If we had to pick one question that’s popular with every survey client, it’s

“Would you recommend [company/brand/product] to a friend or relative?”

It’s a powerful tracker of customer loyalty or employee sentiment.

Yet alone this one question doesn’t tell the whole story. To draw conclusions and find real insights, you need to ask more questions. Here’s how to get the best from this mighty question.

^{Photo is Fira on Santorini by iso topon on Unsplash}

The appeal of Would you recommend?

Friends and family are a trusted source of information. They know you, what you like and might need. And when customers don’t have a personal recommendation, they turn to the likes of TripAdvisor and Trustpilot.

Positive or negative, recommendations influence customer behaviour. I’m sure we’ve all booked one hotel over another because it had more favourable reviews, or avoid [insert business-name] because of our aunt’s terrible experience! On the employee side, sites such as Glassdoor offer prospective employees a window into a company from the staff’s perspective.

No wonder businesses are keen to tap into the sentiment behind recommendations. It lets them know what their customers and employees really think.

How likely…

In a survey, the recommend question is nearly always presented as “how likely are you to recommend …” – so that we can use a scale to measure how strong the views are:

• How likely are you to recommend X to your friends and family?
• On a scale of 1-10, how likely would you be to recommend working for X to a friend or relative?

This is your temperature check. Are things good, or bad?

When paired with questions that mine the “why” behind the recommendation, these responses produce deeper insights.

Why?

The recommend question is most effective when used in conjunction with other questions which point to the why. Consider questions that will unearth supporting information:

• Why would you recommend …?
  A simple follow-up can tell you a lot. Reviewing and categorising comments takes more effort as you collect more survey responses but typically provide quick and simple explanations.
• What do the other questions show?
  In a customer survey, one of my favourite analysis (yes – I have favourites!) is to look at the recommend results split by those customers who had a problem, and those who did not. You can further divide the results between problem resolved, and not resolved. You might be surprised by what you discover…
• Does recommend mirror overall satisfaction?
  Maybe the recommend result is high because of a lack of choice, an attractive price, or a lifetime guarantee? Such findings may be an early warning.

By comparing the recommend results between different groups, you can start to see what makes a difference to customer loyalty or employees.

As ever clear intentions make for a better survey. When you know what you’d like to discover, your survey partner can help you find the answers you need to implement change.

Considering NPS®?

Net Promoter Score®, otherwise known as NPS®, has become synonymous with customer experience management programmes globally. Despite its popularity, we see two main issues:

1. Define what ‘good’ means
   For newcomers to NPS a LOT OF TIME goes into understanding, explaining how the scoring system works and seeking comparisons; what have other organisations scored, and figuring out “are our scores good or bad?” More time goes into justifying results, or chasing scores when letting the customer know they will receive a survey, than doing anything to improve the customer/employee experience.
2. NPS® overlooks the passive voices
   The focus goes on the scores in the 9 and 10s (Aren’t we great?) and those from 0 to 6 (What went wrong?). If you’re not consistently scoring 9s and 10s, there will be plenty of responses at 7 and 8. Their views still count and can tell you just as much as the good and the ugly…

If you are new to NPS®, we would suggest exploring your results in a small working group first, get to know how your organsation measures up and how it all relates first.

Measure loyalty effectively

With over twenty years designing and running surveys, we know how to use the “Would you recommend?” question. And the rest! So, if you need help with a customer or employee survey, get in touch. We’d be happy to help.