How to improve the Net Promoter Score(NPS) survey response rate?

Don't you hate it when you ask your customers for feedback and don't give it to you? In this blog post, I'll be showing you how to encourage customer feedback through Net Promoter Score surveys and how to make the process of giving feedback as convenient as possible for them.

What is a Survey response rate?

The survey response rate is generally represented as a percentage. It’s calculated by dividing the number of respondents by the total number of surveys sent. If, for example, a survey is distributed to 1000 people and 200 of them complete it, then the survey response rate would be 20%. The big question is whether this is a good, poor, or average survey response rate. Analyzing the response rate of a survey will help you observe where you lost track, how you can improve communication with your customers, and significantly build a robust feedback system for your business.

What is a good survey response rate?

A survey response rate has always been viewed as an important indicator of survey quality. A higher response rate is always accurate when surveying results; a lower response rate with a large sample is less accurate than a high response rate with a small sample. So the survey response rate determines the dependability on the results.

Normally a survey response rate of 50% or higher is considered to be excellent in most cases. It is believed that high levels of motivation drive a high response to complete the survey or a perfect personal relationship between the business and customer.

Factors affecting an NPS survey response rate:

Various factors influence Net Promoter Score(NPS) survey response rates,

Distribution method & Time:

When you are engaged in business communication with the customer on one platform, say through the website, you must go for a web-intercept survey which just silently pops up on the end, where the customer can answer easily all your questions since the experience is so fresh. If you choose to email them late in the day, the chance of response will be lesser than the previous scenario.

Industry:

The response rate for each and every industry is different, normally the response rate in B2B is higher than B2C. Likewise, the response rates differ for each and businesses.

Demographics:

As we said, the response rate differs for each and every category of customers, the response rates are higher when you target the millennials or even the baby boomers than customers above 60 years of age.

Brand Recognition:

A survey from a well-known brand has the chance of high response rates than a lesser-known brand.

Short and simple:

Complex, lengthy surveys involving long questions with bewildering answer choices will get far lower response rates than simple surveys with minimal questions.

How to improve response rate?

• Give the survey at the best time: Timing a survey is an art, you must know when to send the survey to get a better response from the customer. It may differ from business to business. If you are a product-based business you must give your customer ample time to experience your product, you cannot ask them about it once the product is delivered. But in the case of a service, you can expect a response once the service is done before they forget their own experience. Do remember that there are no standards when it comes to sending NPS surveys. But sending it at the right time will help you improve the response rates.
• Personalize the NPS survey: Before you send an NPS survey you must analyze the purpose of the survey, its goal, and how the data will be used in your business. Then you must identify the demographics of the respondents, their age, economical background, etc. Then you should customize them according to your customer base, even simple things can increase your response rate like just a “Hi customer” can be replaced using their name, it gives them a feeling of treating them special. 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.
• Keep it short & simple: NPS is so damn a favorite for many marketers because of its simplicity, just two main questions that’s all. You may be interested to know a detailed review from your customer, but remember no one is ready to spend an hour to give you, so keep it short and simple.

• Be mobile-friendly: We are in 2021, and being mobile-friendly for any business-related communications may not be insisted, by now almost every business is trying hard to find a click from every site their customer visits. So make sure your survey is both mobile and laptop friendly.
• Follow-ups and Reminders matters: When you are sending your NPS survey through emails, you cannot expect every customer to open it once they receive it and respond. So make sure you send them reminder emails to boost your response rate. Follow-ups are the end you give it to the feedback loops, so make sure your feedback loop starts with the customer and ends with the customer. You must send follow-up emails to your customers to ensure “your response really matters”.

Conclusion

The history of NPS rows back in 2003, when Fred Reichheld of Bain & Company first presented the metric by way of his paper "One number you need to grow" in Harvard Business Review, from that time till now it works as one of the best metrics followed by many business conglomerates to find out their customer experience. A product/service you send through a lot of processes starting from production to sales, there are a lot of people involved in it. Either it’s your employee or your customer, listening to them can give you so many values that no other strategies or business guides can teach you. NPS acts as the one motive or one goal to people at all levels of your organization and drives them to achieve your business's ultimate success.