Have you worked hard to achieve a high NPS® score , but now you're unsure of your next steps? How about turning all that feedback into more business by creating a referral program for your customers?
In a study conducted by Harvard Business Review, 10,000 accounts were monitored for three years. Through analysis, the bank discovered that customers referred by other customers were 18% more likely to remain with the bank over that period.
Furthermore, they found 16% more profit from these customers . This shows how powerful referrals are for businesses.
Many companies tend to invest their efforts in detracting customers, and that's not wrong. After all, on average, a dissatisfied customer tells 11 people about their negative experience. Negative publicity is definitely not good for your company.
As mentioned in previous articles, the Net Promoter Score℠ allows you to assess and analyze customer satisfaction to determine whether or not people recommend your product or service. Besides being a valuable indicator of your business's health, the NPS® is the most recommended metric for measuring customer loyalty and satisfaction .
With a consumer-centric strategy, you can transform your NPS into a valuable marketing tool that generates referrals, encourages new customers to sign up for your product or service, and even accelerates your company's growth rates. With that in mind, we've prepared this article with some strategies for you to use.
Ask customers to spread the love on social media
There's a reason customers rate your company a 9 or 10, right? These people are very satisfied with your service and feel comfortable recommending you to friends and colleagues.
Although it may seem obvious, many companies do not see their promoter customers as a marketing asset , but rather as a guarantee that their product or service is satisfactory.
In Brazil, this culture of making recommendations isn't as widespread as it is in the United States, for example. So, no matter how great your promoter customers think your product is, few of them will take action unless you prompt them to.
#1 Use testimonials
One of the simplest ways to turn your promoters' feedback into a valuable marketing resource is through a follow-up email and adapting it into a short text or video testimonial.
So, after reviewing a promoter's feedback, contact them directly and let them know you'd like to share your results with others.
Instead of just closing the loop with neutrals and detractors, make an effort to close the loop with all your customers . After all, it's your mission to turn these customers into evangelists for your brand, isn't it? Here's why:
If you're a fledgling startup with established competitors, ask if they could recommend your business on channels like social media, Google My Business, B2B Stack, and others.
If your product is an iOS, Android, or Mac app, ask them to review your product on the App Store or Google Play. Another great incentive is to reward their efforts. You can offer your promoters a free subscription or a compelling discount if they complete a specific action set by the company.
Measuring NPS® isn't just about addressing issues, it's also about focusing on the positive things that emerge from the surveys. Look at promoter comments to see if there are any quotes you can share on your website or blog.
This way, you will be demonstrating the value of your company to all customers based on your customers' own words.
#2 Referral programs
Finding the right method to acquire new customers for your business is hard work. That's why referral programs are increasingly helping businesses grow by engaging and leveraging a brand's greatest assets: its customers.
Incentives help your customers share, whether you're a B2B or B2C business. And when you use incentives specifically for your customers, they share even more.
Ps: If you have any questions about how to set up a referral program, take a look at this HubSpot article .
#3 Create success stories with your customers
Promoters can do more for your business than just generate positive word of mouth. If you have a client who is achieving incredible results with your solution, it's time to develop a success story to share with others how your client achieved amazing results using your service.
A success story, moreover, can be the deciding factor in making a customer choose your company over the competition. Have you considered that?
Success stories are especially powerful for B2B companies, where the use of your product or service can lead to a measurable increase in key performance indicators for your customers.
And because success stories revolve around a specific person or company, they create a very strong level of social proof for users.
Once you've made your case live, it's your responsibility to notify the client. At this point, ask them to share the page link and attract even more users to your service.
Clients are generally quite happy to share this type of content. After all, the case study demonstrates not only your company's ability to deliver results, but also the client's ability to achieve significant successes.
Include case studies on capture pages
If you have a landing page for a product or service, this is the best place to include summary versions of success stories. Here, you can use customer quotes, accompanied by photos of them, and a brief job description.
For example:
"Harmo helped me increase [company's] customer retention rate by 25% in the first four months of implementation. I was also finally able to improve my customer service department. My customers are much happier, and cancellation rates have dropped by 22%." — Joana, Head of Customer Service.
Conclusion
As you saw in this article, using feedback from promoter customers can make a big difference to your business and can bring even more opportunities to your sales pipeline .
With a well-defined journey focused on customer success , it's possible to establish strategies to reduce churn rates. For example, when a customer joins your service, it's important to establish the results they expect to achieve with your solution.
This way, your team works to deliver as much as possible to this client, and before the end of the contract/cycle, you develop a case study talking about the results you achieved.
After your company meets customer expectations and delivers a success story for other companies to see, the likelihood of that customer leaving your solution ends up being much lower, right?
Therefore, remember that these actions are extremely important in decision-making, and can lead to more people choosing to become customers of your brand .
NPS is a registered trademark, and Net Promoter Score and Net Promoter System are service marks, of Bain & Company, Inc., Satmetrix Systems, Inc. and Fred Reichheld.
