Business growth and success hinge on customer satisfaction and loyalty, which makes customer experience (CX) a critical focus for many businesses. Organizations across industries pay millions of dollars to fund CX efforts and ensure their customers are happy with their products or services.
As decision-makers continue to prioritize CX and drive customer satisfaction and loyalty, it’s imperative they know how to measure success. Al-enabled tools help businesses set and track critical CX KPIs, such as Net Promoter Score (NPS). Improving NPS can be challenging, but AI and analyzing different types of customer feedback can help.
What is Net Promoter Score?
Net Promoter Score is a metric used in CX programs. It measures customer loyalty by asking one key question: “How likely is it that you would recommend [Organization/Product/Service] to a friend or colleague?”
Customers respond to the survey with a rating between 0 (not at all likely) and 10 (extremely likely). From there, the survey sorts respondents into one of three categories based on the types of customer feedback they share:
- Promoters: Promoters rate the organization with a score of 9 or 10. They are typically loyal and enthusiastic customers.
- Passives: Passives rate the organization with a score of 7 or 8. These respondents are satisfied with the service but need to be happier to be considered promoters.
- Detractors: Detractors rate the organization with a score of 0 to 6. These unhappy customers are unlikely to buy from the organization again and may even discourage others from buying from the brand.
It’s important to collect different types of customer feedback in this way because it can move the needle in transforming customers into brand advocates.
NPS is one of many CX KPIs – keep reading to learn about another.
The Difference Between NPS and CSAT Explained
It’s important to differentiate between NPS and CSAT as there are multiple ways to measure CX. When people ask, “what is Net Promoter Score?” a common answer is often a customer satisfaction (or CSAT) score, which isn’t accurate.
The difference between NPS and CSAT and the metrics to track each serve different purposes. CSAT measures short-term customer sentiment toward a product or service. NPS is a long-term indication of customer loyalty and overall brand sentiment. NPS indicates whether a customer would recommend the brand to someone else. A satisfied customer might recommend the brand to someone else, but you don’t necessarily have this insight when measuring CSAT alone.
Ultimately, the difference between NPS and CSAT reminds decision-makers to keep the short and long-term in mind when establishing CX strategies. Making customers happy along the way is key to creating long-term brand loyalty. NPS and CSAT both play an important role in measuring CX efforts and success.
Why is Customer Feedback Important?
At a high level, customer feedback is information about whether customers are happy or unhappy with your product or service. This feedback also gives you an indication of their general experience with your company. Businesses that consistently listen to the voice of their customers position themselves for success.
Why is customer feedback important? Because it helps improve products and services, indicates CSAT and NPS, and highlights areas to improve CX. Customer feedback also helps improve customer retention, bolster marketing claims, and inform business decisions.
A positive CX relies on customer feedback – positive or negative, prompted or unprompted. Collecting customer feedback shows you value your customers’ opinions. Feedback also serves as a guidepost for any growth strategy.
Breaking Down Common Types of Customer Feedback
Your company can encourage different types of customer feedback in various ways. There are several tools at leaders’ disposal.
Common types of customer feedback include:
- Survey responses (quantitative and qualitative). The survey might be conducted online, over the phone or in writing.
- Online reviews on third-party sites. Think Google, G2, Yelp, etc.
- Social media conversations and sentiment analysis. Customers are often more candid on social media, which makes it a great source for honest feedback.
- Customer support request forms, which gather details of a customer's problem, request, or question, and highlight areas for improvement.
- Usability tests or sandboxes. These types of customer feedback settings give customers a chance to chime in before a product or service launches.
- On-site activity analysis. This analysis can help determine where customers spend their time, which can inform website updates.
The types of customer feedback listed above give decision-makers a complete picture of how customers feel. With this understanding, decision-makers can improve the product or service in meaningful ways. Businesses can also use AI-powered tools like intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) to gather customer feedback.
The Role of AI
There are several ways to improve NPS with AI. Anything that affects how your customers feel about you can influence NPS. For example, the speed of your service, the effort required for customers to reach you, and the number of support channels available.
AI-enabled tools can automatically secure and sort through various types of customer feedback. In addition, these tools can use conversational AI to request customer feedback in a human-like and natural way. Below are three examples of how to improve NPS with AI.
Gain a Better View of the Customer Journey
AI is a powerful way to collect large amounts of customer information and glean relevant insights. These insights might indicate roadblocks to satisfaction along the customer journey (e.g., disconnected channels, inconsistent branding, poor customer service, etc.) The customer journey is valuable because it involves every customer interaction with an organization, its products, and/or services. Every interaction can inform the customer-brand relationship and NPS, so it’s vital that decision-makers use available data to resolve potential roadblocks.
Access New Avenues for Problem-solving
AI solutions like IVAs help boost customer self-service efficiency. Companies can use IVAs to instantly and seamlessly answer questions for multiple customers at any time. IVAs manage common requests without a live agent, enabling self-service capabilities for customers. Some of these common requests include checking account balances, processing payments, and scheduling appointment reminders. IVAs can handle these requests 24/7 and provide quick and convenient assistance to customers. They also automate problem-solving, which removes frustration from the customer and contact center agent or employee. A streamlined customer support process ultimately leads to higher customer satisfaction and brand advocacy.
Speed Time to Resolution
In contact centers, AI can ensure that customers take the fastest route to issue resolution. When customers have a problem or question, they want a quick and easy solution. If they have to wait on hold for long periods of time or navigate a complicated support system, they are likely to become frustrated and dissatisfied. IVAs can promote speedy resolution. For example, if a customer needs to speak with an agent, the IVA can detect a keyword in a customer’s query. The IVA then routes customers to the best-equipped agent to handle their needs. Intelligently routing calls in this way reduces the need for customers to repeat themselves or be transferred to a different representative. Efficient support can lead to higher customer satisfaction and fewer negative reviews, improving a company's reputation and bottom line.
Empower Agents
Customer service agents have a significant impact on customer sentiment and should be top of mind when considering how to improve NPS. AI solutions can streamline or automate everyday tasks so agents can focus on more complex customer requests. AI can also deliver valuable customer information like previous questions and preferred channels. Human agents can then use this information to personalize service to customers, which can increase customer satisfaction. Human agents might also encourage customers to provide feedback via a survey following a positive and productive interaction.
Mosaicx: An IVA Built on Customer Feedback
Why is customer feedback important to Mosaicx? Because it informs product development, service standards, and so much more. Our team of trusted advisors listens to our customers and constantly improves Mosaicx to meet their needs. We personalize conversational AI so your customers feel like they know who they are communicating with and trust that you can solve their requests efficiently. As a result, we help businesses drive brand loyalty.
Mosaicx can assist business leaders in collecting and comprehending different customer feedback. With an understanding of customer sentiment, leaders can learn how to boost NPS using AI and make their customers happier.