NPS (Net Promoter Survey) surveys are usually sent once or twice a year (we are not talking about the transactional NPS surveys), the intent of a business is to get as many responses as possible so that the size is huge and the responses makes sense for the business in total.

If the survey sample is small, then it is impossible to unearth insights from it. You need to increase your response rate so that you can derive information that can be used to make business decisions. 

Like every KPI that is measured using user data, the efficacy of NPS also depends on the sample size of the audience and the response rate from it. If you are able to get a huge NPS response rate, then it means that you are getting a full picture of what your customers think about your business.

20 Effective Tips to Improve NPS Response Rate

Thankfully, it isn’t that difficult to increase your response rate, if you can implement the tips that we have shared below, you will be able to gain deep insights into the minds of your consumer. Here are 20 tips to increase your NPS survey’s response rates:

1. Time your NPS survey

Do not ask the customer how it is to use their product as soon as they receive its delivery. They would not be willing to complete a survey as they haven’t had the time to experience your product and judge if it is good or not.

Also, it is too soon to pose such a question. Let them take some time to process it. If you want your customers to give you appropriate responses, then ensure that you send the NPS survey, at least one week after they purchase it. Do remember that there are no standards when it comes to sending NPS surveys. 

2. Give customers many channels

If emails are the only route that you are expecting responses from, then you will be in for a rude shock because the response rate from a single channel will be relatively less.

But if you are planning to offer more channels, you can get responses from many of them. You can send an in-app survey as soon as a transaction is done In-app surveys have higher response rates because your customer has just had an experience with you.

While you don’t have to offer all the channels that are available, ensure that you find out at least 5-6 channels where most of your customers lurk.

Remember that your customers should find it easy to fill the surveys, which is exactly why you should strive to provide as many channels as possible. Someone who is comfortable to reply to email surveys might not be as enthused to respond to surveys over a phone call or on their Twitter feed. 

3. Incentivize

People love incentives and it is a great way to boost your response rates. But do remember that there is a thin line between incentivizing to increase response rates and bribing your customers.

If customers know that they stand to gain something if they complete a survey, then they might randomly give good ratings just to complete the survey. Since NPS surveys are short, thankfully, incentives are not necessary. 

Only when you ask a customer to get on a call to discuss further should you even think about incentives. Incentives are the right way to go if you plan to send your customers long research surveys that might take up a lot of their time. 

4. Personalize your NPS survey

When you send NPS surveys, ensure that it is customized to the respondent. They don’t want to see a “Hi customer,” it is insulting to the customer that despite knowing their names, you do not address them by it.

Do not send an NPS survey email from a ‘no-reply email,’ but instead, send it from an individual’s email ID. If any of the customers respond to you, then reply to them as well. You will be able to build personal relationships with your customers when you personalize your NPS survey.

Remember this- no one responds to an email that treats you like you don’t matter. Using the name of the customer is so pivotal to making the customer feel valued. 

5. Keep it short

While NPS surveys are short by default, there are high chances that your marketing team might be interested in sending a long survey. Sure, we understand that businesses want to know more about their customers.

When sending NPS surveys, ensure that it just asks one question- the NPS question. 

Only when a customer responds to it will you send a follow-up question that asks for more information from them. Do not send a long survey, it will make your respondents feel overwhelmed. It isn’t even wrong to tell your customers in the subject line that the survey is going to be short 

6. Be mobile-friendly

It is 2020 and there is no need to insist on the fact that any application you create should be mobile-friendly. There are more people accessing information through mobile rather than on desktops.

Since a person carries his/her mobile phone everywhere, it is a no-brainer to create surveys also that are mobile-first.

In 2019, there were more than 3.2 billion mobile phone users and the number is expected to cross 3.8 billion dollars in 2021. That’s the speed at which the number of mobile consumers is going to increase. 

7. Send reminder emails

You couldn’t be more wrong if you think that your customers will fill the survey as soon as they see the link. There are no prizes for guessing that you need to send at least 3-4 reminder emails over the span of a week to ten days.

By sending a simple reminder email, you will be boosting your NPS response rates. 

Don’t worry by thinking that your customers will leave you and unsubscribe from your list, while it surely would happen, the percentage of people involved in it would be less.

If your business sends a lot of surveys, let’s say at each transaction, then do not send 3-4 reminder emails as it would be too much. Just send one reminder email in that case. 

8. Follow-up for each response

For every customer that responds to your survey, ensure that you ‘close the feedback loop’ with them. We are not talking about sending a reminder email, but to close the feedback loop, which means that you need to take care of the concerns of the respondents which they have outlined in their NPS response.

Also, do remember that closing the feedback loop is something that is impossible to automate. So everything that you do has to be manually done.

While a follow-up looks like a lot of effort, the returns that you get from this exercise is unbelievable. Your customers will start believing in your brand and thus your value increases in their eyes. 

9. Clear Call-to-Action

Not all of your customers know everything about your product, and in some cases, they might even be completely unaware of how to use your product in the most optimal way.

In the CTA, at the end of your email, you should instruct your customers about the next steps that need to be taken and tell them how your product would benefit them.

They also need to be educated about the importance of the NPS survey and how you will be able to help them with it. We would not advise you to have more than two CTAs in your email. 

10. Don’t send surveys from a company account

There is nothing more impersonal than getting a request for a survey from a bot or from the company’s name. People like people and are more prone to responding to others.

People want to know that their response is actually read by a human on the other end and not a bot.

They wouldn’t be too enthused to respond to a brand. You can even create a fake email address if you don’t want all those emails dependent on just one person. 

11. Pre-inform your customers

If your customers are in the right frame of mind where they expect an email from you asking to respond to a survey, they will be in the right mindset to do it. But if you send them an NPS survey out of the blue, there are higher chances of people ignoring it.

Telling your customers in advance gives them time to respond as well as increase the response rates. In the pre-notification of the survey, let the customers know how they would be helped by responding to the survey. 

12. Be clear to the point

While the call to action should not cause clutter, the entire point of the email should also be directed at just one thing. It should be clear, detailed, and tell the customer everything to the point.

In fact, one of the biggest advantages of the NPS question is that it is simple, to the point, doesn’t take time at all for the respondent to enter their responses.

When you are clear with what you want, not only does it make you look good, the respondent also realizes that you are not here to waste their time. 

13. A/B Testing

A subject line is one of the most important factors in deciding if an email is going to be opened or not. Do not create just one subject line, but instead test it with 2 or 3 varieties of subject lines.

Send it to different sets of customers, measure the results, and see what works. 

If test A was significantly more successful in terms of open rates, then use more of it. The subject line should give the idea to the user about the kind of email it is going to be. Using clickbaity email subject lines are frowned upon these days, please do not resort to them. 

14. Keep the message engaging

The text in the email should be engaging, it should persuade your respondent enough for them to reply to the survey. The respondent should feel good about completing the survey, that’s how good the copy should be.

The first thing that you need to include to ensure a compelling copy is to personalize the content as much as possible. Using the information that you know about different sets of customers, you will be able to personalize the content. With intelligent storytelling, you can keep the audience engaged.  

15. Use technology

By using technology effectively, you can know more about your customers on a granular level. With a deeper understanding of your customers, you will be able to tailor each NPS survey and increase response rates.

If you get to know information like your customer’s preferred channels, their sentiment towards your product, their demographic factors, etc, your targeting will be even more on point.

It will only be a matter of time before you have loyal customers who will love you for understanding them deeply.

16. Brand your surveys

While sending your surveys, it is a great time for you to show your brand’s true colors (pun intended). While surveys aren’t your main communication channels, it is a great way for you to attract your customers with your branding.

First of all, please do not ignore the fact that you need to personalize your surveys, after which, you can incorporate your brand identity into each part of the survey. 

Add your business logo, colors, typography, style, etc, into every part of the survey to create maximum impact. Ensure that it is uniform across all the channels and areas that you communicate regularly to your customers. 

17. Clean your email list regularly

Remember, not everyone is a customer. The quality of your list is directly proportional to the success of your journey, which is why you need to regularly clean your email list. Clean your email list by checking for email accounts in your list that bounce using tools like Neverbounce. 

If there are inactive customers, do not forget to unsubscribe them, you might even be paying extra for them when subscribing for tools. 

18. Respect the privacy of your customers

Businesses around the world are expected to keep the data of their customers safe. People are more reluctant these days to share their information, and you need to get the bare minimum data that will be helpful for your business.

It is a must that you have a ‘Privacy Disclaimer’ in your NPS email footer so that people are not afraid of inputting their details in the surveys that you send. 

19. Use best practices

When sending a survey, there are a lot of methods that you can employ to send it. But there is a method to all of this madness, you cannot just randomly ask questions that do not follow any logical order. You need to ensure that all the best practices of a survey are followed. 

As a matter of rule, your NPS survey should be short. At most, you can ask 2-3 questions and not more than that. In fact, we would go on a limb and say that you should just ask one question. 

If the NPS survey is short, then the customers will also be prone to finish the survey and accept more of it in the future. Give options for your customers to skip certain questions if they are not relevant to them or even if they just don’t feel like answering them. It would be frustrating if you force them to answer questions. 

20. Do not send too many surveys

By sending surveys too often, you stand to turn off your customers. Not only will they stop responding to you, but even the ones who are open to responding will also soon respond with half-hearted options.

They might not even be reading the question properly if you bombard them with surveys very often. Let’s say if a customer responds to a survey, then don’t include them in the next survey.

This way, not only will you be sending surveys at regular intervals so that everyone is covered, but even customers who have replied are given a break. 

Is there a certain number of users that need to be a part of your NPS campaign?

It depends on what you want: NPS numbers to benchmark or understanding the voice of the customer. The answer to this question will determine how many respondents you need for your NPS survey. 

What is a good NPS response rate?

Depending on your target audience, the percentage of a good response rate varies. If you have a great relationship with your customers, you can expect at least 60-70 percent. The rate that most businesses aim for is around 30%, but on a realistic note, it is usually somewhere around 10-30%.

If your initial NPS response rate is low, don’t worry too much about it as that’s how it is. With time, you will be able to increase the response rates dramatically if you happen to follow all the tips that we have outlined for you. 

Conclusion

Understanding the minds of your customers, their concerns with you, what they like about you, etc., is important to the foundation of businesses. If they don’t fail to address the problems of the customers, they are as good as dead.

An NPS survey is the best method to understand, in easy terms, what your customers think about you. By closing the feedback loop, you will be able to address their concerns. 

The above paragraph is exactly why you need to increase the response rate of your NPS survey. The more the number of responses you get, the higher is the accuracy of the answers that you get. You will be able to unearth patterns that might give you ideas to make serious changes in your business.

You never know which customer might be giving you feedback that can change the face of your business. Remember that each customer is important, and you show your commitment to your customer by closing the feedback loop.

If you are looking to send an NPS survey to your customers, then you need to take the services of an online survey tool like SurveySparrow which has functionalities that will help in your NPS survey. Reach out to folks from the SurveySparrow team to get cracking at your NPS survey. 

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