After you set up your first Net Promoter Score (NPS) campaign, you should have data coming in to analyze and act on.
This is exciting, as NPS data gives you meaningful insights into client sentiment and satisfaction (or dissatisfaction).
Acting on this data in the right way can help you:
- Learn what’s going well with happy clients (and share their feedback as social proof)
- Improve the quality of your referrals
- Build stronger bonds with neutral clients to help improve retention
- Learn from any negative feedback to improve your operation and decrease churn
In this guide, we’ll walk you through exactly how to analyze, report on, and respond to your NPS data.
Table of contents
- How to analyze your NPS data
- Best practices to reply to NPS responses (with email templates)
How to analyze your NPS data
Let’s start with a quick reminder that because we are an MSP feedback system, the below advice is specific to people that use SmileBack.
After you set up your first generic NPS survey campaign, you should begin to see responses roll in. You’ll likely get steady replies throughout the first week as well as stragglers that filter in overtime.
Here’s where to find those responses, what the key metrics mean, and best practices to monitor and analyze your data.
Where to find your NPS survey responses
In your dashboard, click on “NPS Campaigns Manager” and choose your generic quarterly campaign.
From here, you’ll be able to see the total number of surveys sent, the total responses (thus far), the response rate, and the date that the last survey was sent. The next survey should be scheduled to run in the next quarter (or in 3 months time).
The above data is null because that campaign hasn’t garnered responses yet.
To view the actual responses, click on “Responses”, then “Show Filters”, then “Campaign”, and filter by your quarterly survey:
You can see key metrics at the top, and comment details at the bottom.
Notice that some responses have check marks under “Marketing Permission.” These are your clients that don’t mind if you share their comments publicly and only apply to NPS scores that range from 9-10.
If you tick “Published”, that comment will populate in your Website Widget (if you are leveraging that tool):
This is a great way to publicly display positive feedback in the form of testimonials on your website.
Top Tip: Read our help center article to learn more about setting up your Website Widget.
Key metrics (and what they mean)
NPS runs from -100 to 100. Roughly, 10-30 is “good”, 30-50 is “very good”, and anything above 50 is “great.” But, this varies by industry.
In our example, Southwest IT has stellar metrics (albeit not statistically significant as the data pool is very small).
The survey has been sent to nine people and all nine have responded. Right away, that’s good news, because you want as many people to respond as possible to gauge benchmark sentiment across the board.
Remember, the answers are then broken down into three categories:
- “Very likely to recommend” range between 9-10 and are grouped as promoters (representing the green smiley face)
- “Somewhere in the middle” range between 7-8 and are grouped as passives (representing the yellow neutral face)
- “Not likely to recommend” range between 0-6 and are grouped as detractors (representing the red sad face)
Out of the nine responses, six people have given a score between 9-10, two people have given a score between 7-8 and one person has given a score between 0-6.
To see the specific scores instead of the range, scroll down to the individual responses:
Back to the key metrics, the NPS Score is showing as 55.6. That’s a “great” or “top-tier” score. It’s calculated as the percentage of promoters minus the percentage of detractors.
Top Tip: To learn more, read our help center article on how NPS is calculated.
Data monitoring best practices
During the first week of the survey, you should check your NPS responses in real-time. After the first week wraps up, check long-tailed responses in a predetermined cadence.
This could be anything from once a day to once a week. The bottom line is to make sure you monitor and respond to all feedback without significant delay, so pick a schedule that works for you and your team.
The great news is that you do not need to manually monitor your dashboard for responses. You can set up an MS Teams integration to monitor responses in real-time from a dedicated feedback channel. Or, you can set up a Slack integration and monitor it directly from within that platform.
At SmileBack, we use our own product and have set up a dedicated channel for CSAT and NPS feedback in Slack–here’s what it looks like:
If you get a positive review, this is a great place to celebrate that with your team. Notice how we’ve responded with a few emojis. Those don’t go to the client, they are for internal team communication only. (Note: You can use emojis in MS Teams, too.)
By celebrating wins, you’re empowering your team members to feel good about a job well done, and incentivizing them to continue to do great things.
When negative reviews come in, this is also a great opportunity to discuss what you think prompted this feedback and how to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
That’s exactly what lead us to have this conversation after a review came in about one of our integrations:
Our team immediately got in touch with this person and explained that their complaint was already on our feature roadmap. A win-win all around!
It’s also a good idea to ensure that everybody on your team knows who is responsible for what. Define who will be replying to feedback, if that person changes based on the type of feedback, how quickly they should reply per response type, and in what manner to share follow-up responses with the team.
We’ll explain how to reply to each response type (with email templates) in the next section.
A template for how to report on NPS data
Besides monitoring and responding to feedback in real-time, it’s also important to take a step back and analyze your results.
The overall results can give you a great idea of what’s going well and where there’s room for improvement. To do this:
- Look for trends (e.g. the feedback that’s coming up repeatedly)
- Hone in on the specifics (e.g. some customers may have unique needs and would benefit from a more tailored service)
We recommend running reports monthly. To start, head back to your dashboard and choose responses from “Last Month”:
Notice how the key metrics have changed (last month, only seven of nine people had replied):
From here, manually export your data by clicking “CSV” at the top of the responses table:
Next, upload the data to your “Monthly NPS Report”. You can download and use a template of this report here.
Paste the stats in so that you can run a month by month comparison:
The Monthly NPS Report also includes:
- A response-type summary by month, so you can compare the percentage of promoter, neutral, and detractor replies and track trends
- Most informative comments by response type, how you followed up on them, and what you’ve learned
- Detailed responses by campaign type (this applies once you start running custom campaigns)
Running through your NPS data on a monthly basis ensures you dedicate time to celebrating successes team-wide and debrief on what needs improvement. If you manage your internal operations using the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), you can review the data as an “issue” at a company or departmental L10 meeting. If you use a different management framework, you can incorporate a similar review in a similar fashion.
This way, everybody is on the same page and you’re better positioned to meet your clients’ needs.
Best practices to reply to NPS responses (with email templates)
How you respond to NPS data will vary depending on the type of responses you get.
As we touched on above, it’s important to act on NPS data both internally with your team and externally with your clients.
Don’t simply reply to customers and call it a day. NPS data is most useful when treated as a gold mine of feedback to learn from, so share your takeaways with your team, good and bad.
Do that with emojis and threads in MS Teams, Slack, or another platform. And, debrief monthly with the whole team (or key players) to go over your aggregate NPS feedback.
But how exactly should you reply to customers?
Here are some email templates per response type to help you navigate this communication:
Replying to promoters
Promoters are happy, so your aim is to leverage their satisfaction to build a more meaningful relationship.
In your response, you can:
- Ask for referrals (as they just gave positive feedback, they’re more likely to be in the right mindset to tell their network about your business)
- Incentivize them to post their feedback as a Google review (if they haven’t already)
- Reward them through your loyalty program (if your budget allows)
Email template to promoters (comment included)
Hi [Name],
Thank you for taking the time to write this feedback to us. We’re so glad you’re happy with how everything is going.
- [Acknowledge the positive feedback they raised]
- [Ask if they would be willing to send a referral your way]
- [Incentivize them to share social proof and post a Google review]
Thanks again for your valuable feedback!
Best wishes,
[Your Name]Email template to promoters (no comment included)
Hi [Name],
Thank you for taking the time to write this feedback to us. We’re so glad you’re happy with how everything is going.
- [Acknowledge the positive number, but ask if they could specifically explain why they are happy so that you can share what’s going well with your team]
- [Ask if they would be willing to send a referral your way]
- [Incentivize them to share social proof and post a Google review]
Thanks again for your valuable feedback!
Best wishes,
[Your Name]Replying to passives
Passives are somewhere in the middle. They’re not dissatisfied, but they’re also not singing your praises.
You want to send passives direct follow-up questions and lead with empathy. Make sure you communicate that you would like to understand why they’re not completely satisfied so that you can improve their experience.
Email template to passives (comment included)
Hi [Name],
Thank you for taking the time to write this feedback to us. We’d like to do better, so we’re hoping you’ll give us some more information so that we can improve your experience.
- [Ask what product, service, or support they would like to see changed or done differently, and why]
- [Ask what, if anything, is missing from their experience working with you]
I’d be very happy to talk to you in more detail about this. If you’d like to get on a call let me know some times that work for you.
Best wishes,
[Your Name]Email template to passives (no comment included)
Hi [Name],
Thank you for taking the time to write this feedback to us. We’d like to do better, so we’re hoping you’ll give us some more information so that we can improve your experience.
- [Acknowledge the neutral number, but ask if they could explain specifically why they gave that score so you can diagnose any issues]
- [Ask what product, service, or support they would like to see changed or done differently, and why]
- [Ask what, if anything, is missing from their experience working with you]
I’d be very happy to talk to you in more detail about this. If you’d like to get on a call let me know some times that work for you.
Best wishes,
[Your Name]Replying to detractors
Detractors are upset and may churn, but the right response could help turn things around. Your communication needs to be personalized and empathic. And, you need to respond right away.
The moment you see a red face pop up in MS Teams, Slack, or wherever you track your survey responses, act on it. Responding quickly shows that you care and want to make things better.
Also, make sure to give them multiple ways to reach you. They want to air a grievance, so if they have more to say beyond this survey, let them.
Email template to detractors (comment included)
Hi [Name],
Thank you for taking the time to write this feedback to us. We’re sorry our service is not meeting your expectations, and we want to take immediate actions to improve it. Some of the most valuable feedback we get is from customers who leave a low score, so we really appreciate it.
- [Acknowledge the specific issue they raised]
- [If it’s something you already have a documented answer for, share that]
- [If it’s something you are already working on improving, update them on your progress]
- [If it’s a misunderstanding, give detailed instructions to clear it up]
- [Ask what other products, services, or support they would like to see changed or done differently, and why]
I’d be very happy to talk to you in more detail about this. If you’d like to get on a call you can contact me at [Your Number] or email me directly at [Your Email].
Best wishes,
[Your Name]Email template to detractors (no comment included)
Hi [Name],
Thank you for taking the time to write this feedback to us. We’re sorry our service is not meeting your expectations, and we want to take immediate actions to improve it. Some of the most valuable feedback we get is from customers who leave a low score, so we really appreciate it.
We’re committed to doing better and we’d like to get more specific details about the issues you’re experiencing with our company.
I’d be very happy to talk to you more about this. If you’d like to get on a call you can contact me at [Your Number] or email me directly at [Your Email].
Best wishes,
[Your Name]Wrapping up
Acting on NPS data requires a bit of strategy. If you take the time to monitor, analyze, and take action on your feedback, you can make significant improvements to your operation and business relationships.
Check your responses in real-time the week that your campaign goes live, and in a designated cadence thereafter. Share positive feedback with your team to empower them to continue doing good work. Importantly, also share negative feedback (with takeaways) to help everybody do better.
You’ll need to respond to your customers slightly differently depending on the type of feedback they send your way. Leverage promoters to become loyal advocates, try to turn a neutral passive into a happy promoter, and address detractors with personalized empathy to decrease churn.
Want more specific advice on how to reply to and analyze NPS data? Book a call with our team.
