How we used weekly NPS to reduce churn
I ran the European sales team for a global Salesforce, Workday and Google consultancy.
We were rigorous about ensuring we delivered for our customers and one part of this was the weekly status update that included a one click NPS survey.
Net Promoter Scores simply ask, “on a scale of 1 to 10 how likely would be be to recommend us/this company/this product to a friend or colleague?”
The weekly project status was issued each week to the key members of the customer team and at the bottom of the one page was the NPS survey.
One click on a number opened the survey with their response pre-filled and if they wanted they could add some context with their response.
A weekly NPS might seem too much, but here’s how our teams made it work:
Introduce at the start of the project
Project Managers would highlight this in their Project Launch Workshop.
“Each week we’ll send you a project status update, and at the bottom of the page is a one click survey on how you’re feeling about us and the project - its a simple way for your team to share their perspective and if there is anything we can be doing better.”
Make it simple
Our NPS was a simple one click - for the customer it needs to be as simple as clicking a button to record their score and using the linkage to the email you sent them to record who made the submission.
Reinforce weekly
When the project managers were meeting with customers, or in sending out the weekly status update, they would reinforce, especially if we didn’t have responses coming in.
We gave it a dual purpose, reinforcing that if they submitted the NPS it would also confirm they had read and were in agreement with the status update.
Look for trends
The benefit of regular submissions is that you can pick up early warning signs before things go off the rails.
A customer might be submitting 10, 10, 10 and then one week it is a 9.
9 is still a promoter, but something has changed.
The first activity now was not to jump on the customer “Why a 9?” but more an internal discussion with the project team, “What’s changed? Anything we have done differently, or new team members that aren’t bedding in well?”
Show action
Nothing worse than asking for feedback and not doing anything about it. If a customer provides context then we picked it up and deal with it.
It might be a new consultant who hadn’t bonded with their opposite number, or a misalignment on scope.
Pick up the phone to the customer and let them be heard.
We’d show graphs of the NPS surveys as part of our sprint reviews, showing that these submissions didn’t just go into a report somewhere, but were visible to the project teams and something that we managed our projects with.
Don’t replace daily interaction
The weekly NPS was there to support the offline conversations - the meetings, the workshops, the phone calls.
But in addition to those channels, it provided customers with an easy way to share a ‘pulse’ on how they were feeling without feeling confrontational.
Adding regular feedback to your product or service business
The example above focuses on services, but is just as applicable to product businesses.
With product, instead of asking your customer how they feel, you can see how they truly feel by their actions in the product.
New users added/removed
Module adoption
Integrations added/removed
Key use case adoption (sharing, creating, editing…)
Addition/removal of new teams/business units
Attendance at events
As with the NPS, we aren’t looking for binary outcomes - 1 or 10, but trends:
The customer used to add 100 users a month and now it is 90, now 85….
The end users used to create 150 sequences a month, and not 140, now 120…
The customer used to come to your customer conference, but not his year…
These early warning signals indicate a change in behaviour and a discussion with your CSM or Account Manager to understand what has changed, what are we or the customer doing differently?
Question to ask your Customer Success team - “what are we measuring on at least a weekly basis to understand customer sentiment around our product or service?”
If the answer is “We run quarterly business review” then the gap is too long
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