Best Of
Article written by Mathew Maniyamkott
Regular contributor to various magazines. Passionate about entrepreneurship, startups, marketing, and productivity.
17 min read
31 May 2024
“What is a good NPS response rate? What could I do to improve our NPS survey response rates?”
We answer these questions in this article.
NPS (Net Promoter Score) surveys are usually sent once or twice a year. We are not talking about the transactional NPS surveys but the relational ones. Learn the difference here.
But like every KPI that is measured using user data, the efficacy of NPS also depends on the sample size of the audience, and the net response rate. If your average NPS response rate is big, then it means that you are getting a full picture of what your customers think about your business.
Thankfully, it isn’t that difficult to increase your average NPS survey response rate. If you can implement the tips that we have shared below, you will be able to gain deep insights into the minds of your consumer.
Here are 20 tips to increase your NPS survey’s response rates.
Do not ask the customer how it is to use their product as soon as they receive its delivery. They would not be willing to complete an NPS survey as they haven’t had the time to experience your product and judge if it is good or not.
Also, it is too soon to pose such a question. Let them take some time to process it. If you want your customers to give you appropriate responses, then ensure that you send the NPS survey at least one week after they purchase it. This has a big impact on the quality (and quantity) of the feedback from your NPS surveys.
Emails are not the only way to send NPS. However, if that’s what works for you, great! Here are some tips to use email NPS even more effectively.
But you can increase your pool of responses when you share through different channels – like QR codes. Or mobile forms. Or in-app surveys. For example, you can send an in-app NPS survey as soon as a transaction is done. In-app surveys have higher response rates because your customer has just had an experience with you.
While you don’t have to offer all the channels that are available, ensure that you find out at least 5-6 channels where most of your customers lurk. Omnichannel survey tools like SurveySparrow can help you find the right channels with in-built response tracking.
Unlock more NPS responses with our 14-day free trial. Sign up below.
Remember that your customers should find it easy to fill the surveys. And the more channels you use, the easier it is for them to respond.
People love incentives, and it is a great way to boost your response rates. However, there is a fine line between incentivizing to increase response rates and bribing your customers.
If customers know that they stand to gain something if they complete a survey, then they might randomly give good ratings just to complete the survey. Since NPS surveys are short, thankfully, incentives are not necessary.
You should start thinking about incentives if you are planning to ask the customer to get on a call to discuss this further. Moreover, incentives are the right way to go if you plan to send your customers long research surveys that might take up a lot of their time.
When you send NPS surveys, ensure that it is customized to the respondent. Personalized touches, like including their name in the subject line and greeting, or sending a personalized thank-you note after they finish it, can boost your NPS response rates now and in the future.
Do not send an NPS survey email from a ‘no-reply email,’ but instead, send it from an individual’s email ID. If any of the customers respond to you, then reply to them as well. You will be able to build personal relationships with your customers when you personalize your NPS survey. This in the long term will reward your brand with a better NPS survey score.
Remember this- no one responds to an email that treats you like you don’t matter. Using the name of the customer is so pivotal to making the customer feel valued.
While NPS surveys are short by default, there are high chances that your marketing team might be interested in sending a long survey. Sure, we understand that businesses want to know more about their customers.
When sending NPS surveys, ensure that it just asks one question – the NPS question.
Once a customer responds to it, follow up with a question that asks for the cause of their response. Do not send a long survey, it will make your respondents feel overwhelmed.
It is 2022 and there is no need to insist on the fact that any application you create should be mobile-friendly. There are more people accessing information through mobile rather than on desktops.
Since a person carries his/her mobile phone everywhere, it is a no-brainer to create surveys also that are mobile-first.
In 2019, there were more than 3.2 billion mobile phone users; that number has crossed 7 billion in 2022. That’s the speed at which the number of mobile consumers is going to increase.
There are no prizes for guessing that you need to send at least 3-4 reminder emails over the span of a week to ten days.
By sending a simple reminder email, you will be boosting your NPS response rates.
Don’t worry about thinking that your customers will leave you and unsubscribe from your list. While it surely will happen, the percentage of people involved in it would be less.
If your business sends a lot of surveys, let’s say at each transaction, then do not send 3-4 reminder emails as it would be too much. Just send one reminder email in that case.
For every customer that responds to your survey, ensure that you ‘close the feedback loop’ with them. We are not talking about sending a reminder email, but to take care of the concerns of the respondents which they have outlined in their NPS response.
Tools like SurveySparrow can help you automate this process with the Case Management feature. Also, do remember that closing the feedback loop is something that is impossible to automate. So everything that you do has to be manually done.
While a follow-up looks like a lot of effort, the returns that you get from this exercise is unbelievable. Your customers will start believing in your brand and thus your value increases in their eyes.
Not all of your customers know everything about your product, and in some cases, they might even be completely unaware of how to use your product in the most optimal way.
In the CTA, at the end of your email, you should instruct your customers about the next steps that need to be taken – preferably leading to a product benefit or value addition.
They also need to be educated about the importance of the NPS survey and how you will be able to help them with it. We would not advise you to have more than two CTAs in your email.
There is nothing more impersonal than getting a request for a survey from a bot or from the company’s name. People like people and are more prone to responding to others.
People want to know that their response is actually read by a human on the other end and not a bot. They wouldn’t be too enthused to respond to a brand.
You can even create a catch-all email address if you don’t want all those emails dependent on just one person.
If your customers are in the right frame of mind where they expect an email from you asking them to respond to a survey, they will be in the right mindset to do it. But if you send them an NPS survey out of the blue, there are higher chances of people ignoring it.
Telling your customers in advance gives them time to respond as well as increases response rates. In the pre-notification of the survey, let the customers know how they would be helped by responding to the survey.
While the call to action should not cause clutter, the entire point of the email should also be directed at just one thing. It should be clear, and detailed, and tell the customer everything to the point.
In fact, one of the biggest advantages of the NPS question is that it is simple, to the point, and doesn’t take time at all for the respondent to enter their responses.
When you are clear with what you want, not only does it make you look good, but the respondent also realizes that you are not here to waste their time.
A subject line is one of the most important factors in deciding if an email is going to be opened or not. Do not create just one subject line, but instead test it with 2 or 3 varieties of subject lines.
Send it to different sets of customers, measure the results, and see what works. If test A was significantly more successful in terms of open rates, then use more of it.
The survey subject line should give an idea to the user about the kind of email it is going to be. Using clickbait-y email subject lines are frowned upon these days, please do not resort to them.
The text in the email should be engaging, it should persuade your respondent enough for them to reply to the survey. The respondent should feel good about completing the survey, that’s how good the copy should be.
The first thing that you need to include to ensure a compelling copy is to personalize the content as much as possible. Using the information that you know about different sets of customers, you will be able to personalize the content. With intelligent storytelling, you can keep the audience engaged.
By using technology effectively, you can know more about your customers on a granular level. With a deeper understanding of your customers, you will be able to tailor each NPS survey and increase response rates.
If you get to know information like your customer’s preferred channels, their sentiment towards your product, their demographic factors, etc, your targeting will be even more on point.
It will only be a matter of time before you have loyal customers who will love you for understanding them deeply.
While sending your surveys, it is a great time for you to show your brand’s true colors (pun intended). While surveys aren’t your main communication channels, it is a great way for you to attract your customers with your branding.
First of all, please do not ignore the fact that you need to personalize your surveys, after which, you can incorporate your brand identity into each part of the survey.
Add your business logo, colors, typography, style, etc, into every part of the survey to create maximum impact. Ensure that it is uniform across all the channels and areas that you communicate regularly to your customers. NPS survey software, like SurveySparrow, comes with white-labeling features as part of the package.
Remember, not everyone is a customer. The quality of your list is directly proportional to the success of your email marketing journey, which is why you need to regularly clean your email list.
Maintain email list hygiene by checking for email accounts in your list that bounce, using tools like Neverbounce.
If there are inactive customers, do not forget to unsubscribe from them. You might even be paying extra for them when subscribing to tools.
Businesses around the world are expected to keep the data of their customers safe. People are more reluctant these days to share their information, and you need to get the bare minimum data that will be helpful for your business.
It is a must that you have a ‘Privacy Disclaimer’ in your NPS email footer so that people are not afraid of inputting their details in the surveys that you send.
Related: 15 Tips On How To Send NPS Surveys via Email
When sending a survey, there are a lot of methods that you can employ to send it. But there is a method to all of this madness, you cannot just randomly ask questions that do not follow any logical order. You need to ensure that all the best practices of NPS surveys are followed.
As a matter of rule, your NPS survey should be short. At most, you can ask 2-3 questions and not more than that. In fact, we would go on a limb and say that you should just ask one question.
If the NPS survey is short, then the customers will also be prone to finish the survey and accept more of it in the future. Give options for your customers to skip certain questions if they are not relevant to them or even if they just don’t feel like answering them. It would be frustrating if you force them to answer questions.
By sending surveys too often, you stand to turn off your customers. Not only will they stop responding to you, but even the ones who are open to responding will also soon respond with half-hearted options.
They might not even be reading the question properly if you bombard them with surveys very often. Let’s say if a customer responds to a survey, then don’t include them in the next survey.
This way, not only will you be sending surveys at regular intervals so that everyone is covered, but even customers who have replied are given a break.
Is there a certain number of users that need to be a part of your NPS campaign?
It depends on what you want: NPS numbers to benchmark or understand the voice of the customer. The answer to this question will determine how many respondents you need for your NPS survey.
Depending on your target audience, the percentage of a good NPS response rate varies.
If your initial NPS response rate is low, don’t worry too much about it as that’s how it is. With time, you will be able to increase the response rates dramatically if you happen to follow all the tips that we have outlined for you.
Understanding the minds of your customers, their concerns with you, what they like about you, etc., is important to the foundation of businesses. If they don’t fail to address the problems of the customers, they are as good as dead.
The intent of a business is to get as many responses as possible so that the size is huge and the responses make sense for the business in total.
If the survey sample is small, then it is impossible to unearth insights from it. You need to increase your NPS response rate so that you can derive information that can be used to make business decisions.
An NPS survey is the best method to understand, in easy terms, what your customers think about you. By closing the feedback loop, you will be able to address their concerns.
The above paragraph is exactly why you need to increase the response rate of your NPS survey. The more the number of responses you get, the higher the accuracy of the answers that you get. You will be able to unearth patterns that might give you ideas to make serious changes in your business.
You never know which customer might be giving you feedback that can change the face of your business. Remember that each customer is important, and you show your commitment to your customer by closing the feedback loop.
If you are looking to send an NPS survey to your customers, then you need to take the services of an online survey tool like SurveySparrow which has functionalities that will help in your NPS survey. Reach out to folks from the SurveySparrow team to get cracking at your NPS survey.
Thousands of brands trust SurveySparrow to turn feedback into growth. Try it free today!
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