I recently ran across an article discussing how some companies are asking one simple question to get an understanding on whether a customer would recommend your product or service. Referred to as the “net promoter score “, the question asked is the following.
On a scale of 0 to 10 how likely is it that you would recommend us to your friends or colleagues?
High responses in the 9 to 10 range are promoters. Low responses from 0 to 6 are detractors and responses between 7 to 8 are somewhat satisfied. This concept was embraced by GE Healthcare who at the time was doing traditional customer satisfaction surveys that only gave vague results.
GE went so far as to not only compile a score but also tie it to a bonus. However, there are critics of this approach too. While it is a simple measure some say its simplicity may point people in the wrong direction. My thought is we all need to start somewhere and having an actual metric gets you started thinking about how to make customers your best source of referrals. Understanding why detractors answered the way that they did can only give you helpful information to become better at what you do. The discussion with your customers on this question can be of great value that can accelerate your company’s growth.