize the subject line will obviously depend on the data you have on the customer. Using their name is an obvious starting point. However, you can also reference their most recent purchase if your CRM has logged it. Or a virtual event they attended. A modern CX platform can grab this info and personalize the subject line.
If you’re online mattress retailer Zoma and you’re sending out a customer satisfaction (CSAT) survey email to find out how a support query was handled, if the shipping went well, or if the customer is satisfied with the quality of a recent purchase, you could take one of the following approaches:
“How did we do on your support query [#66456]?”
“James, how was the webinar with DocuSign?”
“How’s that Zoma mattress working out?”
Showing evidence that the email comes from a reputable origin (i.e., the actual company they interacted with) is critical if you want to maximize that open rate.
By using their name and referencing their purchase, you’re landing a one-two punch of credibility and massively increasing the chances of a response.
Tip #3: Talk About Benefits
Let’s be frank here. When you send out a net promoter score (NPS) survey email, you’re basically asking an established customer to take time out of their day to reveal their feelings about your brand despite there being no immediate reward in it for them.
But that shouldn’t stop you from letting your recipients know that their feedback will result in long-term benefits for you and them.
Good feedback — both positive and negative — means improved service for everyone. A large number of honest responses will help you get better at designing new product features. Let your recipients know! Make them feel like their voice is important and that it benefits them to be heard.
Here’s an example. If you’re an energy services company like Ecopreneurist, and you’re sending out an NPS survey, you may want to try subject lines like these:
“Help us get even better at saving you energy.”
“Leslie, your feedback helps us save you money.”
Even though the email content will ask them a typical NPS question like “How likely are you to recommend Ecopreneurist to a friend?” the subject line can illustrate the eventual reward customers will experience by responding.
There’s a genuine correlation between improved service and receiving this type of information from customers. There’s no reason you can’t creatively leverage this relationship to create highly engaging subject lines.
Tip #4: Ask Your Recipients a Question
A good subject line engages the recipient. You’ll want the subject line to make them think and feel something. Trigger their thoughts and their emotions.
A great way to do this is by asking a question.
The right question can trigger introspection. It can make the recipient think about something they want to share with you.
A SaaS company like ShowMojo might employ a customer effort score (CES) survey to help them spot inefficiencies and/or improve in two areas:
Onboarding. Good onboarding helps ensure “trial subscribers” see the product’s value and eventually become paying customers, and it’s a critical step in maximizing a subscriber’s lifetime value (LTV).
Product features. A CES survey can gauge how easily customers are adopting a new product feature and help you optimize for improved adoption.
In both cases, positioning the survey in question form is a great way to maximize open rates. For example:
“How hard was the migration to ShowMojo?”
“How easy was it to create a new rental dashboard?”
You can see in the above examples that the subject lines don’t even mention the survey. The two questions are directed at the customer and their experience.
Tip #5: Keep It Simple and Short
You should keep your survey email subject lines to under 50 characters to be sure everyone sees it. The number of people opening emails using their mobile phones is increasing every year. And the limited amount of real estate on a mobile device means that subject lines are often truncated.
Yes, it’s hard to make a compelling case for someone to open an unsolicited email using so few words, so take your time writing. Constantly try whittling the number of characters and words down to an absolute minimum without compromising your core message.
Let’s take a look at some concise and effective customer survey subject line examples:
“Are we doing a good job, Leslie?”
“Where can we improve?”
“We’re always looking for honest feedback.”
“Give it to us straight; we can take it.”
A Quick Word on Open Rate Benchmarks
What kind of open rates should you expect from your survey emails? Having a sense of benchmarks is critical if you intend to measure how effective your new subject lines are.
According to our customers’ results, an open rate over 20% is solid, with only a small number of emails achieving a 30% open rate. If you see this level of engagement, you’re probably doing multiple things right. If it’s below this figure, realize there’s room for improvement and review your subject line copy against our recommendations.
Some Final Thoughts
Regardless of what industry you’re operating in, certain best practices will always be relevant when crafting email subject lines.
Here’s a summary of the most important things to bear in mind (along with a fifth bonus tip):
Personalize as much as possible.
Tell recipients about the benefits of completing the survey.
Ask a question.
Keep it short and to the point.
Try to keep your subject lines under 50 characters.
Avoid spammy words like “opportunity,” “offer,” “cash,” “discount,” or “click here.”
There’s little point in rethinking your subject line strategy if you’re not backing up your efforts with data on the success or failure of a new approach.
You’ll want to A/B test your survey emails. A simple way to do this is:
Split your email recipients into two groups (Group A and Group B).
Target Group A with subject line A. “Welcome! How was the sign-up process?
Target Group B with subject line B. “Answer one question and help us improve.”
Measure each email’s open rate. If Group A gets a higher open, a post-onboarding greeting works well for your new customers.
By A/B testing your email subject lines over time, you gain valuable knowledge about the subject lines that resonate with your customer base. Not only will that information help you with your specific survey, but it can also help other CX-focused teams optimize their customer communications as well.
Want to learn more about best practices for surveys? Check out this white paper from the experts! And if you want to learn more about how you can listen to your customers not only via surveys, but by leveraging data from social media, online reviews, and more, let’s chat!
As business professionals, our lives often involve one or more reports packed with market research data every week, if not every day, providing an onslaught of facts and insights. Most of us have experienced the fatigue and boredom brought about by too many facts and too little learning.
So, how can we deliver effective market research data reporting and communication of information and insights in a way that captures the imagination and garners interest and, more importantly, inspires action? Storytelling.
The Importance of Storytelling
The most critical ingredient of effective market research reporting comes in the shape of stories. Storytelling is rarely given the attention it deserves. If research is both art and science, we need to blow the dust off the art elements including writing, presenting, persuading, visual arts, theatrical arts, and the art of storytelling.
For the last few decades, with the dramatic increase of data and information availability, the users of information frequently find themselves in a tough place to make any meaningful conclusions. Especially in the marketing research industry, the research buyers have been identifying the lack of “a story” in the delivered reports by research suppliers. The users of research cry that they do not want just scores and statistics, rather they want a story that tells “what happened” or “why is that important” based on those scores and statistics.
4 Steps to Telling a Story with Market Research Data:
It is necessary to use a set of principles to find insights and then outline steps to successful communication of market research data and insights to business end-users. Consider this method:
Step #1: Understanding
Context is everything. Before designing a research study, it is critical to understand the business’s objectives, current environment and situation, pain points, the stakeholders’ interests, and the use of information. Researchers gather context about the business and the research needs through the clients, their organization, and other outside sources before planning and designing the study.
Step #2: Planning
Design a research study with the “end in mind” and look at the process from the end to the beginning. First, focus on the business objectives, then design the way to deliver the information to meet those objectives, then design the analytic plan to provide this information, and finally design the survey instrument and the sampling frame to collect the data to be analyzed.
Step #3: Discovery
When the data is collected, an essential step is to review the data and discover the story hidden in it. It is a common failure of many market research studies that the researchers deliver a long report of results from the study, basically a dump of information, question by question, without focusing on a story to answer the specific research and business objectives. Instead, a discovery phase needs to occur, where the data is reduced to a coherent story that will answer businesses’ research questions.
Step #4: Communication
Finally, now that the data is reduced to a story, how do you tell that story in the most effective way? This is the last and most important element of delivering research results, as only effective communication of results will accomplish the goal of meeting the business’s research objectives.
There are many ways of making the communication of research story effective, but we will focus on three of those ways here to share some best practices we implement for effective business reporting: Use of visuals, colors, and dashboards.
Use Graphics and Charts
When reporting on market research data, visual components are the centerpiece. A busy reader will often flip through and look at the main diagrams and charts in a report, much the same way that someone flips through a magazine or newspaper and looks at the pictures (and maybe reads the captions). To get your point across in a report, make sure that the visuals are conveying the point—don’t hide your conclusions in the accompanying text. Moreover, neuroscience tells us that recall is also better when accompanied by visual elements—something to which the reader can attach ideas.
Visuals in research reporting are generally either “graphics” or “charts.” Generally, charts visually plot the size of market research data, while graphics show the relationship between concepts/objects or the ow in a process. This distinction matters because graphics are useful for helping show the structure of the story we are telling, while charts are useful for clearly showing the evidence that backs our story. We utilize these graphics to tell a clear and concise story.
Graphics “show” in one complete picture these connections, whether it is a chronological order, a cause-and- effect relationship, or an organizational structure, in a simple pictorial way, making it easier to comprehend and recall. While graphics narrate the story and provide a way to visualize the market research data, charts fill in the details and support the points we are making.
The traditional style of research reporting often fails to engage the attention and therefore the brain of the reader, resulting in a lack of processing, memory and recall. There are ways to combat this problem, using editing and data density.
Editing refers to the process of cutting distracting content. Review the chart for repetition, for non-results, for unnecessary text that does not provide additional information, and for relevance to the main objectives. The editing step reduces long, repetitive charts.
Data Density refers to the quantity of market research data points that are shown in a given space. Instead of using repetitive charts to display multiple data series, we can use the idea of data density by combining multiple series on the same chart to improve the flow and interpretive richness of the report. When data elements are far apart in the report, insights can be missed. The human eye and mind are more adept at noticing patterns than we give it credit for, so dense data displays play to this strength of the brain and keeps it engaged.
An important step in creating better charts is focusing on the key elements and deleting the rest so as not to clutter the charts. Another way to increase data density is through interactivity. Interactivity means allowing the user (either a reader or a presenter) to interact with the data by making choices about what they want to see.
Convey the Story Quickly and Accurately
With increased amount of information available through various sources, it has become a major challenge for marketing research professionals to reduce the vast amount of data into meaningful messages for audiences. Many audiences find themselves flooded with just ‘data’ and ‘information’, overwhelmed with statistics and facts, and left without true insights that should inform marketing and strategic decisions.
To overcome this challenge, the key is to tell a story from the data. A coherent and clear story that is relatable to the audience will be more successful in capturing the audience’s attention, and will succeed in communicating the message by creating curiosity in the audience’s mind and engaging them in thinking.
Use of visuals is critical in presenting a successful story, but visuals need to be selected and constructed carefully to create the best effect on the audience. Editing and data density are key ways to improve the readability and effectiveness of reports. Interactivity uses the reader’s working memory to help them see localized patterns in the data.
These tools together make the evidence provided by the charts more powerful and relevant to the story. Understanding how people perceive and compare shapes in charts allows us to construct visuals that accurately and quickly convey the story.
Anytime you enter a retail store or dine at a restaurant, we bet you have some very definite expectations, one of which is to have a pleasant interaction with the staff. And as the world’s most successful brands know, in order to meet that expectation they need to provide both staff training and staff motivation to make that happen.
Employees, regardless of the products or services they provide, are the ones setting the tone for their company and brand. They are the ones on the front lines interacting with customers each and every day. And when employees are fully engaged and satisfied with their job, it shows. They become passionate advocates who positively affect the customer experience. The reverse is also true: When employees are not satisfied, they become liabilities to your brand.
The question is, then, “What is the critical element to helping employees engage in their work?” It’s called motivation, and you can’t have engagement without it.
Areas of Staff Motivation to Keep in Mind
Staff motivation can be a huge challenge for even the best location managers. With so much to manage during every operating hour, a manager’s ability to inspire and motivate employees is limited—but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done. Managers can greatly improve staff motivation by keeping these three areas in mind:
1. Focus: Ensure that employees are focusing on the right things to drive a positive customer experience. 2. Communication: Make sure communication is grounded in the customer experience. 3. Visibility: Keep the customer experience front and center in employee’s minds.
4 Strategies to Drive Staff Motivation for Location Managers
Location managers can master these key areas by implementing some simple and effective strategies in order to drive staff motivation in order to deliver a continued exceptional customer experience:
Strategy #1: Be Generous With Praise
It’s one of the easiest things you can give, not to mention it has a phenomenal cost-to-impact ratio. Praise every improvement you see in your team members, both in one-on-one situations and in front of their peers.
Strategy #2: Make Your Ideas Theirs
Don’t tell your staff what to do. Instead, consult with them in a way that helps them arrive at correct conclusions on their own. For example, ask, “What do you think about trying this?”
Strategy #3: Don’t Criticize or Correct
No one enjoys hearing that they did something wrong. Try an indirect approach to get people to improve, learn from their mistakes, and fix them. Ask, “What will you do differently if that situation arises again? Why?”
Strategy #4: Recognize and Reward
Give a shout out to top performing employees. Run contests or internal games with a simple incentive and keep track of results in an area that everyone can see. You can also leverage InMoment’s Moments, a motivational tool that helps everyone from frontline staff to executives to gain insight into real-time customer feedback, understand the role they play in the customer experience, and take action to improve experiences.
When you display Moment’s in the workplace, you can showcase location-specific feedback, allowing employees to see the state of the experience at their location. That means that when employees are called out by customers for the awesome work they do, they will see it, and so will their team members! This level of recognition gives staff members a direct view into their big-picture impact on the customers and the business, which creates additional motivation to perform in their role.
How Moments Helps Encourage Motivation from Frontline Staff to Executives
Moments empowers users to socialize and share customer and employee feedback, gain insights, and quickly take action to drive experience improvement while fostering a customer-first business approach. Here are just a few of the benefits:
Increased Visibility: Deliver high transparency to anyone from frontline staff to location managers, all the way up to executives on incoming customer and employee feedback through a curated data feed of comments published through filtered saved views tailored to users.
Instant Insights: Access experience feedback analytics that provide clarity into customer sentiment, themes and trends, NPS score, and more.
Organizational Engagement: Quickly distribute and socialize customer feedback and get the organization engaged with your customer experience program with an intuitive mobile application.
Improvement from Individual Verbatims: Armed with the right data, users can quickly share feedback with others, create a case for comments that need following up on, add a comment to a collection of similar feedback, and promote experience improvement by rewarding employees for positive feedback.
Case Management: Easily create a case for an experience(s) requiring followup through an integrated case platform. Users can track experiences and respond to feedback through the Moments mobile application and respond to feedback, and mark a case complete or invalid. Plus, users can view actions taken on any given experience for a historical record.
Digital Signage: Showcase filtered experience feedback views on a monitor or television to create a more customer-centric culture within an office environment (we even have Moment’s on display in every common space at InMoment HQ!)
If you take care of your staff and implement the above strategies, you’ll be well on your way to providing a great work environment. In turn, your locations and overall brand will continue to deliver an exceptional customer experience and benefit from return visits, active brand advocacy and loyalty, and, ultimately, an increase in revenue. And isn’t that what every business is looking for?
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a simple and highly effective way to determine the happiness of your customers. This one rating — how likely are you to recommend <company> — gives you valuable business insights from the need to fix specific issues quickly, to long-term trends. But what about the NPS follow-up question?
That’s where the more actionable insight comes from, because the customer is able to explain the “why” behind their rating with an open-text answer that gives you the good, bad, and the ugly of their experience.
By customizing your NPS follow-up question, you’re better able to gain the insight you need to improve your customer experience (CX) and increase Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). We have four simple ways you can approach creating the optimal follow-up question for your specific needs.
Retail brands’ primary objective used to be providing a great product, but as competition heats up and consumer expectations grow more complex, retailers need to find new, bolder ways to stand out from the crowd. And that’s why the retail customer experience is more important than ever before.
Consumers are no longer satisfied with “just” a product and are finding different, more fundamental means of identifying (and spending money) with brands.
Andrew Park, Vice President of Customer Experience Strategy & Enablement at InMoment, sat down with The Retail Focus Podcast to break down:
Where customers’ expectations have been
Where they’re going
What retailers can do to keep up with it all
What Is the Experience Economy?
As previously mentioned, customers used to consider a great product the end-all-be-all of an experience, but as those expectations have since evolved—and so must retail brands’ strategy. These days, retail customers prefer to spend money with brands that deliver great experiences, and great experiences go far beyond what’s on a store shelf.
It used to be that a retail experience consisted only of an in-store visit, but in this modern era (and especially since COVID), a customer’s retail experience spans so many different channels. For a customer, their overall experience is informed by a combination of the following:
You might sense what we’re getting at here: customers consider experiences to be journeys, not single stops—and brands that fail to approach their experience accordingly won’t be able to differentiate in the experience economy.
For example, an airline may consider a passenger’s flight the extent of that individual’s experience, but this view fails to account for buying a ticket, waiting in the airport, finding a hotel, and all the other parts of the journey besides ‘just’ the flight.
What Makes for a Great Retail Customer Experience Journey?
Brands that focus only on one aspect of the experience are missing a huge opportunity. The winning organizations in the modern experience landscape create journeys that are:
Seamless
Customers should receive the same quality of experience whether they are online, in store or in app. Obviously, there will be some differences in the actual experience (in store purchases provide instant satisfaction, while online requires customers to wait for shipping), but the quality must remain the same.
A positive example of consistency comes from one of our home furnishing clients, who prides itself on the knowledgeability of its staff in store. It wanted to provide that same quality of service on their e-commerce site, and was ultimately able to stand up an online chat that gave its customers instant access to expertise.
On the other end of the spectrum, it’s extremely disruptive to a customer when a product’s online and in-store price tags differ. Customers have come to expect seamless experiences—it’s key for brands to deliver on that expectation.
End-to-End
If you’re a regular on the InMoment Blog, you’ll be familiar with our phrase, “design with the end in mind.” And there’s a reason why we return to it time and time again. When it comes to retail customer experience (and really anything in life), if you aren’t actively thinking about your desired outcome when you’re in the planning stages, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll end up with the results you want.
So, when you are designing a customer journey, be sure to think about every step of the process, but especially the end result. Do you want customers to post about their new product? Share their excitement with friends and family? Come back for more next month? There is so much you can do to influence these actions, if only you plan for them.
Consistent
This one is pretty straightforward. If you provide consistently disappointing experiences (out of stock items, check out lines a mile long, etc.) you will be hard pressed to convince customers to return—or make a purchase in the first place. If you provide consistently excellent experiences, customers will be excited for the next time they get to shop with you, they’ll tell your friends about you, and they’ll likely buy more when they shop with you.
Now, creating consistency across multiple locations with numerous employees is a lot of work, but it is so worth it. Our proprietary research has even found that customers will spend more money with a company that provides a great experience. If you’re looking for strategies to increase consistency, check out this post or this post (centered more around your employees).
Say it with us: Designing best-in-class retail customer experience journeys is a worthwhile investment! In our decades of experience working with the world’s best known retailers, we’ve found that great customer experiences have big business pay off in these four areas:
Customers Expect Great Retail Customer Experiences
It’s become common in the last 5-10 years for retailers to be compared not just to each other, but to brands from other industries and the experiences they provide. It probably comes as little surprise to most retailers that customers frequently compare them to Amazon, but what about a restaurant?
Restaurants are not retail outlets, but if they provide a great experience, customers will come to expect similar commitment from retailers and vice-versa. The same is true of other types of businesses. (You can learn more about this cross-industry experience expectations in our Retail Experience Trends Report here.)
The final word here is just that: expectation. As we mentioned up top, customers’ expectations are growing more complex as countless brands vie for their attention. This means that, no matter whether a brand sells shoes, cars, meals, or airline tickets, it’s no longer enough to focus solely on a product.
Make no mistake, offering a quality product is obviously still important, but it’s no longer enough to capture and hold customers’ attention. Experience is the differentiator now, and brands that endeavor to deliver a great experience will come out on top in both their verticals and in customers’ eyes.
To hear more about retail customer experience in the experience economy, listen to the full podcast episode today!
Financial services brands are facing more complex challenges than ever before, especially when it comes to customer experience (CX) and growing share of wallet. Additionally, the added stress of today’s economy and the fall out of a global pandemic makes finance an even more sensitive topic for customers than usual, making the experiences brands even more pivotal.
Luckily, there is good news for brands even in these troubled times—if they play their cards right, they can use their experience programs to not only create great experiences for customers, but also grow their business simultaneously.
There are four key business goals finserv brands can accomplish with their CX programs (we talk about them in our latest eBook here), but today we are going to focus on just one: growing share of wallet.
The Importance Share of Wallet (and How Your CX Program Can Help)
Growing your share of wallet can be achieved by growing your customer base (acquiring new customers or expanding the financial institution’s geographic or product/service footprint) or by capturing a greater share of current customers’ financial wallet with additional products and services.
Growing wallet share means more than just maintaining the customers you already have—it means understanding if they are also utilizing services from your competitors, which services, and why those customers are going elsewhere. With this knowledge, you can make changes that help you go from being one of a few brands a customer utilizes to the only brand your customers trust.
Being your customer’s one and only has some major implications for your bottom line. In fact, according to Harvard Business Review, if your brand is one of only two a customer uses for a given purpose, the difference between being their first choice and being their second choice can mean that “half of each dollar you could be collecting from the customer is going to your competitor instead.”
With the right CX program, however, you can narrow that gap. Here are two specific examples of how experience tools can be leveraged to grow wallet share:
CX Benefit #1: Acquire More Customers
Customer acquisition is one of what we at InMoment like to call the four economic pillars of customer experience return on investment (ROI). Why? Because it’s absolutely key to making sure that your CX efforts (along with marketing campaigns, promotions, and more) are paying off.
Understanding the effects your actions as a brand have on different customer segments is crucial, as it allows you to further target your initiatives. You can then acquire more of that type of customer, then quantify the value of those new customers for your bottom line.
For example, an InMoment client sought to capitalize on acquisitions by optimizing its surveys to find new types of customers. By targeting respondents between the ages of 18 and 35 with specific questions, the company was able understand this demographic and what drove it so that this intelligence could be included in the brand’s expansion initiatives.
The practitioners who ran this initiative were then able to prove its worth by tracking the new customer acquisition, increases in unique customers, and market share growth that it generated.
CX Benefit #2: Understand How You Measure Up
Equally important to acquiring more customers is understanding what your competitors are doing that convinces those individuals to choose a brand other than yours. Understanding competitive differentiation in terms of brand, experiences, and product and servicing offerings can inform the organization on target audiences, competitive customers who are most vulnerable, and how to position the organization’s product and servicing offering in the most attractive way.
With competitive perceptions, a financial institution may find a specific opportunity to attract competitive customers who may not be happy with the digital offering available with a current provider. An institution may also spot a chance to attract customers’ attention with a specific product offering targeting their defined needs.
For Financial Services, Intelligence Is Key
There are plenty of other benefits a CX program can bring to a financial services brand, but they all have one thing in common: intelligence.
With an experience initiative that is able to collect data from anywhere and everywhere, apply powerful technology, and give you access to experts who can guide you on your journey, you gain the kind of intelligence that helps you make informed decisions about your experience. And when you make informed decisions, you can truly delight your customers and transform your business. Sounds like a win-win, doesn’t it?
Want to learn about the other three business goals financial services brands can accomplish with their CX program? Read the full eBook here for free!
You don’t just want to appeal to new customers—you also want to keep your current ones coming back again and again. Not only do returning customers require less introduction to your products and services, but they also tend to spend more than first-time customers, too.
One user engagement strategy you can use to boost your customer retention is to make use of the Net Promoter Score (NPS) system. Simple to understand, this powerful metric can give you a wealth of information that you can use to improve your brand.
What Is Net Promoter Score?
NPS is a metric designed to measure customer experience. First, you ask your customers a simple question:
“On a scale of 0-10, how likely is it that you would recommend my brand/product/service to a friend or colleague?”
Then, customers are asked to explain in their own words why they chose the score they did.
From this, you can place your customers on a scale, where anyone who answered between 0-6 is a detractor, 7-8 is passive, and 9-10 are promoters.
In order to get your Net Promoter Score, you take the detractors away from the promoters.
Let’s say you’ve surveyed 100 people. Of these 100 people, 30 are detractors, 40 are promoters, and 30 are passive. That leaves you with:
40 – 30 = 10
Promoters – Detractors = NPS
Determining your NPS is important, of course, but analyzing the open-ended responses to the follow-up question is what will help you understand the “why” behind your score and make NPS feedback actionable.
What Do These Categories Mean?
Promoters
This category (people who selected 9 and 10) are your loyal fans. They’re likely to be repeat customers, often spending more on subsequent purchases. They generally have a positive view of your brand (meaning if they do contact you with a complaints, they’re often more forgiving).
As well as this, they tend to refer new customers to you – accounting for more than 80% of referrals for many businesses – and talk about you on social media/in person. You may see effusive praise, with descriptions like ‘we’ve been able to achieve our goals’ or ‘this is the only software I’ll use’, along with thoughtful suggestions for improvement.
Passives
This group (people who chose 7 or 8) tends to be satisfied, but not in the same way as promoters. They’re happy with their purchase, and they might buy from you again, though not nearly as reliably.
They are unlikely to complain about you to colleagues, but won’t necessarily spend their time singing your praises or talking about you on social media either. They’re also likely to evaluate competitors if they see an interesting advertisement or offer, rather than being wholly loyal to your brand.
Detractors
You might think that a 6 is a high score to count as a detractor, but generally, this group are unhappy customers. Encompassing everyone who chose between 0 and 6, they’re likely to talk badly about you. At the higher end, there might be some positives mentioned, but they’re still going to have complaints. This is where a lot of customer churn and defection comes in.
Sometimes these customers may seem profitable, as many of them may be spending a lot of money with you. However, an NPS program isn’t about the initial revenue generated by a customer or account, it’s about customer lifetime value. Detractors are at risk of leaving your business and can even give your brand a bad reputation (and the lower scorers are likely to be difficult for your staff to deal with at times).
Bain & Company, the originators of the score, consider between +30 and +40 to be a favorable score. (Why are we using +30, not just 30? Because it’s possible to have a negative score if you have more detractors than promoters). As you head up to +50, you’re looking at an outstanding result. If you’re at +80? That’s world class.
However, this will vary based on your industry and your location. Europe and Asia generally mark things more conservatively than the US. So, if you’re comparing your scores to your competitors, make sure you’re looking in the same place rather than at a global average. If your industry is one generally viewed negatively – think debt collection, or property management – then you’re generally going to have lower scores, too.
For this reason, it’s worth investigating NPS benchmarks for your industry, and your location, rather than relying on a general global average. It’s also worth focusing on improving your own score per quarter. If you go from 5 to 15, you may still be below the average, but a jump of 10 points is respectable and means you’re doing the right things.
5 Ways to Use NPS to Boost Customer Retention
Now you know what NPS is, it’s time to take a look at how you can use it to improve your customer retention.
#1: Make Sure It’s Accurate
Firstly, you need to make sure you’re starting off with an accurate assessment. There are a few common mistakes companies make, including:
Asking leading questions on the survey
Promising rewards for higher scores
Using methods that increase bias (like face-to-face rather than anonymous online surveys)
Only surveying happy customers
Asking too many questions at once
Using “set and forget” NPS microsurveys can help you avoid these pitfalls. By starting with an accurate assessment, you can take the right steps. Having a false image of customer success can be harmful, as issues will go unrecognized and unresolved.
#2: Reach Out to Detractors
Responding to the customers who gave you lower marks is beneficial – both for finding out why they gave lower marks, and saving their business.
Contact detractors right away. If you can address their issue right away, you have a shot at keeping them as a customer.
Even if you can’t meet their needs, it is important that their feedback be acknowledged.
If you lack the time to personally reach out to each detractor, you can still mitigate negative feelings by automating your survey response. Send an email right away to thank them for their response, and ask for more feedback.
Reading through detractor feedback, you’ll gain insights into why they wouldn’t recommend you and be able to adjust accordingly. For example, if half of the detractors respond with ‘processing time is far too long’, then you have something to work toward.
Sometimes negative reviews are based on service factors, like the delivery company you used or customer support that is slow to respond. Sometimes, complaints won’t be directly about your business. For instance, if you provide companies with a virtual phone number, you might get complaints about it not working. Changing this can instantly boost results. Create the experience consumers expect by prioritizing improvements, drawn from their direct feedback.
Feed this data back into your product roadmap and to your sales team. Designing new products with these criticisms in mind can avoid the same issues in the future. Meanwhile, it also gives your sales team some leeway on what they can offer in response to these criticisms to overcome them at the point of sale or renewal. It’s an extra handy thing to add to their sales playbook.
For instance, if a customer is concerned about delivery times, give your customer success managers permission to upgrade them to expedited shipping at no extra cost. If they’ve had issues with subscription software, offer them a feature upgrade. All of these solutions can turn your detractors into passive customers – and potentially even promoters.
#3: Learn from Passives
Don’t ignore this group of customers. While detractors are clearly telling you their business is at risk, passives are more likely to silently churn. It is your job to find out why and whether you should focus attention on this group.
Segmenting your NPS feedback by business size or other factors will help you decide how important passive feedback is. If passives reside in important accounts or user groups, you may want to understand the “why” behind their lack of enthusiasm.
One way to do this is to customize the NPS follow-up question. If a customer scores you a 5 or a 6, ask them “What’s one thing we could do better?”
#4: Engage Your Promoters
Not all of your effort should focus on your unhappy customers, however. You know that this category of people has positive things to say about you – so why not turn that into something official?
Reach out to them and ask for reviews or personal testimonials you can use on your website. You might want to automate asking for a review. That way you ask at the right time — moments after a promoter scores you a 9 or a 10!
If you don’t already have referral marketing in place, it’s time to implement it. Roll it out by targeting these promoters, who you know are likely to make use of it.
This encourages customer retention by giving them special offers, but it also boosts acquisition at the same time. For B2B companies, this is especially helpful if some of your customers are well-known in their field, as businesses are likely to respect their opinion.
Referral and loyalty schemes aren’t always well suited to B2B brands, but customer marketing or a VIP program can work instead. Customer marketing seeks to deepen relationships by providing customers with multiple benefits. One such example might be providing access to your product roadmap as part of an advisory council. Alternatively, you could create a VIP ‘space’, where exclusive content and in-person events are offered.
#5: Thank Respondents
Reach out to your loyal customers, and thank them for being so.
Getting an email that says ‘thank you!’ is a great boost and encourages them to remain loyal. Video can improve customer experience, so having a thank you video may be worth the investment – especially if it is personalized or includes some behind the scenes content.
While most of these efforts should target your promoters, some of them can be sent out to your passive base, too – potentially converting those 7 or 8 scores into 9s and 10s. Add value to your initial product through a higher tier service, exclusive access to industry information, or trade-in offers. These methods can tempt passive customers into a deeper relationship with you.
Keep Going
Net Promoter Score shouldn’t be used as a one-off metric, but a regular measurement. To retain more customers, continue to listen to them, learn from their feedback, and take action. NPS is especially helpful for tracking if your tactics are working. You should see an improvement in retention as you begin to implement those suggestions above.
Equally, you might see a drop if something changes, like an operating system update or switching to an IVR system to route customer service calls. By regularly tracking NPS, you’ll spot improvements and problems quickly. You’ll know if something is working or not, and be able to mitigate negative effects as soon as possible.
NPS will help you improve the customer experience you’re providing and that’s the best route to customer loyalty.
Retain more customers with InMoment, the #1 Net Promoter Score platform for SaaS
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