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How to Achieve a Perfect Net Promoter Score

Ask any successful company. The foundation of business growth is the customer experience. But improving—or even measuring—customer service can be elusive. The Net Promoter Score (NPS) was developed to give businesses a way to evaluate the customer experience as a predictive indicator of future growth.

What is NPS?

Companies ask their customers one simple question. “How likely is it that you would recommend us to a friend or colleague?

• “Detractors” (0 to 6) will spread a negative message
• “Passive” scores (7 or 8) are neutral and won’t share a positive or negative experience
• “Promoters” (scores of 9 or 10) had a positive experience that they happily share

To find your score, simply subtract your percentage of Detractors from your percentage of Promoters.

Example Scores:

3

1

1

6

0

5

3

1

4

5

Results: -100 (0%-100%)

Example Scores:

9

10

10

9

9

9

10

10

9

10

Results: +100 (100%-0%)

Example Scores:

6

5

8

10

9

9

3

7

2

10

Results: 0 (40%-40%)

What’s a good score?

That depends on your industry. Most industries average of +35 to +45. Companies on the leading edge in customer service (Jet Blue, Apple, Costco, Nordstrom, Ritz Carlton) will have scores between +60 and +80. Those are world-class scores.

Why use NPS?

Basically, NPS is great tool because it’s simple, actionable, and valuable:

Simple	Actionable	Valuable
One simple score to measure important customer experiences. It’s easy to track trends.	The score is based on concrete customer actions, whiich can be influenced by your customer service.	Positive responses correlate to word-of-mouth advertising which leads to reliable business growth.

There’s beauty in a simple, easy-to-understand metric that predicts intended behavior (instead of feeling or sentiment). It’s a number your team can quickly digest, easily track, and tangibly improve. It’s objective. When the quality of your service goes up, you see those changes! And because it measures customer intent to speak positively about your business, it’s a reliable indicator of actual business success. According to NICE Satmetrix, 20–60% of organic growth is accounted for in this metric.

Why listen to Vertical about NPS?

Because, when it comes to NPS, Vertical Communications is the proven expert. The success of our business has been built on the overall positive experiences of our customers and their willingness to recommend us. We’re proud that our lifetime NPS score, a world-class +75, reflects just how successful our team has been. In fact, in 2021 we had an unheard-of perfect NPS score—That’s a +100!

Here’s an example of what our customers say:

“The Tech was very professional and got the upgrade done in 30 minutes without any issues.” —⁠Douglas Country Water and Sewer Authority

“All staff members were helpful and responsive.” —⁠Impact Church

“Everyone I dealt with during the entire process from pre-sales, to quote submission, to project management, through installation and implementation were all quick to respond, showed attention to detail, and demonstrated excellent technical skills.” —⁠[Major State University]

Is a good NPS score all that matters?

No, you don’t want to prioritize NPS too much. This can have unintended negative effects. We see this a lot, especially in the auto industry. Companies spend so much time trying to manufacture a good score (drilling into customers what the survey means to the sales team and begging for a good score), they neglect to actually provide excellent service. It’s a huge turn-off to customers and certainly won’t have the word-of-mouth advertising advantages that NPS is intended to measure.

Alternatives to NPS

NPS certainly isn’t the only way to measure customer experience… and shouldn’t be the only thing you’re focused on. Consider quality management evaluations. Maybe use speech analytics to automatically evaluate calls and provide an overall emotional intent score. Or use advanced call routing to offer escalation options to callers. Net Promoter Scores are there to help your customer service, not the other way around, so take advantage of all your options.

Tips to Achieve a Perfect Score Like Vertical

So how does Vertical achieve these incredible customer experiences and Net Promoter Scores? There aren’t any shortcuts or hacks, but we have collected some tips and suggestions over the years to help you improve your service and increase your NPS. Here are 3 nuggets of wisdom from our experts.

1 Make Customer Service Your Business

Vertical offers customers a variety of products and services. But that’s not the core of what we do. We make it our business to add value to customers by designing solutions that can materially improve their business—and helping them avoid what they don’t need. We assist in installation and training to assure the products are incorporated successfully into their workflow. And we provide top-notch service and support for security and reliability. We call it the Vertical Difference and it’s our secret to creating happy customers.

Experience Matters

What’s more, our technicians have been doing it a long time. We like to point out that our team has 974 years of combined experience. That experience means we’re masters in our field—with the knowledge, reliability, and expertise that only comes from years of service. We prioritize attracting and retaining the best and most experienced technicians. Building an experienced, expert team isn’t a quick or easy solution, but it’s a great long-term investment in your customer’s experience.

Provide Return on Investment

We’ve found that in communications, like many industries, even the best products and services won’t bring big returns on investment unless they are correctly leveraged to improve the business. And poorly chosen products can be detrimental! Frankly, many companies don’t have the time or expertise to invest in planning, installation, or maintenance—they’re looking for experts to help them.

So take Vertical’s lead. Don’t just offer products. Make it your business to ensure these products and services deliver results for your customers. Your customers will love it and you’ll see your NPS improve.

2 Don’t Piss Off Your Customers

No company goes out of its way to make customers mad. But losing focus on what’s important to customers can often have that result. Before giving your customers the NPS survey, you need to be confident you’ve built a process that will delight them. Remember, NPS is a measuring tool—it only works when you have clear objectives that can be tweaked based on feedback and results.

Get Feedback Fast

As soon as you’ve delivered on your customer experience process, give them the survey! The sooner, the better. You want to be getting feedback when the emotions are raw and the experience is fresh in their minds. Even the most pleasant interactions will fade quickly in your customers’ minds. Wait too long and they’ll wonder why you’re still bothering them.

Make It Super Easy

Your customers are busy; taking the survey should be quick and easy. Their attitude will naturally sour when they intend to participate in a short survey that just goes on and on. The point of NPS is to keep things simple. So limit your survey to just a few specific questions. Your last item should always be an opportunity to leave a comment. Most won’t, but those who do will either give you a quote you can use in your marketing material (with the customer’s approval, of course) or specific things you can follow up with them to fix. Either way, it’s a positive.

Don’t Pester

If they don’t respond right away, leave them alone! You might be tempted to keep pushing your survey, in hopes of increasing your return rate. Sure, return rate is important to getting statistically significant results, but it’s not worth causing a negative customer experience. Maybe you’ve experienced it yourself. You submit a routine service ticket, then are bombarded by multiple e-mails and calls from managers pushing for a good score, poisoning what was otherwise a neutral experience. The more you push for 100% response rates, the more you’ll receive responses from customers who are frustrated by your pestering.

3 Do Something About It

Don’t let the feedback just sit in a spreadsheet. Push it through your company, down to the lowest levels. Whether it’s good or bad, make sure everyone knows the results and make it a regular topic of discussion in your service organization. Remember, what gets talked about is what gets done.

Negative Scores

Perhaps you receive some negative scores. Don’t get discouraged. Instead, follow up with the customer, keeping an open mind. Perhaps you can fix the problem or help adjust their perspective. But mostly focus on what you can learn to improve. When you take it back to your team, there’s no reason to let the discussion become blame-oriented. Focus on how WE can be better and start getting results, not what went wrong.

Positive Scores

Hopefully, you receive many positive scores and glowing reviews. Congratulations! Be grateful and let your customer know you appreciate their time and feedback. Take their comments to heart; it’s easy to focus on the negative, but it’s useful to know what you’re doing right, too. Get to the bottom of what generated these positive experiences and replicate it. Then get the word out. Ask the customer to participate in a case study that you can promote on your website and social media. If a customer has told you they would recommend you, you should help them do it!

Tell the World

Once you’ve built up a great Net Promoter Score, tell people about it. Advertise your score! Put it on your website. Blast it on social media. Embed it in your e-mail signature. It shows you are proud of your team and their hard work. When people are choosing who to do business with, their top priority is someone who can deliver great service. Don’t be afraid to let people know the high expectations you’ve set for your customer experience—then go out and meet those expectations!

See For Yourself What Great Service Looks Like

To provide the best experience for your customers, you need modern tools at your disposal! Vertical can help. We have a variety of solutions that make it quick, easy, and painless for customers to interact with your business. Take calls from anywhere on any device. Receive and send SMS texts from your business number. Install a cloud-based contact center app. No matter your needs, let Vertical help you implement practical solutions and start providing the best service around.

Perhaps you’re realizing you’d like better customer service yourself? Vertical can help. Get world-class solutions and support for your business communications and find out what a +100 NPS experience is like.