There's no denying that one of the biggest advantages of the Net Promoter Score℠ is its versatility. Besides being a very popular metric, it has different ways of being measured and applied.
The way you measure your score, whether quarterly or right after a transaction, will give your company 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 an important 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
Relationship research is the most traditional type of NPS® survey, in which you try 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 usually conducted at regular intervals, such as quarterly or semi-annually.
Most of the time, a relationship survey is where you should start, as it's through this that you'll measure the Net Promoter Score℠, allowing you to benchmark against other companies. However, they also help you discover which areas of the customer experience need improvement. Using this type of survey is ideal for formulating hypotheses and getting an 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 should be surveyed. For example, an airline might choose to only survey its economy class customers, as it knows that first class and business class customers have high loyalty.
In an industry like airlines, it's possible to segment the customer experience and measure only the areas you want to improve.
B2B
In B2B, however, it's important to pay attention to the fact that what you call a client is, in reality, 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 are usually sent periodically (quarterly, semi-annually) if it's the only opportunity to conduct the survey. For companies that operate on a one-time purchase model, such as in-store retail, there is little opportunity to conduct relationship research outside of the interaction itself.
Therefore, deciding on the timing is a matter of testing. Most companies send recurring surveys at standard intervals, once every quarter or semi-annually.
Since relationship surveys are sent on a scheduled basis and are not tied to any specific event, they are ideal for you to understand your company's overall situation.
Transactional NPS® survey
Basically, transactional research allows companies to investigate key touchpoints and how they affect a customer's relationship with a company. Therefore, it's important to emphasize that transactional research measures customer satisfaction, while relationship research measures customer loyalty.
At this point, keep in mind that it's not about researching every touchpoint, but rather those that affect the customer experience.
Transactional surveys should be sent as soon as possible after an interaction – always being mindful of the sending frequency. A customer who makes more than one purchase in your system in the same week, for example, will not appreciate having to answer 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.
Furthermore, NPS® transactional surveys use specific keywords that relate to the particular interaction. Instead of being asked about the likelihood of recommending your company in general, the customer is asked to rate the company based on their most recent purchase or order.
Another precaution you should take regarding transactional NPS® surveys is to avoid sending them at intervals shorter than forty days, or so-called quarantines. Therefore, you should pay attention to the triggers for these surveys. Always try to link the transactional NPS® survey to the end of a purchase journey, so that it makes more sense for your customer, and not after all points of contact with your brand.
Transactional NPS® feedback is recommended after the end of a customer journey, as it's ideal for learning how a customer's opinion of your business can change based on a product, service, or offer.
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 apply some form of comprehensive research with some frequency? Then, analyze this type of research to understand the information it is providing you.
If you are not yet using any type of supplementary research, it is important to test the model that makes the most sense for your business. Depending on the type of transaction, NPS® may not be the most suitable metric; in such cases, CSAT or CES, which are more specific metrics for measuring touchpoints, could be used.
Initially, we suggest starting with a relationship survey to get to know your customer and identify what might be affecting your relationship with them. After analyzing the data from the relationship survey, conduct specific transactional surveys to identify the weakest points, if possible.
In other words, relationship research provides information to help with strategic customer experience decisions (for example, which areas of the business you need to improve). Transactional research, on the other hand, provides information to help with tactical decisions (for example, how you will improve the customer experience). To choose where to start, it's always essential to look at your current needs and then define the most appropriate method for that type of situation.
Conclusion
Regardless of the type of research you use in your strategy, always try to link NPS® to your customer journey. This is because it's through the journey that you'll be able to identify the best times to send your survey, closing the loop with the 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 solve in terms of customer satisfaction and experience. Therefore, you need to combine different customer satisfaction metrics and discover, through testing, which one is most effective for your company, according to your customer journey and business model.
In the quest for a complete understanding of the customer, NPS® is a great starting point, precisely because of its simplicity. After analyzing the results, the real work is to act on the collected feedback, to begin improving your organization and developing the necessary actions to ensure that your customer loyalty always increases!
As you can imagine, this is an ongoing task – and we hope you can apply NPS® as one of your tools to stay proactive.
Watch our webinar on the 4 main customer experience metrics and when to use them in the journey.