Opinions on the accuracy of Net Promoter Score (NPS) as a customer loyalty measure vary widely. But like it or not, a lot of organizations use NPS as a standard key performance indicator (KPI). So, it’s not going away anytime soon. The question for those of us who care about customer loyalty data accuracy, is, “how can we augment or possibly modify NPS to make sure that the data story told will help the business improve?”
How well do you really know NPS?
Many people think they “know” NPS, but once you dive in and actually start working with it, you find there is more to making it useful than simply counting “promotors” versus “detractors.” A lot more. In this excerpt from a guest lecture delivered to Research Rockstar students, NPS expert Paul Abel, Ph.D. tackles burning questions about controversies surrounding NPS (is it a truly useful measure of loyalty?), and his experience in optimizing research programs that use NPS. Check it out here on YouTube. Prefer a Podcast? Please enjoy the Apple podcast edition.
About the Speaker
For over 25 years, Paul has led qualitative and quantitative research across a wide variety of topics and markets worldwide via his work at Blue Research, and previous work at Intel and Gartner Consulting. Paul holds a Ph.D. in Psychology/Neuroscience from the University of Washington and BS degree from UCLA. Learn more about Paul’s work here.
Related NPS Resources
Check out some additional NPS-related content:
- From our friends at Quirk’s Marketing Research Review:
- A solution to the NPS conundrum (Quirks, 2019). This great article was also authored by our speaker, Paul Abel. “The popularity of Net Promoter Score (NPS) has skyrocketed since its introduction. The metric is currently being used by over a third (34%) of large corporations to assess and manage customer sentiment. NPS is often tied to executive compensation and, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, the metric is becoming a mainstay that is now touted in earnings calls (alongside earnings per share and corporate growth.) However, NPS has no shortage of critics. Many consider the metric to be inappropriate, unreliable and unsubstantiated.”[1]
- Rely on NPS? Look through the lens of neuromarketing (Quirks, 2018). “The Net Promoter Score (NPS) has largely monopolized the assessment of loyalty in market research and is often used as a stand-alone measure of performance by organizations. Despite this, we rarely look past the score to the underlying reason behind the rating. In recent years, it has been realized that brand loyalty may not only be driven by external factors but also by emotions and brain activation on a deeper level. By looking through the lens of neuromarketing we can gather new insight into loyalty to complement the use of NPS in market research.”[2]
- A video chat on NPS with Kathryn Korostoff and guest Jeffrey Henning of Researchscape.
- This article on NPS pitfalls uses some interesting research data to challenge how NPS is typically reported.
[1] A solution to the NPS conundrum (Quirks, 2019).
[2] Rely on NPS? Look through the lens of neuromarketing (Quirks, 2018).
