There's no denying that one of the Net Promoter Score℠'s is its versatility. Besides being a very popular metric, it has a variety of measurement and application options.
Whether you measure your score quarterly or right after a transaction, it will give your business the ability to capture valuable feedback at any point in the customer lifecycle .
And this leads us to an interesting question: is it better to survey customers regularly, or after a major event or transaction?
Both methods have advantages and disadvantages, as well as specific characteristics that make them better for learning more about how your customers perceive your product or service.
Let's find out more about the difference between Relational and Transactional NPS® ?
Relational NPS® Survey
The relationship survey is the most traditional NPS® survey, in which you attempt to determine how loyal your customers are to your company. These types of surveys ask customers to consider their overall experience with your business and are typically conducted at regular intervals, such as quarterly or semi-annually.
Most often, a relationship survey is where you should start, as it's how you'll measure your Net Promoter Score℠ , allowing you to benchmark against other companies. However, they also help you identify areas of the customer experience that need improvement. Using this type of survey is ideal for generating hypotheses and getting a general overview of where you should delve deeper.
B2C
In B2C, relationship surveys can be conducted across the entire customer base. However, the reason you use NPS® will determine which customers you survey. For example, an airline might choose to only survey its economy class customers because it knows that first and business class passengers have high loyalty.
In an industry like airlines, you can slice and dice the customer experience and measure only the segments you want to improve.
B2B
In B2B, however, it's important to remember that what you call a customer is actually an account. Therefore, sending a relationship survey means sending surveys to different employees within a company, who, more often than not, are not the decision-makers.
They're usually sent periodically (quarterly, semi-annually) if it's the only opportunity to conduct the survey. For companies that use one-time purchase models, such as in-store retail, there's little opportunity to conduct a relationship survey outside of the interaction itself.
Therefore, deciding on the timing is a matter of testing. Most companies send recurring surveys at standard intervals, either once a quarter or every six months.
Because relationship surveys are sent on a scheduled basis and are not tied to any specific event, they are ideal for understanding your company's overall situation.
Transactional NPS® Survey
Essentially, transactional surveys allow companies to investigate key touchpoints and how they impact a customer's relationship with a company. Therefore, it's important to emphasize that transactional surveys measure customer satisfaction , while relationship surveys measure customer loyalty .
At this point, keep in mind that it's not about researching every touchpoint, but rather those that impact the customer experience .
Transactional surveys should be sent as soon as possible after an interaction—always be mindful of how often they're sent. A customer who makes more than one purchase in your system in the same week, for example, won't appreciate having to complete a survey after each interaction.
Depending on what you're using as a trigger, you'll need to define the timeframe of the event to send the survey—for example, if you want to measure satisfaction after a specific product purchase, make sure you allow enough time for the customer to actually use the product before asking if they would recommend it.
Additionally, transactional NPS® surveys use specific wording that references the specific interaction. Instead of being asked about their likelihood to recommend your company in general, customers are asked to rate the company based on their most recent purchase or order.
Another precaution you should take when conducting transactional NPS® surveys is not to send them at intervals shorter than forty days, or so-called quarantines. Therefore, you should pay attention to your survey triggers. Always try to link transactional NPS® surveys to the end of a purchase journey, so that it makes the most sense to your customer, rather than after every touchpoint with your brand.
Transactional NPS® feedback is best used after a journey has ended , as it is ideal for learning how a customer's opinion of your business can change based on a product, service, or offering.
Furthermore, since transactional NPS® data is always tied to a product or service, it becomes much easier to act on this feedback and close the loop .
So what's right for me?
The choice of supplementary research depends directly on the type of relationship you already have with your client. Do you already conduct some form of comprehensive research regularly? Analyze this type of research to understand the information it's providing you.
If you haven't yet conducted any additional surveys, it's important to test the model that makes the most sense for your business. Depending on the type of transaction, NPS® isn't the most appropriate metric; in these cases, CSAT or CES , which are more specific metrics for measuring touchpoints, can be used.
First, we suggest starting with a relationship survey to get to know your customer and identify what may be affecting your relationship with them. After analyzing the relationship survey data, conduct specific transactional surveys to identify the weakest points, if possible.
In other words, relationship surveys provide information to help with strategic customer experience decisions (e.g., which areas of the company need to improve). Transactional surveys, on the other hand, provide information to help with tactical decisions (e.g., how you'll improve the customer experience). When choosing where to start, it's always essential to consider your current need and then define the most appropriate method for that type of situation.
Conclusion
Regardless of the type of survey you use in your strategy, always try to link NPS® to your customer journey . This will help you identify the best times to send your survey and close the loop with your customer.
If you're wondering whether you should measure all types of NPS® , the answer is it depends. There are business models where the Net Promoter Score℠ meets the needs, and other customer experience metrics .
What you need to keep in mind is that no single measurement can adequately address all the elements you seek to address in customer satisfaction and experience. Therefore, you need to customer satisfaction metrics and discover, through testing, which one is most effective for your company, based on your journey and business model.
In the quest for complete customer understanding, NPS® is a great starting point, precisely because of its simplicity. After analyzing the results, the real work is to act on the feedback collected to begin improving your organization and developing the necessary actions to continually increase customer loyalty!
As you can imagine, this is ongoing work – and we hope you can use NPS® as one of your tools to stay active.
Watch our webinar on the 4 key customer experience metrics and where to use them in the journey.
