Referrals happen when your customers recommend your business to others. You can determine whether your customers are likely to give you referrals by using an email survey to determine your Net Promoter Score (NPS). Here’s how:
- Send an email survey asking your customers how likely they are to recommend your products, services or business to others. Use a scale from one to ten where a rating of one indicates highly unlikely to refer, and a rating of ten indicates highly likely to refer. You can email your question in a formal survey or include the question in your other email campaigns in order to gather results over a period of time.
- Gather your results and divide your respondents into three categories:
- Group your customers who rate from 9-10 as promoters.
- Group your customers who rate 7-8 as passive.
- Group your customer who rate 0-6 as detractors.
- Subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters to determine your NPS as follows:
- % of Promoters - % of Detractors = NPS
According to Net Promoter, the most successful companies consistently score above 80%. How do you increase your score? Take action. Contact your detractors and try to resolve any problems. Contact your passives and find out what it’s going to take to convert them into promoters. Thank your promoters and encourage them to spread the word by forwarding your email campaigns to friends and colleagues.
John Arnold is the Regional Development Director for Constant Contact, and author of the book Email Marketing for Dummies.
