Marketing For Dummies
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Today, one of the most common benchmarks for how a brand is doing is its Net Promoter Score, or NPS. This is primarily a score on how highly you rate for customer referrals, yet it’s something many consumers look for when choosing between brands. In short, the NPS is an index that ranges from –100 to 100, which shows the likelihood of customers to recommend a company’s products or services to others. It helps marketers determine not just the possibility of referrals but also the satisfaction rates and thus potential loyalty of current customers.

Many tools can help you get a solid read on your NPS. If you use SurveyMonkey, these questions are already crafted and ready to be added to your survey in a way that will get you a valid response. You can also get real‐time NPSs on a regular basis through tools such as those offered by Satmetrix. Do some research to find the tools that best fit your current digital and customer relationship management (CRM) platforms.

If you use your own survey platform and want to do your own calculations instead of using a tool from a software company, you can find calculators online to help you. One example of a free service you can use is the NPS Calculator.

To give you some perspective, the average NPS for life insurance companies in 2016 was 31; it was 58 for department/specialty stores and 2 for Internet services (yes, 02). Companies with some of the top scores include Nordstrom at 80, USAA at 77, Ritz‐Carlton at 72, and Apple iPhone/iPad at 60, according to Satmetrix, one of the leaders in NPS systems and findings.

A good benchmark for you is to look up the index for your industry and how your competitors score. Find your NPS and aim to execute marketing strategies that will help you get and stay ahead of your competitors. For consumers doing research on which brands to buy and which to avoid, these scores matter!

Beyond asking questions to determine consumers’ likelihood to purchase from you and refer you, your surveys should also ask questions to guide you in developing your product line. For example, if you’re in charge of a 2‐year‐old software product that small businesses use to do their planning and financials, you may want to ask questions that will help you determine the following issues:

  • Should we launch an upgrade or keep selling the current version?
  • Is our current marketing program sufficiently effective, or should we redesign it?
  • Is the product positioned properly, or do we need to change its image?

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Jeanette McMurtry, MBA, is a global authority, columnist, and keynote speaker on consumer behavior and psychology-based marketing strategies. Her clients have included consumer and B2B enterprises ranging from small start-ups to Fortune 100 brands. A marketing thought leader, she has contributed to Forbes, CNBC, Data & Marketing Association, DM News, and Target Marketing magazine.

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