From "What?" to "Now what?" - all the basics you need to know in order to set up your Customer Satisfaction program.

1. by Vesela Nedkova – Senior Market Research Manager, GemSeek
6 important questions when
starting your NPS program
Setting up your loyalty survey in a few simple steps
NPS
Program

2. Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a concise metric which successfully and in an empirically proven
way resonates with profitability and growth. It quantifies the loyalty of a customer to a company
or brand by asking one sole question: How likely is it that you would recommend
[brand/service/product] to a friend or colleague?
Willingness to recommend is a standard metric. What is not standard is what drives it. Take the time to define
industry-specific drivers that are both exhaustive and mutually exclusive. A great start is using customer journey as a way to
define essential customer touchpoints with your brand.
However, besides the rational business logic, you should make room for the emotional drivers too. Even though effective
logistics and competitive pricing are key, it might be the personal relationship your sales representative has with that dealer
which makes them keep buying your products. It is worth investigating the emotional responses. They are growing into a
crucial factor, as more and more brands become increasingly aware of the importance of creating emotional connection with
partners and customers. Keeping the questionnaire short is important – but do not be hesitant to ask one or two additional
questions. Did you wonder if that new idea for additional services will bring you more clients? Crash-test it in you NPS study!
Where is the market heading? Ask some open ended questions to your business partners and get their take on the market
trends as well!
However, if you want to know how successful your strategy design and its implementation were, then you will need at least
one more study to make a comparison. A recurring study is more demanding in terms of time and money, but also allows you
to map the market dynamics, evaluate campaigns and, if you choose a rolling fieldwork approach – define as many
measurement time points as the sample allows. If you or your competitors are actively competing and developing the market,
a tracking study is a must to stay ahead of the game.
Keep in mind that to be able to compare the results of two or more study waves, the setup must not change. Once set, you
cannot alter the phrasing of your questions and drivers or redefine the target group. So, take your time before the first survey
wave and think of any possible future developments along with the exact moments through the year when you will perform
the study.
What?
When setting up your NPS study, you can choose between two approaches: one-off vs. recurrent
study.
Choose a single time point study (one-off) to check the market’s dynamics and design your
strategy. You will get the results soon aſter the start of the fieldwork, which could be as quick as a
month, and you are ready to start having meetings with your stakeholders and setting
operational priorities. What is more, the time, effort and budget invested are lower.
When?
The target group for your NPS program can be your customers, but doesn’t have to be limited to
them only.
Make sure to cover all socio-demographic aspects of B2C clients or the business profile of your
B2B partners. Otherwise, your study results will not reflect the real market in which you are
operating.
Are you selling to Gen X? Find out what the Gen Y are feeling, before they come to use your
products. Is customer brand preference based on the recommendation of the retailer, rather than
just the characteristics of your product? Evaluate the entire ecosystem of your business and
include both decision makers and their influencers, if possible.
Who?
www.gemseek.com
?
? ??

3. It is budget that oſten limits the sample size, but in fact greater spending does not always lead to
more actionable results. Spend time to think about the end result of the study.
The sample size is best defined by the number of data splits you want to see in the reporting. Are
demographics important? It must be planned ahead. What about industry sectors or consumer
segments? All these data splits must be clear from the start, so that sufficient sample for
analysis can be guaranteed.
The way you roll out your NPS survey depends on two things: the target group and the
complexity of the study. The more complex the questionnaire, the more important it is to have
an interviewer asking the questions. They can help the respondent understand the questions and
maintain their interest over time. Depending on the target groups and their location, you can use
CATI, CAWI or even face-to-face methodologies. Online self-completion surveys, for example,
are great for quick checks among professionals. For any methodology, we have tried and tested
partners globally.
The most commonly applied splits, when it comes to NPS studies, are brand-based. Our experience at GemSeek shows that
competitive performance is best evaluated against a maximum of 4 competitors, so keep your main brand list short. You don’t
need to know everything about every player on the market – you just need to stay informed about the top few.
Calculating the total sample of a study could be oſten a cumbersome process. However, by setting a minimum sample needed
to quantify the evaluations per analyzed group and by taking the total number of interest groups, we can advise how many
interviews you would need in order to find the answers to your questions.
How many?
How?
The results from the NPS study will depend on the time and effort invested in designing the study
and the level of collaboration between you and the research agency you are working with. Be
honest and share your true business questions, as soon as you start preparing the study, to
make sure you get the right answers.
Working closely with the research agency should not stop there. From our experience with NPS
studies we’ve seen that the top-down strategic choices made with study results are most
effectively operationalized when all levels of the organization are working together. Have a
workshop that brings representatives of every relevant level together – we can help you
moderate it and give answers to any questions that may emerge as a result of the findings.
Now what?
www.gemseek.com
scoping
budget
sample
size
vs.
ongoing
customer
journey questionnaire
segments
markets
data
splits